Hi,
I have just sold my HiFiMAN HE-500s, and should be buying a new LCD-2 in a couple of weeks. It looks as though there is one shop in my city that has them in stock and I will be going there to audition them properly before buying, ..but anyway I have a couple of questions - in an effort to try to make my expectations realistic (as I will probably be in quite an excited state when I go to the shop).
1). Can anyone comment on how the bass of the latest revision, LCD-2 Faser compares to the bass put out by the HE-500s? Or if not, maybe how much it's changed from the earlier LCD-2s from several years back?
2). Given that this shop I will be going to is listed as an authorized, recommended retailer by Audeze... (and this is a relatively isolated city) is it realistic to go in there demanding that I won't settle for anything but a current model Dec '2015-onwards unit? Do you think I can just take their word for it on this, or should I expect to see the factory quality inspected certificate dated post-November 2015? - any advice?
I was persuaded to have a listen to an LCD-2 and a T1 a few years back (despite me protesting that they were way over my spending limit at the time so there didn't seem to be much point). I loved the Audeze sound - truly hifi, but with that really effortless, full-bodied bass that puts a big smile on my face. Like pretty-much all of us, I listen to various different genres.. but my favourite are electronic-based. I guess I could describe myself as an entry-level audiophile with a bass-head leaning. I think the Hifiman HE-500 wasn't a bad choice at the time. I think they are a great value headphone at $700AUS... but they just don't do that sub-woofer-like bass. I know that some people on head-fi that clearly know what they're talking about really rate the HE-500 specifically for electronic music, and yeah I can understand that to a degree, but actually I'm pretty sure I enjoy listening to my IE80's more (for electronic). Now, I've read through a lot of this thread, and I'm aware that the LCD-2 has gone through a couple of revisions that have changed it's sound significantly... but what I'm ultimately looking for in my hopefully 'end-game' headphone is quite specific. More recently I've found out that the higher frequencies in my hearing are a bit lower than what you would expect. So I now know that I should definitely steer clear of particularly warm sounding headphones. (I now have a good 2-channel system and a good collection of CD-quality music, as well as a few pretty decent pairs of headphones... so I guess I'm reasonably discerning in wanting proper hifi resolution in my music enjoyment. But I also LOVE quality, impact-full bass that goes down really low. So I'm really hoping that these LCD-2s are going to be my end-game home-listening heaphones, and will last me for a good, long time. $1600(AUS) is a serious purchase (going higher up into full-on 'summit-fi' territory is pretty-much out of the question for me - at least for the time being).
I will be using them with an Audio-GD SA-31SE and a M2Tech 'Hiface' DAC. (Could look at possibly up-grading my DAC a bit further down the line.
Would be really interested to read any comments.