[betula]

I often read comments about LCD2C bass not having enough kick, punch, slam versus some other, mostly dynamic headphones.

These comments always leave me puzzled, as in my experience the 2C has the best kick, punch, slam in the bass I have experienced so far.

IMO this impression from fellow 2C owners come down to two possible factors:

1, Inefficient gear. While the 2C can sound loud enough from many entry level gear even portable devices, volume is not everything. While I loved my very capable Mojo, I don't think it can drive the 2C to its full potential. 2C like all Audeze headphones have a thirst for current and power. They won't shine unless they get what they need. A mid-fi, powerful (balanced) amp is the minimum IMO. The difference between a 'loud enough' and a well-driven 2C is huge to my ears. Extension, refinement, resolution, clarity, details, airiness, soundstage all dramatically improve.

2, Mixing up mid-bass quantity with bass quality. If someone is not used to the bass delivery of high(er)-end headphones they can easily find them bass light. This is because most lower-end headphones have too much bass. To someone on the street a headphone sounds good if it has a lot of bass. (Beats crowd.) As your ears and brain gets educated on sound quality, you realise bass quantity is not everything. You can actually have a more satisfying bass experience if the overall bass quantity is less (doesn't overshadow lower mids) but it is much cleaner, clearer with better extension, details, air and layers. (And actual kick and slam.)

This is a learning process for everyone, including me. I guess what I am trying to say is:

1, read other's opinion (even mine) with a huge grain of salt and trust only your own ears.
2, be careful with expressing your opinion. It might change as your hearing/taste evolves.

 

[snellemin]

1, Inefficient gear. While the 2C can sound loud enough from many entry level gear even portable devices, volume is not everything. While I loved my very capable Mojo, I don't think it can drive the 2C to its full potential. 2C like all Audeze headphones have a thirst for current and power. They won't shine unless they get what they need. A mid-fi, powerful (balanced) amp is the minimum IMO. The difference between a 'loud enough' and a well-driven 2C is huge to my ears. Extension, refinement, resolution, clarity, details, airiness, soundstage all dramatically improve.

2, Mixing up mid-bass quantity with bass quality.

I I guess what I am trying to say is:

1, read other's opinion (even mine) with a huge grain of salt and trust only your own ears.
2, be careful with expressing your opinion. It might change as your hearing/taste evolves.

+1

 

[BubbaJay]

I find the Owls to have that typical Biocellulose timbre. Planars for the most part lack mid bass slam which the Nightowl has.

That's very true. For me, a good dynamic driver has extra flavor in the low-end that a planar does not. I do still love the bass on a planar because of how clean and precise they sound but I just like my Nightowls a little more in that area.

 

[betula]

That's very true. For me, a good dynamic driver has extra flavor in the low-end that a planar does not. I do still love the bass on a planar because of how clean and precise they sound but I just like my Nightowls a little more in that area.

Mid-bass quantity vs. actual bass quality. There is nothing wrong with that.

 

[WailingBanshee]

Agree with the comment regarding ineffcient gear. I would add that amp matching is another important consideration. Before I bought my Burson Playmate I thought the lcd2c was lacking mid bass but boy was I wrong. It still doesn't have the same level of impact from a good dynamic headphone but i've come to really appreciate the clean punchy bass of the lcd2c. Before the switch, I did not like them for rock/metal but now I'm really enjoying these headphones with a well matched amp.

 

[xRaptorxPunisher]

That's very true. For me, a good dynamic driver has extra flavor in the low-end that a planar does not. I do still love the bass on a planar because of how clean and precise they sound but I just like my Nightowls a little more in that area.

Yeah that’s pants have some clean, textured bass but the slam and impact will always be compressed. Funny enough though older headphones like the HE-6 did dynamics and impact rather well. I got the same feeling comparing my HD650 and Aeolus to my 2C. The 2C would be cleaner, more low presence but the other two would trump it in terms of dynamism, feeling of power, slam.

One thing I do like about planars which a lot of people I’ve spoken to don’t like is the sense of things sounding too smooth, but to the point there’s a coloration, many people in the hobby call it a dirty background but I quite like it as I do most of my listening at night so that sense of lacking dynamics and cloudiness works for me.

 

[marcan]

... For me, a good dynamic driver has extra flavor in the low-end that a planar does not. ....

I would say exactly the same but the other way around. A good planar has an extra flavor in the sub that a dynamic does not.
Actually what you like are the harmonics of the subs created by the distortion of the low end that your dynamic headphones can't reproduce.
It's an old trick for making small speakers sound bigger. it has vagely the taste of bass but it ain't real sub. Not the same feeling, bloated in the mid bass then imparted the mids.
Personally I think that with an LCD, if you have a very good DAC (not all are equal in subs) and a very good amp (more than 2w at headphone impedance) you get a very clean and huge sub without the need of distortion to compensate.

 

[Leonarfd]

I got a guilty pleasure can when I want much low end when playing bass heavy music, that's my Sony MDR-Z7M2. It is no way near going as deep or being as textured as the LCD2C, it has more of that mid bass and loads of it. Fun can, but no way as good as the LCDs, unless this is what you want out of the music.

LCD2C is a keeper for me, prefer it over LCD 2f and LCD 3f.

 

[willywill]

I got a guilty pleasure can when I want much low end when playing bass heavy music, that's my Sony MDR-Z7M2. It is no way near going as deep or being as textured as the LCD2C, it has more of that mid bass and loads of it. Fun can, but no way as good as the LCDs, unless this is what you want out of the music.

LCD2C is a keeper for me, prefer it over LCD 2f and LCD 3f.

I have the original Z7 that I use more then the LCD-2C due to the closed back, they both sound about the same only the bass on the Z7 can get sloppy
but only when you listen closely and it's not present on every songs, but if you enjoy the music it's hard to tell

 

[nicholars]

I often read comments about LCD2C bass not having enough kick, punch, slam versus some other, mostly dynamic headphones.

These comments always leave me puzzled, as in my experience the 2C has the best kick, punch, slam in the bass I have experienced so far.

IMO this impression from fellow 2C owners come down to two possible factors:

1, Inefficient gear. While the 2C can sound loud enough from many entry level gear even portable devices, volume is not everything. While I loved my very capable Mojo, I don't think it can drive the 2C to its full potential. 2C like all Audeze headphones have a thirst for current and power. They won't shine unless they get what they need. A mid-fi, powerful (balanced) amp is the minimum IMO. The difference between a 'loud enough' and a well-driven 2C is huge to my ears. Extension, refinement, resolution, clarity, details, airiness, soundstage all dramatically improve.

2, Mixing up mid-bass quantity with bass quality. If someone is not used to the bass delivery of high(er)-end headphones they can easily find them bass light. This is because most lower-end headphones have too much bass. To someone on the street a headphone sounds good if it has a lot of bass. (Beats crowd.) As your ears and brain gets educated on sound quality, you realise bass quantity is not everything. You can actually have a more satisfying bass experience if the overall bass quantity is less (doesn't overshadow lower mids) but it is much cleaner, clearer with better extension, details, air and layers. (And actual kick and slam.)

This is a learning process for everyone, including me. I guess what I am trying to say is:

1, read other's opinion (even mine) with a huge grain of salt and trust only your own ears.
2, be careful with expressing your opinion. It might change as your hearing/taste evolves.

To be honest the 2C just do not have that much "slam / kick" whatever you want to call it, they are not bad in this area, "decent", but they certainly do not have a lot of it compared to Dynamic drivers.

Not saying the 2C are bad at all, just that compared to dynamic drivers, this is not one of their strong points, although compared to a lot of other planar, they are better in this area.

 

[betula]

To be honest the 2C just do not have that much "slam / kick" whatever you want to call it, they are not bad in this area, "decent", but they certainly do not have a lot of it compared to Dynamic drivers.

Not saying the 2C are bad at all, just that compared to dynamic drivers, this is not one of their strong points, although compared to a lot of other planar, they are better in this area.

I think it is easy to mix up the 'dynamic' sound of dynamic drivers and their mid-bass hump with the actual slam/kick I was talking about. Planar bass is more balanced and cleaner, clearer. It doesn't mean however that those clear notes can't have as much (or more) slam/kick as certain dynamic drivers. They just need more current/power for that and of course it will be presented in a different manner. We all hear differently, use different gear and we might not even mean exactly the same when we mention 'slam'. By slam I meant the power/authority/impact of bass notes. Dynamic drivers may have the mid-bass quantity but to my ears planar transducers are superior in the qualities I have just mentioned.

 

[snellemin]

To be honest the 2C just do not have that much "slam / kick" whatever you want to call it, they are not bad in this area, "decent", but they certainly do not have a lot of it compared to Dynamic drivers.

Not saying the 2C are bad at all, just that compared to dynamic drivers, this is not one of their strong points, although compared to a lot of other planar, they are better in this area.

And which Dynamic drivers are these? Because with EQ and power, the 2C will deliver. More so, than say the Purple Heart Fostex , but less than a JVC SZ2K.

So which dynamic drivers are you referring to?

 

[marcan]

Sure you can find headphones that have more bass and you can call it slam. But the bass quality of planars and audeze in particular is the first thing that strikes me the first time I heard planar.
Sure it's damn flat in that department. So it means there is no bass coloration (which can give you what you call bass slam) but you can hear all the layer because no frequency will mask the other (particularly the sub will be masked by the bass coloration). Moreover no dynamic headphones can hit that low without distortion. Its physically impossible. For me bass slam is also the ability to go very deep with authority and precision. No dynamic headphone is able to do that like a planar does.
Now as says copious times here, the LCD require a copious amount of juice to deliver his full spectrum. Bear in mind that in order to achieve a clean octave lower you need around two times the power. So it means if you need something like .0.5 watt to achieve a clean 40hz, going down to 20hz will require 1 watt, 10 hz will require 2 watts, ... not many amps are able to sustain such a scale of power. That's why planar love balanced: more power, better slew rate.
So some will call bass slam the bass coloration / distortion that you can have with a dynamic or a closed headphone. Audeze is just the contrary, it's just a nearly perfect flat bass from 1khz down to 5hz. So for those colored bass addicted I can understand that planar lakes bass slam.
Bur I'm sure that part of people talking about the LCD lacking bass slam just doesn't have the amp to make them rumble.

 

[obsidyen]

Sure you can find headphones that have more bass and you can call it slam. But the bass quality of planars and audeze in particular is the first thing that strikes me the first time I heard planar.
Sure it's damn flat in that department. So it means there is no bass coloration (which can give you what you call bass slam) but you can hear all the layer because no frequency will mask the other (particularly the sub will be masked by the bass coloration). Moreover no dynamic headphones can hit that low without distortion. Its physically impossible. For me bass slam is also the ability to go very deep with authority and precision. No dynamic headphone is able to do that like a planar does.
Now as says copious times here, the LCD require a copious amount of juice to deliver his full spectrum. Bear in mind that in order to achieve a clean octave lower you need around two times the power. So it means if you need something like .0.5 watt to achieve a clean 40hz, going down to 20hz will require 1 watt, 10 hz will require 2 watts, ... not many amps are able to sustain such a scale of power. That's why planar love balanced: more power, better slew rate.
So some will call bass slam the bass coloration / distortion that you can have with a dynamic or a closed headphone. Audeze is just the contrary, it's just a nearly perfect flat bass from 1khz down to 5hz. So for those colored bass addicted I can understand that planar lakes bass slam.
Bur I'm sure that part of people talking about the LCD lacking bass slam just doesn't have the amp to make them rumble.

Have you ever heard Fostex TH900? It has the best bass ever. And it's dynamic.

 

[xRaptorxPunisher]

I think a lot of people are missing the point of the limitation of planar drivers being able to produce dynamics and impact.

It’s not always a bad thing because they can produce those low notes like no other open headphone.