Audeze EL-8: The EL-8 is a must-hear at CES 2015
Jan 7, 2015 at 11:28 AM Post #751 of 6,486
I wouldn't really say Audeze is talking them up that much, that is mostly us here on head-fi. They basically have just announced them and put them out at CES. Though that one statement above is quite ridiculous.
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 11:30 AM Post #752 of 6,486
 
Probably mostly hype. In Jude's video of the open version, he said they compare favorably to the LCD-X but are still not as lush as the LCD-3.

I'm wondering what might happen if they incorporate any of the new membrane and variable width trace and/or magnet technologies to the LCD line, especially the LCD-3's?
 
Remember all the fun when Audeze added the Fazors to the LCD-2 and LCD-3 without telling anyone? Wonder if they might do the same with these new technologies...
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 11:34 AM Post #753 of 6,486
   
Did you even bother to overlay the measurements of the LCD2 rev 2(more recent 2) with an X on IF?  There is no problem with the 2 in the 1-3khz area.  The graphs are also so inconclusive that they would have lead you to believe that the two sound the same, even though that's completely not true. 
 
There's no denying fundamentals are extremely important.  Harmonics and treble are hard to get right too though.  That's why many people don't like planar magnetics, as they often have problems with the treble region.
 
Anyways, the X is a good sounding headphone, but not for the reasons Audeze markets it as.

 
... that is kind of irrelevant since the 1-3khz issue was on your graphs not mine. The ones I was looking at there wasn't a big issue there and I was pointing to the attenuated trable.
 
In both graphs, the X seems closer to neutral. Not perfect, but closer. That's all I was saying. In your overlay above they look close to identical, so again, not seeing a clear point... anyway..
 
I love the LCD2 and have never even heard the LCDX so no need to be defensive!
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 11:34 AM Post #754 of 6,486
I'm wondering what might happen if they incorporate any of the new membrane and variable width trace and/or magnet technologies to the LCD line, especially the LCD-3's?

Remember all the fun when Audeze added the Fazors to the LCD-2 and LCD-3 without telling anyone? Wonder if they might do the same with these new technologies...
That would be a nightmare. Three versions of one headphone was confusing enough; imagine how much B/S that would cause once the headphones are discontinued....
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 11:41 AM Post #755 of 6,486
Everybody on head-fi is gonna be mad when Audeze applies the new tech to their lcd lineup and everyones older lcd on head-fi takes a hit on resale value again.  
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... that is kind of irrelevant since the 1-3khz issue was on your graphs not mine. The ones I was looking at there wasn't a big issue there and I was pointing to the attenuated trable.
 
In both graphs, the X seems closer to neutral. Not perfect, but closer. That's all I was saying. In your overlay above they look close to identical, so again, not seeing a clear point... anyway..
 
I love the LCD2 and have never even heard the LCDX so no need to be defensive!

 
Yes, mine does have the 2 at slightly less 1-3 than the X.  The X's subdued 4-7 is an even bigger deviation between the two though.  Anyways, bottom line is the measurements don't tell much about the X being more neutral of the two.  At the end of the day, subjective impressions are always top dog.   I'm not trying to be too defensive about the two, forgive me if I'm coming off as abrasive. 
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 11:43 AM Post #756 of 6,486
  Everybody on head-fi is gonna be mad when Audeze applies the new tech to their lcd lineup and everyones older lcd on head-fi takes a hit on resale value again.  
redface.gif

 
 
 
Yes, mine does have the 2 at slightly less 1-3 than the X.  The X's subdued 4-7 is an even bigger deviation between the two though.  Anyways, bottom line is the measurements don't tell much about the X being more neutral of the two.  At the end of the day, subjective impressions are always top dog.   I'm not trying to be too defensive about the two, forgive me if I'm coming off as abrasive. 

 
No worries, and of course I get that measurements never tell the whole story. 
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Jan 7, 2015 at 11:52 AM Post #757 of 6,486
  Everybody on head-fi is gonna be mad when Audeze applies the new tech to their lcd lineup and everyones older lcd on head-fi takes a hit on resale value again.  
redface.gif

 
 
 

 
Meaning people on the headfi forums will only be asking 90% of full retail when selling an Audeze headphone?  
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I am always amazed at the high asking prices for used Audeze headphones (in general, I realize some asking prices are more reasonable, but they tend to be the exceptions).  
 
A couple hundred bucks off for used?  No thanks, I'll just buy new.
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 12:02 PM Post #759 of 6,486
What you want it half off? Music direct is selling a demo unit right now for 1500 for the Lcd-3. That alone is 25% off
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 12:13 PM Post #760 of 6,486
So exactly what kind of connectors are these or are they brand new?

 
It's something I've never seen before - must be new and proprietary.
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 12:27 PM Post #763 of 6,486
Hifiguy528's sneak peak of the open-back EL-8. 
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Jan 7, 2015 at 12:27 PM Post #764 of 6,486
   
Seems a bit extreme. Some simple EQ can fix that. In fact I'm at the point where I won't listen to headphones *without* EQ any more, because it's really the final EQ'd result that matters - that's how I will be listening to them at home. So a bump here and there is nothing compared to other flaws which are not fixable (e.g. distortion, lack of detail)

 
I tried EQ'ing them and I couldn't get them to sound good.  I'm no expert on EQ so I tried a few different suggestions I found on here and nothing really floated my boat.  Given that I have other detail monster headphones (notably the HE-4), there wasn't much point in keeping the HD700.
  I recently traded in my ps500e's for the 700's after auditioning them 4 times (I will never judge something on one audition again) and being offered a great price for both. The treble spike is no joke but with the 500's I could only enjoy maybe 60-70% of my music - with the 700's I can listen to 70-80% and it's A LOT more fun, especially with drum and bass and classical they blow me away with every use and I rarely hear sibilance on good quality recordings - I look forward to using them every day and actually prefer them over the hd800's for any kind of fast music. The soundstage and imaging are stellar in my opinion and minus the treble spike I feel I'd miss out on a lot of sparkle, ala Grao tonality that my 650's lack.
 
I'd planned on travelling quite a way to audition the LCD x's and 3's for my BIG buy, but after hearing this news I'm very, very excited.
 
In short: I think you sold them prematurely and I think these headphones get overlooked :)

 
I had them for weeks and I really WANTED to like them, but I just couldn't.  I had three headphones sitting on my desk and for the last week before I sold them I literally always reached for one of the other two.  At the end of the day, if I don't want to use those headphones, there's no reason to keep them.  I'm glad you like them though.  
 
Oh and I don't believe in having multiple headphones that sound good with different things.  I picked up a used LCD-2 and now I have one headphone that's good for everything.
 
Feel free to read my comments over in the HD700 thread if you still think I sold them prematurely.
 
As to how all this relates to the EL-8, well it's going to come down to the same thing for me.  As good as they look, if they don't do it for me sonically, I'm not buying them.  And I know that a treble spike like the one on the HD700 is physically painful for me on some songs.  So yeah, hopefully it's not that bad on these.
 
  They don't seem as bulky on that guy as they seemed on jude (no offence jude of course).
 
Seemed like high praise for the headphone but then they didn't actually say anything about the sound. C'mon sound impressions, where are you?!! 
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That guy was a bit bigger than Jude, maybe it was just the scale.
 
Jan 7, 2015 at 12:34 PM Post #765 of 6,486
 
That's what I thought, too. Hopefully, they can be plugged in either way--it looks like that. I hope there's going to be a source to buy the raw connectors, since lots of people want customized cables for a variety of reasons.

 
I'm pretty interested in these cans. Hopefully the closed version is a solid performer. As someone who builds his own cables, I looked at the new proprietary connector and wanted to punch a wall. Seems like a number of companies are trying to make their own connectors so they can peddle their cables to the consumers. While I enjoy making cables, I don't enjoy having 10+ cables hanging around because the industry can't stick to a standard. They'll probably charge an obscene amount for raw connectors until something comes out on Lunashops. 
 
Still, I'm interested to see how the connector performs and real progress in terms of performance is always welcome. 
 

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