If you want the most accurate sound, ditch your speakers 

I love headphones, but speakers provide a different experience. They both have their purpose, but I generally prefer speakers.

I place my headphone on a stand away from the wall.

That's why I listen to my speakers in a perfect vacuum.

Price is the main reason I'm a headphone guy

When I was young, and in college, I worked in a higher end audio store. I really could not afford much of anything in that store, but I did manage to purchase a good turntable and a decent amp. The speakers I liked were WAY beyond what I could afford, so I ended up purchasing a very good set of headphones. I still remember the first time I listened to music with my set up of Amp, turntable and headphones. I was blown away. It was every bit, if not MORE, enjoyable as listening in our sound room. It was years before I finally purchased speakers and I still listen with my headphones when I truly want to be immersed in the music, even though I now own very good speakers,

One of Steve’s best videos in my opinion. Having moved house a few times in my life, I can safely say that my system never ever sounds the same from one house/room to another. I like to use my headphones as reference to compare against the speakers in the room to sound as close to ‘accurate’ as possible.

I was torn in between the fude between headphone vs. speakers, until I noticed that there is simpliy no one "better". It's just so diffrent experiences. Headphones are accurate and intimite while speakers make sound big and powerful. And this is actually great beacuse it gives us the opertunity to enjoy music diffrently and appreciate diffrent things depending on current mood. So for me it is not speakers or headphones anymore; it's speakers AND headphones.

Great show, Steve. I go back to the days of Warehouse Sound in California where I purchased my first system. I loved the way they used to put systems together at various price ranges and I still have two of the three original parts of the system that still play very well after 46 years. Keep doing what you're doing and thanks for doing it.

Steve, you make a boatload of sense in your videos. Why do I need my audio magazine subscriptions anymore?

I prefer speakers too but I’m not into accuracy. This video is about hearing exactly what’s in a recording.

I just keep getting this great audio education today...thank you Steve, between this video, and your comment on Darko's acoustic treatment video, along with anything posted on Audioholics, I feel like I'm back in school in a class that I've really enjoyed. Keep up the great work and thanks for the link.

You're hitting on a lot of great points here Steve. My personal setup is a pair of Stax Lambda Professionals with a T1S Driver and the Emotiva XDA-1 Balanced dac. These particular Stax were used by Capitol Studios to master in the 80's /90's and I must say that when listening to a well-recorded piece it truly sounds like my head is where the microphone was. They're as close to perfect as a professional studio monitoring headphone can get. True, they don't have the sheer size as a pair of floor-standing speakers but they are very powerful and precise. At this point I don't think there is any more detail to be extracted from a recording. These are a keeper. I would recommend them to anyone who can find a set in good shape.

Trying to get accuracy is a foolish persuit. All hifi speakers and headphones colour the sound. Many great songs are mixed using monitors like the yamaha ns10, or the auratone which are designed to sound like budget hifi speakers, the idea being if it sounds good on them it'll sound good on anything. The best thing is to use what you think sounds nice

One of many reasons why personal hi fi audio is blowing up right now. Best bang for your buck hands down.

Excellent talking points both pro and con. Again Steve’s analysis provides excellent detailed specifics of his presentation topics and information submitted for our consideration (channeling my inner Rod Sterling 😂)

Many years ago I even used a pair of Sennheiser headphones as a makeshift microphone for a quick recording. It was surprisingly quite good actually 😊👍

As a musician, there are only 3 important distinctions when listening to music and all 3 are ACCURACY, which is one reason I use headphones. Thanks for one of your greatest "dailys"...really appreciate it!

Excellent points. I’ve preferred headphones to speakers for around 30 years now. Having a few different pairs for variety keeps things interesting.

My Focal Clear Headphones hooked up to my Audeze Deckard Headphone Amp/DAC has provided me with the greatest music listening experience I've ever had. My Sennheiser HD 650's are very nice too.

And the truth shall set you free!!! Thank you for making this point, I appreciate it. Now I can redirect all of those whom rely on accuracy. They won't listen to me but to you they will.

Steve I really like my Abyss AB-1266 phi tc. They sound amazing and are cheaper than a two channel setup of similar quality. I have been chasing the sound quality of the abyss with speakers. I just actually got a pair of Magico s1mkii. The magico speakers are simply amazing. The sound stage is deep and wide with imaging to die for. They are 4x the price of the abyss though. 😭

Nice review, and great points...

My impression of headphones is not that you go out and get the most accurate its more like you walk into stores and taste vanilla, chocolate and other flavors until you find what you like or what you can afford.

Love your channel. A pair of Sennheiser HD 6XXX are waiting to be opened when I get home from work. Love my PSB speakers, but late night listening will bother my neighbors. I hope the headphones bring my recordings to a higher level of detail but just a fine alternative to my speaker system would be appreciated.

Using headphones have their advantages but for me, the disadvantage is they tend to get uncomfortable after a while.

The problem with headphones is that you don't get the energy and the "umpf" that full sized speakers and live music can give. Live real music has a lot more energy and power than any headphones can ever produce, so the best way to translate that energy is to get full frame speakers that give the clearest sound even if your room will add it's own color.

This is all I could think when watching the new darko interview with the room design guy. Why go through all this fuss! Put em on your head.

That’s one reason to love near field, single driver, fullrange speakers. No crossover, but a little bit of room sound and mixing of the channels.

It's very difficult for studio engineers to get a mix right on headphones. They might use it to check on some things, but they will never rely on it.

Steve, I can't stay still when I'm listening. The music makes me get up and start dancing or playing air guitar. I literally run and jump around my basement. To me it's not about accuracy it's about whether or not it makes me move.

Congrats please keep the good work.

Headphones might rule out the coloring of the room, the crossover, and the effects of multiple drivers, but headphones leave out the human body. Live bass thumps you. Live drums ‘rattle’ you. Live music, even the music played in a studio, has multiple effects on the skin and even the bones and organs. And this set of effects on the body is a key component in the experience of live music. Do accuracy purists really think that all musicians intend their recordings to lack all of those things in favor of an artificially restrained, ‘ear only’ but otherwise largely ‘bodiless’ experience? I don’t buy it. There’s a reason the word ‘percussion’ shares a root word, ‘percuss’ which means to be struck or tapped! Still love my Grado headphones when everyone is asleep though!

Thanks for the great post, Steve. I'll second your recommendation of headphones.com. Last year, based on your CNET piece, I ordered three headphones from them, making it clear to them at the outset that I expected to keep only one, if any. I did have to pay for all three going in, but was promised a full refund for any I returned. The headphones were the Sennheiser HD800S, Focal Clear and Audeze LCD-X, all of which were very well reviewed, and all were very good indeed. But without the chance to compare them at home and at leisure, I'd never have appreciated how different they were from one another. I eventually chose the Sennheisers because they provided by far the best sense of spaciousness (as is typical of Sennheisers), as well as the being most comfortable. I returned the others and received prompt refunds for them, without question or complaint. Highly recommended!

Some active manufacturers like Genelec provide means to room correction and works quite well. Makes sense to me, probably sounds better than most more expensive speakers in the ”wrong” room. Headphones isn’t a direct comparison but something like LCD-X might appeal for both studio use and a purist. Thanks again Big S!

Point well taken on room sound even when listening to the same speakers as mixing and mastering engineers. Thanks, Steve G

Amazing advice.

Headphones could sound off to some people because they don't match your room acoustics and that could cause a mental disconnect. Speakers sound like they sound in your room and in a sense they could sound more "real" in your environment. Just a random thought.

Very interesting thoughts, Steve! There's this plugin for DAWs that accurately reproduces the sound of Abbey Road studio 3 using impulse response (including both the room and speakers), which even has corrective EQ curves for different headphones. It even has support for head tracking. So if a record was mixed in that particular studio, I suppose that's as 'accurate' as you're going to get on a decent open-back pair of head cans. However this was not meant for just listening to music, it's a tool for audio engineers who are stuck with headphones and no great speakers in a well treated room (and, though interesting, arguably a kind of gimmicky tool at that). The reason I mention this plugin is that I wholeheartedly agree that this idea of 'absolute accuracy' might realistically be just a red herring. Music isn't particularly mixed for headphones, it isn't particularly mixed for speakers; it actually isn't even mixed to be heard the best way in, say, Abby Road studio 3 with their awesome speakers and room etc. Music is recorded and mixed to translate well on a wide variety of play-back systems ranging from earbuds and phones to state of the art speakers in well treated rooms, clubs, etc. For example drums aren't recorded with 8 like mics or more because that's the most accurate to do it (all those mics will have phase issues between each other etc), it's done that way because that way it typically sounds subjectively better to most people. Sure you want a certain base level of accuracy if you want a great listening experience, but other than that, go with your gut feeling and buy what you think sounds best to your taste of music. In my own personal experience, the most 'accurate' speakers and headphones are usually not the ones I prefer to use for just sitting back and relax to enjoy listening to music.

Excellent video! I’ve been a headphone geek since 1991. Back then we were considered weirdos. So glad to see headphones finally being taken more seriously by the audiophile world.

You can enjoy a great pair of headphones alone, a great set of speakers with your significant other and or friends.

Sennheiser HD 600 and HD 650? this is a real prof, thank you.

It’s also the best way to evaluate speakers for how accurate/ “high fidelity” they are. Avi have been doing it this way for years.

Finally got my Forte 3's playing beautifully with the Rotel pre and power amps and a Supernova 7 toslink to CD player. Started my audiophile journey years ago with a Sennheiser HD800 headphone listening to high res files through an Oppo HA-1 headphone amp. If I want to analyze total sonic information on a file I listen to it through the Sennheiser "monitors." However a tuned speaker system ultimately feels more real and a lot more expensive. However, a "shared" musical experience has its additional rewards, and vibrating the whole home with music can have unforeseen pluses.

Steve, what is the best sounding headphone you have experienced? What should I be looking for in Headphone specs? Same as in a loudspeaker spec in terms of Frequency Response handling? Volts input vs DB etc? What if I told you the best set of headphones I have listened to cost US$10 and its dynamic bass and treble response is better than a Beats Studio I also have?

Interesting point about mic and headphone driver size. Kick drums are sometimes recorded with a speaker these days for the larger cone/diaphragm area.

Steve I have read your posts for a long time as I have been an audiophile for 39 years (started at 15). I remeber reading your stuff in stereophile. I disagree with you about speakers and I have had access to everything when it comes to audio. Like you I graduated to Horns about 4 or 5 years ago. I can't listen to anything else as you can amazing micro amplifiers drive these things to perfection. In my opinion using a fully digital set up with some tubes in the path will make you realize how good a speaker can sound using digital correction. It will blow away the headphones---Trust me I know. I have friends with B7W 801s whose jaws fall when they hear my horns. Anyway I still like what you do even if I disagree songly with this one! Ciao

I get your points. I am not chasing accuracy. With all the limitations and colorations of the room’s sound which I totally accept I still prefer speakers over headphones. They bring me more joy. I do use headphones when I can’t turn on my speakers or when I want to study a recording from a different perspective though most mastering sound dull to me on headphones in comparison with speakers. Colorations are not that bad, you still get more than an idea of what’s going on in the recording just accept the limitations and play with them.

I listen with my Audioquest Nighthawk and Nightowl Carbon with a Hifiman EF 100 amp and they sound amazing. Also own the Definitive technology demand d9 speakers from your recommendations. With the Yamaha Rx-a1080 av receiver and a NAD d1050 dac, they sound amazing though, even without the DAC in place.

I've listened to solo voice and solo instrument tracks over 'phones for many years and prefer to listen to them in this way. Have used tube amps and transistors but prefer the tubes. Just stating this my preference, before the secret police come by and try to brainwash me. Excellent series, Steve, as always, thought provoking.

Yamaha ax596, Monitor audio bx5, i like feeling the sofa vibrate in different places (seat, back, and arm) depending on the frequency, that's feeling the music as well as hearing it, headphones can't replicate that. But that's if the neighbours are out!

Building a case perhaps there Steve....I feel they provide different listening experiences. No doubt headphones more intimate and as you suggest accurate and I do have a variety of 'good' headphones. However, it's not as vibrant or fluid a listening experience much of the time primarily due to a somewhat closed in feel even with my open back headphones. That's not to say they r closed in, just more so comparatively and so don't feel as 'live' perhaps. Even tho they are extremely revealing; accuracy however is not my goal. Notwithstanding, I use headphones often for a variety of reasons, but the greatest overall enjoyment comes from speakers. But, that's just me!!

Question, Steve or whoever is knowledgeable with room acoustics: If the listening room is a big factor in (1) sound reproduction accuracy or a big factor in (2) musical enjoyment, is adding an Equalizer (like graphic equalizers in 1970s or 80s) to a current system solves this issue? Is this a more cost effective solution than room acoustics solutions (bass traps, acoustic foams, etc)? Thanks for your reply.

You are totally accurate ! Headphones very easily can be adjusted. They also CAN be WAY cheaper, etc., etc. For optimum performance, speakers (& up stream systems) & rooms (environments) should/need to be calibrated for & to each other. Proper calibration is easily 50% of the sound. These calibrations can cost from inexpensive $’s to $’s thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of $’s dollars. Lack of this understanding can easily turn “fruitless” searches into money pits.

The whole accuracy theme is silliness.

There was a time I could enjoy music with headphones but now I only listen using my floorstanders it's more immersive to me

Also to avoid upsetting the neighbours, one can get away playing so much louder!

I have loved the right headphones in the past.... it was just that no one could "be in my head".... I tried splitters and things of the sort. I was a drummer and its kinda loud.

I haven't had a set of headphones stuck inside my head since I dropped a hit of Orange Phoenix and listened to Black Widow from Heart. But I do think headphones are better for the reason you say. Just like when we play a gig from one house to another the room changes our sound. Like it or not, its true.

I have tried and tried with headphones. Yes you are right. They are more accurate to representing what the microphone captured. What they don't do is make it seem real. We hear vibrations through our whole body. When i am listening to music i don't care if it is accurate. I want it to emotionally touch me. When i listen i want an double bass to sound like a real double bass. I don't always look for realism. I also like it when something sound completely unreal. As long as the physical and emotional presence is there. I still enjoy headphones but i am definitely in the speaker camp.

Keep your speakers and treat your room.

i totally agree not only for accuracy but other benefits as well. speakers can be lots of fun especially if you have a large place and maybe want more people to listen at the same time .i think today for most people the enemy of good sound has gone from "home entertainment" systems(5 tiny plastic speakers) to the "desktop setup"(low quality youtube\mp3 files through some crappy onboard 9.1 soundcard to some crappy powered monitors or beats headphones). instead the desktop setup can be the most accurate and there are only a few things to consider:1. cd quality files 2. a good usb dac and headphone amp(could be in the same unit) 3.good headphones. done! so for less than 1000$ you can have great sound. treating the room properly is 1000$ at least before any component....

Sure. But from my experience headphone sound can go so far, at some point it can’t get any better ( I have great planar headphones with tube amp that I like a lot but the quality of the sound get to a certain level and then stop improving. With Speakers ( and rooms ) the sky is the limit , and it is far far more engulfing it Surround you. it touch you. It create a holographic picture of the place it was recorded in , sound stage in headphone is no where near what you get with great speaker and great room. For Frequency response headphones are better but for anything else go with speakers ( but sure you will have to spend much more money ). Great post Steve .. Thanks

I love both headphones/IEMs and speakers. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't 😁

I burnt out of headphones time ago. Forced by the situation, I relied on phones three quarters of my listening time. The headphones weren't any thing and they are still in perfect shape but not used anymore. The little brothers of the Sony MDR-R10, the MDR-CD3000. It's true that they offer accuracy but they don't allow spatial perspective and really deep bass. I finally got a dedicated room, treated and with speakers perfectly positioned far as can be from walls and I can have both accuracy and three dimensional sound. It's so much fun that there's no go back to headphones. Besides, having the transducer so close to the ear and listening outdoor is fatal for our hearing. I much prefer now, a mid aged male, to protect and provide longer time of use to my auditory system. This last can't be changed for a new once it get worm. It is my advice, stay away from phones as much as you can! They are no substitutes to loudspeakers.

I jusst.got the SMSL SU-8 DAC with the SH-8 Amp on test for my Beyerdynamic DT 1770 Pro, DT 1990 Pro and the M1060C modified to open back. I also have a tube amp connected to it. It sounds really greate! I have been looking at the Mod House Argon Mk3 thinking to buy it, have any of you experienced it?

What is the closest I can get to the flatness of the Sennheiser HD800s for under $400? I'm even willing to buy used If I can get it for under that price

Question: what is the ideal impedence for headphones, say irrespective of input source? Is 16 ohm too low and 600 ohm for headphones too high? what's the sweet spot.. Thanks for the videos, very informative for newbies like me

I am looking at buying Klipsch 600M speakers to listen to different speakers. Smaller speakers. Different. Also to play 2 ways with the large 3 ways. Cross overs would be way different. Maybe kind of cool. Similar price to intermediate headphones.

Yes, headphones overcome the acoustical variations of different room environments. However, one major problem with headphones are spatial distortions versus a good two channel or three channel speaker setup. The exception to that, of course, would be binaural recordings played over headphones which are, in my opinion, the ultimate in spatial presentation, adding height and depth to the soundstage as well as the regular left to right. Speakers provide left to right (along with some depth, in the better, mostly analog recordings) You didn't mention about the differences in ears. I only know of one headphone that can correct for that it actually sends a signal which bounces to the eardrum and back to the headphone and then analyzes it then makes the appropriate adjustments. Haven't heard them in person yet, but I would love to do so.

I agree accuracy will be almost impossible to pursue on recordings unless you are in the actual million dollar studio because of the acoustics. I like to mix my music on flat response studio grade headphones. A lot of the newer producers do some mixing on headphones. Chances are if you find a newly remastered album it had some mixing or mastering on headphones. When it comes to mixing, to me it boils down to transparency, balance and artistry. The vision of the artist can sometimes be different from the engineer. At some point there has to be a compromise in order to fulfill the best quality on all media platforms. This is just from my humble perspective.

Here's another perspective. As some one who mixes music I also have to consider ear fatigue. This is one of the downsides to using headphones alot. Our ears are what helps bring out solid mixing. So using headphones a lot means breaks are often needed. You can have great speakers but with bad hearing it is possible to miss out on some frequencies.

Only a few weeks ago Steve picked up a comment of mine about this and made a video on it. I said that Headphones sound 'very' different because of their coloration, to which he agreed and said it was the dumbest thing to suggest otherwise. Now he's saying the opposite! That aside, The coloration I hear is only with over-ear headphones, in which I believe I am hearing the resonances of the cup. In-ear headphones are a different story for me however and I can barely perceive any coloration most of the time and really only differences in driver response. I should say too that I love Steve's videos all the same and tune in daily to watch them as they are unique.

I have 4 pairs of high quality headphones. All 4 sound different from each other. Ditto for three headphone amps. Then how would I know which phone and amp combo is accurate? As Andrew Jones stated in your most recent interview, your reproduction will only be "accurate" if the recording was mastered through headphones, and only then if you use the same headphones and headphone amp that were used in the mastering process.

That shirt is Guttenbergesque.

I built a USD9500 headphone system (Eddie Current Balancing Act+Tubes Upgrade+Auralic Vega+HD800+T1) but after I acquired a pair of Yamaha active monitors for USD599, I never go back to the headphone system. To me, the overall listening experience is more "right". But I can imagine some prefer headphones.

I like the longer recordings.

I've been trading up headphones for about 5 years now, currently have a highly modded He-6 driven by a First Watt J2. I made it to Axpona this year and had a chance to listen to a ton of very high end setups, I would say 90% of them sounded like crap to me. The 2 factors that differentiate the 10% I liked was aggressive use of room treatments and being open baffle (OB base = very clean, didn't expect this). I've often noticed the difference stepping down more then stepping u. ie get some new pricey gear, listen to it exclusively for a week and think its ok. Then i swap back to the old gear and it sounds just BAD. This is was the same for headphones vs speakers in hotel rooms, when your adjusted to not hearing any room echo, then you hear 5k-50k$ system with sound bouncing off the walls and that's all you notice... couldn't agree more with this video, except... cross-feed, the Achilles heel of headphones. Some tracks, a lot of good jazz, is mixed with 100% left right separation of curtain instruments. With speakers the sounds mix in the air and you perceive a wide sound-stage, on headphones such tracks are un-listenable without crossfeed. IMO there are plugins like mier cross-feed in foobar that do an excellent job with minimal quality lose and you can adjust how much is needed. As far as i'm concerned this is the only real advantage of speakers besides for number of people able to listen at once. "with headphones your listening from the microphones perspective"

I am a musician. I need to be able to hear reference jazz recordings in a lot of detail so headphones have done that fir me. Plus a good headphone amp and a CD player with one but DAC. Great flat response, which is what I need, and not a lot of money.

A pair of Grado SR80 headphones for $99 has gotta be one of the great bargains of the “audiophile” world. They sound amazingly good, especially for only 99 bucks, and you can take them with you. I’ve used mine at the park, while laying in the hammock on my porch, while working, etc. I own a few pair of nice-ish headphones in the 100-300 dollar range, but they’re my favorites. A perk for of headphones for people like me with pretty extreme ADD / ADHD issues is that headphones serve as a literal tether to my computer. As in, it creates a musical environment that you get snapped out of as soon as you take them off to walk away from your desk to do something. It’s easy for someone like me that works from home to be steadily working, and then all of a sudden find myself doing something totally unrelated to the task I’d started and still needed to be working on. Like doing the dishes, or laundry, or just be up walking around and thinking. Having the music playing over speakers enables this somewhat due to there not being any disconnect as there is while listening through (corded) headphones. All this said, I have a pair of Klipsch Chorus speakers with two subwoofers hooked up in my studio / office and they sound amazing as well. But I need to be sitting in the right place in there to hear them at their best, and my desk is not that place. Whereas the headphones sound the same no matter where I’m wearing them, assuming I’m in a somewhat quiet environment. Regarding “accuracy.” I can careless about accurate. I want it to sound good to my ears - and not what some some audio engineer felt was right or “accurate.” If that means turning the bass and treble up or down some - then so be it. I listen to music for the enjoyment of the music not enjoyment of the gear. The gear is just a means to an end for me. It is an important means that can make a huge difference, but still, I just don’t get those that prefer having something “accurate” over what they prefer sound wise due to their uniquely different hearing over somebody else’s. Even as a kid I remember always prefer both the bass and treble turned up more for most all types of music and still to this day prefer the same thing - unless it is being played the my Chorus speakers which can have piercing, ear fatiguing, highs if you don’t turn the treble on the amp down. Why sit and listen to something you don’t enjoy the sound of just for the sake of accuracy when you can tweak the sound a bit to your taste and heighten your experience. My point behind all this is that, we shouldn’t let the gear, and cork sniffing, get in the way of what we would prefer if given a blind A / B test of the same track with things set up slightly different, whether that be amp tone settings, speaker choice, etc. Both speakers and headphones have their place, but, good headphones, seem much more versatile and forgiving of the environment you’re in. And an added bonus is being able to listen at louder volumes at hours of the day that your neighbor or wife doesn’t want you listening on speakers at a comparable volume to gain the same experience or feel.

Question - if a recording engineer were to make a recording specifically for headphone use, would it be different (and how)?

I bought the Campfire Audio Atlas from headphones.com, I couldn't recommend them more for headphone purchases!:)

Headphones.com is great. Recently upgraded from Aeon Flow open to Ether 2.

Good points Steve. But then I can hear inside my head....Too cluttered in there. Oh no! I'll do the nice coloured tidy rooms with speakers and visceral subs ;-)

Of course, speakers-in-rooms inevitably skew the source signal.

Most IEMs are multi driver and nobody would say headphones sound clearer than iems. I wonder what Steve would say regarding that re: crossovers/multidriver vs full range

I don't know what you would think about this, Steve, but have you ever tried mixing headphone output with live in-room listening? yes, there is a bit of comb filtering, but done right, it might be the holy grail.

Accuracy!? Nah... I want isolation. BTW, YOUR ARTWORK FOR LENNY WHITE’S ALBUM matches his “Explorations” album. Bought it. Whoah!

I have the same headphones I think they used while making the album who are you. Mrs. Incredible sound in through them gives me an idea what Pete Townsend was here while mixing it

So how much $ is considered "not alot?" I haven't listened to a decent set of headphones since the 80's and recently decided to look into buying a decent set and was/am totally confused with the sheer amount of what are available for a myriad of reasons.

Hmmm..did you mean Planar accurate or Sennheiser 600 accurate or 800s accurate or Audeze LCD-4 accurate?

Forgive my typos. No my native language. Excellent point. But this subject is a little controversial. I read that one of the reasons why sound engineers use speakers (studio monitors) when they are mixing instead of headphones, is because when they add reverb, or other delay based artificial effects to the mix through headphones, and then they play that back on the speakers, usually they find that they added a little bit too much, or too little of that effect and so, even when the room has an acceptable flat frequency response and a very short reverberation time. And its because they say, it is more difficult to hear that particular effect wearing headphones than if you'd played with the speakers. But also depend on the headphones. But point taken, you are right, your room it is not a professional recording studio, there is a bunch of reverberation bouncing around that colors the final sound. So I assume that probably what happens is that, they are listening to the natural reverb from the room combined with the artificial reverb they are applying. That's why when they mix, they usually switch back and fort between speakers and headphones until they find the perfect balance, but again this is entirely subjective. I particularly prefer headphones over speakers no matter what, it is more accurate in many cases.

Well, yeah, but headphones won’t put that “thump” in your chest.

Accuracy in Audio is a delusion.

I'll throw in the Sony MDR7506 set as an example of how well an inexpensive set of headphones excels against speakers costing over a thousand. The first few seconds of Moonlight by the Piano guys makes it evident.

In this hobby, personal preference of the buyer (consumer) is the ultimate criterion. But on the supply side, accuracy is critical

We are talking about close to the original sound here. Not about feelings or state of mind. But there are millions of headphones and speakers out there. All with their own mix of the sound. That's why some ppl(me included) have diffrent headphones for diffrent kinds of sound. For trance/electro music I love my Fostex t50rp mk3, for me they give me that "umff" some of you are talking about. If I want accurate sound I put on my Schenniser HD800S or MASSDROP X KOSS ESP/95X ELECTROSTATIC System. Again depending what I want to get. Best part about headphones is you can change pads on most of them, so if you want diffrent sound you swap pads. No need to buy new once. If you want to dance around, get a longer cable, sure... You can't do 360 all the time or you look like a mummy with cable around you. Or you can, if that's what your into. Same as sound, it comes down to what you like. But for accurate sound only, headphones are the way to come closer to the artist original sound, how that person intended it to sound.

I love headhones, but their cup/pads aren't like "little" rooms? My biggest problem w cans is their frequency response. Big deviations in midrange and high freq

I agree. I bought the Tin T2 IEM and I hear all the details that I didn't hear from my speakers. But its bass is lacking. If there is a way to crossover with my sub

Do headphones not have their own sound signature? Will that not have an effect on accuracy?

Speaker is still better than headphone to produce concert sound effect with wider sound stage and presentation