[Gwarmi]

Unless I've really missed something, apologies in advance if I have, feel free to throw rotten fruit and vegetables..
 
Thoughts on the HD800 vs the LCD-3? ~ Has the big robotic German been bested?
 
Or is just a case of sound stage lovers and accentuated high aficionados having nothing to fear from the LCD-3
presence.

 

[TheWuss]

Gwarmi -
good question.
you know, every stinkin' nice headphone that has been released since 2007 has been touted as "the one to beat the hd800".
 
so the HD800 - although a love/hate headphone - has been a benchmark.
but, for two years of churning through high end cans, i've avoided the hd800 purely on its reputation around these parts.
 
well, i love my LCD-2 rev.2. 
but, my newly acquired HD800 bests it, in my opinion.
 
so, i reckon i fall squarely in the soundstage/airy presentation camp.
 
and, in this (important to me) soundsage/imaging aspect, the hd800 is in a different league than the LCD-2.  in my humble opinion.
 
The LCD-2 soundstage is chameleon-like at best.  and frustrating at worst. 
I find it terribly inconsistant and unstable - sometimes sounding decently large and frontal.  other times, sounds stick inside your head or are shoved down your ear canals.  other times there's a hard left/right imaging with no center image at all.  (some of this is amp and source dependant.  but no other phones i've heard exhibit such inconsistent performance from rig to rig.)
 
so, unless the LCD-3 is a complete reinvention of the audez'e sound signature, then i don't expect HD800 imaging or soundstage.
 
heck.  if i'm being honest with everyone here, i bought the cavalli, peak, bryston dac - a whole lot of killer gear - in order to get the best out of my LCD-2.
but what that did instead was bring my other headphones up to a higher level than the LCD-2.
 
i'm just giving my honest opinion.
you can throw all the fruits and vegetables you want. 

 

[Gwarmi]

All excellent points and the debate over crowning my rig with a permanent flagship rages on..
 
The whole reason why Audeze entered the picture again is because I found that the Rega DAC via
coax and the Audiophilleo USB converter added previously unfounded sound stage.
 
It made me re consider the LCD2. Every other headphone in my collection leans towards
the bright side so I thought, maybe this laid back signature could be a point of difference.
 
And yet the HD800 looms, made all the more tempting with the recent price drop to
$1499 vs the LCD-3's tentatively landed price of $2,188. Hmmm.

 

[pp312]

Quote:

if I had money to burn I would get a pair. i don't so will be blissfully ignorant and still think and feel that my Rev1's are just about the most perfect headphone I have heard. After all one has to know when enough is enough and stop. LCD3's this year, LCD4's next.
If I were to carry on instead of simply enjoying my music collection I would just be thinking how to "improve" the sound. After my next amp and headphone cable upgrade I am pretty much done I feel. I have spent the past three years upgrading to what I have go now and I am happy. I think I will just expand my music collection!

 I'm with you, except that I don't think I'd get an LCD-3 even if I had the cash, at least not without a long audition, as I don't want to lose the ideal (for me) balance of my Rev1s. I'm well aware that in this forum, maybe in others, "better" usually means brighter, and as I don't want brighter, comments about better pass me by. I'm not sure there's anything much I want to improve with the Rev1. I've got a silver aftermarket cable on the way (a cheapie), but I won't be devastated if it doesn't do much for the sound. My feeling is that after 50 years looking for my ideal sound, the Rev1 is probably as close as I'll get, as close as I need to get for the music I listen to (classical/orchestral soundtracks). I can listen without fatigue, even to poor sounding material, which is a huge plus, and with constant pleasure in the sheer naturalness and realism of the sound. On a good recording, I'm even moved to an occasional "Wow!", and you can't ask for much more than that, at least at my age. What's more, I haven't even noticed yet that LCD-2 has no soundstage!
 
Ah, bliss....
     

 

[Currawong]

The annoying thing is, I have the right amp for the HD-800s, after I sold them. Actually, the Stacker II does well with all kinds of headphones that could do with a bit of a kick in the bass. But in the limited time I had to listen to the LCD-3s, they did make the the LCD-2s sound rather asleep. Could be a change in the (perceived) frequency response somewhat. The interesting thing was though, I was going around trying gear at the Tokyo show with my Symphones Magnums, which sound quite different to the LCD-2s to the point that normally if I switch on the spot the orthos sound dull because of the different frequency response. However, I could switch to the LCD-3s without that impression.

 

[Likui]

Hello
I'm planning to get a pair of headphones for mixing , u know audio production kind of thing.
 
I've heard the sennheiser HD 800 through either phonitor or rudistor RP 8 amp I can't remember, soundstage is really big, but I find it lack of bass and really bright, not my kind of sound, so didn't bother having 2nd try.
 
I've heard the hifiman he 6 , I can't remember the sound but if I'm not wrong bass wasn't very strong, at least not as strong as the audeze LCD 2 I can't remember what amp I used though.
 
I've heard the LCD 2 from beyerdynamic A1 amp and it was good, really good. I like the bass and the mids very strong very lush tones. I did enoy it a lot.
 
I've heard the hifiman HE 500, I'm a person who listen to music at loud vol and HE 500 couldn't handle the vol and so it has clipping noise and I didn't bother listening to it anymore.
 
So finally I ordered the Audeze LCD 2 and schiit Lyr amp. Why schiit Lyr because it's kind of small, I want a portable rig because I may be travelling in the future and I can't afford having to carry big monitors with me where I go. Schiit Lyr works well with my JH 11 also adds more bass. and it's quite cheap.
 
So after about 1.5 mths of waiting my Audeze LCD 2 arrived but not my lyr amp and also the audeze LCD 2 case was wrong because they gave me a wooden box and I asked for travel case. So I listen to the LCD 2 through the headphone jack of my native instruments Audio Kontrol 1 audio interface and it sucked. Not enough bass very bright and harsh sound.
 
2 weeks later Audeze LCD 3 came out and I went back to the shop and told them hey LCD 3 is out, i've not gotten my lyr and the travel case for LCD 2, I want to return my LCD 2 and get the LCD 3. They agreed so they took in the LCD 2 and I placed an order for the LCD 3.
After which I went to another shop which I found out later on that they did have LCD 2 and Lyr sold there. I tried the headphone with the Lyr and sounded pretty good.
 
Right now I've got the Schiit Lyr the shop lend me the demo set because my Lyr is still not in ( 2 mths and counting). And I'm also wating for the LCD 3. 11.11.11 was the international shipping day for LCD 3 so I'm wondering when can I get it lol.
 
And of course I've heard other headphones like Beyerdynamics T1, Stax 007, stax 009, rudistor chroma MD 1, Sennheiser HD 650, Grado GS 1000, Grado Ps 1000, some audio technica and AKG. But till now my fav would be Stax 009 followed by the audeze LCD 2 , the rest of the headphones ahh not my kind of sound don't enjoy it.

 

[swbf2cheater]

Quote:

 
I've heard the hifiman HE 500, I'm a person who listen to music at loud vol and HE 500 couldn't handle the vol and so it has clipping noise and I didn't bother listening to it anymore.
 
 

 
 
Wait...er....WHATTT

 

[Likui]

Quote:

 
 
Wait...er....WHATTT

 you know that kind of distorted sound when vol is too loud and your headphones cannot handel it.

 

[dBel84]

or your amp is not handling the current demand from the headphones and telling you that you need better front end equipment ..dB

 

[Likui]

It's either the phonitor or the RP 8 from rudistor, is it good enough?

 
Quote:

or your amp is not handling the current demand from the headphones and telling you that you need better front end equipment ..dB

 

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

It's either the phonitor or the RP 8 from rudistor, is it good enough?

 


 

Phonitor has no doubt a big advantage with the independent virtual speaker angling and crossfeed, it's nice to tinker with.
 
However, the power specifications can be a little concerning ~ 1.7W at 600ohms (hmm, decent) and 360mW at 30ohms
(ehh, not so great) ~ you can imagine that at 50 ohms for an LCD-2 it would hardly be a diesel train and for the HE-500
at 38ohms ~ I'm taking a punt and saying it's probably pushing about 470mW or so....
 
Something much, much cheaper like the Violectric V90 would have about 1.5W on offer at that impedance.
 
(figure determined by guessing between actual published figures of 32ohms/1300mw and 50ohms/1780mw)

 

[swbf2cheater]

Quote:

 you know that kind of distorted sound when vol is too loud and your headphones cannot handel it.

 
?  Man I wish I could consider $450 cheap and the Lyr at all portable.  I don't want you to think I'm making fun of you, as I am concerned but do you have hearing issues?  I ask because you said you like to listen at high volumes and I am not able to listen to the HE500 at volumes that cause distortion.  Its enough to make me totally def and feel sick instantly well before I can even get to that point where I hear enough distortion that would cause me to not want to listen to the set and pursue other models.   I might be wrong, I am just worried about my HE500 heh.  I worry a lot when other users say some things that I've never experienced in my own set. 

 

[rrahman]

Distortion isn't necessarily correlated w/ spl.  Poorly amped or sourced headphones will sound distorted at even low volumes.  It sounds like his distortion is somewhere else in the signal.  I have never heard the he500, but if its like any of the headphones in its class I bet the he500 can handle deafening spl levels before distorting w/ right source and amp.  
 
Also, I am not 100% sure but i suspect distortion itself may also contribute to damage to ears (aside from just spl).
 
Quote:

 
?  Man I wish I could consider $450 cheap and the Lyr at all portable.  I don't want you to think I'm making fun of you, as I am concerned but do you have hearing issues?  I ask because you said you like to listen at high volumes and I am not able to listen to the HE500 at volumes that cause distortion.  Its enough to make me totally def and feel sick instantly well before I can even get to that point where I hear enough distortion that would cause me to not want to listen to the set and pursue other models.   I might be wrong, I am just worried about my HE500 heh.  I worry a lot when other users say some things that I've never experienced in my own set. 

 

 

[rrahman]

Also, I would advocate not listening to music that loud... from a medical standpoint, you will lose your hearing (I see it everyday) and from an audiophile perspective you lose quality
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/loud-music-sucks
 
 

 

[krod3003]

Aww man all this talk about the LCD-2 not having a soundstage makes me not want to get. Maybe I will go with the HE-500, but I worry it won't have the amount of bass I want.... oh the agony!