[jamato8]

We all adapt differently, some being ok with a situation and some not, even after some time is given. I have never found it adapting when going from my Ultrasone Ed. 9 to any other phone and yet I read all the time that Ultrasone require some getting used to or adapting to the sound, even by those who really like them. For me, there is no issue. They sound a little different but it isn't anything that I don't instantly settle down with. 

 

[sokolov91]

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I don't think anyone was expecting the LCD to please everyone and the subdued treble is a well recognized part of the phones signature. They are still extremely resolving and fast though. I instantly loved the sound and it stayed that way.

 
I found they were a step below stax in that department, and they didn't really reveal anything more than my ER4S (but they had superior vocal separation).
 
I'm talking about pushing passages down the lower end of the spectrum way back for some odd reason and blurring particular phrases.
 
Other than that, it's fine.

good few notches above the C.E.C source + Stax 404 set up I demoed a few times at my local hi-fi store. Sounds detailed because it is bright for the most part... but it does have an enjoyable sound.
 
LCD-2, to my ears, are definitely more linear and better detailed. The soundstage isn't as good, but imaging is better.

 

[jamato8]

So by imaging that is better but soundstage that isn't as good, I assume there isn't the layering and depth as with some phones? I used to refer to some imaging on speaker system as paper cutouts. They could be well placed but didn't have a roundness or depth and while everything was imaged, the stage was flat with images spread out flat. 

 

[sokolov91]

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So by imaging that is better but soundstage that isn't as good, I assume there isn't the layering and depth as with some phones? I used to refer to some imaging on speaker system as paper cutouts. They could be well placed but didn't have a roundness or depth and while everything was imaged, the stage was flat with images spread out flat. 

It is hard to describe, but I also heard it initially as "too much" information trying to get through. nothing is exaggerated, and as a result nothing is drowned out... they are also brutally revealing... combine all this and you have a headphone that gives you more than any other one (to my ears) but in every frequency band, all at the same time. So it comes of as more crowded than other headphones.
 
I have had mine since august though, and I have come to really understand them (well as far as I am concerned) and they have a better soundstage, but it is still not the best. The strength is in the imaging, and precision. But the soundstage is by no means horrid, and it grows on you. But it is definitely more layered than 3D.
 
The impact is very 3D/visceral, but the overall picture is not IMO... it is like looking at super high quality photo shots of untouched nature... there is just so much to appreciated, and great quality... but you still can't reach out and touch it. But this is why we have speakers . Other headphones by comparison are like crappy 3D glasses... you can "reach out and touch it", but it is all skewed and distorted with random red and blue everywhere. Obviously this is a gross exaggeration, but this is a metaphor that makes sense to me.
 
The detail of other headphones is not really that bad, the same way the soundstage really isn't that bad. But if the LCD-2 had as good a soundstage as it did imaging, it would be the end of head-fi haha because it would have just about no flaw sonically.

 

[jamato8]

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The detail of other headphones is not really that bad, the same way the soundstage really isn't that great. But if the LCD-2 had as good a soundstage as it did imaging, it would be the end of head-fi haha because it would have just about no flaw sonically.

Thank you!
 
Well even the greatest speakers still seem to have one flaw or another at one time or another, depending upon one's mood. And even life performance have left me wanting, many, many times. Flat, no imaging no detail and it isn't like I had to have it but it was a real event and didn't have the feel of it even though it was right in front of me. And so it goes. I look forward to mine and I am glad they aren't a terror to amp. I have a number of options and configurations to try out. Balanced is what also intrigues me. 
 

 

[sokolov91]

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The detail of other headphones is not really that bad, the same way the soundstage really isn't that great. But if the LCD-2 had as good a soundstage as it did imaging, it would be the end of head-fi haha because it would have just about no flaw sonically.

Thank you!
 
Well even the greatest speakers still seem to have one flaw or another at one time or another, depending upon one's mood. And even life performance have left me wanting, many, many times. Flat, no imaging no detail and it isn't like I had to have it but it was a real event and didn't have the feel of it even though it was right in front of me. And so it goes. I look forward to mine and I am glad they aren't a terror to amp. I have a number of options and configurations to try out. Balanced is what also intrigues me. 
 

I meant that the sound stage really wasn't that bad and not what I previously wrote that indicated the opposite, but it would seem you read it the right way anyways .

 

[TigzStudio]

Quick story, I had a friend over recently who absolutely has hated headphones and always speaks out against them in regards to speakers being the only way to go.  He is big on speakers and feels headphones are not his cup of tea at all, but he has also never really heard many high end or different tech. based headphones/headphone systems.  So I decided to force him to listen to the LCD-2s with a handfull of 24 bit tracks that he was familiar with out of the Zodiac+....I set them up in a playlist and left the room.  Maybe 30 seconds after I left the room I heard him say "WOW, OK, I want these headphones!".  I could not pry him from the LCD-2's for the rest of the night, and I believe he will be pre-ordering a pair in the not to distant future.  
 
The LCD-2's really do have an innate ability, in my opinion, to emotionally involve you deeper into the music.  Are they absolutely perfect?  Perhaps not, but they are able to give you a pretty accurate representation of the recording depending on your overall system.  My friend is extremely picky and I feel has some fine ears on him (despite his previous stubborn, blind headphone hate).  I was also a bit surprised by his immediate reaction because my personal reaction when I first got the LCD-2's was more the same as others.  Something along the lines of "wow ok that is a lot of in your face yet resolving sound going on".  As the days went by I basically fell in love with them and what they were able to portray, and to this day I would not want to part with them. Ultimately the best sound you can get from a recording is how the engineers intended it to sound, and unfortunately in this day and age these intentions seem to be music made for the radio and not hifi enthusiasts.  But that is for another thread.  

 

[Skylab]

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I don't think anyone was expecting the LCD to please everyone and the subdued treble is a well recognized part of the phones signature. They are still extremely resolving and fast though. I instantly loved the sound and it stayed that way.

Same here - I too loved them instantly, and continue to these many months later.
 
Regarding detail - some headphones seem more detailed due to a treble emphasis.  The LCD-2 clearly do not have that.  Their detail I believe is due to the low distortion of the planar panel.

 

[MrGreen]

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I don't think anyone was expecting the LCD to please everyone and the subdued treble is a well recognized part of the phones signature. They are still extremely resolving and fast though. I instantly loved the sound and it stayed that way.

Same here - I too loved them instantly, and continue to these many months later.
 
Regarding detail - some headphones seem more detailed due to a treble emphasis.  The LCD-2 clearly do not have that.  Their detail I believe is due to the low distortion of the planar panel.

IMO they're not that detailed and people are keen to play the "you just think that because of the treble", when I clearly heard things in lower registers from an O2 and Lambda Sig setup that were pushed way back on the LCD-2. Everything they present is very clear, however. I was auditioning pieces I was EXTREMELY familiar with, and with the LCD-2 I only had one "wait, what" moment (which IMO was where the LCD-2 was playing it poorly). On stax I had several "wait what" moments which revealed things that were previously not so... "there".
 
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The LCD-2's really do have an innate ability, in my opinion, to emotionally involve you deeper into the music.

 
Fair enough, but this is completely subjective and I TOTALLY disagree with this statement. It's impossible to hear the music, because you're always hearing the gear. If you correct the IMO awful frequency response, you get far closer to the music. But meh.

 
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So by imaging that is better but soundstage that isn't as good, I assume there isn't the layering and depth as with some phones? I used to refer to some imaging on speaker system as paper cutouts. They could be well placed but didn't have a roundness or depth and while everything was imaged, the stage was flat with images spread out flat. 

 
The soundstage is smaller and far more 2 dimensional than a large number of phones. The stereopositioning within this smaller headspace is very good. If you've heard the ER4S or even an SA5k, it's sort of like that (they both have small soundstages, but they're pin-point accurate). I also find theyre both quite 2d. I actually find the LCD far more two dimensional than the ER4S.
 
 
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Since when is having to adapt to something a bad thing?
 
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I think people need to take some time with these headphones to get used to it.

This is not a desirable quality IMO.

 

When coming from more or less neutral, it's pretty bad. I'm reluctant to use the term veiled, because these headphones certainly don't have that HD650 "crappiness" about them (in terms of sound quality), but they're certainly not doing themselves any favours.
 
 
 
 
 

 

[kwkarth]

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If anybody missed it, Larry the Headphone Addict concurred with Mike's revised impressions of the LCD-2. I also agree with them, after spending some quality time with both the LCD-2 and the HE-6. They both do some things very well but they also have issues, albeit different ones.
 
Mike's last comment, "I think the problem with planars, so far, is that the very short transients, though very articulate, sometimes doesn't sound natural." was particularly relevant to my experience with both of them.
 
In fact my HE-5, while it isn't as proficient as the LCD-2 and HE-6 in some areas, is the more enjoyable headphone to me than the other two because it doesn't have as many glaring deficiencies. It also weighs a lot less on my head.

This is a completely meaningless statement, and succinctly expresses the reviewer's ignorance. Having said that, I have no quarrel with his opinion, even though I don't share it.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion.
 

 

[Frank I]

 
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If anybody missed it, Larry the Headphone Addict concurred with Mike's revised impressions of the LCD-2. I also agree with them, after spending some quality time with both the LCD-2 and the HE-6. They both do some things very well but they also have issues, albeit different ones.
 
Mike's last comment, "I think the problem with planars, so far, is that the very short transients, though very articulate, sometimes doesn't sound natural." was particularly relevant to my experience with both of them.
 
In fact my HE-5, while it isn't as proficient as the LCD-2 and HE-6 in some areas, is the more enjoyable headphone to me than the other two because it doesn't have as many glaring deficiencies. It also weighs a lot less on my head.

This is a completely meaningless statement, and succinctly expresses the reviewer's ignorance. Having said that, I have no quarrel with his opinion, even though I don't share it.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion.
 

LOL I agree. Planars are the most natural and realistic presentation I have heard whether it be a speaker or a headphone.
 

 

[Danz03]

Pinpoint accurate? I guess you'd know the positions of all the musicians and instruments and the size of the recording studios because you were there during the recording sessions of all the music you listen to? 

 
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Originally Posted by MrGreen /img/forum/go_quote.gif

The soundstage is smaller and far more 2 dimensional than a large number of phones. The stereopositioning within this smaller headspace is very good. If you've heard the ER4S or even an SA5k, it's sort of like that (they both have small soundstages, but they're pin-point accurate). I also find theyre both quite 2d. I actually find the LCD far more two dimensional than the ER4S.

 

[wuwhere]

Then he comes back and says he prefers his HE-5 which just happens to be a planar also.

 

[MrGreen]

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Pinpoint accurate? I guess you'd know the positions of all the musicians and instruments and the size of the recording studios because you were there during the recording sessions of all the music you listen to? 

 
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Originally Posted by MrGreen /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
The soundstage is smaller and far more 2 dimensional than a large number of phones. The stereopositioning within this smaller headspace is very good. If you've heard the ER4S or even an SA5k, it's sort of like that (they both have small soundstages, but they're pin-point accurate). I also find theyre both quite 2d. I actually find the LCD far more two dimensional than the ER4S.

That's not how it works these days.

 

[vcoheda]

the LCD2 is definitely very impressive and not FOTM. i am still in great wonderment that a small company with limited resources could produce such a quality headphone - one that easily competes with the mighty HD800 and Stax headphones. Someone like Sony should buy Audeze, polish up the design/materials of the LCD2 and mass produce them. it would be a huge success.