I am with you on the headphone issues with bad headaches or migraines. IEMs … doable… headphones literally impossible. I’m glad the inhibitor has been slowing the migraines down. Had years of migraines that took me out of action. I feel for anyone walking that path. Take care.
Right! I had the whole shebang, treated home theater/2 channel listening, multi room system in the past, even a dedicated home studio. Bought headphones as an afterthought years ago to check mixes. Living situation changed and now I’ve found myself down the headphone rabbit hole!
Honestly I’ve always wanted to try the K7xx series, k712 seemed to stand out the most but was more than I wanted to pay at the time and reports of lack of bass put me off; but I think I do like neutral FR overall so I may still have a go at a used pair.
You’re right it’s perfect when the headphones just disappear, it rarely happens for me but when it does it’s magic!
I’ve settled on Dirac Sensurround II, and have tried lots of others but none quite hit the mark. Meier probably came the next closest which I’ll use occasionally via software. But my main one is hardware, on the Monolith THX DAC/Amp and I think it does a good job overall, I use it more often than not.
It’s funny right after I got a exceptional headphone system… I now have the space for a speaker room! So I’m going to begin room treatment shortly and hopefully end with a set of powered monitors like the JBL 705s before winding up with something like the 708s for better extension,
I feel both serve a purpose within a certain type of space. Generally I’ve found if you have the space for speakers they are the better value but a lot of folks these days do not have space or time dedicated for treating a room and getting speakers so headphones are usually the best value.
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So very true.
Speaking of room treatments, I’ve kind of wanted to start a hall of shame for all the for-sale ads I’ve seen for high/higher-end speakers in acoustically horrible untreated rooms… there are so many. I can’t imagine spending $5k+ on speakers and tons more on gear then just shoving them into whatever room. At that point you’re much better off spending that on TOTL headphones and gear until you can get a proper room…
Such a shame some of these babies have been so… mistreated!!
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Ehh wall of shame isn’t my thing honestly. Happy to see the systems are getting sold, hopefully owners are spending those funds more wisely
But yea I’m going to treat a room for what… $300 speakers? But frankly I’m hoping it’ll future proof enough to compliment much nicer speakers soon.
Tho I agree if you can’t treat the space or at least EQ around/for it your better off just getting headphones.
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Since I share my living room with a flock of little birds and a wive it is almost 90% headphones. Bevore it was 99% speakers. It’s fine so. My current living room has bad acoustics with massive resonances at 32Hz and 72Hz.
Some day when I have a separate room for my musik stuff I’ll rebuild my beloved IFM TLs80. I kept the speekers for this moment.
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Funny, I don’t remember writing this yet it clearly describes my life. Are we all actually the same middle-aged guy here?
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Mostly headphones for me! Reason being convenience and price. Speakers can get out of my budget very quickly and my room acoustics suck. But I do think speakers are more interesting because there is more that goes into it. More parts and gear to play around with!
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Room acoustics can be hard to conquer in less than ideal room setups. I dream of having a room primarily for a sound system. Hopefully one day!
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it depends … - in the past B, at the moment C, and would be ok with D @Earmuffs
always loved some big PA systems for live music - even if the quality is not comparable to a nice hifi stereo system and a top recording
so first a preference on speakers, even cheap ones in non treated rooms or a BT thing, cause sharing music with our loved ones is way cooler vs listening alone.
While there are some solutions to use one source and different DACs/Amps for 2 or more headphones playing simultaneously … it´s not the same vs sitting in a room and have the music floating around you and your friends
Or even using Bluetooth for 2 headphones on BT recievers … connecting 2 sets of galaxy buds+ while walking the dog with my wife …
I am in the “usecase > content > soundquality camp”, if I´m able to share.
When I am alone and focus is on sound, I prefer to use headphones - because of budget for a good stereo chain was not there or had no priority, a room treatment get´s no wife acceptence and I can take the headphones with me, everywhere, excpet a quite hard to drive one.
to be honest/realistic - my most listening is on headphones, while at the office and in my car with a quite nice stereo build in. The rest of my focused listenin is at the weekend, when I wake up early and mrs is staying in bed like forever or at nights, when I can not sleep - what I want to stop - bad routine.
after the office hours, some shopping, cooking, dinner, walking the dog and chatting with my wife, it´s already quite late and we sit in the garden, play some analog games or Netflix on most evenings. Because of neighbours we won´t play loud music outside on workday evenings and differ from using headphones or in ears …listening to music, audiobooks and podcasts.
At the weekend, there is a Marshall Stockwell II BT omni directional speaker thing running on full load while barbecue …
Though with “Winter is coming” things are going to change again!
First, the time outside gets shorter and what´s more important - all the girl stuff on TV comes back, like Next Top Model, the Voice, the Voice Kids, casting shows and other crap I can´t watch.
My wife is finally busy and I can focus on playing games, watching some series I postponed or simply listen to music, while editing pictures and videos from the last months.
So while she is in the living room, I can use our dedicated office-room, close the glass door, wave over to her and can use our 2.1 setup or open back headphones.
I´m really looking forward to this time of the year(like it´s at least 6 months from now on)
Plan B is to simply use my closed backs or iems on the sofa and at least be with her and the dog cuddling.
been thru all this 5.1 and 7.1 surround home cinema - 2 years ago my wife stopped it and we got a Teufel Cinebase LoL - this was finally my argument for higher end cans, amps and DACs - so it´s her fault why this headfi thing escalated that quickly
in the meantime she understood, that a Cinebase won´t be accepted by me any longer. There will be some sort of decent 2.0 setup in the livingroom. And with room treatment - there can be done some optimizing with plants. As the opposite of a purist, I don´t shy away from some DSP usage.
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This is why my preference is usually a stereo setup. Headphones are an escape at times, but are also very intimate.
I guess it really depends upon my mood, but I do prefer the shared experience.
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Oh yeah! I dream of a custom room in the backyard only for listening…someday
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Maybe this is closer than a dream:
Half joking…
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Exactly! Being able to sit on the couch and listen to music with my daughter is priceless. Headphones are a very personal experience.
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