I'm on my second pair of the Liric 2, the first being an audition pair and a second pair are mine. The audition pair were brand new so had to be 'burnt in' and I didn't put them on until the five hour mark and enjoyed the journey as they started to open. Needless to say I was impressed and ordered my own pair. The others that I was interested in was the DCA E3 but simply could not get one to audition and at a two grand price mark I wasn't going to take a chance that they would suit me. I had the keepers just over a week and well past the 50 hour mark and I'm delighted.
Now I'm an old fart, a septuagenarian, so my lug holes are as good as they use to be, mainly in the treble range. My wife says I suffer from selective hearing as well, whatever that means. I do like the bass, throughout the range. On a well recorded album the deep bass of a drum comes through very well, it's precise without any bloat (James Taylor Hourglass track 4 Giai on SACD), the most impactful of any of my collection. The more supple bass of plucked double bass is very detailed (Jennifer Warnes Another Time, Another Place, track 2, Tomorrow Night on SACD) that track comes through as if the bass player is in the room with you such is the placement and depth of soundstage. Keeping with both those artists the transition from upper bass to the lower mids is very smooth. With James Taylor his baritone voice is so well represented through the mids and into the lower treble register.
For the treble range I always turn to Joni Mitchell. From her wonderful Blue album is track 6 California will really test out the treble peaks. I bought Blue on the rather excellent MoFi SACD release earlier in the year. On this release the highs that she hits no longer grates and the Meze handles it beautifully, they bring it down a knotch from my Denons. As I was hoping for the Liric also performs well on poor recordings. However I do feel the Lirics are somewhat album production reliant at times. Taking another SACD, this time the new Analogue Productions Genesis Selling England by the Pound, the recording leaves me unengaged and it's only the Oppo PM1s that I get some satisfaction to the listening experience of that album.
Build quality is sublime, they feel so good in your hand. Comfort and fit. Now this is where I did find some problems initially. I nearly sent the audition pair back after a few days as I found them quite uncomfortable on my head and didn't like the clamp force. There is a caveat here and that down to me and my health. I'm quite small in stature, I'm a short arse, as well as that I suffer from nerve damage and chronic pain after a severe spinal injury suffered many years ago. I found that the ear cups where uncomfortable on my jaw bone, this might have proved a real problem with the E3s should I have been able to audition. This amount of pain is usually transient so I stuck with the Lirics as my health gradually improved and now, fairly pain free, they have become comfortable.
These are the best closed back headphones for isolation. I asked the wife about the isolation as I know she can at times hear the Denons, her reply was not at all, best you've ever had.
