Headphones allow you to listen and won't bothers other (open backs leak sound, but nothing close to how much speaks do). Headphones are portable and can easily be taken to work, home, school, other's houses. Speakers are impacted by your room and where you are sitting in relation to them, you need to be in the perfect conditions to ge their best sound, with headphones you can use them anywhere in your house. If you want to EQ, headphones are easy to EQ and almost all popular models have auto EQ profiles, to EQ Speakers you will need a DSP and proper equipment to measure the speakers.In terms of absolute sound quality, headphones are better than speakers at the same price point, but as you spend more, speakers will outperform headphones.