The headphones sound BETTER in any case for high-fidelity private listening as they don't have to battle room acoustics and other factors. [/qoute] "BETTER", (note the all caps), is a highly subjective term. Due to the physical nature of headphone transducers, they have far better "transient response", a a vast majority of loudspeakers. (But not all). The little bitty diaphragms start and stop a hell of a lot faster than the average Chinese production driver / cone assembly.
That said, the sounds in the world around us have their transient response blunted, by having to deal with, "room acoustics", or ambient noise, if you prefer. (To go even further off topic, and I do so hope I have your permission) I used to get a huge kick out of "beach movie musicals", which portrayed the starlet du jour and her love interest singing on the beach and playing acoustic guitar, while the sound coming out of the TV, was that of a Stratocaster being pumped into a couple of Fender Twins, with enough vocal reverb and echo to give a Gothic cathedral quality to what amounts to singing in a wheat field.
My point being, the same thing is true with headphones, in that they too much create an artificial environment. Even the loudest bands in a nightclub, are still very much affected by ambient sounds
Plus they can keep the other sounds out. - Although if I lived in a neighborhood as bad as you suggest yours is, I'd be afraid to fart for someone would shoot me for making the noise.
Not quite. I have to deal with a phobia of isolating myself from my environment. It's better to not be deaf when you're trying to cross the street in the big city. And it's better to have advance notice, when somebody starts to come on your property. I don't say my prayers at bedtime anymore, I arm the alarm system.
I also HATE the > 2.0 headsets. You only have two ears and can't hear more. I use the PC350's with positional games and you can tell EXACTLY where someone is. The higher driver counts just lose responsiveness to smaller drivers anyhow. Don't fool yourself.
The area of a transducer's cone or diaphragm is responsible for the distance it must travel to move, "XX",volume of air. The inverse square law governs that, and is a reciprocal equation. So smaller drivers equal less air moved, a given
As for 5 channel, (or more), headphones, I've never tried them. But the human ear is quite directional.
So, to come back to topic, I make do with whatever set of headphones will serve my exigent needs, and take them off ASAP.......Those are my "favorites".
But yeah, I suppose $20.00 headphones are better than $20.00 loudspeakers by a long shot. So, any headphones that I can buy for 20 bucks, are my "favorites
. Capt was replying to me, where I was the one that brought up cops, which WAS relevant to this thread because that is why I use my headphones sometimes.
