Audeze LCD-2 Orthos

[sokolov91]

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Of Course! My point is that transistors are the norm for Ortho's, not the exception! And, I feel it's more of a spectral shift, not just frequency attenuation (hard for people to digest that haven't lived with the phone a bit), that the Audez'e renders it's particular balance.

And the weird part (yeah it's weird), I would be one who would need the upper frequency rise to add presence or detail. After a little flex and a new cable I was taken aback by the reduction of resonant hash (yes, by direct contrast to phones I own) and the relaxed clarity available.
 
When I managed the full of the acoustic weight, and the whole of the tonal bodies from both the Piano and Violin, I was hooked! And then the resulting reference change and listening preference remarks. Some like Vanilla....some like Chocolate...I like both.

So it took a 500$ cable for them to sound good? guess that makes them only 100$ more than the HD 800
 

 

[grokit]

I'm sure the HD800 would benefit from a $450 cable as well...

 

[perrew]

Achristlaw tell ua about the cable, copper or silver and plugs used?

 

[sachu]

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And the weird part (yeah it's weird), I would be one who would need the upper frequency rise to add presence or detail. After a little flex and a new cable I was taken aback by the reduction of resonant hash (yes, by direct contrast to phones I own) and the relaxed clarity available.
 

I can't agree more with you my friend. That is exactly how the ALO cable sounded to my ears as well. I just couldn't put it in as eloquent words as yours. 

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

Achristlaw tell ua about the cable, copper or silver and plugs used?

The cable is pure copper..about the purest form you can get. The only thing that is silver in the cable is the small jumper between the two pins on the mini XLR jack on the headphone. THe plugs are gold plated switchcraft i think..i forget if it was switchcraft or neutrik.
 
 
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Achristlaw tell ua about the cable, copper or silver and plugs used?

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Achristlaw tell ua about the cable, copper or silver and plugs used?

 

[sokolov91]

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I'm sure the HD800 would benefit from a $450 cable as well...

If you wanted it too, I am sure it would .
 
Wasn't saying the HD 800 was any better or worse. Just saying adding another 50% of the total cost for them to sound good is quite ridiculous, and more a product of psychoacoustic "burn in" and not the cable. It is not like he had them years and knows the stock sound supremely well. 

 
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Achristlaw tell ua about the cable, copper or silver and plugs used?

Too bad the cable isn't 100$. He could still probably make 50% profit margins or more at 100$.
 
Profit margin at 450$ is maybe a ladder to the moon or two.

 

[sachu]

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Too bad the cable isn't 100$. He could still probably make 50% profit margins or more at 100$.
 
Profit margin at 450$ is maybe a ladder to the moon or two.

 
 
Not really, the cable that ALO uses is quite expensive..similar type copper cables like the Jena or the one sold by cryoparts will come up to 300$ just for the cable (the same amount used in the ALO). I looked in to this actually 

 

 

[sokolov91]

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Not really, the cable that ALO uses is quite expensive..similar type copper cables like the Jena or the one sold by cryoparts will come up to 300$ just for the cable (the same amount used in the ALO). I looked in to this actually 

 

Really? I didn't realize copper was so damned expensive. Is it the purity or what?
 
I guess I take back the negativity towards ALO then even if a simple solder job for 150 is steep... sure seems like they do a hell of a job though.
 

 

[sachu]

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Really? I didn't realize copper was so damned expensive. Is it the purity or what?
 

Yup..its the purity.
There are less than a half dozen machines that produce such fine copper wires

 

[achristilaw]

 
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So it took a 500$ cable for them to sound good? guess that makes them only 100$ more than the HD 800
 

No, it's about refinement..and good wire, with attention paid at the molecular level..is still expensive.  

 

[kwkarth]

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Not really, the cable that ALO uses is quite expensive..similar type copper cables like the Jena or the one sold by cryoparts will come up to 300$ just for the cable (the same amount used in the ALO). I looked in to this actually 

 

IMHO, the cable Ken is using for this headphone functions even better than the Jena cable.  He's using a custom Ohno Continuous cast copper which is then cryo treated.  Very expensive.  It's not just the ultra fine gauge, it's also the ultra fine purity (6N), and it's continuous casting process as it's drawn through dies which are heated in an oxygen free environment which greatly elongates the crystalline structure of the copper as it's cast/drawn.

OCC process utilizes a heated mold for casting and extruding, with cooling taking place in a separate process. The result is a larger crystal size and increased purity that approaches the 6N, 99.9998%! Looking at it another way, traditional copper has oxygen impurities of 200 to 500 parts per million (PPM), while traditional OFC copper reduces that to less than 10 PPM. With the OCC process, the figure is cut in half to less than 5 PPM of oxygen, and less than 0.25 PPM of hydrogen (compared to 0.5 PPM for OFC). 

 

[grokit]

You're also paying for the connectors and the overhead of running a business, not mention taxes on any profit; that said I'm sure ALO buys quite of bit of cable at a time so it would have to be cheaper for them or it would be even more expensive for us!

 

[zenpunk]

I think a 800 USD cable would improve the sound even more.

 Sennheiser are just cowboys who don't have a bloody clue about headphones anyway and their engineers really need retraining. Fitting a £1000 headphone with such a crap cable that stifle the HD800's true potential. What were they thinking about??

 

[sokolov91]

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No, it's about refinement...like gleaning information from a post...takes practice.

Haha well said. Was just pulling your leg though

 
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You're also paying for the connectors and the overhead of running a business, not mention taxes on any profit; that said I'm sure ALO buys quite of bit of cable at a time so it would have to be cheaper for them or it would be even more expensive for us!

While income taxes in the States are nothing to write home about I will admit that the profit margin is much much smaller than I had though.
 

 

[sachu]

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I think a 800 USD cable would improve the sound even more.

 Sennheiser are just cowboys who don't have a bloody clue about headphones anyway and their engineers really need retraining. Fitting a £1000 headphone with such a crap cable that stifle the HD800's true potential. What were they thinking about??

aah yes..well, lets leave this cable discussion/war shall we so as not to clutter up the thread. No one was talking about the sennheiser here anyways. And for the record, the HD800 never did have any potential to my ears even when I tried it on the Stacker 2..

 

[achristilaw]

 
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IMHO, the cable Ken is using for this headphone functions even better than the Jena cable.  He's using an ONO Continuous cast copper which is then cryo treated.  Very expensive.

I spent more on the Jena, then the hard-wire of my balanced 800...over twice as much!