Headphone and/or speakers

Cars are the only place I actually have Focal.

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Awesome, I have a friend who is similar with his Focals.

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This is an interesting question, since I started to listen to music back in my pre-teen years what dictated if I was listening to speakers or headphones, or Car Stereo, had been dictated by the environment I was in. There have been different periods where I preferred one method over another:

  • Rocking out in my teenage bedroom to Guns Nā€™ Roses through my boom box
  • Blasting music in my car with the top down
  • Studying in college with my 2-channel system to help get through a research paper
  • Finding solace on a long flight in a noisy airplane through IEMs
  • Shutting out the outside world during the morning/afternoon commute on the metro
  • Watching a concert on video through a home theater system
  • Sitting back in my chair after a long day, or long week to escape for a few hours with headphones and a bottle.

Perhaps the question should be re-imagined into your favorite method to indulge with your music?

At this point, the last method has been my favorite and most focused over the last year or so. It has been my escape.

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Good ol boom boxes!! :boom: :package:

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70-80 hrs/wk speakers + sub vs ~2 hrs/wk headphones.

Used to do more headphones, but migraines & tinnitus limit that now.

Beyond that, headphones do something totally different than speakers + sub: they enable intimate, focused, uninterrupted listening. I probably do a deeper dive into music with headphones than w/speakers + sub.

What speakers + sub do is give me continuous ambient exposure to music, primarily low volume classical. This is critical in the home office. Every now and then I really crank this relatively high resolution system (ATC 2-way passive monitors + big Wyred4Sound amp + JL Audio e110 sub), and it is gloriousā€¦about as exciting as things can get in desktop/nearfield audio.

I wouldnā€™t want to be deprived of either headphones or speaker audioā€¦

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My wife says I hardly listen at all.

There is a cycle. When I was a kid, I listened to what my parents played on the phonograph. And to live music. Then in high school I got bad headphones. In college I had a good turntable and bad amplification and bad speakers. Then in junior and senior years I had good 2 channel. (AR table, Shure v-15 Type III, Dynaco PAS-3x, Dynaco Mark III, and my modified Rectilinear Highboy speakers) It stayed that way for a good while, but I had to let go of the Dynaco stuff (still regret that) and had receivers or integrateds. Early married life - (My wife said she married me for my stereo - then she started making improvements) was all 2 channel. Started getting into headphones again around 2001, when a friend at work started playing with headphone amps, high end Grados, Stax Headphones, and Sennheisers. Bought my Senn HD-580 and Headroom Airhead. I still prefer real speakers. Today the Rec IIIā€™s are still there, I have Wired 4 Sound STI-1000 integrated amp, VPI table, and assorted other bits. The house has a fair amount of SONOS for other rooms. But just not to cause trouble, I probably listen 90% of the time to headphones now. Maybe I can convince Barbara that we really need some big Maggies or those Wilson Audio speakers that we like. Not until I make more $$$. Probably for a bigger room.

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Well said ! thatā€™s how I view it when I use headphones

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C/ I can get a bit better detail on headphones and iems than speakers.

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School years: 48% bloody awful bedroom all-in-one stereo system, 48% discman and crappy earbuds/over-ear headphones, 3% blasting the shit out of my dadā€™s sweet audiophile 2-channel setup when he wasnā€™t around :loud_sound:, 1% squeaking and squawking a clarinet or fumbling an acoustic guitar

College years: 99% crappy earbuds/over-ear headphones, 1% bass guitar

Early adulthood: 90% progressively less crappy earbuds/over-ear headphones, 5% crappy computer speakers, 4% even worse car audio, 1% howling void

Middle age, until 6+ months ago: 48% progressively fancier headphones, 51% proper IEMs (when commuting on public transport), 1% singing off-key to my cats

Now: 80% headphones, 19% IEMs (too hot for headphones in the summer), 1% singing off-key to my cats

Future, no longer living in a small apartment: 45% headphones; 51% IEMs (hereā€™s hoping for commuting again), 3% blasting the shit out of my dadā€™s sweet audiophile 2-channel setup, which I inherited, when my wifeā€™s not around :loud_sound:, 1% singing to the cats

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Jesus, are you me?? Same experience. Also never thought Iā€™d say it as Iā€™m a lifelong speaker guy, but real life happens and speakers arenā€™t necessarily conducive to shared livingā€¦ nor are room treatments, heaps of gear, etcā€¦

Unfortunately most of the time I canā€™t stand the weird stereo imaging normal headphones tend to giveā€¦ thank God for crossfeed I guess, itā€™s my saving grace

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Iā€™m 90% speakers and 10% headphones.
I have gradually built up my 2 channel system to the point that I prefer it over headphones.
2 Channel system - vpi prime turntable , ps audio stellar phono preamp , Don sachs linestage , Dennis had kt88 tube amp , bel canto eone stream and speakers are the spatial audio x5s. I only listen to my headphones later at night when my high school aged daughter goes to bed.
I use a recently purchased focal arche and sometimes swap it out with a woo audio wa6.
In my home office I have a woo wa7 and wa7tp but that hardly gets any use.
Also have a separate HT system 7.4.2 with a jbc projector.
I may have to start thinning the heard ! Too many toys too little time

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Yep, life has a way of pushing us around sometimes.

The 3-blob effect is the biggest issue with headphones for me also. I chose the AKG K702 because of the reports of bigger soundstage and it seems to be working out for that. The frequency response is another matter.

Iā€™ve been trying some eq to tame the K702s and I had my best headphone experience ever. Was listening to solo cello and the headphones disappeared. I experienced the cello being 6 feet in front of me, in the room.

Iā€™ve been experimenting with crossfeed also. What are you using for crossfeed - software or hardware?

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Or, you could just adopt one of us! Everything will get lots of use for sure :wink:

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I use headphones at my desk, but most of that is not for music exclusively (a fair amount of video that might include music, and Zoom stuff). It goes back and forth, but right now Iā€™m about 85% hi-fi for music, 15% headphones. I may even move the headphones into the main room, since the digital gear is much higher-end in that system. There are times, though, when I will get deeply into listening in the office, and that is very enjoyable and immersive.

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Iā€™m going to copy @Tchoupitoulasā€™s format, since I enjoyed reading his response so much.

School years: 100% boom box for bedroom listening. I had a pair of Sennheiser portable headphones with yellow pads, but only used them for my Walkman (I think it was a Sony WM-DD3, which had cool specs like ā€œDirect Driveā€ and ā€œQuartz Lockedā€).

80ā€™s: 100% speakers, using budget British hi fi.

90ā€™s: 100% speakers. I discovered interest free credit in my mid-20s and was able to vastly upgrade my 2 channel setup, to Micromega separate CD player and DAC, Audio Research LS3 preamp, Chord SPM1000B power amp, Castle speakers, and Van den Hul carbon interconnects and speaker cables. It sounded glorious.

00ā€™s aka the home theater years: The 2 channel hi fi sat unused in the sitting room, as most of my time was spent in the home theater in our finished basement (Definitive Technology speakers with built in subs fed by B&K receiver). My PC was also down there, so my music listening was on a simple PC set up, using Harmon or JBL powered desk speakers that broke every couple of years. Still 100% speakers but ā€œgood enoughā€ sound quality seemed to be fine.

2017 - mid 2020 aka the return to high quality 2 channel music: 80% speakers and only used headphones when my wife yelled at me for playing my music too loud. My hi fi set up still remained unused in the sitting room, but I upgraded my desk setup, using Emotiva powered speakers and sub, fed from an Oppo HA-2 DAC-amp. Back to glorious sound again. I googled ā€œbest headphone for $100ā€ and the ubiquitous response was ā€œget the Audio-Technica ATH-M50xā€. They were fine, not as good as my speakers, but then I didnā€™t need to use them that much.

Mid 2000 - now aka the Covid months: With everyone stuck in the house all the time, I couldnā€™t use my speakers as much. My ATH-M50x was clearly not as good as my speaker setup. My son graduated high school and wanted a pair of 6XX as a graduation present. The 6XX apparently needed an amp to sound good, and so I started researching headphones and amps. This led me to many many enjoyable hours watching videos by @Resolve and @metal571 , which then led me to this fine forum.

I bought a Schiit BF2/Lyr 3 combo because I wanted to dip my toe into tubes. I discovered that the headphone company that everyone was raving about (ZMF) was a few miles away from where I lived, so why not support a local business by buying one of their headphones. Then I discovered ā€œZMF wait syndromeā€, which caused me to keep buying things while I was waiting for them to arrive: Treasure Globe tube for the Lyr 3 (becauseā€¦ tube!), Focal Stellia (I couldnā€™t listen to the ATH-M50X on that setup any more, even though the Verites were mere weeks away) and Pendant amp (becauseā€¦ more tubes!).

Which was a long way of saying that Iā€™m probably now at 20% speakers and 80% headphones out of choice.

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I noticed your comment about migraines, and as a fellow sufferer, I had to reply. I also find wearing over-ear headphones extremely uncomfortable when a headache is lurking, so I got myself nice IEMs. Theyā€™re wonderful, and let me listen quietly and stay focused on work even when I have some head pain.

The best thing Iā€™ve done for my migraines and though, and the thing which made by far the biggest difference, was to start using a CGRP inhibitor (not sure what country youā€™re in but in the US, the one Iā€™m on is called Aimovig). I went from 2-3 days/week of moderate to severe pain, to maybe one day/month of low to moderate pain. The shot is very expensive (over $700/month before insurance) but worth every damn cent</off topic>

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I really appreciate this post. Migraine is obviously an obstacle to enjoyment of headphone audio.

No wish to derail this excellent thread, so Iā€™ll reply via PM later onā€¦

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When I was a youngster I used to have this exact system setupā€¦from my grandmaā€™s 2nd story window to my GFā€™s 2nd story bedroom (10m maybe?), worked like a charm :stuck_out_tongue:

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Mine was extensively modded. Had a button (4-hole plastic, white pearl) transducer in the bottom of each can. No common string, I had high-fidelity waxed dental floss cable between the cans. These were anchored using needle and knots to the transducer buttons. The concave part of the buttons faced the bottom of the can, which created a space for the knot, and optimum contact for the button transducers. The cable, using air as an insulator - you donā€™t want tree dialectic or building masonry dialectic to interfere - was stretched to a tension of approximately 4 ounces, giving excellent voice fidelity up to about 50 feet. After 50 feet, the air insulator doubled as a transmission medium for unamplified voice (shouting distance).

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Damn, you went all high-tech!! I was a young guy in a 3rd world country so I made do with much less. But I spent many an afternoon/evening having ā€œsecretā€ conversations with her, the thrill of it all :smiley:

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