My headphone system consists of a Mapletree Audio Design tube amplifier and Grado 225 which I acquired and built over a year ago. For about $500, you get a SET / fullrange single-driver system and freedom from any room-effects whatsoever. I honestly believe that in terms of performance/price ratio, headphone systems beat out amp/speakers by 10 to 1.

For anybody with a passion for musical purity, I highly recommend looking into a headphone system. Music just passes right through from the source to my ears, giving me a level of clarity that I have not been able to find (and afford) in a traditional amp/speaker system. And there are a lot of very good products/designs on the market outside of the MAD amp / Grado combo that I have.

There are the obvious drawbacks of course. It’s a personal listening system, so music can’t be shared with those around you (this can also be a huge benefit). It can be very unforgiving of poorly recorded content and source. The music sits in your head instead of in front of you. And the big one for me is not being able to feel the music. If you’ve ever felt the bass coming out through a pair of JBL 2235’s, you’ll know it’s a hard thing to give up. It’s definitely a different listening experience, but one that has its own set of worthy merits.

About that last point of not being able to feel the music, I did come across a very interesting suggestion on TubeCad Journal. Active crossover the source to both the headphone amp and a subwoofer so that anything above 100Hz comes through the headphones and 100Hz and below is felt from the sub. Definitely worthy of experimentation.

Gar.