[JoeBee]

...but I'm not surprised that music with more acoustic instruments would sound sweeter coming out of a tube hybrid and an HD 650 than it does on the LCD-1, although I did briefly listen to the end of Harrison's solo at the end of The End and it didn't sound grating to me, honestly - but definitely clear and uncolored and somewhat aggressive, but I attributed that to the recording itself as it didn't sound much tamer to me from the HD 650.

What volume were you listening at?

You hear aggressive, I hear harshness.

Note that Flying Lotus, Kendrick, and Heliocentrics are all electronic music, and detail is nice. The jazz and classical selections sound better to me on the 6xx.

 

[Beagle]

George liked the LCD1 and he uses Audeze headphones quite frequently. Here is a direct quote from GM - I’ve used Audeze headphones on every single project for the last three years.

Cool. He likes the Grado RS-1 and the ATH-M50 as well. Or did. He's quite the wizard, designed his own gear. Now teaches what he knows.

 

[MacedonianHero]

You hear aggressive, I hear harshness.

Note that Flying Lotus, Kendrick, and Heliocentrics are all electronic music, and detail is nice. The jazz and classical selections sound better to me on the 6xx.

With the HD6XX I hear a "veil"...that's why we came up with this:

 

[JoeBee]

With the HD6XX I hear a "veil"...that's why we came up with this:

Harsh is hell. Thank God for the veil!

 

[trellus]

You hear aggressive, I hear harshness.

Note that Flying Lotus, Kendrick, and Heliocentrics are all electronic music, and detail is nice. The jazz and classical selections sound better to me on the 6xx.

Timbre to me is still better on both the HD 650 and HD 600, than on LCD-1, that's one of the two things I like better on those cans than on the LCD-1 (the other being the slightly bigger soundstage), but to my ears, the LCD-1 has better extension on the low end, is faster so it has more "pop" in electronic music, and it's definitely more portable and easier to drive -- and has a similar FR to my ears, it sounds "right" and not off.

 

[Beagle]

Its a "reference" sound, according to Audeze. This implies accuracy regarding sound reproduction. So, This does not allow for any freq to be hyped as produced by the LCD1.
So, if people are only describing the bass and treble, then i count this as potentially revealing something, that might not support my idea of "reference" sound.
I agree that Audeze's reference sound is THEIR reference sound, and this is not going to sound the same as any other headphone makers "reference sound".
.

Timbre to me is still better on both the HD 650 and HD 600, than on LCD-1, that's one of the two things I like better on those cans than on the LCD-1 (the other being the slightly bigger soundstage), but to my ears, the LCD-1 has better extension on the low end, is faster so it has more "pop" in electronic music, and it's definitely more portable and easier to drive -- and has a similar FR to my ears, it sounds "right" and not off.

I would agree with you. The LCD-1's midrange is there, in proper proportion, but it's leaner, not as rich as the 650. You get more 'body' to instruments and voices with the 650. What you do lose is a bit of jump, speed and dynamics. There are trade-offs in every headphone design it would seem.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Harsh is hell. Thank God for the veil!

There is nothing harsh here (and measurements validate this)...but the excessive veil/softness of the HD650 literally can put me to sleep (as they have several times in the past)...NO THANKS! Rather what you are hearing are dynamics and punch without a hint of HD800 harshness...just as the recording called out for instead of the sleeping pill that is the HD650.

 

[Fizzley]

Timbre to me is still better on both the HD 650 and HD 600, than on LCD-1, that's one of the two things I like better on those cans than on the LCD-1 (the other being the slightly bigger soundstage), but to my ears, the LCD-1 has better extension on the low end, is faster so it has more "pop" in electronic music, and it's definitely more portable and easier to drive -- and has a similar FR to my ears, it sounds "right" and not off.

I like the sound of this! I’m an EDM guy all the way so already love Planar. I’m hoping this can be a decent upgrade from my HE-400i. Loss of some soundstage isn’t a major issue for me.

 

[trellus]

I would agree with you. The LCD-1's midrange is there, in proper proportion, but it's leaner, not as rich as the 650. You get more 'body' to instruments and voices with the 650. What you do lose is a bit of jump, speed and dynamics. There are trade-offs in every headphone design it would seem.

Yeah, listening to music with more (male) vocals and acoustic instrumentation and the guitars and his voice don't have as much body as even on the Shure SRH1840, but it's most noticeable when I first take off the SRH1840 from my ears and immediately put on the LCD-1, then my brain adjusts and it sounds "weighty enough" in short order.

 

[Auxine]

I like the sound of this! I’m an EDM guy all the way so already love Planar. I’m hoping this can be a decent upgrade from my HE-400i. Loss of some soundstage isn’t a major issue for me.

I am also an EDM guy and I slightly lean more towards the basshead side of the spectrum, these have more bass than I expected. I enjoy the extension, quantity and speed off the bass, and I find that speed and the vocal/treble clarity to be very edm friendly .

I was thinking the overall signature would be too "lean" for my preference, but Im liking it a lot.

 

[Fizzley]

I am also an EDM guy and I slightly lean more towards the basshead side of the spectrum, these have more bass than I expected. I enjoy the extension, quantity and speed off the bass, and I find that speed and the vocal/treble clarity to be very edm friendly .

I was thinking the overall signature would be too "lean" for my preference, but Im liking it a lot.

That’s great news to hear! More of a personal request that may benefit others, but do you have a 400i or 4xx for comparison sake? I’m curious to hear what others who currently use those headphones think regarding the differences. I run my 400i heavily EQ’d to smooth the highs and provide more bass extension.

 

[Auxine]

That’s great news to hear! More of a personal request that may benefit others, but do you have a 400i or 4xx for comparison sake? I’m curious to hear what others who currently use those headphones think regarding the differences. I run my 400i heavily EQ’d to smooth the highs and provide more bass extension.

Used to have the he400i several years ago

 

[Hemagome]

Boy, you're not kidding about that song from Flying Lotus -- it sounded like there was some distortion in the recording itself, to the point where I looked for it (in vain, sadly) on Tidal so I could circumvent what I thought might be some compression artifacts from YouTube, but the best I could get was AAC/256 on iTunes store, which sounded not-a-whole-lot-but-a-little better than the YouTube rendering.

It sounded very similar on the LCD-1 and my Shure SRH1840 -- my HD 600 are at home, not here, unfortunately, but the SRH1840 are similar in FR but with less bass extension and not quite as much treble extension either. The LCD-1 did give a little more information down low than the SRH1840, but that was no surprise.

I don't know anyone who would characterize the SRH1840 as "V-shaped", so I hope this helps even just a little to lay to rest the unfounded fears of a V-shaped FR on the LCD-1.

But man, that is not an easy listen, lol... and I paid $0.99 to experience the mild pain haha

How is the comfort of the lcd-1 compared with the srh1840?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Anyone that would ever call the LCD-1 bass deficient, point them to this track.




I have zero complaints with how the LCD-1 showcases this track. While bass body is generally 9/10s of the way there, the LCD-1 excels when the track has bass in spades like this. It has just enough impact, and an amazing dynamics and depth to the bass.

I don't know when I got that track, as I do have a 320kbps mp3 version.

Also, I don't agree with the notion that this is just a wired Mobius. Not at all. The Mobius sounds like the bigger brothers. The LCD-1 has its own sound. Both are excellent.

 

[PointyFox]

There isn't much sub-bass at all in that video. Maybe the extension could be evaluated better with something with more sub-bass?