earphones, headphones VS speaker (difference in sound)

[jc_bon2]

can anyone say something about sound produced from a good pair of ear buds to a stereo set-up (not 5.1)basically which produces better sound??? and whats the main difference.

I know ear buds tend to be weak in low freq. but in staging, clarity etc. which is better???

[sam9]

With a good (very good?) headphone amp anf good headphones you can come close to essentially zero distortion sound. The very best apeakers tend to neasure about 1% distortion. This is a plus.

On the other hand headphones have a couple of shortcommings. The most obvious one is that even with a cross feed circuit, most people find the spatial sound image a little odd comparred to most reasonablt set loudspeakers. Some find it worse than odd.

A secondary negative, and one many people don't realize is that headphones+human ear often has rather bad frequency response. This seems to vary from person to person. It can be corrected by EQ. I suspect the source has something to do with the cavity formed by the headphones and the ear canal. Sort of likr "room effects" inside your head. It is obviously impossible to generalize about this because of variations in headphone ears cup shape anf human anatomy.

You may want to look at the headphone articles on www.linkwitzlab.com for some interesting comments.

[Mike Anderson]

I have some excellent headphones (Sennheiser 650) which I use in conjunction with a very good source (Benchmark DAC1), and the sound is absolutely divine. But...

They still come nowhere near the sound of a good set of speakers in a good room, in my opinion.

The room is part of the sound. It adds ambience, makes the sound come alive, etc. Music sounds much larger and more natural to me when it's out in the open.

[hermanv]

IThey still come nowhere near the sound of a good set of speakers in a good room, in my opinion.

I agree, headphones are fun, exciting, interesting, but IMHO quality speakers sound better. With heaphones the sound stage is not only placed wrongly (sort of behind the ears) the stage seems collapsed in every dimension.

I haven't heard the matrix circuits that according to reports are doing a better and better job of correcting for stereo imaging, but still headphones never seem to make me want to get up and participate in the joy of the music.

I've never heard ear buds (except for those crappy ones that came with some early Walkman players). Ear buds are pretty low on my list of new additions to my toy set.

Of course I can imagine circumstances where only headphones or ear buds would do, sorry, I can't contribute much for that case.

[RGA]

I agree, headphones are fun, exciting, interesting, but IMHO quality speakers sound better. With heaphones the sound stage is not only placed wrongly (sort of behind the ears) the stage seems collapsed in every dimension.

I haven't heard the matrix circuits that according to reports are doing a better and better job of correcting for stereo imaging, but still headphones never seem to make me want to get up and participate in the joy of the music.

I've never heard ear buds (except for those crappy ones that came with some early Walkman players). Ear buds are pretty low on my list of new additions to my toy set.

Of course I can imagine circumstances where only headphones or ear buds would do, sorry, I can't contribute much for that case.

If you can get an amplifier with a crosstalk bypass (a switch) then that front image can return and things will be a lot better for headphones. Headroom sells such amps and that is an interesting feature

"Headroom amps are also known for including a feature called “crossfeed”, which basically takes a bit of music from each channel and puts it in the other ear, to give a more “listening to speakers in a room” and more natural sounding effect. A great feature, that took me some time to notice and get used to, but now I’m hooked."

You can shut it off too because it would not be good if you have binaural recordings. (but who does these days?)

[drseid]

can anyone say something about sound produced from a good pair of ear buds to a stereo set-up (not 5.1)basically which produces better sound??? and whats the main difference.

I know ear buds tend to be weak in low freq. but in staging, clarity etc. which is better???

Similar to Mike's response, I own some headphones that are good quality (Grado SR-125s) and I certainly enjoy the sound I get out of them when I need to use them.

That said, I don't use them very often, because the sound out of my main rig just is so much more involving to me. I think that the soundstage, low bass feel, and overall presentation of a good pair of loudspeakers is difficult to duplicate with headphones. Some may claim that the best headphones can achieve more accurate sound with less distortion, but to my ears, give me a pair of reference caliber loudspeakers any day of the week.

I think the in-the-ear headphones I will reserve for use on trips when using my Ipod.

---Dave