Speakers Versus Headphones
Some time ago, in a magazine article
about speakers, I opined that headphones are admittedly very useful for convenience, for
privacy, and for portability. I added that they can also provide a heightened listening
experience, and can be pleasurable in themselves, but as faithful reproducers of sound,
speakers leave most of them in the dust.
I pointed out that records and broadcasts are generally
designed to be heard through speakers, and so headphones distort the stereo imaging
grossly. And like speakers, the sound a headphone produces is very dependent on the
acoustic environment -- not in this case a listening room, but the inside of your ears.
Headphones short-circuit most of this acoustic modification by pumping the sound directly
into your ear canal. To sound natural, they must have a frequency-response curve that
duplicates the effect of the ear, and very few do. Even the ones that make the attempt
duplicate the effect of some average ear (not yours) and the tiniest differences can
affect the sound quality considerably.
Frankly, I thought that this would be a fairly
uncontroversial notion in the audio world, but I soon received a reaction from a reader
who took offense at my maligning the humble headphone. His comments:
"(1) If that is true, why do they sound so good, to
novices and (most) experts, immediately?
"(2) [You] stressed that the average ear auricle
cannot be a particular fit. Yet in the same issue, another writer said: 'Slight variations
in the room boundaries or the furnishings of a room can radically alter the sound of a
loudspeaker.' [Speaker designer] Roy Allison has stressed that the movement of a speaker a
few inches will significantly alter the sound. Inches! The search for the optimum spot for
a speaker in a room can rearrange the furniture many times, and drive an audiophile to
headphones.
"(3) Headphones have considerable advantages over
speakers. First, that clear, spacious sound. (It ain't regular stereo, but my living room
ain't neither.) Second, cost: My electrostatics cost a couple of hundred dollars and sound
superior to all $1000-a-pair speakers I have heard. That's a 500% price advantage. Audio
mags push speakers, because they help advertisers.
"(4) Privacy: Your family and neighbors may not be in
the mood for a comparison of three versions of the 1812 Overture cannon passage at
1 a.m. With headphones, only your ears will ring. You may not be in the mood for Junior to
play Metallica after supper. Ah, headphones! Any unwanted sound is noise. Why do
audiophiles arrogate the power to pollute the aural ecology?"
To take these comments in order:
(1) "Good" is in the ear of the beholder. My
experience has been that most people listen to headphones at a much higher level than they
would speakers. Check it out: plug your 'phones into the headphone jack of your cassette
deck (or CD player, or whatever) and adjust the level to what you consider comfortable.
Then, with the amplifier volume down, switch on your speakers and bring them up to a level
equivalent to that of the 'phones. This can only be a rough approximation, of course, as
it will necessitate back-and-forth unplugging of the 'phones (and possibly removing them
if they isolate too much sound) and switching the speakers on and off to achieve something
approaching an A-B comparison. Nonetheless, you will probably find that when the balance
is right between 'phones and speakers, the latter will be quite loud, perhaps
uncomfortably so.
For most listeners, especially novices, loud signals seem
better, particularly if distortion is relatively low, as it typically is with headphones.
The effect is dramatic, immediate, and impressive. Add to that the exaggerated stereo
effect, and you have something that sounds wonderful, but it's not necessarily the highest
of fi. Granted, there are some superb 'phones that are hi-fi, but they are
definitely in the minority.
(2) Reams have been written about speaker placement and
environmental factors. Roy Allison is only one of the more prominent voices making the
point that speakers and rooms have very unpredictable and variable relationships. But at
least there is some data on the nature of speaker performance and on room acoustics, so
speaker designers have a reasonable shot at making some sort of acceptable compromise, and
some well-conceived speakers do sound excellent in most rooms, with careful placement.
In the case of headphones, there is only a limited amount
of data available, and manufacturers frequently ignore it. If speaker design is sometimes
a "by guess and by God" proposition, headphone design is even less certain and
sophisticated.
Incidentally, if inches can make a profound difference in
how a speaker will sound, with headphones this becomes fractions of a millimeter; how your
hair is combed that day can make a significant audible difference with some 'phones.
(3) That clear, spacious sound may be nice, but it's
unreal. High frequencies, for instance, are generally more prominent in 'phones than in
speakers or in life. Treble does taper the farther away you are from speakers, just as it
does in a concert hall; this is normally not the case with 'phones.
The cost advantage is a real one assuming the choice of
'phones or speakers. But even the most devoted headphone enthusiast probably has speakers
as well, and they are likely to be fairly good if their owner has any pretensions to
audiophilia. So headphones are an add-on expense, not an alternative.
This reader has obviously been listening to the wrong $1000
speakers. True, some are terrible, but some are superb. So are some at $500 a pair, or
even less.
Incidentally, audio magazines do not "push"
speakers just to help the advertisers. Any respectable publication reflects the interests
of its readers, and the attention given to speakers is simply an acknowledgement that
audiophiles from novices to the most knowledgeable and sophisticated believe that speakers
represent the best way to reproduce sound.
(4) Privacy I will grant you: both yours and your
neighbor's. At the appropriate times, headphones are a must, and I agree that a world full
of Walkmans is vastly preferable to one plagued by boomboxes. But there are also clearly
times when headphones are inappropriate, like social occasions, for instance, when you
want to share a little Mozart. Or, I submit, when you want to do truly critical listening.
Having said all this, I should stress that I am very far
from being anti-headphone (I have, and use, four pairs for various purposes). They
obviously hold a very important place in audio, but I believe that as a class they are far
behind speakers, however imperfect, as reproducers of sound.
...Ian G. Masters
ian@mastersonaudio.com
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