Posted by kelley pace on October 11, 2002 at 12:27:03:
In Reply to: significant others ESL HEAD PHONES posted by Terry Koehn on October 11, 2002 at 11:35:11:
Yes, there is a difference among headphones. Some headphones such as the Jecklin Floats and the Stax Omegas etc do not have transducers directly on your ears. These sound more like speakers. In particular, the Jeclin Floats, which look like a space helmet, sit a couple of inches away and forward of the ear. The Jeclin Floats used a Jantzen electostatic tweeter as the transducer (about 3 inches by 4 inches). Here is a link about them http://www.audiocircuit.com/9111-eshp-circuit/Commercial/Jecklin-JEC/9111CMJEC.htm .
The conventional Stax electrostatic headphones were fine, but sometimes fatiguing on the high end. When the source was good, the Stax was very, very good. When the source was bad, the Stax hurt.
There are a number of direct drive electostatic headphone amps. I have a Stax SRM-t1. The Jecklin had a Ergo tube amp as an option.
I prefer the SLs over the headphones. I think one hears the same detail, but the SLs never irritate unless the source is horrific. For example, I have some Latin music recorded with substantial amounts of distortion. This can fatigue, but it would happen on just about anything.
I think the problems of an imperfect room are generally less than the problems posed by the headphone perspective and headphone listener fatigue.