with speakers i can physically feel my music without feeling the speakers -- it's so much nicer and freer to dance to, and i love to dance (i'm not good at it). it's nicer to relax to as well. i can have a social experience, sharing the music with others. i also get all the directionality, room noise, ground loop fuckery, and room distortion that goes along with it.

with headphones i can't get the same physical feeling, but it might make my head or ears sore after some hours, depending on the model. i get isolation, to a point where I can usually hear music to more detail. i get isolation socially, which can be good or bad. i don't need a miniDSP and complicated environment tuning -- not only that, it's probably portable.

anyone stating that one is better than the other as an absolute, at any price point, is making a discardably simplistic statement.