Why am I not enjoying vinyl through my headphone?

[gbhsi1]

Why those the sound from my turntable sound harsh through my headphone output of my roksan amp?

I use a pair of Grado SR80's & a roksan Kandy LIII amp. When I listen to music through my headphones- it just sounds awful at parts and good at others. Is my turntable setup incorrectly? How frustrating as it seems like my turntable is set perfectly....is it my cartridge 2m red?? I thought vinyl was supposed to sound musical- but it doesn't? it is driving me nuts as I have good components...

 

[PJPro]

The general view (from the mag) is that the headphone output on integrated amps, etc, tend to provide a rather poor sound. Try getting a dedicated headphone amp. Are you able to audition one at home?

 

[pwiles1968]

Is it always at the start or end of the record if so it may be cartridge alignment.

I suspect with using headphones you may be getting too close to the sound, which is probably Ok for a perfect recording on a Perfect piece of Vinyl but anything less and you are going to hear all of the imperfections.

 

[gbhsi1]

I think that sounds like a good option. My local hi fi dealer should be able to provide this.

 

[PJPro]

The mag rates the Novo. But what are you going to try?

 

[Anonymous]

Perhaps there's perfect vinyl recordnings out there, and perhaps it's possible to get a turntable and cartidge set-up that don't distort the sound too much. Be prepared to spend a year's income on it anyway.

Generally, in the real world, vinyl sound is very far from perfect, and headphones will expose this much more than a pair of speakers.

Some people prefer to disguise the short-comings by adding something new, like the massive harmonic distortion of a tube amplifier.

 

[Craig M.]

can't offer any t.t. advice, but i thought the headphone out on the L.lll was terrible when i had one. if you listen a lot through headphones it might be worth you trying a dedicated headphone amp, my old beresford dac nailed the out from the L.lll.