I've been upgrading my electronics for a while but still using the AKG K601 headphone. Most things better than my K601 have higher resolution, but often some kind of significant sonic signature that I can't abide.
A bit on my tastes. I listen to exclusively classical music. I like to feel the musical emotion, which is subtly different than hearing it. Any high-resolution headphone can tell me that the musicians are playing with a particular kind of expression--I can hear it. But I want to feel it. Needless to say, any headphone labelled "analytical" is almost certainly not for me.
More recently I've discovered the importance of dynamics. That means both macro-dynamics and micro-dynamics. By macro-dynamics, I mean that when the sound gets loud it has true impact, true startle factor, with a sense of ease of reproduction. By micro-dynamics, I mean that all the little shades of dynamics the musicians use-- a little softer here, a little louder here--come through loud and clear. Another aspect of dynamics is the compelling pianissimo. Can the sound get very quiet but remain riveting?
I like resolution. I prefer the term "resolution" to the term "detail." Too many people use the word detail to describe footsteps, fingers-sliding-on-strings, etc. stuff that isn't relevant to the musical emotion. It implies that details are interesting in themselves. And you can make something "detailed" just by cranking up the treble.
I believe that the sound is like a very rich image, with hundreds of details, but only when it is accurately portrayed in full, in high-resolution, does the full impact of that picture make itself known.
So I can't own more than one really high-end headphone, but I have enough spare "headroom" on my credit card to order a few of these guys and listen closely during the trial period.
My electronics are:
- PS Audio Lambda II transport (no computer transport used for serious listening)
- K Works SuperBerry DAC
- Hifiman EF5 hybrid amp, modded by K Works
- All cabling, power conditioning, vibration isolation by K Works
I ruled out the Sennheiser HD-800 and Sennheisers in general-- they have always left me cold.
The AKG K701 has a treble coloration that is somewhere around the "whispered ee" region, which makes it impossible for me to live with.
So I ended up trying out these four
- Ultrasone Edition 8
- Audeze LCD-2
- Beyerdynamic T1
- Hifiman HE-500
This will not be an in-depth review. I'll just summarize my observations, and if my readers have come this far and managed to understand my tastes, hopefully these words will be helpful.
I'll start with the good news. The winner is the Audeze LCD-2. This thing has a sound with beauty and warmth, without becoming unnatural in the least. I am a "beauty fanatic" -- if you at all care about beauty in reproduction, trust me, I'm the most fanatical beauty-guy on the planet and the LCD-2 makes me happy.
Transient reproduction was very high resolution, very natural. Leading edges had power without becoming exaggerated in the least.
That leads me to the Hifiman HE-500. The transient reproduction was similar to the Audeze (maybe it's a planar-magnetic thing), but this headphone left me cold. Analytical.
The Beyerdynamic T1 also has an extraordinarily beautiful sound, as I expected of a Beyer. At first I was very impressed by the transient handling and dynamics (as I would expect of a 1 Tesla magnetic structure) but it started to seem that transients were exaggerated, too powerful, too crisp.
Both of the planar-magnetics had dynamics that were the equal of the T1. That 1 Tesla magnet can't be a bad thing, but it's not the only way to get to good dynamics.
The Ultrasone Edition 8 impressed me immediately with its beauty and musical emotion as I listened to a string quartet. But it failed spectacularly at piano. The leading edges were exaggerated and quite low-resolution. Of all the headphones, it seemed the strongest sonic signature, like it was imposing its own character on everything. I suppose one could have guessed that, looking at its physical design. I mean it has a very strong physical personality, so I'm not surprised the same company produced something with a strong sonic personality.
