[gearofwar]

That must be it. I was also into high end IEMs for a few years. Glad you like the 2C though! Any IEMs you think have a similar sound these days?

I’ve been enjoying the JVC HA FX1100, but I think they’re definitely a bit darker and more bass heavy than the 2C.

Spiral ears se5ult <= one of the world best , it's darker than LCD3 (not bass heavy or muddy here, this thing has resolution on par or better than Zeus XR which is on the opposite of the spectrum, tons of layers and separation but not into face like modern cans/iems, signature not for everyone) , only available in custom ver. and need to have your ear qualified with the maker so don't be shocked even if you have the money to get. I tend to find this kind of sound is more natural than the artificial "treble lifted" iems/cans
Last time i heard from a friend who has 2f , oriolus mk2 seems to be similar and punches well above its price.

 

[gearofwar]

I am listening Clear. It is more resolving, but so far not super impressive coming from AFO. So far, I am unsure whether it is worth its asking price $1500. Above all, I wanted to take it off after 2 hours of listening, not because it is fatiguing (though bit more fatiguing than afo), but because of its weight (490g). I felt a neck strain after hours of listening. Are you okay with wearing the 520g for hours?

Hows about at $1200 as i have seen it being sold around? based on your impression, i was quite different from what i thought it would be. I thought Clear would be closer to HD800

 

[franz12]

Hows about at $1200 as i have seen it being sold around? based on your impression, i was quite different from what i thought it would be. I thought Clear would be closer to HD800

I owned hd800s. Clear is similar to afo than hd800s in overall presentation. I don't think Clear has wider or deeper soundstage than afo. If Clear has wide soundstage like hd800s, I think Clear will sound quite analytical as it is quite resolving.
I think it is worth somewhere between $900-$1200 assuming that it is comfortable enough for you. If you just enjoy a short listening session, it should be fine. But I use my can for hours continuously on a daily basis, so comfort is an important factor for me. But after 2-3 hours of listening, I just surrendered as I felt too much strain on my neck. I switched to my ether c flow (400g) and I feel much better, though sq in Clear is better than ether c flow.

 

[kman1211]

Sharp treble? Yikes. When I think sharp treble I think about the Beyerdynamic Amiron Home (dear lord idk how anyone actually enjoys that atrocity)

The highs don't jump out and wow me on the 2C, but they are just in the right place to enjoy what I'm listening to for as long as I want without fatigue or headaches.

You can take your "neutral" or "reference" and shove it

Never found the Amiron Home sharp sounding even coming from the HD 650 or HD 660 S. It doesn't fatigue me at all, yes it's bright up top, but I found all of the LCD-2's I've heard in the past much more audibly fatiguing despite less treble, the weight or comfort never really bothered me. I have yet to hear the LCD-2C but I have found orthodynamics treble in general to be at least a bit unpleasant sounding and to cause me fatigue. It's really a personal listening experience thing. Not everyone seems to experience treble the same.

 

[TokenGesture]

Really interesting about the treble. I don't hear what some of you are hearing - I guess my ears aren't up to it, LOL.

 

[anoxy]

Never found the Amiron Home sharp sounding even coming from the HD 650 or HD 660 S. It doesn't fatigue me at all, yes it's bright up top, but I found all of the LCD-2's I've heard in the past much more audibly fatiguing despite less treble, the weight or comfort never really bothered me. I have yet to hear the LCD-2C but I have found orthodynamics treble in general to be at least a bit unpleasant sounding and to cause me fatigue. It's really a personal listening experience thing. Not everyone seems to experience treble the same.

Almost every Beyer headphone I've heard I hated. They all sounded the same, tinny and hollow. So probably just not a good match for my ears. I haven't extensively auditioned the LCD-2F or pre-fazor, so I don't know about those, but nothing about the 2C's FR is harsh.

Also, source plays a huge part in your experience. Perhaps that Sony UDA-1 you have sounds different than the NFB-12 I tried the Amiron with. I'm looking to upgrade my source soon, probably to the Audio-gd R2R11, so I'm excited to see how it changes the sound.

Also, depends heavily on how my ears are feeling that day, and what music I'm listening to. Like right now I have a slight headache, and my ears are sensitive to the treble in Subterranean Homesick Alien by Radiohead on the LCD-2C

 

[kman1211]

Almost every Beyer headphone I've heard I hated. They all sounded the same, tinny and hollow. So probably just not a good match for my ears. I haven't extensively auditioned the LCD-2F or pre-fazor, so I don't know about those, but nothing about the 2C's FR is harsh.

Also, source plays a huge part in your experience. Perhaps that Sony UDA-1 you have sounds different than the NFB-12 I tried the Amiron with. I'm looking to upgrade my source soon, probably to the Audio-gd R2R11, so I'm excited to see how it changes the sound.

Beyers are definitely love or hate, especially in regards to treble. Definitley the source plays a huge deal. I’ve also found Beyers sound rather tinny/hollow sounding on certain systems. The amp section on the UDA-1 isn’t ideal for planars but it’s very good for higher impedance dynamics in my experience. The Amiron is smooth, full, and has very powerful dynamics on the Sony. But say when plugged into a Magni 2 Uber/Modi 2 Uber system a friend of mine has it sounded hollow, dynamically weak, and bright. The DAC chip in the Sony is a burr brown PCM-1795. When I was auditioning the LCD-2 Rev 2.2 and the LCD-2F most recently it was on an Violectric V281 connected to a Schiit Yggdrasil, both headphones were running balanced.

It’s honestly a combination of different systems and different ears that create such varying opinions in this hobby. Different people just have different experiences, hear differently, and also there is the potential that audiophiles may actually train their ears differently based on the equipment they used in the past. I don’t dislike orthos, would honestly like one if I can find one that doesn’t bother me in the upper regions. It’s just they bother my ears with fatigue and often sound off to me so I’m stuck with select dynamics or electrostatics.

 

[YtseJamer]

Really interesting about the treble. I don't hear what some of you are hearing - I guess my ears aren't up to it, LOL.

The treble 'roughness' is barely noticeable and it's not bothering me at all.

I still think that the LCD-2C are the best LCD-2 revisions that I have heard in the last 7 years!

 

[Pharmaboy]

Beyers are definitely love or hate, especially in regards to treble. Definitley the source plays a huge deal. I’ve also found Beyers sound rather tinny/hollow sounding on certain systems. The amp section on the UDA-1 isn’t ideal for planars but it’s very good for higher impedance dynamics in my experience. The Amiron is smooth, full, and has very powerful dynamics on the Sony. But say when plugged into a Magni 2 Uber/Modi 2 Uber system a friend of mine has it sounded hollow, dynamically weak, and bright. The DAC chip in the Sony is a burr brown PCM-1795. When I was auditioning the LCD-2 Rev 2.2 and the LCD-2F most recently it was on an Violectric V281 connected to a Schiit Yggdrasil, both headphones were running balanced.

It’s honestly a combination of different systems and different ears that create such varying opinions in this hobby. Different people just have different experiences, hear differently, and also there is the potential that audiophiles may actually train their ears differently based on the equipment they used in the past. I don’t dislike orthos, would honestly like one if I can find one that doesn’t bother me in the upper regions. It’s just they bother my ears with fatigue and often sound off to me so I’m stuck with select dynamics or electrostatics.

Finally have a minute to reply to this "source is important" idea that both of you have commented on (also comments by @gLer)...

First off, I'm very interested in the LCD-2C for multiple reasons...following this thread .

Back to sources: I've played around w/DACs & amps to know DACs have rather subtle/elusive in the ways they sound different. Still, my DAC search totally ended when I discovered multi-bit...not just multi-bit, but nonoversampling (NOS) multi-bit. That was that/case closed; no going back to delta-sigma. My 2 multi-bit DACs (Audio GD NOS 19 & DAC-19; prefer the NOS 19 by a slight margin) really changed the way I hear digital.

In the past week I've heard a series of headphones owned by others, all designs I would never otherwise get to hear. One was the LCD-3, which sounded very refined & intriguing; it made me more interested in the LCD-2C; and 2 were headphones that made me glad to have a multi-bit source:

• Senn HD800s (modded)
• Focal Elear

These headphones are dissimilar in most ways, but broadly speaking, they both "push" upper mids & treble in ways I couldn't live with (because of my sonic preferences; also because of tinnitus easily aggravated by designs that spotlight upper frequencies). In fairness, the modded HD800s were less trebly than expected (no doubt, the mod doing its thing); and the Elear has rather spectacular detail/accuracy IMO. My point is because I have a multi-bit source in the system (right now it's the DAC-19), I didn't need to distinguish the baseline "digital" artifacts of delta-sigma (sharp transients, dry bass, "outlining" of notes that seem body-less) vs the baseline sound of these headphones.

And don't even get me started on amps (they all sound quite different).

Sources totally matter.

 

[s2kPanda]

Finally have a minute to reply to this "source is important" idea that both of you have commented on (also comments by @gLer)...

First off, I'm very interested in the LCD-2C for multiple reasons...following this thread .

Back to sources: I've played around w/DACs & amps to know DACs have rather subtle/elusive in the ways they sound different. Still, my DAC search totally ended when I discovered multi-bit...not just multi-bit, but nonoversampling (NOS) multi-bit. That was that/case closed; no going back to delta-sigma. My 2 multi-bit DACs (Audio GD NOS 19 & DAC-19; prefer the NOS 19 by a slight margin) really changed the way I hear digital.

In the past week I've heard a series of headphones owned by others, all designs I would never otherwise get to hear. One was the LCD-3, which sounded very refined & intriguing; it made me more interested in the LCD-2C; and 2 were headphones that made me glad to have a multi-bit source:

• Senn HD800s (modded)
• Focal Elear

These headphones are dissimilar in most ways, but broadly speaking, they both "push" upper mids & treble in ways I couldn't live with (because of my sonic preferences; also because of tinnitus easily aggravated by designs that spotlight upper frequencies). In fairness, the modded HD800s were less trebly than expected (no doubt, the mod doing its thing); and the Elear has rather spectacular detail/accuracy IMO. My point is because I have a multi-bit source in the system (right now it's the DAC-19), I didn't need to distinguish the baseline "digital" artifacts of delta-sigma (sharp transients, dry bass, "outlining" of notes that seem body-less) vs the baseline sound of these headphones.

And don't even get me started on amps (they all sound quite different).

Sources totally matter.

Saw you selling your Atticus, from others impressions that have both the LCD2C and Atticus, they say both are very similar in terms of sound, FR and overall presentation. So with the limited time you had with the Atticus, dunno if you'd like the LCD2C.

 

[koolkoala]

Does anyone else have an indifference in their pads? My left one seems to have less padding than the right. It can be annoying, and they don't seem to sell replacements.
https://imgur.com/a/hiEpP

Other than that, I'm really enjoying these cans.

 

[i2aNe]

Does anyone else have an indifference in their pads? My left one seems to have less padding than the right. It can be annoying, and they don't seem to sell replacements.
https://imgur.com/a/hiEpP

Other than that, I'm really enjoying these cans.

Mine are the same way. Not sure if that's considered a defect?

 

[s2kPanda]

Does anyone else have an indifference in their pads? My left one seems to have less padding than the right. It can be annoying, and they don't seem to sell replacements.
https://imgur.com/a/hiEpP

Other than that, I'm really enjoying these cans.

Yeah mine are slightly uneven as well but mine seem to be that the material inside is distributed unevenly.

 

[fccn75]

Does anyone else have an indifference in their pads? My left one seems to have less padding than the right. It can be annoying, and they don't seem to sell replacements.
https://imgur.com/a/hiEpP

Other than that, I'm really enjoying these cans.

Have you contacted Audeze customer support of this issue? Seems like a batch of slightly off specification on pads, but if it were me, I demand immaculate conditions due to Audeze trying to make a come-back for these LCD 2's. They had bad reputation for quality control back then on drivers but appears they have that tackled. So now, imo, it's sloppy vendor issue for these pads which is important nonetheless affecting seal/sound due to unevenness. Closer the driver is to the ear, more bass response - a plus if both are identical but not when they're not matched.

Hope these are just isolated cases.

 

[RatFarm]

My pads are pretty much even. BTW still really enjoying these phones. So musical. They even make Spotify sound great on my iPhone.