[GrowthValue]

Soundstage is in your recording. LCD2 is just sound what the recording sounds like. I have tons of classical recordings. Some has huge soundstage while the others don't. If Audeze makes LCD2 have a enlarged soundstage, my good recordings will sound bad. 
 
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Sound-staging is certainly the LCD2's primary weakness for me... imaging-wise, it's superb but classical symphony needs an airier presentation to truly shine for me as otherwise you're gonna miss the illusion of grandeur. Soundstage is smaller than ideal with the LCD2.
 

 

[Towwers]

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I absolutely agree with you, pp312. People who really have been in real concert hall to listen to classical music will never associate brightness with classical music. Real concert hall sound is dark. Bass and mids are predominant while highs are subject to substantial roll-off. I suspect those who claim LCD2 are not good with classical music are those casual classical music listeners. Before they have a real concert hall experience, they feel classical music is all about huge soundstage and spiking highs from violins. At least, I still remember my first concert hall experience really makes me stunned. That's the time I feel my HD650 really lacks the real life bass.

I agree real concerts are a lot more dark, however, I don´t know why classical/ instrumental music sounds a lot better in bright headphones, like for example the Grados. I think the string and air instruments have more life with the bright headphones. 

 
On the other hand, using my LCD2 and listening to classical music is a lot more close to the real thing.

 

[LugBug1]

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Is the Musical Fidelity V-DAC II good? As I said previously, I'm thinking of getting the V200 or the Soloist and I don't know which DAC to get.

 
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I have the V-DAC with the Soloist and it's a great combo.  I'm actually getting the VDAC MKII and V-PSU II today, so I'll have to post some impressions on the difference between the original with Pangea PSU vs. the MKII with VPSU.  I upgraded mainly because the original didn't have 24bit 192 asynchronous capability....so if it sounds the same, I'll still be happy because I really love the sound of the original v-dac.  

I'd be really intersted to read your impressions too. I'm a big fan of the Vdac1 and still use it regularly now. It's such a great little dac, a true hifi bargain. The new one uses a different dac chip the burr brown DSD1796 over the original old but classic 1792. I do use Vdac through optical though as this is far better imo than the usb. Though this may be better now with the asynchronous add on.  

 

[GrowthValue]

I agree that LCD2 makes classical recording more like real thing. First, the deep and textured bass first replicate the concert hall experience. Second, the high frequencies are still very detailed although subject to strong roll-off in a concert hall. Some dark headphones such as HD650 roll off highs but do not retain the level of detail. LCD2 compensate this area better.
 
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I agree real concerts are a lot more dark, however, I don´t know why classical/ instrumental music sounds a lot better in bright headphones, like for example the Grados. I think the string and air instruments have more life with the bright headphones. 

 
On the other hand, using my LCD2 and listening to classical music is a lot more close to the real thing.

 

[JamesHuntington]

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I'd be really intersted to read your impressions too. I'm a big fan of the Vdac1 and still use it regularly now. It's such a great little dac, a true hifi bargain. The new one uses a different dac chip the burr brown DSD1796 over the original old but classic 1792. I do use Vdac through optical though as this is far better imo than the usb. Though this may be better now with the asynchronous add on.  

It's not the chip but what you do with it that really matters.
 
As for using optical, it may be better than usb, but you can't use it to stream music from your computer.

 

[LugBug1]

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It's not the chip but what you do with it that really matters.
 
As for using optical, it may be better than usb, but you can't use it to stream music from your computer.

Absolutely  and what the vdac1 does with it is brilliant for the price and size of the thing.
 
A lot of computers have a toslink-out now so you can stream music via optical. Also there are many USB to SPDIF convertors available for this purpose. Thats what I use and it clocks the data from the usb ready for any digital input, means you can hook up any dac.  

 

[JamesHuntington]

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Absolutely  and what the vdac1 does with it is brilliant for the price and size of the thing.
 
A lot of computers have a toslink-out now so you can stream music via optical. Also there are many USB to SPDIF convertors available for this purpose. Thats what I use and it clocks the data from the usb ready for any digital input, means you can hook up any dac.  

I guess if your sound card has toslink you can. I'm not sure how it matters if your coming from a computer from a USB or Tos. You could be using that toslink as an input on the dac for another unit, like a CD player. I integrated all my components to go through my dac, then they go into a V-can headphone amp and out to my headphones and receiver. The V-can with rca output is useful for that. I hate to say there's no benefit of toslink over USB for streaming tracks from a computer, but I don't think any of us could hear the difference. Maybe, maybe if you're recording studio tracks and listening for background noise in samples or something (some people do this.) I read the first 26 pages of this thread:  http://www.head-fi.org/t/415361/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded 
and maybe I'm assuming you won't really get to use that 24bit 192khz your dac may be promising. Anyway, I would love to have a conversation with the op of that thread and to thank him for confusing me, though I am blissfully confused.

 

[LugBug1]

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I guess if your sound card has toslink you can. I'm not sure how it matters if your coming from a computer from a USB or Tos. You could be using that toslink as an input on the dac for another unit, like a CD player. I integrated all my components to go through my dac, then they go into a V-can headphone amp and out to my headphones and receiver. The V-can with rca output is useful for that. I hate to say there's no benefit of toslink over USB for streaming tracks from a computer, but I don't think any of us could hear the difference. Maybe, maybe if you're recording studio tracks and listening for background noise in samples or something (some people do this.) I read the first 26 pages of this thread:  http://www.head-fi.org/t/415361/24bit-vs-16bit-the-myth-exploded 
and maybe I'm assuming you won't really get to use that 24bit 192khz your dac may be promising. Anyway, I would love to have a conversation with the op of that thread and to thank him for confusing me, though I am blissfully confused.

I agree it is confusing But its not really the 16 or 24bit that matters when using usb. The problem with using usb straight to dac is the noise from the USB port and also the data is kind of churned out causing jitter (another big argument ha). There are two benefits from using optical via usb to spdif converter when using computers. First the data is clocked ready back to its original state (wether 16 or 24 bits) and so the dac can accept it direct to the digital input without having to do the reclock and decifer what the data is. And most receiver chips in usb dacs that are'nt asynchronous aren't the best and will cut down the bits if they are higher than 16 bit. The other is because optical is "light", it acts as a kind of cut off point for the noisy insides of computers because that will only travel through metal.

 

[JamesHuntington]

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I agree it is confusing But its not really the 16 or 24bit that matters when using usb. The problem with using usb straight to dac is the noise from the USB port and also the data is kind of churned out causing jitter (another big argument ha). There are two benefits from using optical via usb to spdif converter when using computers. First the data is clocked ready back to its original state (wether 16 or 24 bits) and so the dac can accept it direct to the digital input without having to do the reclock and decifer what the data is. And most receiver chips in usb dacs that are'nt asynchronous aren't the best and will cut down the bits if they are higher than 16 bit. The other is because optical is "light", it acts as a kind of cut off point for the noisy insides of computers because that will only travel through metal.

After reading a little, maybe it depends on the computer, soundcard/software and/or the dac. If cpu is overloaded then it may matter more with usb. I notice with my uDac that tos input says 24bit 192khz and usb is 24bit 92khz, but I don't have tos on my laptop so I guess I cant AB. Heres a thread with all kinds of back and forth http://www.head-fi.org/t/527442/optical-toslink-vs-usb-which-connection-is-better-to-connect-a-dac
and here is supposed proof optical is not always better
http://www.stereophile.com/content/musical-fidelity-v-dac-da-processor-measurements

 

[LugBug1]

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After reading a little, maybe it depends on the computer, soundcard/software and/or the dac. If cpu is overloaded then it may matter more with usb. I notice with my uDac that tos input says 24bit 192khz and usb is 24bit 92khz, but I don't have tos on my laptop so I guess I cant AB. Heres a thread with all kinds of back and forth http://www.head-fi.org/t/527442/optical-toslink-vs-usb-which-connection-is-better-to-connect-a-dac
and here is supposed proof optical is not always better
http://www.stereophile.com/content/musical-fidelity-v-dac-da-processor-measurements

Yeah I've never noticed any difference at all between 92khz and 192. And I only notice a difference with 24 bits over 16 when listening to HD 24 bit recordings. I've read that Sterophile piece before and it does make an interesting read. I must stress that my prefered digital connection is coaxial or BNC and only use optical when I feel it does actually sound better, and the Vdac is a very good example. I know that Musical fidelity optimised it for optical use over the other inputs so this may be the case. My ears tell me it's better so thats all I care about

 

[Francoy]

All this talking about DACs... I thought this thread was about amplifiers?! Silly me 

 

[longbowbbs]

 
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All this talking about DACs... I thought this thread was about amplifiers?! Silly me 

After 5000+ posts I think they killed that horse....
 

 
It'll get back on track as some new interesting amps come out, like the upcoming Decware Taboo MK 3.....

 

[dmcs414]

How many folks use a turntable as a primary source in their LCD-2 rig, and does this (or should it) influence the choice of amp? Many would seem to agree that some amps (V200,Mjolnir,etc) are well known to be great pairings with these phones, but does this apply regardless of whether the source is digital or analog?

 

[MorbidToaster]

How many folks use a turntable as a primary source in their LCD-2 rig, and does this (or should it) influence the choice of amp? Many would seem to agree that some amps (V200,Mjolnir,etc) are well known to be great pairings with these phones, but does this apply regardless of whether the source is digital or analog?

It really depends on the TT rig. Analog isn't necessarily 'warm' all the time. Though the V200 wouldn't be my pick with a TT rig just in case you do as it's warmer than Mjolnir.

 

[JamesHuntington]

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All this talking about DACs... I thought this thread was about amplifiers?! Silly me 

 
I was trying to answer a question. And btw, what amp did you recommend? 8ooo000OOOO
 
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Yeah I've never noticed any difference at all between 92khz and 192. And I only notice a difference with 24 bits over 16 when listening to HD 24 bit recordings. I've read that Sterophile piece before and it does make an interesting read. I must stress that my prefered digital connection is coaxial or BNC and only use optical when I feel it does actually sound better, and the Vdac is a very good example. I know that Musical fidelity optimised it for optical use over the other inputs so this may be the case. My ears tell me it's better so thats all I care about

 
     I can't disagree and wish my computer had optical so I could test it.
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After 5000+ posts I think they killed that horse....
 

 
It'll get back on track as some new interesting amps come out, like the upcoming Decware Taboo MK 3.....
 

When beating a dead horse, what amp do I want to use with lcd2 to silence the thuds?