Headphones vs Speakers

[Opathy]

I’ve been comparing my headphones to my full range floor standing speakers. Two different pairs of headphones:
Sony 7506 ( Very bright to my ears) and Sennheiser HD 650’s
Speakers: IMF Studio TLS 50 floor standing transmission lines.
To my surprise the IMF’s sound virtually identical from top to bottom compared to the Sennheisers.
I’m feeling really good about my 50 year old IMF’s! I’ve had them since new and rebuilt the crossovers a few years ago with ESR equivalent capacitors from the UK and replaced the midranges with Monocor drivers and tweeters with Audax drivers. Sound like they did when new. What Im taking from this is that for a set of loudspeakers in a room to compare to a top flight pair of headphones shows that the speakers in my listening room are top performers.
Thoughts?

 

[Kingnoob]

My best headphones are the sennheiser hd 350bt and they definitely don’t outperform my better speakers Klipch icon , but they are a step up from my akg 240s that one side was going bad on. YouTube is my main usage I haven’t found another free site I can pick songs out on. I wish I could afford pricier speakers but my larger tv is going bad so I gotta replace it first …
Plus my sennheiser hd 350bt don’t make bass like a subwoofer does but they do go low for the price. Even if they go down to 20hz it’s not as loud as a sub. It feels more like 40hz.
I’m sure your speakers are far higher end…and your headphones. Terrible job market here for those new to workforce…

 

[davidscott]

Speakers. I have several good sets of headphones but always prefer my speakers.

 

[lovinthehd]

Speakers for me. Mostly preference and hard to compare directly due the inherent differences. I just don't like wearing headphones/iems and have no need to generally.

 

[Mark of Cenla]

I only listen to headphones when I have to. I much prefer speakers. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Teetertotter?]

Music: headphones, AKG 240 Studio, made in Austria. Bought out by Harmon and moved operations to the US. Movies: Speakers

 

[MrBoat]

Or, you can listen to speakers like headphones, FTW. Perhaps not TL speakers but surely any of the BR or sealed monitor types, or better yet, larger speakers that can play in that arena. Well tuned near field situation is more headphonic than headphones, for not having the cranial null between left and right channels. Headphones don't have the whole body mid bass slam, either.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Or, you can listen to speakers like headphones, FTW. Perhaps not TL speakers but surely any of the BR or sealed monitor types, or better yet, larger speakers that can play in that arena. Well tuned near field situation is more headphonic than headphones, for not having the cranial null between left and right channels. Headphones don't have the whole body mid bass slam, either.

 

[highfigh]

I’ve been comparing my headphones to my full range floor standing speakers. Two different pairs of headphones:
Sony 7506 ( Very bright to my ears) and Sennheiser HD 650’s
Speakers: IMF Studio TLS 50 floor standing transmission lines.
To my surprise the IMF’s sound virtually identical from top to bottom compared to the Sennheisers.
I’m feeling really good about my 50 year old IMF’s! I’ve had them since new and rebuilt the crossovers a few years ago with ESR equivalent capacitors from the UK and replaced the midranges with Monocor drivers and tweeters with Audax drivers. Sound like they did when new. What Im taking from this is that for a set of loudspeakers in a room to compare to a top flight pair of headphones shows that the speakers in my listening room are top performers.
Thoughts?

Nobody will ever feel sound from headphones the way we can from good or great speakers. It's not possible.

 

[ski2xblack]

Thoughts?

It totally makes sense to me to use different speakers, or in your case headphones, as a reference to compare with other speakers. The Sennheiser 650 are a pretty well respected set of cans, so if your speakers provide a similar tonal balance and pleasing listening experience, that's a good thing. Enjoy the music!

Those IMF Studio speakers are quite retro nifty cool, too.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I see headphones as a necessity. They aren't a replacement for a proper HT system. They are convenient when you want to listen louder than people around you may like, or in contrast to not hearing some voice or noise near you.
As far as quality, I find tonality and accuracy of my Sennheiser HD600 nearly indistinguishable from my JBL LSR2325p monitors, not too shocking since both are meant to be used in recording studios.

 

[Teetertotter?]

Remember, there are headphones and headphones, like there are speakers and speakers. Then, doctors and doctors. As stated earlier, my particular headphone is for music and speakers for Movies. But sometimes, I prefer the speakers for music, as have pretty good speakers with just the right crossovers, based on their Frequency ranges. Manually adjusted crossovers, sounding the best in my room.

 

[cpp]

I enjoy them both, each has a time and place for their use. Better, all depends on how one is being used.

 

[ski2xblack]

I don't like cans myself, for reasons others have mentioned. I want to hear and feel the music. The band should be out there, not nestled in my cranium.

So my baseline for reference is a nearfield setup using great speakers and a great sub, tweaked to perfection in the most OCD Audioholic fashion to the best of my abilities.

The oldest speakers in my quiver are over 30 years old, and it took quite a large amount of fussing with placement and rather extensive eq to even come close to providing similar results as the near-field rig with those (with some success, that rig rocks and images fantastically well).

Unless @Opathy isn't telling us something, he seems to have lucked out compared to me, that his retro speakers reflected what he was getting from the Sennheisers. I think he's pretty much right in that his old TLS 50's are showing their mettle.

Cans have no room influence, and TL bass couples to the room in a uniquely effective manner, so I wonder if the Senn's somewhat reserved yet resolving bass response mimics what the speakers provide. Bass accounts for a large proportion of the subjective enjoyment equation.

 

[m. zillch]

I use both. With a few exceptions most music and movies we buy is primarily designed for use with speakers. They have headphones on hand for some specific tasks but for the most part the people who mix and master our sound make their decisions based on what they hear through speakers.