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So we are in the midst of moving. Looking at new houses it's starting to dawn on me that I am probably not going to be able to get anything near The Listening Room here that I had in my old house. So, I have pretty nice stereo system with Altecs and Bottlehead. But if you had to choose between an absolutely magnificent headphone system or a truly marvelous stereo but in a pretty crappy room, which would you pick? And why?
Follow Ups:
it depends on whether you want to dance or not
If space is such an issue, you might consider going mono. I would rather have a killer mono system than a mediocre stereo system.
Having been in the audio industry well over 3 decades, set up systems in hundreds of show rooms, I've not yet been in a room that could not support very good sound. So, I agree with many posters above me. There are plenty of really bad components, loads of bad setup guys, but few rooms that are truly bad.
but when you remove your listening room's ambiance, its a different game with regards to how the recording was made and how it sounds. Your room will mix, add "air" and sweeten certain recordings so they won't sound so "mechanical". With headphones, some things like well recorded lieder where there's a solo voice and piano, may sound pretty good. And of course, binaural recordings should sound better on headphones than loudspeakers.those cheap MOSFET starved tube headphone amps like "Indeed", sound good to me with Fostex cans and Fostex not bad with Tascam audio interfaces. (plus the interface gives you a nice outboard sound-card for transcribing lps to hard drive) Fostex cans need a fair amount of power to come alive.
There's decent headphones in the $30 range and those would play synth bass drops reasonably cleanly where a lot of "fullrange" speakers, or small high efficiency multiway tuned high would just fart.
Karlson Evangelist
Edits: 09/20/16
I have my system playing loud enough to enjoy it from almost every room in our (small mind you)
flat. I actually spend more time listening that way than via the lauded sweet spot.
Why limit yourself and potential plugged into headphones?
Also, why NOT just add headphones to your existing system when settled?
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
Hi,
If you have a system like this, i can tell your room is becoming
less important. (more directivy is less interaction with you room)
Without any measurements i am sure this sounds very good. Listen it with your headphone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcYA3nQYlHc
gr. Marcel
And never had a crappy room that couldn't be tamed enough for a marvelous stereo to not sound marvelous through the house.
-Rod
Don't know if you are willing to part with the Altec 19's but if it comes to that, perhaps a speaker change to the one in the link below might be ok with the amps you already have? I think I read somewhere that an Emilar 175 might be a better solution for the 802d....just my 2 pesos.....
I would try & keep the amps you already have.
Cheers
Frank M
How about I have my nephew pick up the 19s, so that you don't have to break your back moving them?
-Rod
I would find a way to make speakers work, even if it means abandoning high efficiency and listening to two way monitors in the near field to limit room effects. lots of great compact speakers exist
Paully, I'm in the same boat though my 19's are gone and I'm using 755A's which fit a little better into a smaller space.
I went with focusing on a great sounding headphone rig for when I really want to listen to something. The Alecs are in the room and sound okay given their placement. I'll eventually move to a different house in a couple of years and will hopefully get a decent listening room out of it. Until then, this works and I know my system sounds great once it has the space to breath a little more.
The Japanese seem to do just fine with horns in small rooms. Room treatment should help. I would go through a lot of work before I gave up on it.
I view headphones as a necessary evil, a compromise to others when I can't play it loud, or for portability. I have a great set of phones, just can't compete
I agree....maybe this is a situation where dsp might be an option? I do see too many japanese rooms that make no sense to me....I don't know, I'm not there to listen, but they do seem way too small for giant horns
I wouldn't even worry about it until I had set the system up and played with it and the room a while. Right now there is now way you tell what it could sound like.
I once had my system (fully hornloaded, 3 way system "à la Klipsch LaScala")in a 12m2 bedroom. Far from optimal, it was still very enjoyable, and if it would have been more than a temporary situation, I would have kept them, still.
Headphones can be great but it's a completely different experience. i can't stay with something on my head for too long, it drives me nuts.
Wellll I simply don't like Headphones.. Despite trying Even the Best ones give a goofy between the ears Soundstage which to me is More annoying than any other descriptor.
Your speakers read as Potentially Great!
The Bottleheads however I wouldn't trade a Used NAD integrated for (yes I've owned Bottlehead, to my chagrin)
With Truly good amplifications you may find enough (currently unavailable) low level detail to more than make up for the less than ideal room.
Likely being an audible improvement overall.
G'luck
I once had my Klipschorns in a 10x14 foot room along with a bed - you might hang onto your babies. That said, I like little 2 way speakers in small rooms and imagine a sub-sat arrangement (or 5.1-> 7.1) could sound good without taking up much space.
Karlson Evangelist
Faital has a nice range of 8-12s that are well regarded and can be built into narrow towers and barely need a sub. The 12PR310s do an honest 50hz outside and have a nice punchy sound. The 8FE200s look good too.
I've had big and small speakers in big rooms. The smaller speakers were OK at lower levels but to get higher SPL's the bass gave out or the amp did.The bigger speakers were more efficient so there was no problem filling the space with sound from a 25 watt/channel amp and the bass was there.
I moved to a smaller house and I now have Model 19's in a second floor room that's about 11' 10" square with slopped ceilings and they coast along filling the room with great sound at peanut wattage.
I've never perceived that the woofer and horn didn't blend as is suggested by some that say you have to sit at least 10 feet away from such speakers.
The two things that I perceive are that some source material with bright horns need to be played a lower levels and that with some source material the bass seems to be too heavy but the majority of the time it's just a matter of how much you want to torture your ears by playing the system louder than you should be.
Sure, I'd like to hear my system in a larger room just to see what it would sound like but I never was "an ideal room fanatic" and never will be.
I've always held that mediocre sounds mediocre in any room and good sounds good in any room. Maybe good can sound best in the right room but finding the equipment and speaker combo that floats your boat is hard enough and costly enough without having to worry about the "perfect room."
When I win the PowerBall I'll have the "Music Room" built and also install a 60 rank residential player pipe organ.
Earphones: I have older Koss electrostats but to me that's like listening through a keyhole and when there's real low bass I want to feel it through the floor and on my chest.
Edits: 09/15/16
I have used some decent headphones for short spells- but never fell in love with them-
on the otherhand-
I have had to move my system around from a great room that was naturally irregular and large into a very small room for the speakers that I mainly use- ProAc R3s...
Sorry about picture quality-
the big room's long axis was ~25 feet
the current room is perhaps 9 feet (max)...
Happy Listening
Headphone listening for long term sessions is something that never did interest me. If you plan on living in the next house for a very long time, it should not be a sacrifice of one person's demands over the other.
Find a home that suites you both. If at first a room seems to be crappy, let me tell you that room treatment can work wonders. Do you remember my room ? When I first moved in here, it was just horrid sounding, and now it's a dedicated room that most all others admire.
If it is as bad as you say one might consider the headphone alternative.
I have never heard excellent headphones but if I lived in the of those tiny apartments I read about in large cities I would go with them.
And learn to like it!
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