I guess this really boils down to "Different Strokes". The audio gear I've had access to has roiled into so many different configurations, I've forgotten much of what I've owned. But the best loudspeaker based systems I've owned were not as satisfying as the best headphone based systems that I'm owning, right now. My problem, in large part, was never having access to a room of proper proportions and size for loudspeakers. At the last house I lived in, there were 5 different sound systems at the same time, the best one in the garage [oddly, the one room with the most appropriate dimensions---it got the 5.1 system]. None in the house could be positioned in the right spot [there usually wasn't one] but we did have music everywhere.
What I really like about headphones is the clarity and precision of the sounds. I've recorded [set up microphones, set levels, pressed record] enough music to know the "sounds" of popular microphones, like the Shure SM58 or the Neumann KM 84, and to know that what I'm hearing is a mix of various microphones, often in different time domains, no matter the style of music. This doesn't bother me, I'm more interested in the notes, I want to hear the countermelody as clearly as the main line, I want to sit next to the musicians. My "Absolute Sound" is next to the autoharp and across from a fiddler with all the musicians in a circle, facing each other.
I do get the attraction of stereo replay in an appropriate venue. My most memorable was seeing/hearing "2001" when it first came out. There was a "Cinerama" theater in Fresno, the audio system in that theater was majestic, my first taste of "High-End Audio". It was probably the first time I "heard" the low C from an organ, a sensation more felt than heard. That was something I never get from headphones, BTW: I can hear the low C on headphones but I can't feel it. I started looking for recordings of Also Sprach Zarathrustra soon thereafter [the reissue of the first Reiner/Chicago on Victrola managed to filter out that low note].
I had the Stax Lambda Pro Earspeakers for many years. There's big advantages to the headphones I've got now. The 'cleanest' are the Drop 6XX, connected to the Topping E/L 30 combo, which has, so far, not blown up. That system comes close to the detail level of the Stax, with a smoother top end and much better bass. Among the advantages of the other two phones is that neither one really requires EQ to produce bass. The AKG K371 has nearly the clarity of the Drop 'phones, requires very little power to produce lots of bass and is capable of plenty of volume. The Philips X2 HR 'phones are odd birds. Can't say they're all that "accurate", but the stereo quality is better than the other two headphones, there is more sense of the music playing outside of one's head. Seems to like Jazz: the aspect of the X2 HR's sound that's a bit too bright and harsh manages to make brass more 'real' and present. On the other hand, not so good for pianos. Attached to a DAP and playing John Coltrane while I'm walking in the woods? Fantastic.
There was a Steinway B in my living room, about 30 years ago. Recorded piano doesn't sound like the real thing to me on anything. However, I do like the sound of piano recordings. I've recorded some fine instruments, Steinways and Yamahas, a Baldwin or two. The London/Decca recordings of piano use a technique of situating a pair of omnis, about 20" apart, on a stand with the microphones slightly above the tail of the piano and aimed at the hammers. One distances the microphone stand from the piano tail to taste. Provides more of what an audience would hear in a concert hall but with a lot more focus.
