Should you tune room to headphones

Blue,

Also keep in mind that wall treatments affect soundstage and imaging as well. They reduce the levels of reflected sound at the higher frequencies, which is often what is needed to some extent. Lower levels of reflected sound is also what one gets by moving speakers further away from walls, so both can be applied to achieve similar results in regards to soundstage width or depth as needed. However, early reflections are always bad, even at low levels, so some distance between drivers and walls is always a must with any speakers in order to get the best imaging results. Its the imaging and soundstage that makes speakers in a room special. THe rest can be pretty much had for much less with a good set of headphones

Mapman, Sound from each speaker comes to opposite ear with some delay creating image in front instead of the image in the center of the head. Some headphones have acoustic feedback from one cup to another but it can be also done by creating analog delay/crosstalk in the headphone amp or by DSP processing in computer playback.

http://headwize.com/?page_id=654

^Yes!
Headphones eliminate room interactions, but are perceived very differently than speakers or unamplified live performances. Even the rare binaural recordings, though a vast improvement in this regard, don't completely remove this unnatural listening experience. Some processors can help, but I have yet to hear any approach that sounds completely natural. Headphones can be a useful tool to better analyze specific attributes, certainly have their place in certain circumstances, but IME as a holistic listening experience they ultimately fail.

I'm hoping for a pair of phones that might convince me to ditch all the big expensive gear once and for all, but has not happened yet, and I've heard most of the usual top contenders these days plus many a vintage classic along the way.

I have 4 pair currently: STAX, Sennheiser, Klipsch, Audio Technica. All are nice, very detailed, balanced, good dynamics, lots of fun and enjoyable, but can't touch my big rig in terms of sounding real.

How do I know? I can listen for hours on my big rig until I force myself to stop. Headphones fill the bill for awhile but I am always ready to take them off a lot sooner.

Very good for hearing purely what is in any particular recording though. Knowing how different recordings sound in headphones can be a help when it comes time to assess system sound quality because there is so much variability alone just in how various recordings are produced and sound. Think of phones as "monitors". Speakers are needed to communicate the whole deal properly.