[MRC001]

FWIW, my early 2014 LCD-2 Fazor is still going strong with near-daily use. My June 2016 has also been reliable.
That said, all the LCD models have had failures. From what I've read, Audeze has been solid on warranty support and improving reliability.

 

[Marqzen]

I'm a former owner of LCD2's and absolutely loved the warm sound of it, and whit vinyl they sounded magical

 

[chimney189]

Hello forum,
I just bought a pair of Audeze LCD-2 Rev.2 for just under $700, nearly new, still wrapped in cellophane! Everything from the case, the cables, and the headphones themselves exudes quality. The case is just spectacular. Feeling the latches snap into place is such a subtle pleasure. It's nice to know that I won't have to look around for some make-shift case to carry them around. I love picking up the headphones and feeling the grills press against my finger tips, seeing the pillow-like pads slightly squish. I'm seriously a fan of the ribbon-like cable. No kinks, perfect length, and for once I don't feel like I need to buy a replacement cable! I'll also note that the comfort is not much of an issue for me, but after long listening sessions I begin to feel that pinpoint pressure building on the top of my head. I'm considering purchasing the carbon fiber headband, although the price has me picking up my jaw from the floor. Can anyone provide some experiences on this modification?

I have to admit that this was an impulse purchase. A majority of the reason behind this purchase was constantly reading about the Audeze house sound: its warm mid-range, laid-back signature and immaculate, marble-smashing bass. It's safe to say that my initial impressions have stood up to my hyped-perception.

I went through a few test tracks within Jeremy Soule's Morrowind OST, Amon Tobin's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory OST, and Audioslave's single Revelations. I enjoyed each listening session, but a few things stood out to me: soundstage, lower mid-range, how the sound signature handles complex music (Amon Tobin): specifically the speed of the sound signature, how much power the headphone requires, how loud I can turn up the music, the bass slam and accuracy, overall atmosphere (the feeling of depth and envelopment of the musical bubble), detail retrieval, and overall coherency. These are strengths of the sound signature that I cannot help but notice in any song that I listened to. I'd like to note that the speed of the headphone is not as fast as say the HE-500, but I found that Audeze's speed let me make sense of complex music .. I could break down the music into a coherent whole instead of all of the sounds rushing at me, which happened with the HE-500. This and the placement of instruments with the soundstage's depth made fast, complex music more comforting rather than chaotic.

Finally, I'm not selling this headphone. It's nearly a complete package.
Down the line I'm almost certain that I'll find instances where I can nitpick and find faults in the sound signature, but this is what happens when one is in a relationship after the honey-moon period.

 

[DavidA]

@chimney189 , I would suggest the Lohb strap, cheaper than the carbon fiber headband and much more comfortable.

 

[PinkyPowers]

Hello forum,
I just bought a pair of Audeze LCD-2 Rev.2 for just under $700, nearly new, still wrapped in cellophane! Everything from the case, the cables, and the headphones themselves exudes quality. The case is just spectacular. Feeling the latches snap into place is such a subtle pleasure. It's nice to know that I won't have to look around for some make-shift case to carry them around. I love picking up the headphones and feeling the grills press against my finger tips, seeing the pillow-like pads slightly squish. I'm seriously a fan of the ribbon-like cable. No kinks, perfect length, and for once I don't feel like I need to buy a replacement cable! I'll also note that the comfort is not much of an issue for me, but after long listening sessions I begin to feel that pinpoint pressure building on the top of my head. I'm considering purchasing the carbon fiber headband, although the price has me picking up my jaw from the floor. Can anyone provide some experiences on this modification?

I have to admit that this was an impulse purchase. A majority of the reason behind this purchase was constantly reading about the Audeze house sound: its warm mid-range, laid-back signature and immaculate, marble-smashing bass. It's safe to say that my initial impressions have stood up to my hyped-perception.

I went through a few test tracks within Jeremy Soule's Morrowind OST, Amon Tobin's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory OST, and Audioslave's single Revelations. I enjoyed each listening session, but a few things stood out to me: soundstage, lower mid-range, how the sound signature handles complex music (Amon Tobin): specifically the speed of the sound signature, how much power the headphone requires, how loud I can turn up the music, the bass slam and accuracy, overall atmosphere (the feeling of depth and envelopment of the musical bubble), detail retrieval, and overall coherency. These are strengths of the sound signature that I cannot help but notice in any song that I listened to. I'd like to note that the speed of the headphone is not as fast as say the HE-500, but I found that Audeze's speed let me make sense of complex music .. I could break down the music into a coherent whole instead of all of the sounds rushing at me, which happened with the HE-500. This and the placement of instruments with the soundstage's depth made fast, complex music more comforting rather than chaotic.

Finally, I'm not selling this headphone. It's nearly a complete package.
Down the line I'm almost certain that I'll find instances where I can nitpick and find faults in the sound signature, but this is what happens when one is in a relationship after the honey-moon period.

I'm surprised you named "soundstage" as one of its strengths. I consider that to be the LCD-2's only real sonic weakness.

 

[seamon]

Looking at the kind of activity in this thread, I guess LCD 2 is infinitely more popular than LCD 3 huh

 

[chimney189]

I'm surprised you named "soundstage" as one of its strengths. I consider that to be the LCD-2's only real sonic weakness.

What about the soundstage do you consider a weakness?

 

[PinkyPowers]

It's quite constrained and boxy. I'd like much more width. That would make the LCD-2 perfect, in my eyes. Right now it's only "almost" perfect. ;D

 

[MRC001]

I'm surprised you named "soundstage" as one of its strengths. I consider that to be the LCD-2's only real sonic weakness.

Soundstage is so subjective and hard to quantify. And so few recordings are made in natural spaces with a simple Blumlein pair other other minimalist micing arrangement where a real soundstage actually exists and can be captured in the recording. Except in these rare cases, whatever soundstage we hear is artificially engineered into the recording after-the-fact.

If anyone wants to hear what a real soundstage sounds like, try one of the 1960s RCA Victor Fritz Reiners. Most were done with 3 mics (left, center, right) and have holographic 3-D imaging on good speakers. Or, I can post an example of a recording I made with a Blumlein pair of Rode NT1-As that has a naturally occuring soundstage. It's a local amateur brass group.

Try the soundstage with this recording. Whatever you hear is the natural space, image and soundstage captured with 2 microphones - nothing artificial. This is what soundstage image SHOULD sound like:
http://mclements.net/audio/brassQuintet.flac
The only processing was to convert from 96-24 to 44-16 and set the peaks as high as possible without compression or clipping. To my ears, it has natural, realistic tonal balance and dynamics - that's what the live event sounded like. And the soundstage imaging is clear both L-R and front to back--you can hear where each player is sitting. This due mainly to the mic configuration, audience 1st row center about 5' off the ground, mics roughly 90* to each other capsules about 6" apart. Looking at my notes for this recording, I used ORTF not Blumlein. But ORTF like Blumlein is also great at capturing a natural soundstage. This recording does lack "air" or energy above 10 kHz, but that's mainly because it was a big space and the mics were too far away to capture those freqs, which dissipate quickly with distance.

 

[eschaaf]

All of this about LCD-2 Failures... I have a '14 2F and a '10 pair of LCD-2 and they're both working perfectly well. I'm the second owner of each. I vastly prefer the 2010 LCD-2, with that linear sub-bass extension and lack of treble peakiness, despite the headphones being very liquid and dark. I swapped the very old 2010 pads with new leather pads, which improved the imaging, and removed the original aluminum/foam headband with a leather one. The sound out of them is perfect for when I'm in the mood for an intimate and seductive presentation. For a more lively presentation I have my modded HE-6's.

 

[Stars700]

reading from the first

 

[ScareDe2]

Hi everyone,

Not yet a year I own those headphones, sounds amazing but it's going to be a second repair. I own the LCD2.2 with fazors and the right driver just died.

I think audeze is just refurbishing it without fixing the problem. That's strange. I am starting to think I will have to sell this pair before the warranty ends. Any suggestion of an headphone that has similar sound (perhaps a tad bit more excitement in the treble region) that has great synergy with a schiit lyr 2/bifrost MB combo?

 

[DavidA]

Hi everyone,

Not yet a year I own those headphones, sounds amazing but it's going to be a second repair. I own the LCD2.2 with fazors and the right driver just died.

I think audeze is just refurbishing it without fixing the problem. That's strange. I am starting to think I will have to sell this pair before the warranty ends. Any suggestion of an headphone that has similar sound (perhaps a tad bit more excitement in the treble region) that has great synergy with a schiit lyr 2/bifrost MB combo?

HE560 would be my suggestion for more excitement in the highs, and I use my with Lyr2 / (Bimby or UD-301)

 

[happyxix]

Sorry for the very general question, but how are the LCD-2 compared to the DT880 Pro? I have been using the DT880 for almost a decade now and they were considered my endgame headphones after owning the HD800, D7000, and other misc $300-500 headphones ( for the late 2000s).

Now my Amp/DAC combination is having popping issues, I've been dragged back into the game to see what else is out there. I've heard of the LCD-2 as I was exiting the game but it looks like they have made some improvements?

The biggest thing bothering me with the DT880s is the lack of mid bass and slight harsh highs. From what I read, the T1 doesn't really improve that much on the harshness of the highs.

I do use my cans for gaming as well, so how is the soundstage of the LCD 2?

I plan on replacing my old amp/dac with the Schiit Jotunheim. For those that heard/have both, will LCD 2 give me the bass bump and less harsh highs I'm looking for?

Thank you!

 

[thecrow]

Sorry for the very general question, but how are the LCD-2 compared to the DT880 Pro? I have been using the DT880 for almost a decade now and they were considered my endgame headphones after owning the HD800, D7000, and other misc $300-500 headphones ( for the late 2000s).

Now my Amp/DAC combination is having popping issues, I've been dragged back into the game to see what else is out there. I've heard of the LCD-2 as I was exiting the game but it looks like they have made some improvements?

The biggest thing bothering me with the DT880s is the lack of mid bass and slight harsh highs. From what I read, the T1 doesn't really improve that much on the harshness of the highs.

I do use my cans for gaming as well, so how is the soundstage of the LCD 2?

I plan on replacing my old amp/dac with the Schiit Jotunheim. For those that heard/have both, will LCD 2 give me the bass bump and less harsh highs I'm looking for?

Thank you!

The lcd 2 is a better headphone but perhaps with what you're describing re what you are looking for, if you haven't already, have a look/listen to the philips x2. Again the lcd2 are better but the x2 is IMO great bang for buck and may please