[Merkurio]

I have all three. I would place the AFO in between the Clear and LCD2C in terms of clarity and overall balance... The Clear sound more open and dynamic to me, while the LCD2C present a “fuller” sound with more present bass. With all three headphones you have a wide range of approaches for any genre and equipment.

Good to see someone with the three.

I know it's a tricky question, but if you have to keep just one of those, which one will you choose?

 

[wazzupi]

I think the Focal Clear is a more different approach compared to the AFO than the LCD-2C, even though both headphones are quality stuff at their own.

The Clear would be more detailed and "in your face" sound than both planars, that's for sure.

afo is in ur face.

 

[Merkurio]

afo is in ur face.

The Clears more so then.

 

[lentoviolento]

i hated the elear. too shouty and fatiguing, but i'm very sensitive (afo is somehow too sibilant in certain songs). lcd2f was my favourtite. engaging and immersive like no other.

 

[franz12]

I have all three. I would place the AFO in between the Clear and LCD2C in terms of clarity and overall balance... The Clear sound more open and dynamic to me, while the LCD2C present a “fuller” sound with more present bass. With all three headphones you have a wide range of approaches for any genre and equipment.

Very interesting obsevations. Two things I worried about lcd2c were colored female vocal (due to too darkish audeze sound signature) and weight (i use it for hours a day). Would you compare vocal tonality (especially female vocal) among the three?

 

[Merkurio]

Very interesting obsevations. Two things I worried about lcd2c were colored female vocal (due to too darkish audeze sound signature) and weight (i use it for hours a day). Would you compare vocal tonality (especially female vocal) among the three?

Female voices sound great on the LCD-2C tonality wise, just bear in mind that the mids aren't too forward in presentation as in some mid-emphasized headphones like HD650s (but they're not recessed neither), there's just a soft touch of air between the mix.

 

[franz12]

afo is in ur face.

lcd2c is less in your face than afo?

 

[gearofwar]

i hated the elear. too shouty and fatiguing, but i'm very sensitive (afo is somehow too sibilant in certain songs). lcd2f was my favourtite. engaging and immersive like no other.

That were one of the main reasons I sold it but we are talking about the Clear here. I have a friend who had the Elear, the Ether Flow. He disliked the Ether for sounding diffused , the Elear for these known problems and the bass was a bit too much for him also. He recently sold both of them and got the Clear, saying that it's much better than the Elear which he possibly won't miss.

Quick question for someone here who has/used to have Ether Flow, does it sound more diffused to you compared to 2C? I think i heard this diffused problem existed in previous prefazor models and fazor was supposed to fix that.

 

[billstr]

Is the same driver, but with different voice coil (at difference impedance) and different pads, giving a different —more neutral— frecuency response, so they're not identical.

Oh. I didn't know about the voice coil difference. This could definitely change the sound signature for the better. Thanks for the info

 

[billstr]

Have you actually compared them side by side in a blind test also?

No and that's a good point. I should really try to demo them side-by-side.

 

[Taowolf51]

I ended up with a pair of 2c’s despite Audeze giving me the finger when I tried to buy one.

I haven’t had enough time with them yet to really give a full impressions, but I do like them. It has the Audeze sound without most of the Audeze drawbacks that made me sell my LCD-2’s way back.

One thing I have noticed, however, is that it seems to have excessive shimmer sometimes, like there’s a treble spike north of 10k somewhere. Gives me a bit of a headache if I listen too loud. Hopefully it calms down. Has anyone else experienced somewhat exaggerated upper treble? Currently I’m running an iPad to an old Matrix M-Stage. Not ideal, but I’m visiting family so I couldn’t bring a big crazy setup with me.

Also, does anyone have the name of the Pelican case that Audeze uses for their headphones? I’d like to grab one.

Lastly, any impressions of the 2C with a Magni 3? Seems like a cheap way to get lots of power for the Audeze’s. I currently use a Valhalla 2 as my primary amp (for Hd800s), but I’m not sure if it’s enough power. I know Audeze’s are more efficient these days, but not sure if they still need watts of power and lots of current.

 

[Àedhàn Cassiel]

One thing I have noticed, however, is that it seems to have excessive shimmer sometimes, like there’s a treble spike north of 10k somewhere. Gives me a bit of a headache if I listen too loud. Hopefully it calms down. Has anyone else experienced somewhat exaggerated upper treble? Currently I’m running an iPad to an old Matrix M-Stage. Not ideal, but I’m visiting family so I couldn’t bring a big crazy setup with me.

Also, does anyone have the name of the Pelican case that Audeze uses for their headphones? I’d like to grab one.

For cases, these work.

I'm not sure about the upper treble, but boosting the midrange +3db at 4600 (Q=0.67) is a pretty necessary correction on these for me. I thought I'd mention it just in case it turns out you're turning the volume up higher to compensate for the shelved upper-mid. If not, then disregard.

Lastly, any impressions of the 2C with a Magni 3? Seems like a cheap way to get lots of power for the Audeze’s. I currently use a Valhalla 2 as my primary amp (for Hd800s), but I’m not sure if it’s enough power. I know Audeze’s are more efficient these days, but not sure if they still need watts of power and lots of current.

I'm currently listening to them out of a Valhalla 2 and the slight tube wetness does something barely noticably weird to the impact, but I still prefer it to listening out of a Magni 2 because the soundstage sounds way less congested out of the Val2 to me. There's definitely plenty of power!

 

[Merkurio]

Lastly, any impressions of the 2C with a Magni 3? Seems like a cheap way to get lots of power for the Audeze’s. I currently use a Valhalla 2 as my primary amp (for Hd800s), but I’m not sure if it’s enough power. I know Audeze’s are more efficient these days, but not sure if they still need watts of power and lots of current.

I drive my 2Cs with the Magni 3 and it has enough power to drive them in low gain with the knob at 9-10 o'clock most of the times, completely overkill.

Except perhaps the HE-6, I can't find which headphones can be hard enough to don't be driven properly with the Magni 3...

 

[ShamuellJackson]

What type of music would I hear treble spikes on? I thought the LCD2C's were good with treble but the only other headphones I have really compared them to are my Fostex TH-X00 since they are my other favorite headphones at the moment. For treble that i'm used to like on I think metal like Ektomorf and Death the Fostex at higher volumes felt like they would murder my ears with the cymbals and some of the guitars but the LCD2C seems to be way easier to listen to this type of music for much longer amount of times without feeling like something was stabbing my ears. But also thinking this may not be the best type of music to judge aht against but just music I enjoy listening to that I am most familiar with.

 

[starman93]

Got these in this morning....

Very early impressions:

1. Extremely well built - it has a nice black matte finish that is resistant to fingerprints and everything is tight and solid feeling; cable is the same newer braided one included with the updated LCD-2 and is of good quality and not prone to tangling.

2. Comfort is excellent - never thought I'd say that about an Audeze headphone. It does feel a bit lighter than the LCD-2 and the pads seem softer/squishier in density (but texture is not as supple or smooth as the real leather, of course).

3. It seems to have a nicely balanced tone, and the bass is not in any way bloated or overpowering. I actually don't find it very warm at all (maybe a tad just in comparison to the LCD-2) but maybe because I prefer this sound signature and my ears are trained differently. The detail and spaciousness is still there. I don't know what the customary burn-in time is for Audeze headphones but we'll see if there are subtle changes. I must admit to not being a big believer in burn-in though. ***I have only tried it so far with a Pico HeadAmp portable amp connected to my iPhone. I have to wait until tonight to try it with desk top amps (Lyr 2 and Violectric V100).

As I have already mentioned in earlier posts before planars are NOT concerned (I've been told)with burn-in,which makes sense if you think of the much thicker plastic film compared to the "plastic" cones of 95% (or so) of today's dynamic transducers.