I compare live performance of classical music at Seattle Symphony with good recordings of the same piece as heard on speakers and headphones.<p>The most telling parts are about getting the details from faint instruments, especially at lower volumes. For example the opening part of Beethoven&#x27;s 9th has very faint sound of violins, and it&#x27;s often missing on consumer-grade speakers. Ideally I would also compare how wide is the stage and thus how well the instruments are separated, but I don&#x27;t have the budget for that kind of equipment, if that exists at all.<p>For my budget, I ended up getting a pair of studio monitors Event 2020bas for speakers, and Etimotic Research as in-ears headphones. YMMV.