LCD2 weak bass? Any way to increase it?

Heya,

Set this to 720p, 1080p, and listen on your LCD-2.

Tell me if your bass is weak.

Very best,

Buy an amp?

Centrance DACmini has an amp, and the LCD-2 is designed to be easy to drive.

I think OP just has tastes skewed towards the mid bass hump of the P5. A couple of weeks of listening to the LCD-2 will reset expectations and you'll realise they have abundant real, deep bass, and that mid-bass bloat was obscuring a lot of the music all along.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieE 

Centrance DACmini has an amp, and the LCD-2 is designed to be easy to drive.

 

I think OP just has tastes skewed towards the mid bass hump of the P5. A couple of weeks of listening to the LCD-2 will reset expectations and you'll realise they have abundant real, deep bass, and that mid-bass bloat was obscuring a lot of the music all along.

LCD-2 might be 'easy' to drive but I would think it needs a little more than a built in amp on the side of a DAC... regardless of whether or not the LCD-2 can be driven from an iPod I would think a better DAC amp will improve SQ and bass as the OP is looking for.

There's a dupe post in the high-end forum, so I'm just going to quote what I had in there.

I mentioned the LCD-2 thread that I am also somewhat disappointed in their bass with electronic music, and I've run them off of a few different amps. My frame of reference being either a night club soundsystem or a 2.1 setup with well-integrated subwoofer. 

Thing is I really really like the way they portray bass. It's very accurate, fast and detailed, perfect for jazz or orchestral. But from my experience it just doesn't have the weight and impact necessary for music based around subwoofers. 

I'm currently on the look out for some amp combo that might kick the LCD-2s into overdrive in the bass department. Haven't tried the DACmini yet so can't comment on that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sesshin 

I mentioned the LCD-2 thread that I am also somewhat disappointed in their bass with electronic music, and I've run them off of a few different amps. My frame of reference being either a night club soundsystem or a 2.1 setup with well-integrated subwoofer. 

 

Thing is I really really like the way they portray bass. It's very accurate, fast and detailed, perfect for jazz or orchestral. But from my experience it just doesn't have the weight and impact necessary for music based around subwoofers. 

 

I'm currently on the look out for some amp combo that might kick the LCD-2s into overdrive in the bass department. Haven't tried the DACmini yet so can't comment on that.

You may want to try the Little dot mk VII+.  With this amp, the bass seems to just go down forever, although the bass does get a bit too abundant at times.  I'm currently getting the balanced cable for the lcd2 in hopes that it will tighten up the bass and bring the sound a bit more forward.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sesshin 

I mentioned the LCD-2 thread that I am also somewhat disappointed in their bass with electronic music, and I've run them off of a few different amps. My frame of reference being either a night club soundsystem or a 2.1 setup with well-integrated subwoofer. 

 

When you say you've tried them with a few amps, are we talking proper discrete solid-states and decent tubes amps or the sort of amp that is built into a CD player or DAC like the OP?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpha 904 

You may want to try the Little dot mk VII+.  With this amp, the bass seems to just go down forever, although the bass does get a bit too abundant at times.  I'm currently getting the balanced cable for the lcd2 in hopes that it will tighten up the bass and bring the sound a bit more forward.

If you can, try auditioning a DAC Pre 1 too.  I didn't get a heck of a lot of time a meet with it, but listened to some passages from a song heavy in percussion where it really had some impact.  Of course, part of the challenge is that a headphone not equal a subwoofer in someone's house, let alone the woofers they use in most clubs, in terms of simply moving air.

As far as balanced cables go, I won't go too much into that.  I've heard the LCD-2 balanced and, to me, it's more about the quality of the amp and DAC than the purported benefits of balanced vs single-ended.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism 

When you say you've tried them with a few amps, are we talking proper discrete solid-states and decent tubes amps or the sort of amp that is built into a CD player or DAC like the OP?

Just because it's built into a DAC doesn't make it weak. CEntrance has more than enough power to drive the LCD-2. LCD-2 only need 80mW to hit 110dB, among other things like. The DACmini puts out 1.5W at some impedance, which is unspecified but probably 32ohms. More power won't do anything but turn the volume knob, which could just cause problems like channel imbalance. I can't find specifics on the DACmini's voltage or mA, but I doubt it's lacking. If your more powerful amps are adding bass, it's due to coloration or placebo, not wattage. Or so I've come to believe. If you want to prove me wrong, go ahead.

LCD-2 bass seems weak at first, especially with loud tracks. That's because it lacks a mid-bass hump like 99% of headphones out there. When a track is mixed to have all mid-bass and no sub-bass, the LCD-2 will lack impact. When a track is mixed loud, the bass becomes one big noise and the LCD-2 shows it, while mid-bass humps clean it up. But when a track has well-mastered bass, which extends naturally into the sub-bass, it packs some wallop. Listen to some Rage Against the Machine. The first time I heard a track off their self-titled album, I thought the drivers were going to explode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nieveulv 

Rig: PC -> CENtrance Dacmini (via usb) -> audeze LCD2

 

Ive been hearing alot of jazz and classical music with the LCD2 and been enjoying it so much. But once i started listening to rock music, electronic music and soundtracks, im starting to feel disappointed by the lack of bass in the sound.  Especially the sound of bass guitar.

This is especially with rock music (radiohead, porcupine tree, RHCP) where the bass guitar is almost totally overpowered by the electric guitar. Is this the case with LCD2s? Or is mine faulty? Or is there something wrong with my rig...Or is all hi-fi open headphone like this?

 

For my portable, i used a B&W p5 and ue trifi10 unamped, and i feel the punch of the bass guitar much more than the lcd2.

For classical and jazz and lounge, the lcds blows away the p5 and trifi10

but for rock music and electronic music.....im quite disappointed with the lcd2..im thinking its much more pleasant to listen to rock music on my unamped p5 and trifi10, which cost around 20% of my desktop headphone rig...

 

Sorry for the rant

I never thought anyone would say the LCD2 had weak bass, but I guess on Head-Fi anything is possible.

First off, rock music like Radio Head is pretty poorly recorded, and even if it weren't, I've found the way it's mixed really doesn't emphasize the bass and the focus is more on the electric guitars. This is true of most rock music from the 90's. Not familiar with the other two bands.

What other headphones have you heard that you are comparing the LCD2 too?  The P5 and the TF10 definitely have more bass. The P5 is a bassy headphone in the bassiest, muddiest sense of the word, TF10 with the in-ear seal will really pump out a lot of bass. 

I also have no idea how good the DacMini is as an amp. That may also be the weakpoint -- but I found the LCD2 had adequate bass even driven out of a crappy iPod headphone out.  I had good results with the LCD2 even out of a lowly E7. It's a very easy to drive headphone, though I had to move up to a higher resolution amp to really get more worth out of the LCD2 (it seems to scale really well with upstream components).

You are right, though "higher quality" hifi headphones tend not to be overly bassy.

If you need more bass... stick to your P5.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sesshin 

I mentioned the LCD-2 thread that I am also somewhat disappointed in their bass with electronic music, and I've run them off of a few different amps. My frame of reference being either a night club soundsystem or a 2.1 setup with well-integrated subwoofer. 

 

Thing is I really really like the way they portray bass. It's very accurate, fast and detailed, perfect for jazz or orchestral. But from my experience it just doesn't have the weight and impact necessary for music based around subwoofers. 

 

I'm currently on the look out for some amp combo that might kick the LCD-2s into overdrive in the bass department. Haven't tried the DACmini yet so can't comment on that.

There is no headphone in existence that can compete with a real subwoofer speaker setup.

Even the mighty Sony XB series cannot. 

If you want more bass on the LCD2s -- try the C&C X02 Mini. Or a Marantz 1090.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graphicism 

Buy a better amp?

Fixed this for you. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by nieveulv 

Rig: PC -> CENtrance Dacmini (via usb) -> audeze LCD2

 

Ive been hearing alot of jazz and classical music with the LCD2 and been enjoying it so much. But once i started listening to rock music, electronic music and soundtracks, im starting to feel disappointed by the lack of bass in the sound.  Especially the sound of bass guitar.

This is especially with rock music (radiohead, porcupine tree, RHCP) where the bass guitar is almost totally overpowered by the electric guitar. Is this the case with LCD2s? Or is mine faulty? Or is there something wrong with my rig...Or is all hi-fi open headphone like this?

 

For my portable, i used a B&W p5 and ue trifi10 unamped, and i feel the punch of the bass guitar much more than the lcd2.

For classical and jazz and lounge, the lcds blows away the p5 and trifi10

but for rock music and electronic music.....im quite disappointed with the lcd2..im thinking its much more pleasant to listen to rock music on my unamped p5 and trifi10, which cost around 20% of my desktop headphone rig...

 

Sorry for the rant

I change my cables to Q-audio cables and it tightens the bass quite a bit.  I used to be disappointed with the bass from LCD-2 for rock music, but the cables does the job for me.  Cheers.