[Music Alchemist]

It's a pretty strange phenomenon...but a moot point for me, since I listen to music on my desktop system exclusively.

 

[IAMBLEST]

  It's a pretty strange phenomenon...but a moot point for me, since I listen to music on my desktop system exclusively.

For my desktop, i use my LCD3F's and my HD800s.   I only plugged in the EL8s because someone on here asked me to.
 
My Desktop headphones run balanced XLRs - where as the EL8s are just the single ended 3.5mm or with the 6.3mm jack. 
 
Id love to hear the EL8s with a set of custom Norne Draugs running balanced to really compare them to the LCD3Fs

 

[Music Alchemist]

  For my desktop, i use my LCD3F's and my HD800s.   I only plugged in the EL8s because someone on here asked me to.
 
My Desktop headphones run balanced XLRs - where as the EL8s are just the single ended 3.5mm or with the 6.3mm jack. 
 
Id love to hear the EL8s with a set of custom Norne Draugs running balanced to really compare them to the LCD3Fs

 
I was just surprised that someone I know liked the EL-8 more with metal music than the Abyss, HD 800, LCD series, etc.! That's one of my main reasons for wanting it even more now. It's *just* outside my grasp!

 

[IAMBLEST]

   
I was just surprised that someone I know liked the EL-8 more with metal music than the Abyss, HD 800, LCD series, etc.! That's one of my main reasons for wanting it even more now. It's *just* outside my grasp!

well..that sounds a bit weird.  While i love the EL8s they are not as good as the LCD3s..and im sure the Abyss will be even better.

 

[kapanak]

   
I was just surprised that someone I know liked the EL-8 more with metal music than the Abyss, HD 800, LCD series, etc.! That's one of my main reasons for wanting it even more now. It's *just* outside my grasp!

Well, I know people who like metal with a $100 Grado more than the $1500 HD800 (on the same desktop setup). One genre of music preferred with a pair of headphones is nowhere nearly indicative of the quality of sound. Also, ONE person's opinion isn't enough to make it a postulate or fact.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  well..that sounds a bit weird.  While i love the EL8s they are not as good as the LCD3s..and im sure the Abyss will be even better.

 
EL-8 vs LCD-3 metal comparison: NOW!!!

 

  Well, I know people who like metal with a $100 Grado more than the $1500 HD800 (on the same desktop setup). One genre of music preferred with a pair of headphones is nowhere nearly indicative of the quality of sound. Also, ONE person's opinion isn't enough to make it a postulate or fact.

 
True, true...but you gotta keep in mind that I research headphones all the time. I don't rely on just one opinion. And I find that more often than not, when I get a new headphone, my thoughts on it are totally different than others, making the necessity of trying them for myself even more so.

 

[NZtechfreak]

 
Well, I know people who like metal with a $100 Grado more than the $1500 HD800 (on the same desktop setup). One genre of music preferred with a pair of headphones is nowhere nearly indicative of the quality of sound. Also, ONE person's opinion isn't enough to make it a postulate or fact.

 
Often people making statements like that are heavily basing the proposition on the relative value for money, as they see it, rather than making the statement in absolute terms in terms of SQ (although in the particular case mentioned that might be because the HD800 isn't the best choice for metal amongst the TOTL cans). I've seen that a fair amount - they often clarify/temporise when outraged fans of X-Y-Z TOTL can object to their opinion. That isn't to say that some won't legitimately enjoy cheaper cans for certain genres, metal included, only that many times those statements are made with an underlying drive at the value for money, rather than referencing purely SQ.
 
More on-topic: there is a fair consensus building that these won't scale much on better gear. I think that's fine given their positioning, but that'll disappoint some.

 

[aCuria]

 
I think part of the negativity is that when Audeze came out with this headphone many anticipated that it would be like their higher end LCD line.  I think the market segment that the EL8 was designed for are people in the beats/bose camp looking to move up, not those that have been exposed to high end gear.  I think that this headphone is for Audeze to expand their market share by making it more affordable and easily driven by cel phones or similar portable devices.  If you think about it almost everyone has a cel phone these days so if you have gadget that goes well with it you have a large market share already there.  Just my 2 cents 

Its very hard to justify the LCD series when the massive weight and weight distribution characteristics makes my head sore under an hour, regardless of how good they sound. The EL8 fixes these problems and offers better performance off portables - whats there not to like? If you intend to use them permanently attached to an amp then there are other many many other options available to you. Cans that sound great right out of an iPhone are rare.
 
Being able to drive cans off portable devices is a massive win in my book too, ($300 AMP + $300 headphones) vs easily driven $600 headphones? 

 

[kapanak]

   
Often people making statements like that are heavily basing the proposition on the relative value for money, as they see it, rather than making the statement in absolute terms in terms of SQ (although in the particular case mentioned that might be because the HD800 isn't the best choice for metal amongst the TOTL cans). I've seen that a fair amount - they often clarify/temporise when outraged fans of X-Y-Z TOTL can object to their opinion. That isn't to say that some won't legitimately enjoy cheaper cans for certain genres, metal included, only that many times those statements are made with an underlying drive at the value for money, rather than referencing purely SQ.
 
More on-topic: there is a fair consensus building that these won't scale much on better gear. I think that's fine given their positioning, but that'll disappoint some.

 
Very true. Which is why I love it when non-audiophiles listen to my headphones and give opinions with absolutely no idea how much any of it costs It's like a child's honesty.
 
And yes, the EL-8s, closed or open, simply have minimal scaling. The sound quality out of a portable is fairly similar to what a desktop system makes them sound. That's where the disappointment lies. I think many of us were not fair in describing that properly? I did say it sounded WORSE on my desktop setup, but on second thought, I'll say it sounded THE SAME as out of an iPod, which is really why I was so disappointed, because it wasn't a very good sound to begin with, and I was hoping a better source would do it justice.
 

  Its very hard to justify the LCD series when the massive weight and weight distribution characteristics makes my head sore under an hour, regardless of how good they sound. The EL8 fixes these problems and offers better performance off portables - whats there not to like? If you intend to use them permanently attached to an amp then there are other many many other options available to you. Cans that sound great right out of an iPhone are rare.
 
Being able to drive cans off portable devices is a massive win in my book too, ($300 AMP + $300 headphones) vs easily driven $600 headphones? 

 
There are a lot of good portable gear that sounds great if just driven by, say, an iPhone. However, the EL-8s, for their cost, size and weight, simply do not justify their place with the mediocre sound quality they output. Lack of bass quantity (though good tight quality)? Recessed mids? Sibilant treble with grain? No thank you.

 

[kite]

Would you say that an Oppo Pm-3 plus magni 2 uber/modi 2 uber on a desktop system is a 'better' choice than the same amp/dac combo with an El-8? A couple of posts ago i read about a lot of improvement with the El-8 and that specific amp/dac combo, hm..

 

[money4me247]

 
Often people making statements like that are heavily basing the proposition on the relative value for money, as they see it, rather than making the statement in absolute terms in terms of SQ (although in the particular case mentioned that might be because the HD800 isn't the best choice for metal amongst the TOTL cans). I've seen that a fair amount - they often clarify/temporise when outraged fans of X-Y-Z TOTL can object to their opinion. That isn't to say that some won't legitimately enjoy cheaper cans for certain genres, metal included, only that many times those statements are made with an underlying drive at the value for money, rather than referencing purely SQ.
 
More on-topic: there is a fair consensus building that these won't scale much on better gear. I think that's fine given their positioning, but that'll disappoint some.

that is true, though sometimes people do simply prefer a sound signature of a less expensive headphone over a particular flagship. you can also find similar sound signatures to TOTL products at a much cheaper price. A lot of people like higher end more expensive equipment because of the fact they scale up.
 

  It's a pretty strange phenomenon...but a moot point for me, since I listen to music on my desktop system exclusively.

 
what people are referring to here is the scalability of the product. the el-8 being easy to drive may sound extremely similar on very expensive set-ups against something like a smart phone. For people who have invested in higher quality components for the purpose of scaling up & are not looking for portable usage, there may be other options that will give them more of what they are looking for.
 
edit note: working well & not being hard to drive is not a negative thing (hence not really scaling). just depends what the users' needs are.

 

[Tribbs]

It's a pretty strange phenomenon...but a moot point for me, since I listen to music on my desktop system exclusively.

Very strange!

 

[Tribbs]

 
I was just surprised that someone I know liked the EL-8 more with metal music than the Abyss, HD 800, LCD series, etc.! That's one of my main reasons for wanting it even more now. It's *just* outside my grasp!

Well, I know people who like metal with a $100 Grado more than the $1500 HD800 (on the same desktop setup). One genre of music preferred with a pair of headphones is nowhere nearly indicative of the quality of sound. Also, ONE person's opinion isn't enough to make it a postulate or fact.

They like the Grado's with "metal" because their THD levels are sky high. Plug that into their tube amp distortion and they have an eargasm - lol.
Just my subjective opinion of course

 

[Tribbs]

[...] the EL-8s, for their cost, size and weight, simply do not justify their place with the mediocre sound quality they output. Lack of bass quantity (though good tight quality)? Recessed mids? Sibilant treble with grain? No thank you.

Lack of bass? Recessed mids? Sibilant treble with grain (whatever that means)?





I don't think so.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Its very hard to justify the LCD series when the massive weight and weight distribution characteristics makes my head sore under an hour, regardless of how good they sound. The EL8 fixes these problems and offers better performance off portables - whats there not to like? If you intend to use them permanently attached to an amp then there are other many many other options available to you. High-end cans that sound great right out of an iPhone are rare.
 
Being able to drive cans off portable devices is a massive win in my book too, ($300 AMP + $300 headphones) vs easily driven $600 headphones? 

 
Fixed that for you.
 
(99.9% of headphones out there are very easy to drive.)
 

what people are referring to here is the scalability of the product. the el-8 being easy to drive may sound extremely similar on very expensive set-ups against something like a smart phone. For people who have invested in higher quality components for the purpose of scaling up & are not looking for portable usage, there may be other options that will give them more of what they are looking for.  
edit note: working well & not being hard to drive is not a negative thing (hence not really scaling). just depends what the users' needs are.

 
What people were referring to is the fact that they thought it sounded worse on their desktop gear than it did on portable gear. At least one person has retracted that statement.
 
I would not expect an easy to drive headphone to scale at all with a more powerful amp, since the exact same amount of power is being used to reach a certain SPL level. (And any extra power would not be used at all unless you increase the power, which would just increase the SPL level.)
 

Lack of bass? Recessed mids? Sibilant treble with grain (whatever that means)?

[charts of epic science]

I don't think so.

 
Well put.
 
Just curious, though, have you heard the EL-8? Any impressions to share or link to?
 
By the way, to those who may have misconceptions, neutral bass is a lot of bass when there is a lot of bass in the recording.