[arielweisberg]

Thousands of dollars on speakers and a clean listening environment with one sweet spot. Or a few hundred on headphones and an amp.

I know which I picked. The author doesn't include listening environment in the analysis. It is insightful to point out that the degree of separation provided by headphones is extreme and there is a conflict there between how audio is mastered and how it is delivered. Not sure how much of that can be fixed at the point of delivery.

When I seriously did multiplayer FPS gaming I always used headphones. The original Unreal engine had excellent spatial positioning, but didn't seem to implement much in the way of occlusion. Felt good being accused of using a radar.

[FuriouslyAdrift]

While I love my headphone listening (I have become addicted to the Grado sound), if I ever go back to being a homeowner I'm going down the route of linear array speakers. The whole room is the sweet spot. It's really creepy / fun.