Been a while since I posted, had to sell most of my stuff to pay for my wife's surgeries and our new lifestyle change (she lost her vision). I did manage to snag a pair of V-moda m-100's which were awesome at the time, closed back for listening in hospital waiting rooms, but they were completely different from what I had. A few months ago I came across some Sennheiser HD 558's at Best Buy clearance open item 60 dollars and I was able to get back into my old listening habits, fantastic value those, really underrated. To be honest, I could settle for them, and be happy, but my wife wanted me to get back some of what I had lost. I really liked my HD 558's, however, and figured rather than re purchase HD 800's or Grado's, I would try something new. So here I am with a used pair of LCD 2 Shedua's that I finally put back in their case, and I am extremely satisfied and very surprised. I always thought these were bass heavy dark headphones, but these aren't dark in the least, might even be just a touch sibilant right on the edge of my hearing, but not quite at the level of harshness that would lead to fatigue with longer listening times. Detailed to the point of fault, the few edm, electronic cds I have sound synthetic with these headphones, artificial. Poorly recorded thrash metal sounds like trash metal. I can almost hear Mr. Coltrane's saxophone curling the smoke of a nearby smokers at a jazz club. But even so, bass goes all the way down, and unlike the Sennheisers, feels like lower than I can hear, but where I can still feel it, and lots and lots of layers. And unlike the V-modas, it seems to match the recording, if the recording has bass, then there is bass, and vice versa. Mids are board flat, not as inspiring as the bass or the highs, but not really lacking either, beautiful in their own right, just outclassed by the highs and lows.
The one thing that does suffer with the audeze's is the sound staging. Not as wide as the sennheiser, but not closed in by any means, but it does put the vocals a little too far back if the recording isn't perfect. It would be the perfect headphone if the soundstage was just a little wider and less deep. Still, its a minor quibble for a headphone that manages to reproduce sound at all ranges as well as it does.
Solid 5 stars, I'll try some more electronic music at some point, but for now, I would say Jazz and small ensemble chamber are the best for these. Anything with real instruments and good recording sound pretty good actually, havent had any problems with classic rock, though most of my classic rock collection consist of remastered versions, so ymmv....
Needless to say I'll be keeping these, unless something else major happens....
