[staxxx]

A friend of mine auditioned a pair of these and he was absolutely blown away by the sound, however he said that, it's ridiculously heavy and it causes him neck pain after 5 minutes of use.

Anyone else bothered by this and what can be done, if he's going to purchase one.

 

[grokit]

Most of us have gotten used to the weight, however it usually does take a bit longer than 5 minutes to do so.

 

[Head Injury]

While he waits for them to arrive, have him balance a textbook on his head to condition his neck 

 
I don't find them very heavy at all anymore, and wear them for three hours stretches no problem. They clamp hard at first which takes some of the weight off the top of your head, and by the time you're used to them the clamping has eased up. I coil the excess cable up in my lap rather than let it hang, which I think helps with the perceived weight. Frequent breaks will help a lot, every half hour at first and later every hour.

 

[Windsor]

Quote:

While he waits for them to arrive, have him balance a textbook on his head to condition his neck 

 
I don't find them very heavy at all anymore, and wear them for three hours stretches no problem. They clamp hard at first which takes some of the weight off the top of your head, and by the time you're used to them the clamping has eased up. I coil the excess cable up in my lap rather than let it hang, which I think helps with the perceived weight. Frequent breaks will help a lot, every half hour at first and later every hour.

 
It seems that keeping your neck and spine in line is key, such as when wearing the LCD-2.

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

A friend of mine auditioned a pair of these and he was absolutely blown away by the sound, however he said that, it's ridiculously heavy and it causes him neck pain after 5 minutes of use.

Anyone else bothered by this and what can be done, if he's going to purchase one.

I have arthritis in my neck and the LCDs can cause pain.  There is no way around it. The things are heavy and when you have any kind of arthritis or disc degeneration that extra weight pivoting on your neck can become problematic.  

 

[Proglover]

Quote:

A friend of mine auditioned a pair of these and he was absolutely blown away by the sound, however he said that, it's ridiculously heavy and it causes him neck pain after 5 minutes of use.

Anyone else bothered by this and what can be done, if he's going to purchase one.

Same here sometimes. At least LCD-2's give less neck problems with me then HE-500.
 

 

[Proglover]

 
Quote:

I have arthritis in my neck and the LCDs can cause pain.  There is no way around it. The things are heavy and when you have any kind of arthritis or disc degeneration that extra weight pivoting on your neck can become problematic.  

I know you're 'monogamous' with your LCD-2, and to be honest I couldn't name a better headphone currently in production, but maybe it's worth to buy a lighter one to listen music with on the 'bad neck days', WarriorAnt? T1 works very well for that with me.
 

 

[leesure]

so you mean WA 6 SE is just bad for LCD 2 (rev.1)? nothing would make any improvement at all?...


 
 

FWIW, that does NOT match my experience. I think the WA6SE sounds great with R1 LCD's. I do prefer the 6de7 driver tubes, but they are resonably priced.

I'm selling mine (it's in the classifieds) , but not because it didn't exceed expectations (it did), but rather because I acquired a Red Wine Audio balanced Isabellina ($3500 at retail) and can't justify keeping 2 kilobuck amps.

I enjoy the WA6SE/LCD-2 combination much more than the Lyr (Mullard)/LCD-2 combo. That says much, because I like the latter combo a good amount as well.

 

[elnero]

Quote:

I know you're 'monogamous' with your LCD-2, and to be honest I couldn't name a better headphone currently in production, but maybe it's worth to buy a lighter one to listen music with on the 'bad neck days', WarriorAnt? T1 works very well for that with me.
 

Or look into getting custom IEM's. It's been awhile since I had the JH Audio 13Pro's but I'd say it would be a toss up which I prefer but the new 3A system is said to take the 16Pro's to another level. The 13Pro's were like my holy grail of phones but they were aggravating TMJ related pain in my left ear. After over six months struggling to get the fit right it became apparent the only option was to get new impressions which is quite costly for me because I was only able to find one audiologist here that would do them so it would mean a trip to the mainland. I wouldn't have been opposed to that but I was fairly sure going any deeper was only going to aggravate the problems in my ear further so I finally had to give in and sell them at a significant loss. The LCD-2's were my consolation prize, not a bad consolation prize but I'd still prefer I high-end IEM because I like how they can pretty much disappear and you get great isolation without all the drawbacks of most full-sized closed phones.

 

[grokit]

An Edition 8 would also be an excellent compliment: it's light, closed and has similar driving requirements as the LCD-2. Unless your amp is Lyr then forget it.

 

[KevinWolff]

I would like to get a good IEM at some point. How does the bass in a good IEM compare to the bass in the LCD-2?
 
Quote:

Or look into getting custom IEM's. It's been awhile since I had the JH Audio 13Pro's but I'd say it would be a toss up which I prefer but the new 3A system is said to take the 16Pro's to another level. The 13Pro's were like my holy grail of phones but they were aggravating TMJ related pain in my left ear. After over six months struggling to get the fit right it became apparent the only option was to get new impressions which is quite costly for me because I was only able to find one audiologist here that would do them so it would mean a trip to the mainland. I wouldn't have been opposed to that but I was fairly sure going any deeper was only going to aggravate the problems in my ear further so I finally had to give in and sell them at a significant loss. The LCD-2's were my consolation prize, not a bad consolation prize but I'd still prefer I high-end IEM because I like how they can pretty much disappear and you get great isolation without all the drawbacks of most full-sized closed phones.

 

 

[elnero]

Quote:

I would like to get a good IEM at some point. How does the bass in a good IEM compare to the bass in the LCD-2?

 
The bass on the 13Pro's was impressive, like the LCD-2's it's fairly flat but has an intentional boost in the sub-bass which serves to give more presence. There was no bloat or muddiness and it was seamlessly integrated, detail throughout was up there with the best I've heard. My only gripe was some recordings lacked a bit of mid-bass impact that I was used to hearing which may be due to a flatter frequency response or it may have had to do with my fit issues. The 16Pro's are said to have more bass which supposedly makes them a better choice for the 3A system where you can tailor the bass to get a response closer to the 13's if you wish.

 

[Windsor]

Quote:

I know you're 'monogamous' with your LCD-2, and to be honest I couldn't name a better headphone currently in production, but maybe it's worth to buy a lighter one to listen music with on the 'bad neck days', WarriorAnt? T1 works very well for that with me.
 

 
@WarriorAnt: To further this, have you tried/considered IEMs? I see that JH Audio and Ultimate Ears make some fine products.

 

[Windsor]

Quote:

Or look into getting custom IEM's. It's been awhile since I had the JH Audio 13Pro's but I'd say it would be a toss up which I prefer but the new 3A system is said to take the 16Pro's to another level. The 13Pro's were like my holy grail of phones but they were aggravating TMJ related pain in my left ear. After over six months struggling to get the fit right it became apparent the only option was to get new impressions which is quite costly for me because I was only able to find one audiologist here that would do them so it would mean a trip to the mainland. I wouldn't have been opposed to that but I was fairly sure going any deeper was only going to aggravate the problems in my ear further so I finally had to give in and sell them at a significant loss. The LCD-2's were my consolation prize, not a bad consolation prize but I'd still prefer I high-end IEM because I like how they can pretty much disappear and you get great isolation without all the drawbacks of most full-sized closed phones.

 
I didn't see this when writing the above post.

 

[Windsor]

Burn-in update: On a steady diet of pink noise, my LCD-2 rev2 is gradually becoming smoother and smoother sounding. There's perhaps 23-24 hours total play time on it now and I'm looking forward to experiencing the refinements as time progresses.