headphone amps - is silence golden ?

[admin_exported]

OK , I'm in the market for a headphone amp and like what I read about the Rega ear.It's the sort of modest price I'd pay but I'm curious to know if the main beneficiaries aren't in fact people who are not in the room !

With the Rega plugged in , will I have a decent sense of the stereo sound stage and sonic character of the systems I'm running with : system a ) Denon 2309 to B and W 685's ; system b ) Nait 5i to PMC DB 1's

By going quiet, so to speak, do you lose the visceral element of certain types of music which room amplified music generates

 

[matengawhat]

i have a little dot mkiii which is a valve hphone amp and is about the same money maybe £30 more and have to say the soundstage is huge - i run it with a pair of senn 650hds and the two together would blow your head off - lots of volume, power but most importantly clarity - i would def recommend for listening to music in all its glory when you don't want to wake the rest of the house

 

[idc]

Its all in the mind, literally. It is like having a tune in your head that is really there. There is an intimacy, a closesness to the action that puts you in the front row of the concert. I enjoy being in my own little musical space. I am lucky that the family tolerate the leaky Grados.

 

[matengawhat]

my senns are leaky and gf complains it puts her off the tv but i think she just uses it as excuse to moan at me

 

[lonely boy]

As much as I like listening to cans, I don't think you can beat a room full of music.

Personally I think speakers sound more natural, this is how music is supposed to be listened to, with the interactions of the room/space giving music more depth, dimensionality and impact (especially where bass is concerned).

Some headphones produce a very large soundstage that some may find artificially big but my Stax SR-404's soundstage is small compared to the HD600s and especially AKG K701s - which when plugged into my CanAmp is almost like surround-sound!

I agree that 'phones are great for insight and in terms of detail, you get a lot for the money when compared to similarly priced speakers.

So you may find that you loose in some ways while gaining in others, as they say - your milage will vary. It does come down to personal taste.