viveksaikia22
100+ Head-Fier
Audeze LCD 2.2(non-fazer) has been my favorite headphones for the last couple of years now and the very fact that I haven't had any itch to upgrade says a lot about them.
These headphones sound near perfect to me with a very smooth and detailed top end and just the right amount of bass.
I use a Violectric V200 headphone amp to drive these with a Chord Mojo DAC and I feel this is a marriage made in heaven. I use Audirvana+ on my MBP which feeds the Mojo. The overall sound is very pleasing to me and I can listen to music for hours (my personal record has been 6 hours at a stretch).
So, if these headphones are so perfect then why this post, you would ask. Well, I feel in this hobby there is always a longing to attain that audio nirvana. And this mod was just as a little step in that direction.
If I nitpick, the top end on these headphones can sound a bit diffused sometime and may lack that much-needed energy that some music demands (cymbal crash and all that). The midrange is pretty neutral to my ears but I could have always used some more upper midrange. The bass on these headphones is very fast and well defined. That's perfectly what the doctor prescribed. The only thing which I may long for is some bass impact as imparted by the dynamic driver headphones.
With all the time in my hand due to this lockdown, I started to think about ways to enhance the sound from these headphones. I knew they had good modding potential due to their open nature. With the right amount of damping, you can shape the sound to your liking.
I started by cupping the earcups with my palms to perceive any difference in sound. With the right distance of my palms from the earcups, the top end became more clear and the voices became more intimate. I was liking what I was hearing. I decided to give this mod a go.
I found some felt sheets in my wife's DIY basket. I cut some concentric ring out of it and stuck it to the inner foam padding of the headphones. The sound was cleaner and less diffused. I experimented with different diameters of both the inner and outer diameters of the concentric ring pad. Finally, the diameters which worked perfect for me were - inner diameter at 1.25" and an outer diameter at 2.5".
Here are my observations after the mod -
High Frequency:
In the stock form, the highs are very smooth but with all the details, however, it may lack some energy and hence may sound diffused in some songs.
After the mod, the top end became more cohesive and more clear. There was just enough bite in the high end which helped the cymbals sound a little more realistic. The sound was still smooth with no harshness or sibilance whatsoever. I am sensitive to sibilance and I have been able to listen to these for hours without any fatigue. Awesome!
Mid Frequency:
In the stock form, the midrange sound quite neutral. I always like a little bumped up upper mid frequencies. This mod just did that. It brought out the upper midrange a bit more, just a tiny bit. Now, the percussion instruments sound more "life-like" and have more "meat to the bones". The vocals, especially female, have a more intimate character to it and it is now much easier to follow the voice (if you know what I mean). It is now like getting gently massaged by the voice.
The lower midrange doesn't have any perceivable impact, as far I can tell.
Low Frequency:
In stock form, I like the bass out of these as they are quite well articulated and fast and more importantly without any bloat. Understandably, the only thing they may behind the dynamic driver headphones is the slam or the impact of the bass drums.
This mod actually helped in getting back some of that bass impact. The bass definition improved as well and I am hearing some increase in bass quantity as well. Overall a welcome change!
Just to make sure my observations were not my confirmation bias, I listened to them for hours for a couple of days and found the observations indeed checks out.
Overall, I feel this was the least amount of money I have ever spent to gain such huge improvements. In this hobby where the law of diminishing returns holds true, where people spend hundreds of dollars just to get some minor improvements, I am very happy with this little mod of mine. The best thing about this mod is that it is totally reversible.
If you want to see if this mod will help you or not, you can simply cup the earcups with your palm and if you feel the sound improves then you can try out this mod. You may have to do some hit and trial with different sizes of the felt ring.
Some pictures for your eyes only -
These headphones sound near perfect to me with a very smooth and detailed top end and just the right amount of bass.
I use a Violectric V200 headphone amp to drive these with a Chord Mojo DAC and I feel this is a marriage made in heaven. I use Audirvana+ on my MBP which feeds the Mojo. The overall sound is very pleasing to me and I can listen to music for hours (my personal record has been 6 hours at a stretch).
So, if these headphones are so perfect then why this post, you would ask. Well, I feel in this hobby there is always a longing to attain that audio nirvana. And this mod was just as a little step in that direction.
If I nitpick, the top end on these headphones can sound a bit diffused sometime and may lack that much-needed energy that some music demands (cymbal crash and all that). The midrange is pretty neutral to my ears but I could have always used some more upper midrange. The bass on these headphones is very fast and well defined. That's perfectly what the doctor prescribed. The only thing which I may long for is some bass impact as imparted by the dynamic driver headphones.
With all the time in my hand due to this lockdown, I started to think about ways to enhance the sound from these headphones. I knew they had good modding potential due to their open nature. With the right amount of damping, you can shape the sound to your liking.
I started by cupping the earcups with my palms to perceive any difference in sound. With the right distance of my palms from the earcups, the top end became more clear and the voices became more intimate. I was liking what I was hearing. I decided to give this mod a go.
I found some felt sheets in my wife's DIY basket. I cut some concentric ring out of it and stuck it to the inner foam padding of the headphones. The sound was cleaner and less diffused. I experimented with different diameters of both the inner and outer diameters of the concentric ring pad. Finally, the diameters which worked perfect for me were - inner diameter at 1.25" and an outer diameter at 2.5".
Here are my observations after the mod -
High Frequency:
In the stock form, the highs are very smooth but with all the details, however, it may lack some energy and hence may sound diffused in some songs.
After the mod, the top end became more cohesive and more clear. There was just enough bite in the high end which helped the cymbals sound a little more realistic. The sound was still smooth with no harshness or sibilance whatsoever. I am sensitive to sibilance and I have been able to listen to these for hours without any fatigue. Awesome!
Mid Frequency:
In the stock form, the midrange sound quite neutral. I always like a little bumped up upper mid frequencies. This mod just did that. It brought out the upper midrange a bit more, just a tiny bit. Now, the percussion instruments sound more "life-like" and have more "meat to the bones". The vocals, especially female, have a more intimate character to it and it is now much easier to follow the voice (if you know what I mean). It is now like getting gently massaged by the voice.
The lower midrange doesn't have any perceivable impact, as far I can tell.
Low Frequency:
In stock form, I like the bass out of these as they are quite well articulated and fast and more importantly without any bloat. Understandably, the only thing they may behind the dynamic driver headphones is the slam or the impact of the bass drums.
This mod actually helped in getting back some of that bass impact. The bass definition improved as well and I am hearing some increase in bass quantity as well. Overall a welcome change!
Just to make sure my observations were not my confirmation bias, I listened to them for hours for a couple of days and found the observations indeed checks out.
Overall, I feel this was the least amount of money I have ever spent to gain such huge improvements. In this hobby where the law of diminishing returns holds true, where people spend hundreds of dollars just to get some minor improvements, I am very happy with this little mod of mine. The best thing about this mod is that it is totally reversible.
If you want to see if this mod will help you or not, you can simply cup the earcups with your palm and if you feel the sound improves then you can try out this mod. You may have to do some hit and trial with different sizes of the felt ring.
Some pictures for your eyes only -
