[OlafP]

Hello everybody,

I have the pleasure to own all three headphones but currently summer prevents me from extensive listening sessions. Quite hot in Germany since months.
What are your opinions? Which one I should keep?

I want to own only one headphone. Yes money on one hand and my wife on the other. Both force me to reduce!

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Rhamnetin]

If you have all three, you should really take the time to judge yourself. But if that's just flat out not possible, well I'll describe all three:

Abyss AB-1266 - The fastest and punchiest of the bunch. Slight V-shaped sound signature, mids are somewhat recessed and unimpressive, treble sounds rather unnatural - some exaggeration in the upper frequencies. Best sound stage and imaging of the bunch. While it has a lot of bass, sub-bass is disappointing as it rolls off earlier than such an expensive planar should.

Audeze LCD-4 - The most laid back, intimate sounding headphone of the bunch (intimate as in the sound presentation is closer). Perfectly flat bass and mid range response. Probably the best bass extension of any headphone (maybe tied with a few others), bass is monstrous but never in front of the mids. Mids are full and lush, treble is quite awful though. It has two treble issues: elevated upper treble response that causes some sibilance (at 'T-' like sounds) and exaggerated cymbals and similar negative effects, but PEQ fixes this easily. The bigger problem is lower treble recession (some will call this upper mid recession but it's the same issue) that causes a very odd, distracting, and incredibly fake sounding veil around vocals, pianos, and some other sounds. It makes it sound as if those sounds are incomplete, travel nowhere and are sucked into some black hole.

Focal Utopia - The most neutral and natural sounding headphone of the bunch. I listened to this one the least of all of these. It has the typical dynamic headphone mid-bass hump and sub-bass rolloff, so disappointing bass as usual for this tech. It has some of the best treble of any non-electrostatic headphone though, I heard no issues with it in my brief auditions of this headphone and it makes it sound more transparent and detailed than most non-electrostatic offerings. The Utopia sounds kind of like a poor man's Stax SR-009... except it actually costs more LOL. Sound stage and imaging are nothing spectacular, bass is one note compared to the previous headphones and high end Stax systems, but I don't think it has any major issues beyond price and perhaps weight.

I hope this helps you choose. I can't point out which one to keep... in all honesty I'd sell them all and get a nice Stax SR-007 or SR-009 or SR-009S system (used SR-009 if need be), since to my ears any of these Stax headphones with a proper amp makes all of those (and any other non-electrostat) sound relatively fake and low quality in comparison, like comparing the Sennheiser HD 800 S to the HD 558.

 

[OlafP]

Whow great Feedback!! Thank you so much. You are not the first one to tell me to buy a 009. it seems my journey has not ended.
And the good thing with Stax is that you dont spend hundreds of Euro / Dollar for cables.

Thanks again!!

 

[buke9]

Have you actually heard the LCD-4’s and Abyss as your review of them could not be more off than what I hear.

 

[buke9]

The Abyss has nothing but mids. Where are you getting that they have none.

 

[buke9]

I own them .

 

[Rhamnetin]

Have you actually heard the LCD-4’s and Abyss as your review of them could not be more off than what I hear.

Spoiler

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​

Owned the LCD-4, listened to the Abyss on a few occasions. I'm curious what you have to say about them, my comments on both of them agree with the consensus (also pretty much exactly in line with what Tyll wrote about them for what it's worth).

Regarding the Abyss, if we look at the measurements there's a pretty nasty dip in the mids, that combined with the mid-bass hump likely account for what I (and many others) hear.

https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/JPSLabsAbyssAB1266.pdf

Also what's with the triple posting?

 

[buke9]

LCD-4 laid back you have not heard them.

 

[draytonklammer]

The Abyss is all about the fitting.
Furthermore, the Abyss Phi and CC revisions have bettered the sound since the days of the "Abyss" only.

I have tried every TOTL and have been settled (for a majority of the time) on the Abyss Phi CC.
The Susvara and Utopia both did good things for me, and the LCD-4 even got some time for awhile. Never cared too much for the 009/009S.

Abyss Phi CC gets my strong recommendation. Feel free to read the review in my signature.
That review does not include the CC upgrade, only the Phi.

 

[Rhamnetin]

LCD-4 laid back you have not heard them.

Yeah sure...

Spoiler

It has the least forward treble of the three headphones in discussion, so yeah. But keep triple/quadruple posting sentence fragments all night long...

 

[buke9]

Well are you going to report me for triple posting? I could care less about measurements I just know what I hear. Say what you want.

 

[Rhamnetin]

Well are you going to report me for triple posting? I could care less about measurements I just know what I hear. Say what you want.

You could care less? Ah, so you do care after all! And yes, you can post a thousand sentence fragments in a row but I will indeed say what I want so no worries there!

 

[buke9]

The Abyss is all about the fitting.
Furthermore, the Abyss Phi and CC revisions have bettered the sound since the days of the "Abyss" only.

I have tried every TOTL and have been settled (for a majority of the time) on the Abyss Phi CC.
The Susvara and Utopia both did good things for me, and the LCD-4 even got some time for awhile. Never cared too much for the 009/009S.

Abyss Phi CC gets my strong recommendation. Feel free to read the review in my signature.
That review does not include the CC upgrade, only the Phi.

 

[draytonklammer]

The LCD-4 may measure a bit lower in the treble region, but in some pretty punchy songs it very much is ready for the occasion.
It is no slouch, but still nowhere near the top of my list these days.

 

[buke9]

You could care less? Ah, so you do care after all! And yes, you can post a thousand sentence fragments in a row but I will indeed say what I want so no worries there!

Have absolutely no idea what you are trying to say thousand sentence fragments. Call me stupid I’m down .