Quote:
Originally Posted by
sesshin 
LCD-2 owners, do you find your headphones to be the be-all end-all when it comes to listening pleasure? As in that's the only pair you'll need for the foreseeable future. Or is there another pair (or pairs) that you feel compliments the LCD-2? Possibly picking up slack in the areas where it lacks.
Personally I love my LCD-2s but still find myself wondering if I'm missing something or how it stacks up against other headphones. Seems like the upgrade bug is never over!
I've been going through the same process since I got my LCD-2's.
At the moment, I think I've got a reasonably good threesome that works well together but I think it will become a quartet quite soon.
The LCD-2's are superb and I would describe their character with their really 'clean' sound as if I'm listening in the studio control room and I really love the way I can either listen 'in to' the music and follow individual elements if I wish, or just as easily hear the music as a whole and just flow with it.
But sometimes, particularly for live rock, I want feel I'm in the middle of a packed concert venue and then I reach for my Darth Beyer T4's. Maybe one day I'll try some modified Fostex T50RP's, but for now my T4's are the only cans I've heard that give me that feeling of a wall of bass cabs playing live and can maintain that live sound to the kind of volume that gets the hair standing on your arms. I know it's distortion, but that's what you get at live gigs after all. The LCD-2's go incredibly loud, but stay too 'clean'
My third element is the HD800's. These come into their own for late night relaxation with quiet accoustic recordings. The comfort factor means I quickly forget I'm wearing 'phones and the imaging and soundstage helps carry me off into the music. It's what I'm doing now listening to a Mozart piano sonata as I type. Blissful.
The fourth part of my 'set'? - I think I have a space for something like a pair of custom IEM's such as the JH13 for those times when I need complete accoustic isolation to block out the sounds of the family and the tv, or to allow me to take a respectable quality of music with me wherever I am.
I really doubt that any one headphone could fill all of my needs but it's fun to keep trying:)