Audeze LCD-2 Orthos

[pp312]

Quote:

 
Another secret, I got the name from the green smiley on headphonic's forums. The tooltip says "mrgreen"

Here's a question since you mention Headphonic: don't you find them absurdly biased against darker phones (Senns in particular) and toward more aggressive stuff (ATs in particular)? I don't go there for that reason, because I know I won't agree with anything much said there and the advice given will be of no use to me. Which is a pity, because it's about the only Oz forum dedicated to headphones.
 
It's not a problem that the moderator has a particular bias (I'm told he listens to electronica). The problem is that he seems to have converted the whole forum.  

 

[Vitor Teixeira]

This is a sad moment...just crackled the left earcup when changing the new headband that Sankar gently sent...
 

 
Already miss them...
Bah..

 

[MrGreen]

Quote:

Quote:

 
Another secret, I got the name from the green smiley on headphonic's forums. The tooltip says "mrgreen"

Here's a question since you mention Headphonic: don't you find them absurdly biased against darker phones (Senns in particular) and toward more aggressive stuff (ATs in particular)? I don't go there for that reason, because I know I won't agree with anything much said there and the advice given will be of no use to me. Which is a pity, because it's about the only Oz forum dedicated to headphones.
 
It's not a problem that the moderator has a particular bias (I'm told he listens to electronica). The problem is that he seems to have converted the whole forum.  

There's plenty of senn users over there who also come here. Marcus is just a guy who likes particular headphones as I see it. I actually came from a darker pair (DT770 pro 80 ohm), and was converted to the "bright side" after I acquired a pair of etymotic headphones from a friend who no longer needed them. I happen to know one of the moderators (bioxeed) still uses DT770s.
 
As for the grado/AT recommendations, I think it has to do with his average customer - who is going to be plugging straight into a soundcard. IMO he's right about the MS1 and AD700 being the best buys around the HD555 price bracket.
 
For what it's worth, I believe he actually doesn't like stax (or rather he's made jokes about it in the past), so anyway.
 
IIRC further, the Aus senn dealer is a jerk (he can't list HD800, HD600, HD650) because he has a website, despite having them. He's also mentioned something about getting more returns for sennheisers (possibly due to the soundcard issue mentioned earlier). Senn isn't as good a buy here as it is in the states IMO. I mean, local prices for the HD800 are still what, 2000 USD? IIRC the T1 is only 1300
 
But anyway. Interesting note, he's getting LCD-2 stock, which means Aus will have one of the first(?) stores that let you walk in and try the LCD-2 before you buy. The forums are fun to go there (IMO the community is a little more friendly than head-fi - well a lot more relaxed, put it that way), and I think his business ethic and the way he presents himself would make up for any disagreeances I have with him (for example, I dislike the MS1).
 
But take this with a grain of salt I tend to agree with Marcus on what sounds balanced, what sounds fun and what sounds dark

 

[pp312]

Quote:

There's plenty of senn users over there who also come here. Marcus is just a guy who likes particular headphones as I see it. I actually came from a darker pair (DT770 pro 80 ohm), and was converted to the "bright side" after I acquired a pair of etymotic headphones from a friend who no longer needed them. I happen to know one of the moderators (bioxeed) still uses DT770s.
 
As for the grado/AT recommendations, I think it has to do with his average customer - who is going to be plugging straight into a soundcard. IMO he's right about the MS1 and AD700 being the best buys around the HD555 price bracket.
 
For what it's worth, I believe he actually doesn't like stax (or rather he's made jokes about it in the past), so anyway.
 
IIRC further, the Aus senn dealer is a jerk (he can't list HD800, HD600, HD650) because he has a website, despite having them. He's also mentioned something about getting more returns for sennheisers (possibly due to the soundcard issue mentioned earlier). Senn isn't as good a buy here as it is in the states IMO. I mean, local prices for the HD800 are still what, 2000 USD? IIRC the T1 is only 1300
 
But anyway. Interesting note, he's getting LCD-2 stock, which means Aus will have one of the first(?) stores that let you walk in and try the LCD-2 before you buy. The forums are fun to go there (IMO the community is a little more friendly than head-fi - well a lot more relaxed, put it that way), and I think his business ethic and the way he presents himself would make up for any disagreeances I have with him (for example, I dislike the MS1).
 
But take this with a grain of salt I tend to agree with Marcus on what sounds balanced, what sounds fun and what sounds dark

Fair enough. I just don't like his dismissal of the higher end Senns and particularly of the 595, which he called "junk". FYI, I bought an AD700 based on all the hype and hated it, couldn't listen for more than a few minutes. To me it sounded weird, nothing like live music, too bright and incredibly coarse and grainy. I had been at that time a happy 595 user for several years.
 
Anyway, if you doubt there's a form of brainwashing going on there, count how many contributors disagree with his 700 v 555 line. Here there's a healthy diversity; there it's all one way traffic. I find that kind of consensus disturbing, no matter what logical explanation for it there may be.
 
As for the LCD-2, it'll be interesting to see what comments it gets, but I suspect if it's balanced anything like the 650 they won't all be favourable. In any case Perth is as far from me as most foreign countries, so I certainly won't be dropping in for a casual listen.

 

[DeadEars]

I really don't get the comments that the LCD-2's have a balance that's like the HD-650.  I owned a pair of those for about 6 months but never warmed up to them.  I had liked my previous HD-580's and thought I was making a big step up.  After I sold the HD-650's I modded my HD-580's to have the elements, grills, etc. of the HD-600 and was pretty happy with their sound.  A huge improvement over the HD-650's.  Now that I've had the LCD-2's for a while, I'd say that they are the step-up that I had been looking for, and nothing like my experience with the HD-650's.  The improvement is mostly in the bass, and in the amount of casual detail available (as opposed to the over-hyped detail of some phones I never liked like the 701's or some Stax I've heard at meets).  They just sound more musical to me.
 
OTOH, I can get into the music just fine with the HD-580/600's.  So the LCD-2's didn't fundamentally change my listening behavior, or my repertoire.  The only change is the frequency with which I do neck stretches after wearing them for a few hours.  But I do enjoy them, and find them otherwise quite comfortable, and I admire their sonic attributes when I think of it, or when something in the music catches my attention.  They are just headphones, not the Holy Grail.
 
Kinda fun listening to guys obsess over what they do and do not do well (and I was guilty of this too, at first).  But I don't see them as a "better" HD-650.

 

[rgs9200m]

The ALO LCD-2 cables  are WONDERFUL!! I just got them today and they have really transformed the LCD2s into something great. Vocals and the midrange
are now fully controlled and smooth and the bass is warm and resonant and extremely satisfying. In my earlier post I mentioned that the mids and vocals
were syrupy and loose. Well, no more. Now the LCD2s are just superb. Everything just falls into place. I tried them out and ended up listening for 3 hours.
(Note that these are the balanced cables.) I think the ALOs are a must-have for the Audezes.

 

[vrln]

Did you go from single ended to balanced, or are you comparing the stock balanced cord to the ALO one? Just curious...

 

[Frank I]

 
Quote:

This is a sad moment...just crackled the left earcup when changing the new headband that Sankar gently sent...
 

 
Already miss them...
Bah..

That looks like you did surgery on them. The headband just pops out when you want to replace it. Curious as to how you got them cracked so bad. Evidently that was not a manufacturer error or default. The wood would have to be really stressed to do that type of damage.

 

[Vitor Teixeira]

The last bolt got stucked in the nut (the nut revolved at the same time)  so badly that i couldn't manage to unscrew it, so probably it was all together, that event and the fact that i was a bit stressed out yesterday after hours in the mall in pursuit of a Christmas gift...
bad move i know...
I've managed to assemble the new headband and the sound quality wasn't affected, still i'll have to get a new wood piece (i think the best move is to send them back to Audeze's Lab.)
 
 

 

[Frank I]

 
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The last bolt got stucked in the nut (the nut revolved at the same time)  so badly that i couldn't manage to unscrew it, so probably it was all together, that event and the fact that i was a bit stressed out yesterday after hours in the mall in pursuit of a Christmas gift...
bad move i know...
I've managed to assemble the new headband and the sound quality wasn't affected, still i'll have to get a new wood piece (i think the best move is to send them back to Audeze's Lab.)
 
 

Sorry to hear that. Its ggonna cost you for shipping and since it was self created probably will not be covered under warranty. I am very gentle with mine and the sit on a Woo stand as I do not even unplug the cables and am very careful but they look like new.

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

It was a repair after all. So Audeze will probably be nice about it, if their support continues as it has up to now.
 
Quote:

 
Quote:

The last bolt got stucked in the nut (the nut revolved at the same time)  so badly that i couldn't manage to unscrew it, so probably it was all together, that event and the fact that i was a bit stressed out yesterday after hours in the mall in pursuit of a Christmas gift...
bad move i know...
I've managed to assemble the new headband and the sound quality wasn't affected, still i'll have to get a new wood piece (i think the best move is to send them back to Audeze's Lab.)
 
 

Sorry to hear that. Its ggonna cost you for shipping and since it was self created probably will not be covered under warranty. I am very gentle with mine and the sit on a Woo stand as I do not even unplug the cables and am very careful but they look like new.

 

[rgs9200m]

As to the question of whether I went from SE stock cables to the ALO balanced ones,
yes, I did go from SE to balanced, so there were 2 separate things going on here, but my instinct tells me the dramatic improvement is not just from going to balanced.
I have done a lot SE to XLR things before, and I really never heard a change like this. I have also done tons of re-cabling with phones and speakers, and the tonality changes
definitely fall in the cable-influenced arena.
 
I was really thinking about selling the LCD2s, and with the ALO cables suddenly they are at the top of the heap.
I don't want to say they exceed every other phone in every aspect all the time, but now they have no even moderately significant flaws,
and many aspects are top notch. They are totally non-fatiguing, but dig in to the essence of the music, and that is always the hallmark of a great phone or speaker for me.
 
The ALO cables are heavy, so I recommend a longer length so that there is some slack space so they can rest on a surface and curl up on your lap. Mine are actually 12-feet long.
But they curl up nicely into a wide circle and don't get tangled, so they are easy to store with the phones.
They are very well constructed and sturdy, and I just look at them and smile.

 

[Equus]

12 feet?  Wow.   That's a long "chainmail" cable. 

 
Mine is 8 ft and SE, but I haven't really ever gone back to the stock cable except to do comparisons once in a great while.

 

[jermng]

What's the difference between the ALO and the Moon Audio Silver Dragons?

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

Sorry to hear that. Its ggonna cost you for shipping and since it was self created probably will not be covered under warranty. I am very gentle with mine and the sit on a Woo stand as I do not even unplug the cables and am very careful but they look like new.

 
It's not Victor's fault, he was just trying to do Audeze's job for them. Not all of us are technically inclined, and we shouldn't have to be. The headphones were defective, and being without them for a bit and one-way shipping is all that Victor should have to pay IMO.