jrisles Posted December 10, 2010 Posted December 10, 2010 Christmas has come early for me this year. Just received my pair of Audeze LCD-2 headphones. Listening to them out of my little Yamamoto HA-02 amp ... and even before they have been broken in these are a special headphone indeed. I can see what all the hype is about. Pretty bloody great actually. Can't wait until i get my Balancing Act Headphone amp to try them with that. If they are this good with the Yamamoto the Balancing Act/LCD-2 combo is going to be something again.
enjoy Posted December 10, 2010 Posted December 10, 2010 Congrats! Since I own AKG 702 and HD600, how do you rate/compare them with LCD-2? Been thinking about getting them too.
markm1111 Posted December 10, 2010 Posted December 10, 2010 (edited) Christmas has come early for me this year. Just received my pair of Audeze LCD-2 headphones. Listening to them out of my little Yamamoto HA-02 amp ... and even before they have been broken in these are a special headphone indeed. I can see what all the hype is about. Pretty bloody great actually. Can't wait until i get my Balancing Act Headphone amp to try them with that. If they are this good with the Yamamoto the Balancing Act/LCD-2 combo is going to be something again. I am very jealous indeed! Been thinking about trying to pick up some second hand orthodynamic phones, be interested to hear your thoughts on why the Audeze as opposed to Hifiman 5LE or 6. Edited December 10, 2010 by markm1111 typos as usual
kunalraiker Posted December 10, 2010 Posted December 10, 2010 These headphones should bring some high end experience to your door step.Congratulations on your purchase.
angle_sh00ter Posted December 10, 2010 Posted December 10, 2010 (edited) I agree these are pretty special. They seem to scale up infintely and are ridiculously revealing and transparent. For the price they are great value - I recently took them with me to a very high-end audio store in the city to test out sources and the guy there were skeptical at first until he put them on Edited December 10, 2010 by angle_sh00ter
Henry Vu Posted December 27, 2010 Posted December 27, 2010 I must be the only person alive that doesnt really like them, haha.
kunalraiker Posted December 27, 2010 Posted December 27, 2010 I must be the only person alive that doesnt really like them, haha. That would be a fair comment
angle_sh00ter Posted December 27, 2010 Posted December 27, 2010 I have a theory that stax devotees will never love orthos and vice versa. I guess we all hear differently and have different preferences, for me it took a lot of headphones to find what works best for me but Ill still be interested to hear new offerings just in case something even better comes along...
Henry Vu Posted December 28, 2010 Posted December 28, 2010 I think they are very technically accomplished. They have excellent detail retrieval, give an amazing sense of actual recording space, have lovely textured bass and provide a density that headphones typically fail to offer. However, their overall dark signature turns me away from them slightly, i wonder if the he6 will remedy my problems.
Henry Vu Posted December 28, 2010 Posted December 28, 2010 So I spent some more time with them today and the darkness seems to be not as apparent. Whether this is from burn in..... (my brother borrowed them for about 50hrs or so) or for some other reason (I rolled some "brighter" tubes), I am beginning to enjoy them a lot more. I still do think they are a tad dark
angle_sh00ter Posted December 28, 2010 Posted December 28, 2010 Yeah I had a very similar experience. What I admire most about them is that they sound smooth at the top without sacrificing any extension or detail - thats a big compliment IMO. I loved them from the start but I did find them on the dark side a bit too much at first. Well basicly my other headphones the W1000X which I previously thought had a thick, lush, deep sound went unused for a month. Last week I listened to them again and guess what they now sounded brittle/thin/tinny. I never thought I would describe the W1000X that way but I guess my ears/brain got so accustomed to the LCD-2 signature after listening to it for a month. After a week of listening to the W1000X they started to sound lovely again and then when I went back to the LCD-2 it sounded dark all over again - shows how our ears and mind can get accustomed pretty quickly.
Henry Vu Posted December 29, 2010 Posted December 29, 2010 I've always been curious about the w1000x. I did hear them in singapore, but my listening was limited. For whatever reason, apparently the Yammy makes all AT woodies sing and brings them up a notch...
jrisles Posted December 29, 2010 Author Posted December 29, 2010 Ok .. i have had a couple of weeks to run these in and listen a little bit between Xmas parties and kids b'day parties etc. I can still say at this point that they are a very good headphone but they certainly do not have the last word on finesse or timing and seductive intimate pieces. Do not beat other headphones and cable options i have for classical listening. But will provide a little more detail later. Will answer specific questions when i do so.
valvelover Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 Ok .. i have had a couple of weeks to run these in and listen a little bit between Xmas parties and kids b'day parties etc. I can still say at this point that they are a very good headphone but they certainly do not have the last word on finesse or timing and seductive intimate pieces. Do not beat other headphones and cable options i have for classical listening. But will provide a little more detail later. Will answer specific questions when i do so. Any further comments? Have spotted these headphones, and like with the Yamamoto soundcraft furniture, must have...eventually ;-)
jrisles Posted January 23, 2011 Author Posted January 23, 2011 Any further comments? Have spotted these headphones, and like with the Yamamoto soundcraft furniture, must have...eventually ;-) Still running these in at the moment but even before they are fully run in and even before i have got myself an after market cable for these headphones and even before i have had the chance to listen to these on my new Eddie Current Balancing Act they sound just fantastic on the Yamamoto heaphone amp. The bass is unbelievable ... very palpable ... and not so bloated like i find it on the Beyer's. In a previous thread i did hint that there are certain "individual" aspects that are better on some of my other headphones. The Senn's 600's using the SAA Cable are very good for chamber music ... very nimble and agile when i do an a/b comparison with the LCD-2' but the LCD-2's are still good. They are a much better all round headphone and will satisfy alot of different audiophiles - from your classical lovers to your doof doof listeners ... large scale classical also benefit from the bass on these. So i can't wait until i land an after market cable as well as my new headphone amp and i am expecting even better things to come. But they do sound darn good with my yamamoto headphone amp. Perhaps the best i have ever heard it sound - a great match.
valvelover Posted January 24, 2011 Posted January 24, 2011 Thanks for the reply. Whilst I can't afford headphones/headphone amp now, research has shown that my trusty old Sennheiser HD540 gold references are easily better today in terms of finesse, detail and bass reproduction. Given the cost of the Audenze (quite reasonably for basically a hand made pair of headphones), I find them reasonable. I've been tempted by the Schiit range for some while, and by all accounts the Lyr is a corker of a headphone amp. I've also heard good things about the Yamamato headphone amp too. Any purchases will be some time away, since current turntable purchase needs to be paid off, as well as a potential new preamp that I'm thinking of lashing out on. And a phono stage too...the long list of potential upgrades never ceases...
nickonsound Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 OP...Do you have pictures of your HP's? I love the looks on them, they are beautifully made. How's the clamp force on them?
fetischizm Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 (edited) nice headphones for sure, reckon they need a pass preamp or something with good class A guts and finesse to really make them shine, had some on loan recently, knocked up a balanced cable and they sounded really very good indeed. I have been thinking that my JH13 balanced out of my ackodac had spoiled me for want of further headphones in my collection due to their killer specificity of soundstage and gutteral texture that I often find lacking in even the best headphones, but these have a different flavor that has me wanting them for doing paperwork in the office where I would prefer to be able to hear whats going on. I cant justify the new stax, so these may well be my next and hopefully last headphone purchase for a while. spending more effort and funds on my speaker rig these days, but there is just something about headphones and the ability to really inhabit the space and not worry about disturbing significant others. I wasnt that fussed on the fit of these or the HE6, but perhaps there is some mod that can fix this. I had that feeling of slight darkness too initially, not disturbingly dark, but something to nit pick. given enough power this tends to fade somewhat Edited February 3, 2011 by fetischizm
Duckman Posted February 17, 2011 Posted February 17, 2011 I don't think you can get away from the fact that the LCD2 is darker than most headphones. Given the right source and amp, though, the sound is quite amazing. I far prefer my LCD2 to the JH13. The timbre is so much more natural, though the 13 is no slouch. Besides, with the 13s, I can always hear my heartbeat and breathing, so there's never an absolutely black background in practice.
Henry Vu Posted February 17, 2011 Posted February 17, 2011 I've come full circle and find that I am enjoying my ipod and etymotics far more than any of my desktop setups at the moment.
kunalraiker Posted February 17, 2011 Posted February 17, 2011 I've come full circle and find that I am enjoying my ipod and etymotics far more than any of my desktop setups at the moment. Nice to hear.
Duckman Posted February 17, 2011 Posted February 17, 2011 Hey Ducky, Have the Magnums arrived. Not yet. Hopefully by the end of Feb.
dr-wyas Posted February 17, 2011 Posted February 17, 2011 I've come full circle and find that I am enjoying my ipod and etymotics far more than any of my desktop setups at the moment. Hens, which Etymotics are you using?
Henry Vu Posted February 18, 2011 Posted February 18, 2011 The E4P. I should add that I am currently traveling which may have a lot to do with it I do think though that I am "enjoying" more music. My home source is fairly unforgiving of poor mastering/recording jobs which detracts from a lot of the music that I would at least like the option of listening to.
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