As We See It

THIS ISSUE: Are audiophiles ignoring the most affordable means of achieving true high-end sound?

- Steve Guttenberg

Are You Experienced?

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it: Headphones sound different from speakers. For different reasons, I like both, but all speakers come with one undeniable disadvantage: the room you play them in. I don’t care if you’re running pint-size Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a’s or giant Wilson Audio Alexandria XLFs—they’re at the mercy of your room’s acoustics. Losses are inevitable.

Sure, some rooms are better than others, but their size, shape, and furnishings alter your speakers’ sound in ways their designers can never fully anticipate, leaving it up to you to dial in the best sound you can. With headphones, those variables and uncertainties are much smaller—just pop on the ’phones and you’re good to go. With them you’ll hear more—a lot more—of what’s really going on in your music.

One other thing: most over-ear headphones are full range, single-driver designs that don’t suffer from the losses associated with speakers’ crossover networks. Take, for example, Sony’s MDR-Z1R over-ear ’phones ($2299.99), whose frequency range is 4Hz–120kHz. Do you know of any single-driver loudspeaker that can do that? You may, of course, still prefer the sound of speakers, but the best headphones are more truthful messengers than the best speakers. There are fewer ways for the sound to go wrong.