Hello
 
I'm a rookie in Head-fi related stuffs.
 
But I think I have decent ears. My audio background is: mixing engineer for studio and live.
 
I recently got into head-fi gears and I have listened to Senn. HD-600, HD 700, and few others that I could demo in Bestbuy and GT center.
 
Based on lots of research (when I tried Senn. 700, and Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro, I realized that my ears do not agree with harsh? airy? sounding headphones; I almost bought HD 650 but it left me with wanting more transient attacks in treble) and saving money, I decided to buy Audeze LCD 2.
 
Few reasons I went with the LCD 2 are: consistent good reviews from Head-Fi community, good low-extension, smooth mid, and "warm"
 
 
Anyhow, I got my LCD 2 last week and I absolutely love the sound! Complete Ear-gasm!
 
But to my ears, it wasn't warm at all. Treble is well behaved but the sound was not something that I was expecting (to my ears, it is lot brighter than HD 650, almost like HD 700 but smoother without fatiguing sibilances) 
 
 

 
Hoping that Audeze produces consistent units, how is LCD 2 supposed to sound compare to HD 650? Little bit brighter or lot brighter? 
 
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I currently do not have a headphone amp other than old Marantz amp: Model 1152 DC (compare to headphone jack from Apogee One, my old Marantz added too much color; so I decided not to use it...  I currently use headphone out from Apogee One).
 
Can you recommend me a headphone amp/dac under $500 that could bring out full potential of LCD 2 and sounds smoother at top?
 
Thank you for helping this noob.

Try audio gd stuff.
 
LCD2 used to be very warm at first but has went through progressive iterations making it gradually brighter each time.