Headphones vs loudspeakers

Headphone systems, just like conventional systems also have many level of sound quality and price.

Although it's true that a smartly put together headphone system can sound very respectable with a minuscule investment compared to a conventional system.

In my experience, my headphone system is a highly modified Headroom Max with AKG-701s, when state of the art headphone performance is maxed out, a very high level conventional system can and will continue many steps beyond in realism and overall performance.

There are also a number of things a conventional system can do that is simply not possible for headphones to achieve.

Examples would be realistic visceral bass ie moving lots of air, and the interaction of the music with the outside environment, walls carpet etc. The same interactions live music goes through.

As good as headphones can sound, they're still far less representative of real music than very good conventional systems.

I agree with you head phones don't have realistic (visceral) bass and the soundstage is very artificial, but they give tons of details and they have better tonal balance than most audio set ups with speakers. The strange thing is: even with mid-fi gear the high resolution still remains and the sound doesn't lose it's smoothness.

Chris

Something not being mentioned here is "efficiency". Headphones are going to be much easier to driver than typical passive speaker systems, through passive crossover networks and such. Also, yes, woofers driving a larger space are not as efficient overall - unless you get more woofers in volved, and likely active woofers at that.
Then, of course, yes, acoustics of the room come into play, associated equipment choices, set up, etc.
You should always consider variables when considering any medium, factor, issue, etc.

the same issue goes for car system efficiency vs. most home setup's. The woofers are not only closer to so many boundaries in relation to wave length - that they are reinforcing more of the bass frequencies- but the size of the woofers in relation to the amount of air is a much greater precentage. Again, efficiency for dynamic potential is higher in this "pressure pot" situation. It's likely a simmilar situation with the headphones, I pressume

..on another point regarding headphones.. Most headphone jacks are of poor quality, and the circuits are afterthoughts. To get the best from headphones, they need a dedicated headphone amp.