Question; if one has a decent "modern" integrated Amp with a headphone output, is it still a recommendation to use an external headphone amp in general? I'd assume my integrated is doing the job well but with all the talk of dedicated headphone amps it makes me question.
I have two systems with headphone playback in them, one only headphone, one headphone and speakers. My main system is speakers only. I moved to headphone listening out of necessity. For a spell in a "town home" while I was spending most of my time at my parents' home five minutes away taking care of them I really only had time to listen very early in the morning or later at night, and I had a neighbor who didn't like speakers playing at that time. I found that with good headphones and a great headphone amp I could get great sound. After that I married and again headphone listening was a requisite at times and I found that I could expand my listening hours with headphones and liked that a lot. Matching headphones to an amp is really important. I have a really good match for each of my two pairs of headphones now: a Decware CSP3 (with 25th Anniversary mods) and my Sennheiser HD800S, and a Decware Taboo MK IV amp with my ZMF Ori. Both these systems also include a Decware ZROCK2 which really is the icing on the cake, letting me dial in a sound I really really enjoy listening to. I'm mindful of volume. . . and the nice thing about these two setups is that lower volume listening is full and rather good as far as sound-stage and image.
Due some of the constraints mentioned in previous posts, my HiFi gets very little use and I'm about to rectify that situation. I've purchased an Audioengine BFi to plug into my venerable (but still excellent) amp so that I can stream CD quality music from my PC. I'll put a comfy chair in place and find out if I can get back into using a speaker system.
Only you can answer that question since it heavily dictated by your expectations. Which amplifier do you use right now?
I'd say with my experiences that, you must try it out. Details of this below. I have tape (K7 player Oh!) with headphone output, when I listen with headphones, the sound is better than when I use the same music + headphone and Linn Intek amp's headphone output jack. Same with my CD players, so my old Intek pre-amp phone which is not bad with records may not be as good as it should be.
I just started to listen to digital (mostly CDs) through headphones when I can’t listen to records through speakers. I’m amazed how good it sounds.
The insurmountable obstacle for headphones is the inability to create a stereo image. Your ears need to hear both channels with a slight phase discrepancy to make that solid image. headphones for monitoring, speakers for listening.
Having the two types of sources, I can not say the same as digital with headphones and LP/K7 with speakers, for me having tried out different sources with headphones/speakers with good devices, the quality of the sources can be heard NOT depending on the hardware digital/analog/speakers/headphones.
I used to listen to music through headphones as a kid and always thought it was better. As I got older, I ditched the headphones and only ever listened through speakers. Today I listened through headphones for the first time in over 36 years and WOW ! Absolutely loved it. Need some advice on good headphones now ! My listening seating area is about 5m from my amp. So I'd need long cable on the headphones. Only listen to vinyl, so maybe that's a factor to think about as well.
Mark, my headphones have only 3m cable plenty enough for me. Never use longer cable again after trying 3m (= 6m total) more so long time ago which degraded the sound, not acceptable for me. Maybe with progress in cables/connections now we have better extention cables. To be tried out.
Thanks for the advice. I'm going to look into it. I might get away with 3.5m if I shift the furniture a bit.
My HD-6XX and my speakers are both great. I have a lot of high-frequency loss in my right ear, so with speakers the center image tends to drift toward the left. If I want the center image to stay anchored, headphones are a better bet.
Back in the late 80s as a kid I remember the revelation of saving up my paper route cash for a pair of headphone from RadioShack to use with my Walkman. My cassettes never sounded so good. Headphone listening was my only mode for a while until I got a boom box. Even then the headphones sounded better. I could hear things that just didn’t come through on the boom box. By the time I got to high school (a few sets of headphones later) I was moving on to CDs and eventually saved up enough for a proper stereo. It went through a couple of iterations but I wasn’t happy until I landed on a setup that got me that same level of detail I was getting out of my cans. I’ve always had a soft spot for headphones ever since. AKG K812 and K872 were the most expensive cans I ever had but I’ve sold them off for a modest pair of HD58x since I just don’t listen via headphones anymore. They’re good in a pinch when the house is sleeping in or I’m staying up late but I’m a speaker guy 99% of the time now. I’m getting loads of detail like a good pair of cans with the imaging and visceral impact that only speakers can give you.
I am too. You would think the ears would adjust better for location with loudspeakers in front of them, than with sound pumped separately into each ear. I miss a little detail from the right, but the imaging seems pretty precise.
I prefer my speakers and was spoiled during the pandemic working from home and being able to sit in front of them to work. Before being sent home, I used noise canceling headphones at work and liked them just fine… but returning to the office, the noise canceling Bluetooth headphones just weren’t cutting it anymore. So I saved and purchased a nice pair of closed back planars and a Schiit stack. It absolutely improved things and now find myself not wanting to take them off because the music sounds so good. But I still can’t wait to come home and put on music that I discovered with the office headphones on the main rig with my speakers.
Funny, I feel exactly the opposite, also with 6xx headphones. Even my older set of Bowers and Wilkins floorstanders in relatively near-field listening are more of an arm's-length experience than the headphones.
My Arcam integrated has what is supposed to be a better-quality headphone output, but I still bought a Schiit Asgard for my 6xx, which I think is an improvement.
If I can, I prefer loudspeakers, headphones make my ears hot, but that hasn't kept me from enjoying them.