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I have a simple headphone system in my office at work with a pair of Audeze LCD-2 headphones connected to my PC through a USB-connected ALO Pan-Am headphone amp/dac. The sound of most recordings is pretty stunning, and even recordings that are less-than-stellar sound very good.
What does it take to achieve this level of performance with a 2-channel speaker-based audio system?
By today's standards, my current 2-channel music system is not terribly expensive - probably totaling $18K or so at retail including cables. While it images much better than the headphone system (even the best headphone imaging doesn't sound very natural to me), I don't think it comes close to delivering the detail, top-to-bottom cohesiveness and smoothness, and satisfaction on a wide range of recordings that I get from my headphone system. On the best recordings, my stereo sounds fabulous and is immensely enjoyable, but there are so many recordings that I listen to, and enjoy, on my headphone system that sound like crap through my stereo.
So I'm wondering if it is possible to get a speaker-based system that will sound spectacular on the best recordings, but that is also forgiving enough to make less-than-stellar recordings sound really good, and how much one has to spend to achieve this.
Obviously, some of this comes down to the room. A big advantage of a headphone system is that acoustics are much better controlled. I'm the first to admit that my room acoustics are terrible, but I have spent a fair amount of time and money trying to make the room listenable. And, as I stated, on many recordings it sounds great. So how much does the room come into play in broadening the range of recordings that sound good?
Interested in your thoughts. Thanks.
What does it take to achieve this level of performance with a 2-channel speaker-based audio system?
By today's standards, my current 2-channel music system is not terribly expensive - probably totaling $18K or so at retail including cables. While it images much better than the headphone system (even the best headphone imaging doesn't sound very natural to me), I don't think it comes close to delivering the detail, top-to-bottom cohesiveness and smoothness, and satisfaction on a wide range of recordings that I get from my headphone system. On the best recordings, my stereo sounds fabulous and is immensely enjoyable, but there are so many recordings that I listen to, and enjoy, on my headphone system that sound like crap through my stereo.
So I'm wondering if it is possible to get a speaker-based system that will sound spectacular on the best recordings, but that is also forgiving enough to make less-than-stellar recordings sound really good, and how much one has to spend to achieve this.
Obviously, some of this comes down to the room. A big advantage of a headphone system is that acoustics are much better controlled. I'm the first to admit that my room acoustics are terrible, but I have spent a fair amount of time and money trying to make the room listenable. And, as I stated, on many recordings it sounds great. So how much does the room come into play in broadening the range of recordings that sound good?
Interested in your thoughts. Thanks.