Speakers and Headphones

[Tenson]

I realise I now spend more time listening to music on headphones than speakers, even though I prefer my speakers sound. I used to have my speakers in my office so I'd listen while working at the computer, the music would invariably catch my attention and I would sit back and listen properly.

I've since moved my office to a separate room and find I listen more on headphones while I am working, than sitting with my dedicated system! Without listening to my system while working, it doesn't have a chance to catch my attention, but my headphones do.

How do you spend most of your music listening time? Do you dedicate yourself to it in front of the hi-fi or do you listen while doing something else, or listen on something other than the main system most of the time? Maybe you should put your hi-fi where you would listen to it more?

 

[James_1D]

I think it boils down to the type of person you are...me, I am happy to sit back...glass of wine and just listen to the music through the speakers. The wife, she needs to be doing things...even if it's reading a magazine...

But obviously I like the music I choose to listen too, so I prefer to concentrate on it rather than be concentrating on a book or pottering about in another room.

Music for me is a great way to pass the time...specially after a heavy and or boring day at work !

 

[Hamilton]

Well I have a definite preference for listening properly and not doing anything else, and indeed sometimes feel like I've 'wasted' music if I've been doing something else at the same time.

On the other hand when I'm getting to know unfamiliar stuff I sometimes do choose to have it on in the background to allow myself to get familiar with it in a general way before sitting down to focus on it in more detail after a couple of casual listens. (This seems illogical and a bit paradoxical but I've noticed for a few years now that I've been doing it , so there must be something in it for me.)

Re the speakers/phones thing, I definitely prefer the sound and the sense of the music coming from somewhere that the speakers give me. But I've also noticed that I seem to be getting less time to actually sit down and listen and often the time I do find is fairly late at night, so for decent volume I need to turn to the phones. I've been thinking that the quality of the phones needs a bit of a hike to begin to get near the speakers - currently it's Beyer 531's vs. Linkwitz Orion which doesn't really seem like a fair fight... Alternatively, need to sort my life out better...

 

[Tenson]

I definitely have a preference to sit down and focus on the music, but I don't find myself doing it much now. Being self employed I don't really have any time to pass, so I think the way I got to listen like that was by the system catching me and forcing me to listen carefully as it sounded so good. Now the system is in another room from my work place and it doesn't happen.

Organising ones life better is probably the answer as Hamilton said!

Gordon, if you are looking for a good headphone system for late night listening I'd love to be able to afford the Smyth Research setup. I wrote about it on here a couple of months ago. It's epic, and quite unusual.

 

[Hamilton]

Gordon, if you are looking for a good headphone system for late night listening I'd love to be able to afford the Smyth Research setup.

Hi Simon - Wow, that looks interesting, but way beyond current budget sadly. If it works like it claims to that would probably be the answer for me. And you get a pair of Stax phones in with the deal as well... If we have a good few months I'd been thinking about pair of those anyway, and if not it'll probably be something like the 600ohm Beyer 770's or 880's for now.

I had also been thinking about having a go at DIY-ing a pair of electrostatics - there are some projects detailed around the net, but ultimately maybe the risks associated with all those volts so close to my ears in a DIY rig need to be taken seriously...

 

[Tenson]

As with many things, I think to make an electrostatic could be easy, but to make a really good one isn't so. I also wouldn't want lots of volts near my head!

I wonder, can anyone recommend some really good quality wireless headphones.. and uhh, water proof? I love listening in the bath, and use AKG K405, which are UHF wireless. They sound okay but not great. Though I wouldn't want to get expensive headphones wet I suppose.