Well fellas... I've nearly had my LCD-X for a month. I wanted to give myself plenty of time of listening before I gave an assessment. I listened to them starting out with my Oppo BDP-105, then a FiiO E17, and finally my iFi Micro iDSD.
And boy am I impressed! These headphones, are wonderful. Starting out with just opening the box.. that's gotta be one of the coolest cases. Just knowing it's DoD certified and that I can trust them to take care of my $1700 investment is a great plus. Immediately when I picked up the headphones I knew these were built like a tank. Hefty yes, but not as bad as I expected. At first listen even, I sat at the computer for a few hours with no significant problems.(although it was nice to take them off my head)
Anyway back to the experience...well, it gave you that feeling that you had just purchased a very, very premium product(which indeed it is, but there definitely wasn't any doubt).. even the certificate of authenticity seemed to be hand-signed!
On to the sound then! When I first listened to them, it was with my Oppo. I played files from an HDD I had hooked up to the Oppo, with mostly 44.1khz files and then a couple DSD files. With this setup the bass seemed a little absent and the highs were slightly sibilant. Not bad at all though, as it was very, very clear and detailed.
I then tried the LCD-X with the FiiO E17, which was hooked via the usb output of my computer running the same files I had run through the Oppo, this time through JRiver.(besides the DSD files) The sound was slightly warmer, but definitely less articulated in the high frequencies. But boy it was warm sounding! I listened to that setup for a couple hours with minimal fatigue, and I have very sensitive ears.. so that was a very pleasant impression.
Finally, my Micro iDSD arrived just the next day. And that's when these headphones really came to life.. the iDSD can output up to 4w of power, and I think ultimately that extra juice really contributed. It was very present, and impactful.. bringing vocals front and center, and build ups of songs was a very real yet tasteful experience. These headphones seemed to possess tact, and restraint.. in the best kind of way--where you can still enjoy the nuances of your music, yet it's not overwhelming.. it's simply your favorite songs, with the veil being lifted.
I opted most of the time to turn on "X Bass", a analog feature on the iDSD that adds a little punch down low. This seemed to be a perfect balance for songs that lacked a little bit of bottom end substance.
I love the open-back sound and the pinpoint imaging of instruments as well.. it really gives you an enveloping soundstage. And no, I have not heard the HD800 and its famed soundstage, but I definitely liked what I was hearing.(and still do)
Overall, I'm very pleased. I haven't heard any other flagship models, but it feels to me like I struck the right one on the first go. So I can't make any direct comparisons, but I definitely can recommend these.
I think I might buy some HD650's to have for the long computer sessions though.
In summary.. this is how I feel right now.. a proud owner of the Audeze LCD-X:
