It isn't better.

It is better to just do:

  <h1><img src="" alt="" width="" height="" /></h1>

Negative text-indent can cause accessibility problems. Scenario "CSS on-images off" will see no content at all.

You can solve that by using a <span> overlay, with the image set as a background:

  <h1>Heading<span class="overlay"></span></h1>

Then with the scenario "CSS on-Images off" people can read the underlying text.

But you are still hiding stuff for search engines, and they might not all like that.

Source for "don't go hiding stuff with CSS like -9999 pixels on the left, if you can just use an image alt, that is what it is for" this Matt Cutts video from 2009:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBLvn_WkDJ4#t=0m13s

BTW: The OP is confusing. Like Paul Irish said: There is a "display: none" and a "visibility: hidden". A "display: hidden" isn't valid CSS.