First impressions of HD800 vs LCD-2 rev2 (after listening to several songs):
1)
Soundstage width and depth is INCREDIBLE and PERFECT - I thought that the width is going to be unnatural and simply too much pushed towards the sides but it's not true - it's perfectly natural... It's something like this:
I thought the depth of LCD-2 was really good but this... Wow, you can hear how notes fade into the background, how the distance between you and the sound is increasing... Perfection!
I thought the width of LCD-2 is more than enough... And I still feel the width of LCD-2 is very nice and not collapsed or anything like that at all. But HD800 offer
A NATURAL width along with pushing the band more in front of you to create more natural image. Look at the image - it feels somewhat like that - that you have your distance from the sounds, exactly as you see it (to the sides and in front of you as well)
2) Bass shy? NO! The bass of HD800 is pretty good and
incredibly clean, with very good slam... I thought there is going to be a significant lack of bass resulting in too thin sound in comparison with LCD-2 rev2. But this is not from my experience, even though I use perfectly neutral O2/ODAC combo. Maybe Sennheiser tuned the bass to be more present recently but I do really feel that the bass of HD800 is more than good enough for rock and metal as well! Important factor here is also the separation which is much superior to LCD-2... HD800 renders all the instruments, including bass, a lot better and puts more distance among them. LCD-2 have all instruments rather near to each other which, in comparison with HD800, could be a bit messy sometimes. I feel the bass of LCD-2 is very good but nowhere near clarity and separation from the rest of instruments with HD800.
3) Harshness, painful peaks? NOT AT ALL!!! I am pretty sensitive to treble and hated D7000 for their nasty peaks, painful to my ears. But HD800 absolutely DO NOT HAVE ANY, at least to my ears. I am really surprised...
4) I must say that
treble response of LCD-2 rev2 is more natural to my ears but both offer very nice and balanced signature. HD800 vocals are very nice but a bit sibilant (not extremely, anywhere near to it, but significantly more than with super-natural LCD-2 vocals). Guitars sound very nice with HD800, not overemphasised... And the distance among all instruments (including vocals) works incredibly here as well, it's very natural to listen to music with HD800, like having the band in front of you. I was always like "What, air between instruments? what does it mean?" and now I understand - it's a "distance", not "air", at least in my terminology.
5) Speed? The decay is excellent here but I do not feel anything like "lightning-fast speed" - just natural flow of music. That's actually good - I didn't want to feel exhausted by unnatural perception of music, being too quick or anything like that.
6) Comfort... I think too many people exaggerate when talking about "extremely uncomfortable Audeze". Of course, HD800 are significantly more comfortable - they are super-light and create near-to-zero clamping force and therefore you can focus yourself on your work and listen to them simultaneously (you cannot do that with LCD-2). But I still find LCD-2 perfectly comfortable for enjoying music (and for example playing games at the same time).
7) Unforgiving? WHAT? I must be listening to different headphones... What are people talking about here? I listened to more than 10 rock and metal songs with nowhere near-to-ideal quality and hear nothing unenjoyable o_O I am quite young and as I said - I am sensitive to treble... But still, I feel no pain and hear nothing unbearable even with the worst metal recordings, including black metal.
8) Transparent? I think on par with LCD-2, so far... Maybe LCD-2 have the edge here, not sure.
9) Crossfeed? HD800 creates a natural crossfeed with their incredible soundstage and rendering... It's VERY NATURAL.
10) Detail? Well, it's very good, of course but I feel LCD-2 rev2 are in the same league... Maybe I am not focused on micro-details too much, or realise their a bit different FR.
11) Neutrality? This is difficult... I feel LCD-2 have more neutral FR graph but HD800 offer more natural experience because of soundstaging, separation, imaging... + their FR is also very good, not unnatural.
12) Imaging - the famous imaging ability with pinpoint accuracy... Is it true and how much superior it is in comparison to LCD-2? I will need more time in order to assess this appropriately... So far I feel it really is near-to-poinpoint accurate with HD800. But I feel like it goes hand in hand with the amazing soundstage that HD800 offers. Look at the image above - it really feels like that so you easily point to instruments in this semi-circle, you feel that instruments and elements are positioned in certain angles...
You don't feel like that with LCD-2. LCD-2 are rather "stereo", they do not offer a complex semicircle space but rather focus your attention on stereo - it's more like this:
Not absolutely, only in comparison to each other... But it's very noticable.
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These are only first impressions and may change with time... But so far, I am amazed. I hate to say that but Sennheiser did it... These are... just incredible, even with modern music. Stunning. Burn-in is not needed to say comfortably that these are going nowhere... I will test them more against LCD-2 in upcoming days but so far I feel like I don't need LCD-2 (or even LCD-3) anymore.
Do they complement each other very well? I am not sure... These are different headphones, of course, but I cannot answer... I just tend to pick one headphone that is better for me and listen to it all the time. But I do not feel that these two headphones are too different. Yes, they are different but they are still headphones, you know? Differences are definitely there but it's not a totally different experience. You are still listening to the same music and still have a pair of headphones on your ears so it must be similar.
Do you want me to give you my impressions? Since you know how much I love LCD-2 rev2...
