[jerg]

Quote:

I'll try to track down the Rudolf Buchbinder recordings.  I have a 2L release 24/96 recording of Beethoven's Sonata #32 that seems very well recorded that is serving as my reference, perhaps you could give me your opinion on it's quality?  The ringing/resonance appears at specific frequencies, in the upper midrange.  The lower notes are always clean and undistorted which is why it seems like resonance to me.
 
My ultimate "cringe" track is rather, I guess the word esoteric would be right, it is the worst sounding I have heard so far.  I'm sure it isn't the best recording, but this track makes the LCD-2 sound utterly broken, no matter how bad the recording it shouldn't turn into pure distortion like what I hear on this track.  It's the first track of this album:  http://animeost.info/18975/aria-piano-collection-stagione
 
edit:  found a youtube link if anybody would like to hear it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7p39JFrq8&list=PLCBCCEB446D323130&index=12
 
If this track sounds fine on other owner's LCD-2s then I'm convinced there is something wrong with mine, because this track is more distortion than it is music on my pair even at low volumes.

 
That's a sign of chamber resonance due to earpad underdamping; I get very similar "midrange glare" with piano tracks like that if my HE500s are with stock pleather earpads. Fixed it by adding lots of holes on the underside of my earpads to absorb and damp the ringing.
 
I don't advise that you do the same with your genuine leather LCD2 pads though.
 
A similar track that I had midrange glare issues with, until I modded my earpads (the glare was worse with lossless version of this):
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP4Y_ZjeQvk&hd=1

 

[Maxvla]

The track in question has significant dynamic range and is recorded just below the threshold at which you would see some occasional clipping. There is none in this track so it can't be clipping causing distortion. The volume difference alone might be enough to cause you problems though. It sounds somewhat hard on my HD800 setup, but I don't detect any distortion. Just sounds rather hot, which looking at it's waveform, it is.

 

[Maxvla]

I'm not trying to make any kind of argument against the LCD-2 in general, I'm just trying to determine if there is a defect in my particular pair or if I need to turn my attention away from them and towards other gear in my setup.  Or maybe neither as it may turn out, it could be I've achieved a level of transparency that finally reveals how bad some of my favorite recordings are.  My initial reaction is "that can't be it" simply due to how severe the issue is, if it were just just a minor sound quality issue I would let it go and just accept it.

I wasn't saying you were. Just providing a visual for you to see that your pair shouldn't be doing any ringing in that frequency range.

Going off the previous poster, try squishing the earpads around a bit or pressing the sides of your headphones while listening to see if it changes.

 

[Xcalibur255]

Quote:

 
That's a sign of chamber resonance due to earpad underdamping; I get very similar "midrange glare" with piano tracks like that if my HE500s are with stock pleather earpads. Fixed it by adding lots of holes on the underside of my earpads to absorb and damp the ringing.
 
I don't advise that you do the same with your genuine leather LCD2 pads though.
 
A similar track that I had midrange glare issues with, until I modded my earpads (the glare was worse with lossless version of this):
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP4Y_ZjeQvk&hd=1

That track doesn't sound too bad actually, there is some hardness/bite on the strong notes but not like what I've been fighting with.  It does seem to have a little ring to it towards the end but it sounds like it is coming from the room it was recorded in to me.
 
edit:  What I'm struggling with isn't strong notes so much as what seems like really bad resonance on the note reverbs in the middle octaves.  As I try more and more tracks I become more uncertain about it all to be honest.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

That track doesn't sound too bad actually, there is some hardness/bite on the strong notes but not like what I've been fighting with.  It does seem to have a little ring to it towards the end but it sounds like it is coming from the room it was recorded in to me.

Like I said, the glare was much worse with the lossless version of it. And it has been fixed when I modded my earpads. It's just that piano tracks with a lot of crosstalk have a lot of energy in the mid~upper midrange by nature, so headphones with relatively bloomy midrange will make it unbearable unless you damp them as much as possible.

 

[Xcalibur255]

Quote:

I wasn't saying you were. Just providing a visual for you to see that your pair shouldn't be doing any ringing in that frequency range.

Going off the previous poster, try squishing the earpads around a bit or pressing the sides of your headphones while listening to see if it changes.

Squishing the earpads lessened it enough to to just be noticeable as a change, but definitely did not eliminate the problem.

 

[solserenade]

Quote:

edit:  found a youtube link if anybody would like to hear it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7p39JFrq8&list=PLCBCCEB446D323130&index=12
 
If this track sounds fine on other owner's LCD-2s then I'm convinced there is something wrong with mine, because this track is more distortion than it is music on my pair even at low volumes.

 
I listened to that track through my LCD-2.2s, it sounded beautiful ... clear in every way.
 
(nothing else in the signal path here - I plugged right into a Macbook Pro)

 

[m2man]

Xcalibur255 - are you sure you don't have a tube going bad? Especially if your keyboard sounds fine I'd suspect your amp. Tubes get strange resonances going on (hence all the tube dampers etc).

I can't tell your amp from your profile, but I see many tube pictures.

 

[Xcalibur255]

I've rolled every tube in the amp, plus the fact that the issue is present on a solid state amp also pretty rules that out.  I think it is pretty hard to blame the headphones the more I think about it, this would show up in other things besides just piano if it were a real issue with the drivers or damping in the enclosure.  I also can't seem to blame anything else in the signal chain.
 
Maybe it's me.  Could very well be something odd with my ears, as my setup gains more and more transparency it is slowly revealing an issue.  To have somebody tell me the test track I linked sounds great really troubles me, it means I can't blame the source recording.

 

[solserenade]

Quote:

I've rolled every tube in the amp, plus the fact that the issue is present on a solid state amp also pretty rules that out.  I think it is pretty hard to blame the headphones the more I think about it, this would show up in other things besides just piano if it were a real issue with the drivers or damping in the enclosure.  I also can't seem to blame anything else in the signal chain.
 
Maybe it's me.  Could very well be something odd with my ears, as my setup gains more and more transparency it is slowly revealing an issue.  To have somebody tell me the test track I linked sounds great really troubles me, it means I can't blame the source recording.

 
I'm sorry if I missed it, but have you tried listening to "the offending recordings" DIRECTLY ... somehow ... I mean LCD2 > your computer .... (or any other amp? ... or someone else's rig, with the same recording?)

 

[Cheebamaster]

Just bought the LCD-2 Rosewood from the official Audeze site. Will it come revision 2 with the new cables or should I have gotten bamboo

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

Just bought the LCD-2 Rosewood from the official Audeze site. Will it come revision 2 with the new cables or should I have gotten bamboo

Audez'e only sells the LCD-2 Rev 2 with angled connectors. So yes.

 

[Maxvla]

My HD800s got a friend to play with today...

 

[Lappy27]

Quote:

My HD800s got a friend to play with today...

Maxvla, if you still have the Bryston amp, I would like to have your impressions with the Audeze.

 

[Maxvla]

Yeah the BHA-1 is peeking out on the right there. Going to give them a few days to settle. So far out of the box they are fairly rough especially in the treble. I'm hoping that these will burn in a bit and fix that.