How much would i need to spend on Speakers to get Grado SR60 perfomance?

[gooner26]

I am thinking of purchasing some 2nd hand Meridian DSP active speakers (maybe the DSP5000's)

Does anybody know how much I would need to spend on Speakers to get similar performance to my Grado SR60i headphones?

Regards Danny.

 

[Anonymous]

Probably a lot, but on acoustic treatments for your room ^^

 

[gooner26]

That is my gripe with speakers, you need an acoustic friendly room (ie stuffed full of books)

Some of the most intesnse enjoyment i have had listening to music has been through headphones!

I just cannot make my mind up between headphones or speakers at the moment

regards danny

 

[shooter]

This is a great question and the exact one that sent me on my last mission to upgrade the 2 channel set up a few years back.

For donkeys i'd been moving sideways with components and i was happy doing that for many a year, just enjoying.

I moved property and ended up having a nightmare with the neighbour, any noise above normal speaking which is around 50-70 db i'd get a letter from the council, totally unreasonable and we ended up moving, but thats another storey.

But because of this i bought myself a pair of Grado SR60. At the time (about 4 years ago) i was running a modest set up incorporating an Marantz PM6002 (i think), Arcam Cd 73 Diva and Epos 12.2 plus cables of different types and a TT. I plugged in the Grado one evening and had a great big smile on my face and enjoyed the music loud! After a while i started to get accustomed to the sound and when i listened to the set up i felt a bit underwhelmed. I wasn't getting the sound i had via the jack so the quest began in ernest to change that. I auditioned, saved, read about products on-line, saved and watched the usual places for suitable HiFi. And when i say suitable i mean at a quality gear at silly prices!

Over a time i had saved through working and selling stuff off and had a seasonable amount and come across an Chord CPM3300 on e-bay for £1700 no reserve (ideal candidate). Watched it for days and then bid with 6 hrs remaining (it finished early hours), i went to bed. I was the first and only bidder! Sweet! When i awoke in the morning i never thought i would had got it at that price, my maximum bid was 1750.

(Theres one on e-bay now for 3300!)

The quest went on in the same vein, with the speakers next a nice unblemished pair of Totem Mani II Sigs (1750) then a MF Nu Vista CD player (1000), some cables and this year a VPI turntable. It has taken me all that time to build up a system that out performs that spacial sound you get from headphones, but my is it worth it!

 

[jaxwired]

gooner26: I just cannot make my mind up between headphones or speakers at the moment

regards danny

Shoot for both if possible. If you are budget constrained, then just stick with a good headphone rig. I love my AKG K702s. Overall, they sound better than my regular system, but the experience is different. The headphones provide pristine sound, but it's all coming from a soundstage confined to my head. That's the difference.

 

[SHAXOS]

The Eclipse speakers i had were the closest i ever got to a "headphone" sound from a speaker. Thats not to say the soundstage was small in anyway but it they had detail in spades and had that intimacy that headphones provide.

 

[gooner26]

I was using a Lehmann Audio Black Cube Linear with some Grado SR60's. Then i bought some RS1i's (got a great discount on ebay) but i could not justify the price tag so i sold the RS1i's.

I have also owned an Arcam FMJ CD17, Rega Brio3, B&W685's, before that i owned the F80.

The 2 best set-up's i ever had was the Lehmann & SR60's and F80.

I am going to go back the 1 of them but can't make my mind up. The F80 also has a great headphone amp built in which is worth mentioning!

Another option for me is if i am going to spend £1500 on a F80(it is now the M80) i could pick a 2nd hand pair of Meridian DSP5000 96/24 Speakers which i have heard blow the doors off an F80.

Regards Danny

 

[SteveR750]

I actually prefer the sound through te speakers than my SR80s, and I concludede that this is because the dimensional cues from 2.1 stereo is so important to recreating a "real" sound, more so I think than tonal balance or bandwidth. The soundstaging from my speakers is just better than 'phones, which inherently cannot reproduce a stereo soundstage as accurately because their inability to reproduce the phase differences that a pair of interacting speakers can which gives the spatial cue, unless of course its a binaural recording, but I have never come across any.

 

[Anonymous]

i agree with Steve... Soundstaging is vital for me, and simply doesn't exist in the same way through any headphones and would rather listen to poorer quality speakers, than good headphones.

 

[idc]

I don't think it is possible to answer the question. By little B&W DM301 speakers could do as well as my Grado SR80s, but differently. However, I am so used to headphone listening and its intensity that I would not spend much on speakers, now at all. I do not think that any could do the same.