[Pharmaboy]

Do you guys think I’d notice any audible improvements upgrading my Audio-GD NFB12.1 to something else with these? I’d probably want to keep it under 500 USD if possible.

The 12.1 has plenty of power. I never turn the knob past 12 o’clock, but I’d be interested.

Short answer: yes, but it totally depends on which section you upgrade (amp; DAC; or both), and what you upgrade to.

I researched the 12.1 very thoroughly in 2015 but decided not to pursue it because of occasional user comments about the DAC (ie, a little too bright).

Having said that, I'm a total Audio GD fanboy, having owned (or currently own) 4 of their products:

• SA-31SE: fascinating, uber-powerful headphone amp w/its own lengthy thread here. it's a fantastic preamp in addition to being an occasionally brilliant amp
• NFB 15.32: really a fine all-in-one w/very powerful, good amp and pretty decent DAC (Wolfson chips)...also several slightly useful filter settings on front panel. The DAC doesn't compared the the multi-bit ones listed below, but it was far from deficient or unpleasant.
• DAC-19: A lot of people on Head-Fi love this one (it has an epic thread here). I'm listening to it right now...very good multi-bit DAC sound (I'll never go back to delta-sigma after this)
• NOS 19: Audio GD's pure non-oversampling variant of the DAC-19. It's my favorite DAC...it totally changed how I hear & experience digital.

If I was in your shoes, I'd jump on AGD's affordable new all-in-one multibit, maybe the only product of its kind--the "R2R 11":
http://www.audio-gd.com/R2R/R2R11/R2R11EN.htm

The amp section has max 3.5W@25ohms, so this can power anything/everything.
Plus you get a multi-bit DAC built in.
It costs $350--steal of the century IMHO.
I bought my 2 AGD DACs from Magna HiFi in the Netherlands and had excellent buying experiences both time. I'd rather deal with an EU vendor than a Chinese one, all other things being equal. This DAC/amp on their site is: https://www.magnahifi.com/en/webshop/product/agd-r2r11​

Of course, there are plenty of options outside the AGD realm. You could go for separate DAC & amp, though it will likely go over $500. Rumor has it that Massdrop will eventually drop an LD-X (Cavalli Liquid Carbon design licensed by Massdrop) complete w/the Grace SDAC (sub-$100 DAC that many purchased from Massdrop & seem to like).

Plus there's always the JDS Labs Element ($349), which many here seem to like. I've seen occasional comments that the DAC is a little sharp, but you should do your own research & form your own opinion re subjective stuff like that.

And of course there's Schiit's Jotunheim, which goes for $499 complete w/DAC. Again, many here praise it, though I see occasional comments about it being somewhat bright.

A comment about "warm" components: conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't pair a "warm" headphone like the LCD-2C with "warm" DAC or amp. I have found that wisdom to not be very wise. I've had some amazing synergy develop between my "warm" NOS 19, "warm" Liquid Carbon, and "warm" headphones (Fidelio X2s; E-Mu Teaks). Synergy between components doesn't play by simple rules in my experience.

Point being that if you buy a new DAC/amp (or standalones), do it primarily according to your own tastes in the sound of such components--not presumed sonic effects of the new component w/this one headphone.

 

[Luckbad]

From Audeze:

We no longer offer microsuede earpads, but have moved to a more leather-like PU material for leather-free.

Regarding the sound you mentioned: since air is trapped between your head and the ear cup it creates a pressure zone, and as the headphones shift with movement you may hear a slight crinkling sound from the diaphragm. This is a normal occurrence with planar magnetic drivers and is nothing to be concerned about, it's the sound of the thin diaphragm moving back and forth with the changes in air pressure.

Sometimes as the driver film stretches slightly with age, the sound can become more apparent, and sometimes it may also lessen again. This is mostly influenced by factors in your environment (such as temperature and humidity), and we don't have much control over whether or not this occurs.

That's public info, so please feel free to pass it along. One thing to add would be that we strongly recommend exercising caution when handling any planar magnetic headphones: trapped air between earpads can create high pressure and could damage the diaphragms. The same is true when you put headphones on-- it's not a good idea to squeeze headphones hard and fast against the head.

 

[DaemonSire]

This is a normal occurrence with planar magnetic drivers and is nothing to be concerned about.

trapped air between earpads can create high pressure and could damage the diaphragms.

Umm....

 

[gLer]

From Audeze:

I’m sure that last bit is what I said about 30 posts back Seriously though - this whole experiment of trying to recereate the crinkling sound is a BAD idea. These headphones need to be put on and taken off gently, else one day, out of the blue, the driver will pop and the sound will stop, and you’ll be blaming Audeze for poor quality control again. The only thing Audeze can and should be blamed for is not putting a big warning label in the box with the contents of that last paragraph, and instructions on how to put on and take off their headphones.

 

[s2kPanda]

Not like squishing the pads to your head will give you a better seal... or better sound for that matter.

 

[gLer]

Not like squishing the pads to your head will give you a better seal... or better sound for that matter.

Exactly. But it could well give you damaged diaphragms, so best you stop if that’s what you’re doing.

 

[anoxy]

Short answer: yes, but it totally depends on which section you upgrade (amp; DAC; or both), and what you upgrade to.

I researched the 12.1 very thoroughly in 2015 but decided not to pursue it because of occasional user comments about the DAC (ie, a little too bright).

Having said that, I'm a total Audio GD fanboy, having owned (or currently own) 4 of their products:

• SA-31SE: fascinating, uber-powerful headphone amp w/its own lengthy thread here. it's a fantastic preamp in addition to being an occasionally brilliant amp
• NFB 15.32: really a fine all-in-one w/very powerful, good amp and pretty decent DAC (Wolfson chips)...also several slightly useful filter settings on front panel. The DAC doesn't compared the the multi-bit ones listed below, but it was far from deficient or unpleasant.
• DAC-19: A lot of people on Head-Fi love this one (it has an epic thread here). I'm listening to it right now...very good multi-bit DAC sound (I'll never go back to delta-sigma after this)
• NOS 19: Audio GD's pure non-oversampling variant of the DAC-19. It's my favorite DAC...it totally changed how I hear & experience digital.

If I was in your shoes, I'd jump on AGD's affordable new all-in-one multibit, maybe the only product of its kind--the "R2R 11":
http://www.audio-gd.com/R2R/R2R11/R2R11EN.htm

The amp section has max 3.5W@25ohms, so this can power anything/everything.
Plus you get a multi-bit DAC built in.
It costs $350--steal of the century IMHO.
I bought my 2 AGD DACs from Magna HiFi in the Netherlands and had excellent buying experiences both time. I'd rather deal with an EU vendor than a Chinese one, all other things being equal. This DAC/amp on their site is: https://www.magnahifi.com/en/webshop/product/agd-r2r11​

Of course, there are plenty of options outside the AGD realm. You could go for separate DAC & amp, though it will likely go over $500. Rumor has it that Massdrop will eventually drop an LD-X (Cavalli Liquid Carbon design licensed by Massdrop) complete w/the Grace SDAC (sub-$100 DAC that many purchased from Massdrop & seem to like).

Plus there's always the JDS Labs Element ($349), which many here seem to like. I've seen occasional comments that the DAC is a little sharp, but you should do your own research & form your own opinion re subjective stuff like that.

And of course there's Schiit's Jotunheim, which goes for $499 complete w/DAC. Again, many here praise it, though I see occasional comments about it being somewhat bright.

A comment about "warm" components: conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't pair a "warm" headphone like the LCD-2C with "warm" DAC or amp. I have found that wisdom to not be very wise. I've had some amazing synergy develop between my "warm" NOS 19, "warm" Liquid Carbon, and "warm" headphones (Fidelio X2s; E-Mu Teaks). Synergy between components doesn't play by simple rules in my experience.

Point being that if you buy a new DAC/amp (or standalones), do it primarily according to your own tastes in the sound of such components--not presumed sonic effects of the new component w/this one headphone.

I notice you didn't include the Valhalla 2 in your recommendations. It's the same price as the Audio-gd R2R 11. Any thoughts between the two?

 

[Pharmaboy]

I notice you didn't include the Valhalla 2 in your recommendations. It's the same price as the Audio-gd R2R 11. Any thoughts between the two?

Never heard Valhalla 2 (any Schiit gear), so can't comment on sound. But I can see Valhalla 2 is a fundamentally different design than R2R11:

• R2R11 = headphone amp + DAC + preamp capability
• Valhalla 2 = headphone amp + preamp capability (ie, you'd still have to have an external DAC...maybe the RCA outs from your 12.1)
• Plus the DAC that's built into R2R11 is multibit, which IMO is the DAC technology to have (based on past listening).

Besides, the name "Valhalla 2" kinda scares me. Wouldn't you have to be dead to hear something called "Valhalla"?

 

[cocoonsyd]

From my experience, I feel like the crinkling sound is somehow related to static electricity building up on the cable/headphone. I have LCD-2F and most of the time when I put them on I cannot hear any crinkling sound at all. But sometimes when I move around wearing it and when the cable touches my shirt, suddenly it starts crinkling.

 

[Odin412]

Never heard Valhalla 2 (any Schiit gear), so can't comment on sound. But I can see Valhalla 2 is a fundamentally different design than R2R11:

• R2R11 = headphone amp + DAC + preamp capability
• Valhalla 2 = headphone amp + preamp capability (ie, you'd still have to have an external DAC...maybe the RCA outs from your 12.1)
• Plus the DAC that's built into R2R11 is multibit, which IMO is the DAC technology to have (based on past listening).

Besides, the name "Valhalla 2" kinda scares me. Wouldn't you have to be dead to hear something called "Valhalla"?

I have the original Valhalla and it pairs very well with high-impedance headphones like the HD 650. Actually, the Valhalla-HD 650 is one of my favorite amp-headphone combos. The Valhalla (and I think Valhalla 2 is similar) is interesting because it's a tube amp that doesn't sound very 'tubey'. Instead, it has a very clean sound that to my ears pairs well with headphones like the HD 650. It doesn't like low-impedance headphones however, and likely wouldn't work well with the LCD-2C. I tried it with my LCD-2.2F and it sounded kind of strained and congested to my ears.

 

[madwolfa]

Heh. Pulled the trigger. Let's see how they stack up against HD600 and X2.

 

[wazzupi]

At 600 or 800

Heh. Pulled the trigger. Let's see how they stack up against HD600 and X2.

 

[madwolfa]

At 600 or 800

They still show at $599 as of now.

 

[Murre]

I've used mine for a while and I enjoy them a lot for most of the music I listen to, but some songs/genres feels muffled/muddy to me. Like hiphop for example, I'm guessing it's a mix of treble being lower and soundstage being smaller maybe? Kinda same while gaming everything feels very clastrophobic? I guess I'm mostly used to more open sounding headphones but yeah.
Anyone have any idea if EQ can fix these kind of things and any recommended settings to try if so? I would of course love to use these for everything I do at the computer, but right now talking to friends and gaming sounds a lot better in my gaming headphones I guess.

 

[Slim1970]

I got mine resting like this since they are so heavy. My other headphones are lighter and on a dual hanging stand and I can say that you should at least take them off occasionally so that the headband doesn't get a permanent impression.

What is that you have you're headphones sitting in and how can I find one? Thanks