Speakers have a different sound presentation compared to headphones. I prefer that intimate “in your head” sound

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I'm a college student living in my parents home. Every penny I saved from working, birthday, and Christmas money went into my setup. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of being able to play music loud, nor do I have the proper space for a speaker setup. Given this, headphones are the best I could do, and I'm plenty happy with how I've spent my money.

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I value both fact and opinion.

How you personally choose to accept opinion and what you end up doing with that is up to you. It's okay to disagree.

Without railroading the conversation any further which it ends here between us, I heard minor nuances between amps. What I heard is not backed by any factual data or rigorous testing criteria and was never intended to. Just a dude on reddit casually commenting on a few amps and reflecting upon what was heard.

Since I had the Liquid Spark, the 788 AND for the sake of being able to contribute and form an opinion that isn't 100% spewing out of my ass by going off memory or looking at somebodies review I made an effort to physically sample the amps and it just so happens that I had a shared experience as the OP. How I compared the amps is about as simple as you can get it which in short is hooking the two amps up to a line switcher to the same DAC, do your best to keep to the same volume level and let it rip on a few songs and then switch to the next amp, sometimes at different intervals. This isn't ASR levels of conclusions or findings but the simple mans way of comparing something as you'll get on reddit.

As for the 'house sound' topic pertaining to the review piece linked, I said this seems 'plausible' based on my own time spent with the Liquid Spark and going through these simple little exercises. Whether it's nonsensical or not, I don't really care as there is no value in me taking a deep dive into a budget amp to find out why or what. I'm not curious and if you say that what I'm hearing is a placebo, then so be it, I'll continue enjoying my placebo effect.

I'm some people

Besides all the reasons others have mentioned, audio hobbies have a really high barrier to entry. You have to learn all the parts of the chain, tech, nuances, etc. That's normal. What's not normal is you also have to establish yourself somewhere along the objectivity/subjectivity spectrum. Should I buy an expensive amp? Depends who you ask. Is burn in real? Depends who you ask. Do DACs make a difference? Depends who you ask. Cables? Diminishing returns? FR? Technicalities? I was so frustrated when I first got into headphones because with other tech products, tvs, smartphones, PCs, etc it's very formulaic. With audio products you HAVE to take a leap of faith, and IMO experience things for yourself in order to become experienced in the hobby and then after everything what matters is what you like, which is different for everyone.

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Anyways, what I mean to say is: I don't know anything about speakers and I'm still tired from learning about headphones lol. Maybe someday.

I'm backing this, speakers>headphones nealy everytime if speakers arent really shitty.

skill issue

Right now IEMs (in-ear monitors) are really popular at the budget level. They've come a long way in recent years and a lot of Chinese manufacturers are delivering them at a low price point.

There's no consensus of which the "best budget headphone" is. IMO it's the Koss KSC75 for $20, but that's just one opinion and you could argue that the sound quality is put on the backburner because the build quality is bad.

I have one pair for my desk which I use for "critical listening" and gaming. That's my Sennheiser HD8XX. For mobile use, I use airpod pros. The convenience is just so good. For my steam deck I use the Koss KSC75.

I sometimes listen to deathcore/etc. metal too and honestly, just like with any other genre, your open back headphones shouldn't really be leaking that much sound if you're listening at normal hearing levels.

If you're playing games with repetitive particles or special effects, it might get annoying if other people are in the same room as you and they have like sensitive hearing or something.

For the most part, it shouldn't be that loud, you'll know what I mean as you can just leave the headphones on the table after setting your comfortable volume and then that's basically what other people kinda hear around you when you're wearing it.

Open back headphones and solutions to PC noises: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11dh2v9/is_there_anything_i_can_do_stop_hearing_my_own/ja8mltw/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/xpa9zd/pc_noise_with_open_back_headphones/iq2znjn/

Use parametric EQ for metal/etc. or look at this thread on Head-Fi: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/iem-for-metal-music-and-hard-rock-ultimate-solution.885104/page-122

Make sure that you have a vacuum seal with the ear tips for IEMs/TWS earbuds, and then for headphones it's the earpads. This will help with the noise reduction/isolation and should prevent you from getting tempted to raise the volume against the external noises in order to hear your own music/sounds.

Click this sentence for more info on the importance of ear tips sizing, dimensions, et cetera.

Click this sentence for comfort and everything with ear tips.

Click this sentence for how to put ear tips on wide nozzles (basically aim it at different angles and force it, be careful not to overdo it as it can damage the core/stem/stalk/etc. of the ear tips).

This is how you should use Etymotics or really any IEM or TWS earbud to make sure you have that good/perfect fit for that vacuum seal (necessary for the bass to be properly produced): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KwXEqe6Gq4

Here's a bit more info on IEMs, hearing health, earwax cleaning, parametric EQ to compensate, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11nwy92/uneven_headphones/jbplupa/

Info about measuring decibels, hearing health, et cetera here: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11a4cpm/are_few_second_peaks_into_8285_db_still_safe_when/j9riw7q/

I'm not gonna lie, I enjoy my 300 speakers more than my 800 headphones.

We regularly have keyboard people here for some reason. I watched one episode of headphone podcast and like one third of it was about keyboards. Have you got your Koss headphones yet?

We recommed EQ Apo with AutoEQ for everyone so that they can try Harman target, which sounds like good pair of speakers.

We recommend gamers to ditch their gaming headphones and get audiophile headphones with a V-moda microphone.

We get our expensive audiophile headphones from bin stores for $8 thanks to our wives.

A lot of people hit it right on the nose.

Affluence, Luxury, Convenience, Preference~

The motivations for any hobby differ from person to person.
Audio is a predominantly subjectively driven pursuit with many variable opinions on qualifiers for quality, tonality, impressions, and A E S T E T I C appriciation.

The end result is, people adapt their budget, space, and interest into exploring the rabbit hole.

One person's opinion : Speakers aren't terribly sexy. I can't take them with me, they depend heavily on the room for performance. They are bothersome to the people I share my home with. I seldom have the opportunity to sit and enjoy them, and I'm not particularly fond of what they do to music.

It feels like I never have absolute control of sound, and that I'm suck on one piece of equipment as opposed to having fun exploring different ideas and profiles.

I've moved even from Headphones to IEMs & DAPS.
Having immediate, enduring, long lasting access to music when I NEED it most has been far more enriching to my life than the demo room. I've had speakers, but didn't fall in love with music until I had FIDELITY in the office.

I listen to my headphones 10 pm when my wife goes to bed till 2am when I go to bed. I couldn't use my speakers at 10pm at anything more than very very quiet.

coward

You can but not everyone likes EQ or is using a source where EQ is possible. So alternate options are appreciated by some. I use mine with no pads as I love them as they come.

I didn't know people who were into mechanical keyboards cared about their hearing

here's a headphone ranking list from a dude who's even more into IEMs

the popular budget headphones around here tend to be the Koss KSC75

If you have windows or macos, you can really get into how folks evaluate headphones with this app

the thing we do differently here is share frequency response graphs and make jokes about them. a lump in one place means boomy, move it and it's shouty, etc.

Because you need room correction or room treatment.

A lot less expensive and time consuming.

Speakers are a pain to setup. The room, the placement, etc. And don’t forget other equipments like the power amp, the DAC, and the darn expensive cables for no reason. And at the end of the day, you need to do an outstanding job to get any where near the resolution / detail retrieval of good headphones or IEMs. I prefer a good pair of IEM and a music player, so I have my listening room anywhere.

Half my prime listening time occurs while my wife is sleeping (insomnia).

Yes earbuds A case should charge them faster as it has a much higher output combined with a smaller battery. If you can’t hear much of a difference between both of them music wise then it should be either the same or a similar driver

touché

Cost effectiveness and noise. I still live with my parents and my mom works third shift, so she's asleep during the day. My dad goes to sleep a few hours after she wakes up. My room shares a wall with theirs and has no sound isolation. In order for me to use speakers without waking someone up, I would be limited to that couple hour period. I'd spend a grand on something I can rarely use

My speakers are more expensive than my headphones.