Pharmaboy
Headphoneus Supremus
Thanks for a terrific post. There's much quality observation & speculation here.The Liquid Gold X is an amp that is going to be more fussy about system synergies. Synergies with the headphone and synergies with the source components. The LGX is more transparent than the Carbon, and even more transparent than my Fire or Glass. Transparency in the sense of being able to better hear through the amp and into the source components and into the characteristics of the headphone. It's a more transparent lens into the recording and into the other components in the chain. The headphones can't hide. The DAC can't hide. The quality of the recording can't hide. And it does that transparency while presenting the involving and easy to listen to Cavalli style "liquid" sound.
I can listen to a minimally mic'ed chamber orchestra recording and hear all and more of the precise 3D imaging details and micro details that I hear with the Fire and Glass. The Fire and Glass have a deeper soundstage due to 2nd harmonics from the tubes. But the Gold X has a cleaner and more transparent sound. The Carbon sounds flat and lacking that level of imaging and layering in comparison. The Gold X manages to achieve solid state sonic holography. Sonic holography is something I generally associate with very good tube amps. The Liquid Gold X is my only solid state amp that gives me a very good flavor of that sonic holography. Tube amps still have the advantage of being able to do that sonic holography thing with a deeper soundstage because of the magic of even harmonics. The Liquid Gold X is my solid state amp that lets me explore and enjoy that style of 3D sonic holography in solid state form.
But the Liquid Gold X is also very fussy about headphone tuning. Its style of transparency doesn't let wonky headphone frequency response hide. The LGX is going to pair better with some headphones than others. As an example, the LCD-2 and LCD-3 tuning works very very well with the Fire/Crimson/Platinum and also the Glass. The tubes manage to fill in the midrange where the LCD-2/LCD-3 tuning takes a downward slope. With the Fire and Glass I barely notice that the LCD-2 tuning is a bit weird. The amp and headphone sound synergizes and just sounds right together. That is not the case with the Liquid Gold X. The LGX doesn't let the wonky tuning of the LCD-2/LCD-3 hide. With the LGX I notice when a vocal or violin is in the sucked-out frequency range of the LCD-2/LCD-3. And wow, that doesn't work so well. I love the LCD-2/LCD-3 turning paired with the Fire, Platinum, and Glass. I don't like it so much with the Gold X. So with the LGX I have to find a different headphone for synergy. Maybe something with a tuning more similar to the LCD-X or the new LCD-5? Or HiFiMan Arya? Or HEDD? Or? It's good with the HD650 tuning so I'm thinking that a planar magnetic with that style of midrange tuning will have better synergy. I haven't been able to demo and find that right headphone synergy due to the pandemic. It's something I need to demo in person to find. I can't rely on reviews. When the pandemic is over and I can demo comfortably in person I'll find headphones with that magical synergy with the LGX. Even if it means an LCD-5. The LGX is worth getting good headphones for.
I can EQ the LCD-2 and fix the midrange issue when playing through the LGX. But I don't like using EQ. My goal is to build a chain that doesn't need EQ to sound good to me. I find that digital EQ does more harm than good to the 3D imaging sonic holography that I like to listen for. Especially with minimally mic'ed style acoustic recordings. So I'm not going to pick a headphone that relies on EQ to get it to sound right. It has to sound good to me without EQ or it's not going to work for me.
I can tell you that the Final D8000 really locks in with the LGX. That's intriguing because the D8K itself is a most revealing headphone--revealing and yet quite musical. Both my planars (Ori and D8K) sound great on the LGX. That may in part be due to the more linear impedance/by/frequency characteristics of planar drivers (or maybe something else besides). The Ori is a power hog, not very sensitive, while the D8K is pretty sensitive/efficient.