K3cT, do you have the JH13s? If so would you be able to do a similar comparison?
Thanks for that review, by the way. I kind of figured what the result would be, however.
No, unfortunately. I only listened to the JH13 universal demo version once and I knew instantly that its midbass was slightly boosted. Tonality-wise, I would thought that it's closer to the HE6 than the LCD2 actually.
Thanks for an ample set of organised and accurate thoughts Brian.
- If the HE6 is the clear victor when it comes to treble then the LCD2 knocks the HE6 silly in imaging, separation and soundstage accuracy. First of all, I always have a problem in hearing a proper center focus with the HE6 which is incidentally similar to the HE5LE. Imagine that the music lies in a straight line from your left to right ear; if the line is continuous and clear in the LCD2 then this very same line is blurred in the midpoint of the HE6. This fault is more clearly heard when you have vocal and instruments playing at the same time. Aside from the central focus issue, HE6 also has an imaging problem as the instrument placements are kind of “confused” for the lack of better words and as the result, you cannot tell exactly where each sound is coming from. Expanding on this, HE6’s presentation also lacks depth compared to the LCD2. Instruments seem to lie in the same axis in the HE6 while you can tell how forward or backward teach of them sounds with the LCD2 despite its rather soft treble. HE6 has a problem in separating vocal and instruments while LCD2 does this effortlessly. All of these result in a rather disjointed sound from the HE6 and therefore, a lack of unity. Very interesting.
The problem persisted as I feared. When I was using the HE5 this was the main issue I had with it, as I have told you before. That characteristic of a "voice without the singer" seems to me like a great lack of refinement when much less expensive headphones like the K701 or HD600 are more cohesive in that matter. If you sit down to evaluate solely on pure tones and bandwidths of low, mid and high frequencies the HE5 and the rest of the family might seem great, but when you are dealing with music the cohesion between all frequencies becomes something like a "wall of sound". I know it is daring and beyond subjectiveness of me to say that the HE6 has this problem without even listening to it, but having heard the HE5 and having been told by many trusted ears that the problem persists, I dare, and subject.
Yes, exactly. Curiously the HD800 also exhibits this lack of focus although to a much lesser extent.
- The HE6 is a clear winner when we talk about the treble, no doubt about it. As I had mentioned earlier in this forum, the HE6's treble is as good as one can get in headphones with its extremely good detail retrieval, smoothness, presence and clarity. If you like treble then the HE6 is a clear choice for me. The LCD2's treble on the other hand sounds muted in comparison and it lacks the details and air that the HE6 imbues in this area. Clearly the treble (or the lack of it) is the LCD2's main weakness. Even the Stax O2 whose treble lacks the presence that the HE6 has, possesses more details in this area compared to the LCD2.
If the HE6 is the clear victor when it comes to treble then the LCD2 knocks the HE6 silly in imaging, separation and soundstage accuracy. First of all, I always have a problem in hearing a proper center focus with the HE6 which is incidentally similar to the HE5LE. Imagine that the music lies in a straight line from your left to right ear; if the line is continuous and clear in the LCD2 then this very same line is blurred in the midpoint of the HE6. This fault is more clearly heard when you have vocal and instruments playing at the same time. Aside from the central focus issue, HE6 also has an imaging problem as the instrument placements are kind of “confused” for the lack of better words and as the result, you cannot tell exactly where each sound is coming from. Expanding on this, HE6’s presentation also lacks depth compared to the LCD2. Instruments seem to lie in the same axis in the HE6 while you can tell how forward or backward teach of them sounds with the LCD2 despite its rather soft treble. HE6 has a problem in separating vocal and instruments while LCD2 does this effortlessly. All of these result in a rather disjointed sound from the HE6 and therefore, a lack of unity. Very interesting.
High freq is extremely important when talking about orientability of a sound signal. I am very confused when I saw these two paragraphs close to each other.
This is where I disagree, Fang. The Stax Omega2 also has a relaxed treble but its imaging is eerily accurate.
Please don't get the impression that I dislike the HE6 as actually I rather adore it especially with its delicious treble but it's just not perfect yet. In fact, even the much vaunted O2 is also not perfect in this man's opinion. Definitely looking forward to the HE7 if you ever plan to release one. 
