[Ge03]

I agree, the LCD-2 pretty much gives you what is there to be given.

I don't usually worry myself much about sound staging from my headphones as I don't believe they can ever get close to what my speakers achieve.
However the LCD-2's surprised me recently on my first listen to the Fleet Foxes CD. At the end of track 8, there are two men suddenly talking and each appears to be about my arms reach away to the side of me. The first time I heard it for an instant it was one of those moments when i thought someone had come into my room.
So the LCD-2's can present very realistic sound staging way outside the head if the music has the right cues. Curiously the HD800's don't create the same effect as convincingly. The voices are there to the far right and far left but are still within the normal soundstage of that track whereas with the LCD-2's the voices pop out of the sonic darkness way outside what I had been listening to. I wouldn't presume to have explanations as to what's happening but it's definitely weird!

 

[grokit]

I think those are called low-level ambient details(?), and the LCD-2 does a fine job with these. The source and amp have to do their job as well though.

 

[Permagrin]

I agree, the LCD-2 pretty much gives you what is there to be given.

I don't usually worry myself much about sound staging from my headphones as I don't believe they can ever get close to what my speakers achieve.
However the LCD-2's surprised me recently on my first listen to the Fleet Foxes CD. At the end of track 8, there are two men suddenly talking and each appears to be about my arms reach away to the side of me. The first time I heard it for an instant it was one of those moments when i thought someone had come into my room.
So the LCD-2's can present very realistic sound staging way outside the head if the music has the right cues. Curiously the HD800's don't create the same effect as convincingly. The voices are there to the far right and far left but are still within the normal soundstage of that track whereas with the LCD-2's the voices pop out of the sonic darkness way outside what I had been listening to. I wouldn't presume to have explanations as to what's happening but it's definitely weird!

I love that stuff.

Recently after getting my Prodipe speakers I was listening to a song and the singer starts whistling. My roommate was in the room and we both looked at each other assuming the other was whistling. That's some freaky yet awesome stuff.

 

[brasewel]

Lol that is pretty common with headphones and less so with speakers. I do get frightened sometimes thinking that someone has entered the room 

 

[Permagrin]

Yeah I realized I was describing a different phenomenon (god I hate spelling that word) as I was really referring to life-like fidelity but the experience is the same. Other than panning I've only noticed a few sounds coming from near my shoulders with my speakers which was really weird and I turned around. Probably poor acoustics but whatever.

When I got my HD 650s originally that was my first step and I was looking over my shoulder like a maniac.

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

Well I use the Norse Audio Cable but I have compared it to the Silver Dragon and Q-Audio Cable. The differences between the Norse and Q-Audio were inaudible to me while the silver dragon noticeably increased the treble. For the price I would have to give the thumbs up to the Norse unless you favor a brighter LCD-2.
 

I guess that when I get into the aftermarket phase I'll have to check out the silver dragon and one of the other two since I do not know if I want  a brighter LCD or not.  The LCD's seem to be so revealing of any changes in the system.  I've been collecting my thoughts about the V200 using the RCA inputsusing an MIT MI 330 interconnect and then I switched to the Wyred4Sound C1 Balanced cable going balanced out of the W4S DAC-2 into the balanced input of the V200 and there is a difference so I have to gather more thoughts.
 
 

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

Stick them to your fridge when you're not using them.

I had to sell the fridge to get the LCD's...

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

Lol that is pretty common with headphones and less so with speakers. I do get frightened sometimes thinking that someone has entered the room 

LOL! I thought I was the only one who got frightened like that.
 
 

 

[zilch0md]

Quote:

I think those are called low-level ambient details(?), and the LCD-2 does a fine job with these. The source and amp have to do their job as well though.

Amen!  The whole chain has to be transparent and high resolving in order to maximize the soundstage and image focus.
 

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

I don't usually worry myself much about sound staging from my headphones as I don't believe they can ever get close to what my speakers achieve.
However the LCD-2's surprised me recently on my first listen to the Fleet Foxes CD. At the end of track 8, there are two men suddenly talking and each appears to be about my arms reach away to the side of me. The first time I heard it for an instant it was one of those moments when i thought someone had come into my room.
So the LCD-2's can present very realistic sound staging way outside the head if the music has the right cues. Curiously the HD800's don't create the same effect as convincingly. The voices are there to the far right and far left but are still within the normal soundstage of that track whereas with the LCD-2's the voices pop out of the sonic darkness way outside what I had been listening to. I wouldn't presume to have explanations as to what's happening but it's definitely weird!

That's the one thing I'm finding the hardest to adjust to while making the transition from speakers to cans.   I'll probably be doing most of my mixing now with the LCD's so I'm trying to get the widest most dimensional headphone soundstage I can produce. 

 

[Loevhagen]

You are not afraid that mixing a wide soundstage using the LCD-2 can make the soundstage on full size speakers (and other headphones ) sound a bit "over the hill".?

 

[ornitorrinco]

Hi, guys
Do you know where can I listen and purchase an LCD2 in San Diego, California? I'm going there next weekend.
Thanks!

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

You are not afraid that mixing a wide soundstage using the LCD-2 can make the soundstage on full size speakers (and other headphones )sound a bit "over the hill".?

 
For a long time I'd send my mixes to people and ask them to please listen to them on a pair of decent speakers having mixed for decades solely with speakers and never with headphones. But no one was listening to the mixes on real speakers. Either they were using dreadful desktop computer speakers from Best Buy or they were using headphones or more than likely some sort of earbuds.   So now I have no illusions of people listening to the mixes on a nice speaker set up I know pretty much it's going to be headphones or ear buds.  Discouraging to say the least but reality.  So now I'm seeking out a few plugins for Logic and Garageband that will help me get close to binaural sound fields.  

 

[ninjikiran]

A true LCD-2 owner enjoys the thrill of the hunt(or foraging if your vegan).  Who needs a fridge when you can get it all fresh .  Lucky in NY there are many hobos.
 
Still interested in going with the Zen Taboo as what frank owns.  Thing looks rather sexy~ and has a bit of a cross feed button like the concerto.  I wonder if anyone else has any experience with it.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

I'm wondering if the strong magnets in the LCD's can be a problem for equipment or other objects if the LCD's are rested upon them.   

I tested the magnetic field around the LCD-2 the other day with a very sensitive 3D magnetometer.  Absolute value measurements were recorded and averaged as follows:
 
ambient- magnetometer in free space where the measurement was performed:
x 10.5 μT

y 41.5 μT 


z 25.5 μT


 
Magnetometer clamped between left and right earpads (where one's head would be.)
 
x 614 μT


y 164 μT


z 120 μT

 
resolution +-1.0000 uT
 
For reference, I held a telephone receiver up to the side of magnetometer and the x axis measurement rose to over 200μT.  
A very weak refrigerator magnet held to the side measured 362 μT. 
 
We are not talking very strong magnetic fields here.  I don't have a Beyerdynamic T1 handy, but that would probably be interesting to measure.  They claim their magnet structure field strength is over 1T.  For you non math types, 1 μT = .000001 T