I find it odd that no one has mentioned crossfeed yet.
One of the primary differences when using head gear, is that your left and right are completely separate from one another.
People say the Raal and Mysphere sound like speakers…I’m not hearing it - they provide a single aspect that is similar to speakers in that the drivers are in front of your ears and they don’t surround your head - but left and right are still separated.
Usually the benefit of a headphone is that it brings you closer to the details and provides isolation if you used closed headphones. For a speaker like sound, high end Audezes (LCD-3, LCD-4) via something like the SPL Phonitor or RME ADI-2 Pro FS to provide crossfeed is probably as close as you’re going to get.
If you power them properly, the LCD-4 basically sounds like a speaker on your head. The centre image is insanely precise and if you can somehow introduce crossfeed into that mix without destroying the imaging, then you have it!
There is a Japanese brand called Crosszone who make headphones that introduce crossfeed naturally (as in, it’s built into the headphone circuit), but I haven’t heard them personally and it seems you can only order their stuff by email.
But, in any case, IMO chasing a speaker-like sound in a headphone, is kinda an arduous and expensive journey. My advice would be to find a headphone that makes your listening experience enjoyable because of the benefits a headphone brings over a soundsystem, but don’t try and replace (or match like for like) the soundsystem with the headphones.
The way speakers can fill the air with sound energy is something headphones can never really emulate - and if you have a competent subwoofer, it’s basically over (Sure the SubPac, crossfeed and decent headphones do exist, but again, arduous, expensive and probably ultimately fruitless).
There are some good headphones out there, so once you realign your goals a little bit, I’m sure you’ll find something that makes you smile almost every listen
I am more curious. Why is the LCD-3/LCD-4 + Phonitor / ADI-2 PRO FS closer to a speaker than a pair of RAAL headphones? What I’m assuming the answer is, is that the Phonitor/ADI-2 PRO FS offer the crossfeed feature you mentioned, and RAAL’s cannot be connected to those amps because they require their own special amplifier.
I know RAAL’s headphones require a special amplifier, but I’m curious whether the Phonitor 2’s crossfeed feature could be used for the RAAL’s.
In my experience, it’s down to the technical ability of the driver.
Imo both the MySphere and the Raal are expensive because of their legitimate uniqueness (both in driver technology and form factor) and it probably takes time and money (can’t pump it out on a factory line I’m guessing)to make, not because of their technical performance - not to say they’re not good, but have you seen how stacked the £1K-2K range of headphones is?
Besides, I’m comparing it to a headphone whose RRP exceeds even those cans.
I always scoffed at the LCD pricing, similar to the Utopia, until I heard it powered correctly.
The Raal to me just sounds like far away headphones, that blows a bunch of air at you when sub bass is called upon.
It doesn’t create an insane centre image (though the staging is AWESOME) and it doesn’t produce a massive force that hits the side of your head.
The LCD-4 when powered well completely surrounds your audible senses, it’s very tall and somewhat wide but again the image is very good. In addition, when you give it a bunch of energy, it sends all the energy to your head and, can even do very visceral sub bass, similar in nature to 18" infinite baffle car audio setups (obviously not the same experience, but I haven’t heard any other can do such insane distortion free real sub bass). It’s very open and you can just keep turning it up (another rare feature, usually headphones - including the aforementioned earspeakers - distort or hurt after a while).
So yeah, it’s basically very good, but it’s extreme and expensive. LCD-3 is a subset of that and less extreme, but still needs power.
And, I haven’t heard them with the crossfeed enabled, they just sounded that good already. I’ve heard the crossfeed on other stuff and it’s pretty cool! But, if you combine the two, I imagine it would either be insane, or ruin something because the headphones weren’t originally tuned with crossfeed use in mind.
Now if you could use crossfeed on the Earspeakers…that could completely change the game!
Would still need more competency in the low end area (impossible with that design at that size?) but surely that’s literally as close as you can get to a normal speaker setup!
This is all very interesting. I think I will thoroughly study crossfeed when I catch myself some free time. It appears to be very interesting, and I personally never heard anyone talking about it.
Thank you for bringing this subject up. I think you definitely gave detailed answers which give a different perspective on things, and I appreciate that!
Well put. I agree. As I sit here thoroughly enjoying my speaker setup, I started to ponder this question. I have put some energy and resources into the headphone side of the system, and it’s having a positive impact for sure. And yet…
To be honest I have never been a huge fan of the headphone experience but have certainly developed a much greater appreciation for that experience in recent years. And I have to say, the investment made into better headphones as well as gear has driven it. Will the next jump in tier close the gap even more? Perhaps. I am comfortable with life at mid-tier and have no plans to push much beyond that, so I’ll probably never know. Regardless, I will always prefer speakers. Just the air and sense of presence, the resonance that you can feel, the organic nuance that presentation provides is superior to me. That is just how I am wired.
