The case for high-end headphones:

" If you're going to spend mega-money on headphones or speakers, you go much further, more quickly with headphones than with speakers. "

" Basically, headphones give us better value for money, especially at the higher-end, than do loudspeakers. "

" (US)$3,000 in the headphone world is really getting close to the summit of what is possible. But in the loudspeaker world, $3,000... you're just getting started! "


" Loudspeaker listening is compromised by the room. "

John DARKO puts up the arguments:

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Nothing new.

Sound quality per dollar has always been better than with speakers.

With obvious compromises such as tethered to the equipment, or compromised via Bluetooth, comfort, lack of physical body impact of bass, soundstage.

But clarity, cleanness, uncoloured linearity, intimacy offer much better bang for your buck.

I've always enjoyed the intimacy of headphones since my first set about 1969.
Good sound for a modest outlay and best of all no wasting time trying to negate room effects.

I’ve come to rely on my Focal Utopias for serious listening, mainly for accurate tone, clarity and dynamics for source equipment and preamps. But to hear soundstaging and depth better speakers work best, also to listen to poweramps.

AMR-iFi R&D

The psycho-acoustics of headphone use is a problem. When you turn your head whilst listening to speakers or to sounds in the natural environment the sound stage changes slightly. This obviously doesn't occur with headphones which is disorientating for the brain. Our brains have thousands of years of evolution to get the most information about what is heard - the various defractions and reflections provide us with an enhanced sense about the (sometimes threatening) environment about us. So listening through headphones makes our brains work harder to make sense of this new phenomena. This doesn't mean that the use of headphones is silly (small rooms, the neighbours and partners benefit) or ignore the technical benefits (cheaper, less distortion and more linear etc) but it does mean that we miss out on some spatial information e. g. as Colin suggests, soundstaging and depth not to mention trouser flapping.