Why Headphones Won't Replace a Home Stereo (Silent Disco is Dead)

Silent Disco.  I dare you to click the link
How far can headphones actually replace a home stereo?
The CNN article implies all cases.  We beg to differ.

There was an article posted recently in the mainstream media that was interviewing people in their early 20's who were going on at length about how high quality headphones were all they needed.  The journalist did the lazy thing after that and extrapolated that home stereos were therefore dead. Why would the younger generation own a stereo? They have their headphones.

Those articles always are amusing - the shallowness of the analysis done in the article is indicative of an overall decline in detailed insightful reporting on many subjects.  But we'll be sticking to this subject rather than ranting about overall news reporting.

Why the 20 year old thinks headphones are "The Way" and has no need for anything else.

If this all a 20 year old needs to reach sonic nirvana?
What happens when you had a spouse, a kid and a house?

When young people are starting out, and living a near-transient existence, moving every year or so, sharing apartments and doing the things you do early on to survive,  headphones make a lot of sense. Music on your laptop (or streaming services), lots of roommates and shared wall neighbors, mean it is probably the most rational choice available.  And in fact, I bet his (or her!) parents see nothing wrong in this, since they, too, probably started out adult life in that manner.

At this point the author of the article fails.  Instead of noting that headphones are better than ever (they are) and are a path to incredibly good sound (for one person), and a legitimate audiophile choice.  No, instead he makes the Highlander logic error ("There can only be one") thinking it is headphones OR a stereo.  He also makes the Extrapolation Error ("Everything proceeds in a straight line").

I happen to own headphones AND a stereo system.

I am not sure the author if expecting me to choose one and set fire to the other, or what?  And while I couldn't have owned a stereo early on, I own one now.  Again, if the author picked the 20 year old me, and made large assumptions about the rest of my life, he simply would be laughably wrong.  Even if my 20 year self ran off at the mouth - as he was prone to do so - he was just to young and foolish to have any idea what his life would turn out (I shudder at my 20 year old self's bucket list).  And in fact, I bet if he visits this review subject in 10 year increments, he'll see that life circumstances, tastes and needs will have a budding audiophile gravitate to a home stereo (or lamenting that he can't afford one.  After all, one of the main traits in a dedicated audiophile is lamentation over what he can't afford).

Honestly, I do think headphones are a thing now for the young because it is just about perfect for them.  It allows them as teens to have their own entertainment without disrupting their loud Classic Rock "Mom, Dad, can you please turn it down" parents.  And in their 20's since you are moving around a lot, and don't have a lot to move, it's perfect for then, too.  But once you start settling down in your own place, with a serious potential spouse, and start having kids, those headphones-only attitudes are going to seem more limiting than liberating.  You can laugh now, young man, but you'll see.  Get off of my lawn!

The point is, your circumstances today won't be the same tomorrow.

When I was 20, this was my moving van.  Everything fit in it.
Now?  Not so much.

When I was in my early 20's I had 3 other roommates, a small stack of cassettes, a set of cheap headphones and a compact boombox.  That was it.  I could fit everything in the back of my used VW Rabbit, so could (and did) move in a dedicated afternoon  many times.  This included a futon and collapsible desk/drafting table and my clothes.  It was an era I'd be sad to go back to since it was one of poverty, but it was a moment in my life that I was also having a lot of fun, and while I had some responsibilities, in 10 years my life was fundamentally different.  And so was how I related to music.

Add a Spouse and a House

When you first get together, too, with someone who you are going to spend a lot of your life, maybe the rest of it, the isolating aspects of headphones will simply be unacceptable.  Even if you don't buy a stereo system, you won't be rocking headphones because when you are, you aren't really with the ones you love.  Most would buy a TV and tack on an inexpensive home theater system and listen to music through that at that point.  Some might get a "dock" and plug in the 'ol iPhone to it, or Sonos and some will splurge on a sensible but high quality stereo.  Headphones would be relegated to work, travel and commutes if you are taking public transport.  I suspect most will simply have them gather dust. 

Want to kill "the mood?"  Add headphones
to the mix.

Now add Kids

Enter kids, especially young ones, the headphones just won't work. You won't hear what you have to when listening to music in that way.  The crash and crying, the mysterious silence that means something is very very wrong, all of those you have to pay attention to, so headphones are gone.  How to work in music?  Listen softly on a stereo(*) or dock so you can hear your spawn, or get your kids to join in on the fun.  And it won't be headphones on your 4 year old along with you.  It just won't.

(*) You might think that headphones might make a comeback here.  If so you haven't been paying attention.  You can wear those headphones to groove out to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon if you like ... but realize you are taking your life into your own hands with your spouse who will then have to be hypervigilent about the kids. 

And once those kids have gotten big enough to have some autonomy, or are out of the house, rocking their own headphones with their six roomies, perhaps you and your spouse will like to have a romantic evening and listen to some music... I don't know about you, but it would kill the mood dead for us if we would have to don headphones to hear the first grooved-out track of Barry White's Greatest Hits.  By the time you reach this age, headphones, already thick with dust due to disuse, will simply get in the way.

Oh, but I could be wrong.  Look and listen to this video of a "Silent Disco" where everyone wears headphones and dances.  Maybe this is the future.  Just Maybe.  See more here, here and here.  Ahem.

(Yeah, and for those that are keeping score, I read the CNN article and started searching and ran into Silent Disco YouTube videos.  Lots and lots of them play music over the video track,making it all seem like a cool rave.  But the home videos give you some serious truth.  I got so distracted that I had to find a way to work it all in.  Seriously, this stuff is funny.  It is so very much the thing people will be embarrassed to have done that if it becomes "the thing" no one will ever admit to have been at one, making them big liars like Nehru Jackets and Bell Bottoms and clunky hiking boots.  I'd love to go to one, but not wear headphones.  It'd be surreal.)