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Studio monitors vs headphones

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cspirou:
While reading the latest post on Big Sound 2015 over at innerfidelity, Tyll said something interesting. He mention that he and Bob Katz both believe that the very best headphones still come short against state of the art studio monitors. Which got me thinking about what speakers would be considered to be a better experience then certain headphones.

So what would you consider to be a desktop experience that surpasses an HD650 with proper amplification? Would I have to spend a fortune or could I get something good for under $1000?

Chris F:
At the $300 (HD650) price point I don't think you will find a pair of speakers that will compete with a really well driven HD650.

I don't know about $1000 but at $3000 my studio monitors in a tiny untreated room (aka: crippled) are still better then all my headphones (incl HD650) at everything: imaging/soundstage, tonality, impact.  The only thing the headphones consistently do better is ultimate detail retrieval due to the sealed environment/lower noise floor.  Once I get some GIK in here the difference is only going to get larger.

That's not to say I don't greatly enjoy the headphone experience BTW.

Priidik:
Some standing waves are seriously annoying for me with speakers in some rooms,
but on average speakers win it for me.

Both in their respective price ranges are roughly comparable, in my exp.
For 1000$ lower end Adams or HD650 + good amp are roughly leveled. I'd slighlty lean towards Hd650 + amp here myself.
For 3-4k$ one gets to pick among true reference studio monitors, though not truly full range and equally top notch headphones. Here my pick would be speakers.
This is as far as I have gone.  Maybe for 10k there are some other relations bw phones vs speakers.

As with everything utter carbage can be had with whatever money you'r willing to spend.

Negura:
Truth.

It is through hearing more than a few speakers, I ended up with studio monitors. I use at home the PMC IB2i, which are passive studio monitors, and when I said exactly the same thing time ago on HF, some did not take it well. But that's OK because it takes hearing some of this stuff. Ideally with sufficient exposure. The good news is that in the headphone realm lies a lot of untapped potential. The pricing however is going the wrong way for the performance offered and this cannot be said often enough imo. With speakers it went the wrong way a long time ago. But there are some great speakers even from a decade or two ago that will challenge the best of today.

Some people even think the stock HD800s are good as reference headphones. It's great that they can be modded though. It's also interesting how the HEK seem to introduce a fail factor in AB testing. I told you guys those are not very good for flagship level performance. But I get it they are nice / relaxing / etc to hear.

It's a shame the HE-6s weren't there. Those too can be modded with some pretty damn great results. Some of those amps could even drive them. Well almost.

Deep Funk:
Speakers sometimes have the sweet spot issue. Headphones are on or around your ears. It is a matter of what works best for your given situation.

Where I live good monitors are not an option with regards to noise complaints. In a well prepared space I take speakers every time.

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