Headphones or speakers?

[Scarpia]

I think that quality bass is needed even for chamber music, and add a piano and it's required.  And the feeling of depth, the soundstage, is such an important part of the music and headphones rob you of it.

I find good  headphones give a satisfying enough bass for chamber music, it is the thud of a bass drum or thwack of a timpani, maybe the rumble of the pedel ranks of a large organ, where the kick-in-the-gut feeling is missing.  I use a simple headphone amp that has a cross-feed feature (left channel is fed to the left with slight temporal delay, and visa versa) which gives the headphones a more realistic sound stage.  Still, I prefer listening with speakers when at all possible.

[DavidW]

Oh do you have a headroom amp?  I have the Total Airhead and it has that cross-feed feature.

[Scarpia]

Oh do you have a headroom amp?  I have the Total Airhead and it has that cross-feed feature.

I have an older amp from the same company (called the "headroom little" or something like that) probably comparable the current "Headroom Micro." 

[Andante]

As an apartment dweller, I end up using headphones probably 75% of the time, especially since some of my listening is late at night.   I prefer the more natural soundstage of speakers, but with good headphones (e.g., Sennheisers, at my house  ) one can't really complain.  I have 4-5 pairs of headphones of various types (e.g., collapsible, noise-reducing, etc.) and I'm getting ready to splurge on a pair of Sennheiser 580s:



--Bruce

Please excuse me going to the beginning and bringing this up but I have the same headphones 580 precision, they are the best that I have ever had and will last me out, but I do prefer Speakers, I have KEF 104 reference and a dedicated room it is nearly as good as being at the original venue.

[DavidW]

Please excuse me going to the beginning and bringing this up but I have the same headphones 580 precision, they are the best that I have ever had and will last me out, but I do prefer Speakers, I have KEF 104 reference and a dedicated room it is nearly as good as being at the original venue.

I love those headphones, but sold them when I was inbetween jobs and they don't make them anymore.   Their mids are too recessed imo, but they were still very nice headphones.  The Sennheiser 600 is still made though, with a higher price tag of course.

Right now my favorite brand is Audio-Technica and I use open air headphones of theirs while in the office, and it's bright, transparent in sound. 0:)