Headphones

[vetmed]

I was forced to listen to cans for a couple of years because there was no other option, and I needed my music fix. So I got a Crack, installed the Speedball upgrade and listened with a pair of Beyer Dynamic DT-880s, or a vintage pair of AKG-240s. Now that I have a dedicated room, admittedly small where I can listen using speakers I truly wonder how I put up with it. I loathe the "in your head" aspect of phones. I know that headphone stuff is a large part of Bottlehead's revenue stream, but surely I am not the only one that feels this way. Not meaning to knock people who love their cans, just wondering if there are others with similar experience. Thanks for your tolerance.

[JamieMcC]

Robert, its a strange one for sure and down to personal preferences. I was to some extent forced into using cans also, my daughter is autistic and very inconsistent in her tolerance of noise. Also playing music in the evening was out due to disturbing sleep patterns. So I migrated to cans and actually found I really enjoyed listening to them and the subtle qualities to music which they can reveal.

I also like listening with speakers but find with my speakers set up it is no where near the same fidelity as I experience with the headphones.  I would absolutely love to have a speaker based system that would give the level of fidelity heard with the cans.
 
My limited budget means that this is out for now and I have a feeling it would take several multiples of what my headphone set up has cost.

Jamie

[vetmed]

Certainly what you say as far as fidelity goes is correct, you would have to spend a great deal more on speakers to get quality of sound than you would for a comparable pair of headphones In all seriousness its still for me the in your head aspect that I find disturbing, perhaps something to do with how wearing them cuts you off from ambient sounds? Thanks for the input

[Doc B.]

IME one of the main issues is how the headphone drivers sit with respect to your pinnae in terms of distance and angle. The K1000s do a quite credible job of sounding like speakers because they address these two things very specifically. The HD800s do a pretty good job of it for circumaural cans. The planars can do a pretty good job too, as most of them pitch drivers at an angle to get the driver more or less parallel to the pinna.

Try taking a headphone that has the drivers sitting parallel with the sides of your skull and pull the back of the cans away from your head a bit to rotate the drivers more parallel to your pinna and to get them farther away. I think you may find the sounds gets a little more spacious and a bit more out of your head.

[JamieMcC]

One of the things that regularly gives me a buzz with headphones is those out of can moments when you hear something that sounds like its coming from another room or from out side so you take the cans off to get up and see what happening but actually its the phones creating the illusion. The Crack + T1 combo is particularly good at this and regularly catches me out. It makes me smile every time. 

[Paul Joppa]

There are a variety of "out of your head" processors and/or equalizers. I last played with one some 40-45 years ago - I also don't really enjoy headphones - so I am badly out of date. Does anyone here have experience with the modern versions? If here's a favorable consensus on a simple version, I could see a product...

[JamieMcC]

There are a variety of "out of your head" processors and/or equalizers. I last played with one some 40-45 years ago - I also don't really enjoy headphones - so I am badly out of date. Does anyone here have experience with the modern versions? If here's a favorable consensus on a simple version, I could see a product...

Do you mean like the old quadraphonic record processors?

[mcandmar]

If you want a true "out of head" experience search for some binaural recordings, i have no idea how it works but its interesting. e.g. http://www.audiocheck.net/Audio/audiocheck.net_binaural_knocking.mp3 

[JamieMcC]

That made me jump lol. I streamed it the page was taking a while to load then bang it sounded like some one was knocking on the outside  wall of the house, going to look for some more.

[sl-15]

the same just happened to me, i had music playing through the computer and loaded up the link. it sounded like somebody was standing outside knocking against the wall, i did not even realize that the link went to an audio snippet. it totally freaked me out. now i have to look into what the hell binaural recordings are...

[Kris]

I really like this one: http://www.hdtracks.com/explorations-in-space-and-time-176-24-binaural
and this: http://www.hdtracks.com/dr-chesky-s-sensational-fantastic-and-simply-amazing-binaural-sound-show-133072

[richardl]

I have always used them and always had problems with them.   Dan's K1000 are the only headphones that I have used and really liked but, they are a lot like sitting in front of speakers the way that they sit away from your head.   The Audeze and planars are an improvement from the others but still, very much "How high the Fi"? and therefore irritating IMO.