[ctemkin]

Quote:

Sorry, but now that I've paid for the LCD-3s I won't be putting any more deposits down for a while, so the only way I can compare these cans is if somebody volunteers to send them to me, or wants to bring them to me in Maryland...
 

You may want to look into attending the DC area meet on July 28th.  Details in the meet forum.  There are supposed to be a Stax 007 and a Stax 009. 

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

I believe they started shipping out March of 2011.  As long as you pick up anything from beyond April you should be good.

 
Thanks for that - dovetails neatly with the fact that our Perth headphone guru started stocking the Audeze cans around 12 months ago. 

 

[sridhar3]

Nice work.  Excellent use of The Cable Co loaner system.

 

[pp312]

Quote:

I believe they started shipping out March of 2011.  As long as you pick up anything from beyond April you should be good.

 
 
Really? I always thought it was mid June. In fact I'd lay odds on it. 

 

[reddragon]

Quote:

You may want to look into attending the DC area meet on July 28th.  Details in the meet forum.  There are supposed to be a Stax 007 and a Stax 009. 

 
 
 
sorry, dont mean to go off topic but is going to meet free?

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

 
Really? I always thought it was mid June. In fact I'd lay odds on it. 

 
Looks like you're right.  http://audeze.com/driver-update-and-leather-headband
 
Could have sworn it was March.  Anyway Estreeter, stop what you're doing, it's mid June.  Still dovetails neatly.

 

[ctemkin]

I believe that the meet has no attendance fee.  You could always ask the question on the meet forum to be sure.

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

 
Looks like you're right.  http://audeze.com/driver-update-and-leather-headband
 
Could have sworn it was March.  Anyway Estreeter, stop what you're doing, it's mid June.  Still dovetails neatly.

 
Doh ! He could have been sent the last of the original LCD-2 - I guess I'll have to look into this further. 

 

[Chris_Himself]

Gary I see that I was not the only one who wasn't blown away by the Burson. Such a shame too, I was lead to believe it was the one true answer for powering Audezes

 

[faverodefavero]

As peaky as, well(...), peaks (treble peaks) may be I still prefer those to the lack of treble for most listening (except for some really treble-happy and/or bad recorded music -- Also when I want to sleep, for that I would, indeed, recommend something like ATH-ESW9 or LCD-2). As I said, I can't live without headphones micro-detail, otherwise I'd just listen to speakers... But, that's me.
 
 
 
PS: Still think most headfiers are, now a days, looking for a more "smooth" type of listening. Hence the huge criticism on new treble-peaky headphones (not that I like it, but just look at most HD700 reviews, and even the HD800 - as respected as they may be - is bashed for being harsh with high-frequencies). Not saying that this is "wrong", just pointing several things that do make me think most new headfiers tend to really dislike any kind of harshness in high-frequencies and - again - prefer the "smooth" type of FR for their headphones (that at expense of almost any other aspect be it music detail, micro-detail, airness or dynamics).
 
 
 
Quote:

Actually I'd say it's quite the opposite. At least going by measurements a lot of new headphones with high-end aspirations (HD700, T1, etc) have elevated, sometimes peaky treble. The trend seems to be artificial detail and Audeze is going against that. Whenever you have a prevailing trend there's going to be a market niche in something that sounds different, and besides, peaky treble is just plain nasty.

 

[Gary in MD]

Well folks, all of the demo hardware is now gone

.  I've just got my own LCD-3s now, which is fine for a while.  I liked the T-1s enough to think that I will might be adding a pair at some point, but in the end I strongly preferred the LCD-3s.  Listening to just those two for a while, I started to notice things, such as the fact that the T-1s sound harsh on MP3s at low-to-medium bit rates, whereas the LCDs make the best of even a lo-fi input (though I can definitely hear the distortion in some of the early songs on the old Temptations CD I'm listening to right now).  I don't actually have much MP3 music (yeah, I'm old) but like the idea of being able to buy a single song every once in a while, and I don't want my headphones complaining about it.
 
Note also that either I'm getting used to having hot ears, or the LCD's aren't that uncomfortable as long as it isn't too hot or humid out/inside.  I've had them on for nearly 3 hours now, and I don't sense anything unusually nasty growing in my ears.  It is nice to have a second pair of lightweight cans to put on after an hour or so; however, in the end, while I found the T-1s to be much lighter, they weren't that much cooler than the LCDs after a reasonably long listening session.
 
I'll look into the meet next Saturday.  I'd like to hear those Staxes... and a properly driven HE-6... but I'm not buying any more headphones right now, I'm tellin' ya, I'm not gonna do it.  And I'm not following the Mjolnir threads... nope, definitely not doing that, because I'm tellin' ya I can't hear the difference between amps... but the LCD-3s come with balanced cables and the Emotiva DAC has balanced outputs, and maybe they would sound better than my Adcom... whoa, what's happening to me?  Geez, you folks got me hooked on this stuff... I need to get back on the wagon before I spend my kids' college fund... wait, I don't have any kids...

 

[faverodefavero]

Quote:

I'm not quite sure how something like the LCD-2 can be more of a 'one-note bass' compared to something like the HD800, when the LCD-2 has probably the least amount of harmonic distortion in its bass reproduction according to measurements?  One note bass is usually a characteristic of dynamic drivers-- granted hd800 and its ring radiator isn't the conventional dynamic driver.

 
You see, it just is... And very expressively so. To my ears, at lest.
You may think now that I'm under placebo effect or anything, but i really like to A-B test a lot from time to time, and I always have the same impression (as some friends who also listened to my HP collection).
 
 
Now, my guess is... Here we go:
 
The bass on new planar-magnetics (talking Audez' and HiFiMan here) is truly that much "present", thick and really extended. But it is so, extended, without capturing all nuances of each chord that is producing the reproduced low-frequency note.
 
I'm not saying that it's punchy like a Grado (lacking almost any deepness), the LCD-2 is "deep" with it's low-frequency notes but in a very "thick" way. That thickness and impactfulness in the bass, as much as planar-magnetics may be immune to "ringing" (high-frequency resonance), makes a considerable volume of air to move and "slam" your ear (specially so with LCD-2 huge planar diaphragm). And that, my friend, makes the whole headphone resonate - which add lot's of "emotion" and, even, "texture" to the music and is quite pleasant for some people (and some music styles. Just as Grado famous treble "ringing" is considered by many as being great with electric guitars, making them sound "crunchy" and "live-like") - and that (together with the air itself and, also, the "thick and syrupy" nature of LCD-2 FR itself) ends up making the low-frequency micro-detail of, say, acoustic chords overwhelmed by such an "amount of bass" (as controlled and "tight" as it may sound like). The same goes for HiFiMan, the new planar-magnetic diaphragms are just really big and when they move really fast to reproduce the bass "kicks" they do move quite some air and you can feel (I can) them shaking in your head just a bit when it happens.
 
Now back to the HD800, it has it's share of anti-resonance recourses: the Leona '40% glass-fiber hi-density plastic' and the 'steel-fiber tissue' holding the driver; the ringed architecture of the whole driver itself; even the artificial 'alcantara' fiber for the earpads and headband is resonance-containing. All that makes the whole headphone structure unshakable when attached to the head no matter  how low the frequency is and much air the diaphragm moves. This is great for acoustic material since it makes possible the listening of lots of micro-detail withing low-frequencies (and the whole music spectrum for that matter, without letting and detail ever get "covered" by bass impact) but turns out that this approach - as good it may sound on paper - lacks the impact needed for some types of modern music (electronic, fast rock and metal...) in the end (unless you crank the volume to some really loud levels, making the treble way too harsh and piercing. Only them the HD800 starts showing some bass impact that makes justice to fast metal tracks).
 
Hope this helps! Again, these is just as I see it - or hear it, should I say - not "claiming" to know anything, please. 

 

[faverodefavero]

Some SUBJECTIVE interpretations of mine reproduced in graphic way (about a single bass note reproduced in three different headphones), pleas don't take it seriously guys I'm posting them just for fun:
 
 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
Cheesecake (!):
 
*
 
*This is to remind you people that the pictures posted are just a fun way to reproduce what I listen, regarding low-frequencies reproduction, with those headphones!

 

[Currawong]

Gary in MD: I just caught up on your impressions of the headphones and want to say, nice work! It's always good to have fresh impressions of headphones from people who are familiar with hi-fi but not Head-Fi.
 
Quote:

I'm not quite sure how something like the LCD-2 can be more of a 'one-note bass' compared to something like the HD800, when the LCD-2 has probably the least amount of harmonic distortion in its bass reproduction according to measurements?  One note bass is usually a characteristic of dynamic drivers-- granted hd800 and its ring radiator isn't the conventional dynamic driver.

 
A member (I unfortunately can't remember who) commented that with the LCD-2s he couldn't make out as many individual instruments during a piece he was familiar with compared to with the HD-800s. After some time with them, I concluded that while the LCD-2 have a fast driver, they could, even with excellent amps, blur the music slightly when it became complex, losing some of the fine details. The LCD-3s seem to have solved this. However, if the bass is sounding rather one-note, I'd hazard a guess it has to do with the amp. Might add that to my list of things to experiment with using the LCD-3s actually -- if the quality of bass is consistent with different amps.
 
Quote:

 
PS: Still think most headfiers are, now a days, looking for a more "smooth" type of listening. Hence the huge criticism on new treble-peaky headphones (not that I like it, but just look at most HD700 reviews, and even the HD800 - as respected as they may be - is bashed for being harsh with high-frequencies). Not saying that this is "wrong", just pointing several things that do make me think most new headfiers tend to really dislike any kind of harshness in high-frequencies and - again - prefer the "smooth" type of FR for their headphones (that at expense of almost any other aspect be it music detail, micro-detail, airness or dynamics).
 
Quote:

Actually I'd say it's quite the opposite. At least going by measurements a lot of new headphones with high-end aspirations (HD700, T1, etc) have elevated, sometimes peaky treble. The trend seems to be artificial detail and Audeze is going against that. Whenever you have a prevailing trend there's going to be a market niche in something that sounds different, and besides, peaky treble is just plain nasty.

 
Where the treble peaks in a pair of headphones I reckon is very important for the type of music being listened to. Modern pop and the like seems to be recorded fairly bright, so headphones that have a strong treble peak and work well with classical and jazz I've found sound too glaring with modern music as a result. The other way around too -- I reckoned the original LCD-2s were great with pop and rock as they weren't so bright, but they were too wrong for classical and jazz.
 
Quote:

Well folks, all of the demo hardware is now gone

.  I've just got my own LCD-3s now, which is fine for a while.  I liked the T-1s enough to think that I will might be adding a pair at some point, but in the end I strongly preferred the LCD-3s.  Listening to just those two for a while, I started to notice things, such as the fact that the T-1s sound harsh on MP3s at low-to-medium bit rates, whereas the LCDs make the best of even a lo-fi input (though I can definitely hear the distortion in some of the early songs on the old Temptations CD I'm listening to right now).  I don't actually have much MP3 music (yeah, I'm old) but like the idea of being able to buy a single song every once in a while, and I don't want my headphones complaining about it.
 
Note also that either I'm getting used to having hot ears, or the LCD's aren't that uncomfortable as long as it isn't too hot or humid out/inside.  I've had them on for nearly 3 hours now, and I don't sense anything unusually nasty growing in my ears.  It is nice to have a second pair of lightweight cans to put on after an hour or so; however, in the end, while I found the T-1s to be much lighter, they weren't that much cooler than the LCDs after a reasonably long listening session.
 
I'll look into the meet next Saturday.  I'd like to hear those Staxes... and a properly driven HE-6... but I'm not buying any more headphones right now, I'm tellin' ya, I'm not gonna do it.  And I'm not following the Mjolnir threads... nope, definitely not doing that, because I'm tellin' ya I can't hear the difference between amps... but the LCD-3s come with balanced cables and the Emotiva DAC has balanced outputs, and maybe they would sound better than my Adcom... whoa, what's happening to me?  Geez, you folks got me hooked on this stuff... I need to get back on the wagon before I spend my kids' college fund... wait, I don't have any kids...

 
Did they tell you our slogan is "Sorry about your wallet?" 

 With 'stats, once you consider a source too, it is possible to spend ~$30k on a headphone rig. Insane*, but possible.
 
Not sure about your Adcom by the way, but I found speaker amps that had the headphone output tapped off the speaker outs via a resistor work quite well with orthos, since, like speakers, they like a lot of current. 
 
*Gloriously GLORIOUSLY insane.

 

[Lord Soth]

Quote:

.......  Geez, you folks got me hooked on this stuff... I need to get back on the wagon before I spend my kids' college fund... wait, I don't have any kids...

 
OMG!
 
Did you have to sell your kids? LOL
 
Ever since I joined Head-fi, I've had to sell my kidneys.....