[Tybot]

I think I have a loose connection in one side of the mini-xlr headphone connector. Does anyone know how to remove/loosen the jack where it connects to the wood body so I can have a look and hopefully tighten things up? Thanks!

 

[Audeze]

Contact support@audeze.com for direct assistance.

 

[Skeza]

I loved my LCD-2's so much that I sold them and my Clear MGs and impulsed bought some new LCD-3's without a demo.

Running them off my Element III (approx 2W@32ohm) and I feel I'm missing something, I just don't think it's a good pairing. I'm considering an upgrade to a Schiit Jotunheim or Lyr3+.

Does anyone have any experience with these and Schiit? I could possibly compliment the Element 3 with something tube for sub $1000

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I loved my LCD-2's so much that I sold them and my Clear MGs and impulsed bought some new LCD-3's without a demo.

Running them off my Element III (approx 2W@32ohm) and I feel I'm missing something, I just don't think it's a good pairing. I'm considering an upgrade to a Schiit Jotunheim or Lyr3+.

Does anyone have any experience with these and Schiit? I could possibly compliment the Element 3 with something tube for sub $1000

I have a Jot 2 that I use. Should be more than plenty for the LCD-3.

I just really want Schiit to started using a 4.4mm connection. The 4 pin XLR jack behaves weird with my hartaudiocables, but not with Audeze XLR cables.

Also should note the LCD-2 and LCD-3 sound quite different, which may be why you're not getting the expected outcome coming off an LCD-2.

The LCD-3 is quite a bit more open sounding and spaced out, and not as upfront and immediate as the LCD-2. Which was more forward and in your face in comparison.

I'd personally say, the LCD-3 is one of the headphones that has its distinct difference in presentation over the other numbered classic LCDs.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I loved my LCD-2's so much that I sold them and my Clear MGs and impulsed bought some new LCD-3's without a demo.

Running them off my Element III (approx 2W@32ohm) and I feel I'm missing something, I just don't think it's a good pairing. I'm considering an upgrade to a Schiit Jotunheim or Lyr3+.

Does anyone have any experience with these and Schiit? I could possibly compliment the Element 3 with something tube for sub $1000

I don't think you want to run a pair of LCD-3 off a tube amp, unless you can pay quite a lot for a hybrid.

Since you're Down Under have you considered Burson?

 

[Skeza]

I don't think you want to run a pair of LCD-3 off a tube amp, unless you can pay quite a lot for a hybrid.

Since you're Down Under have you considered Burson?

That's why I'm leaning towards the Lyr3+, plenty of power.

I would absolutely love a Conductor but unfortunately it's out of my budget... Well maybe. You can never be sure in this hobby.

 

[betula]

A friend of mine just sold his Susvara as he preferred his old LCD3. Just saying.

 

[robo24]

A friend of mine just sold his Susvara as he preferred his old LCD3. Just saying.

I've been tempted to sell my LCD3 since getting the Caldera and 1266 TC. Listened to it recently on the Feliks Envy and it scales well and is still special enough to keep. Less resolving and more narrow soundstage than the other 2 but it's also around half the price or much less.

 

[kid vic]

I don't think you want to run a pair of LCD-3 off a tube amp, unless you can pay quite a lot for a hybrid.

Since you're Down Under have you considered Burson?

To each his own and all that but I absolutely would suggest trying an LCD3 with a tube amp; I use mine with a mid 60's HH Scott 299D (that is also amazing with my HE1000 v1) and it was probably the most satisfying combo I have. Just make sure the tube amp has plenty of current into your headphones and it should work well.

 

[senseitedj]

To each his own and all that but I absolutely would suggest trying an LCD3 with a tube amp; I use mine with a mid 60's HH Scott 299D (that is also amazing with my HE1000 v1) and it was probably the most satisfying combo I have. Just make sure the tube amp has plenty of current into your headphones and it should work well.

I agree. One of the best combos I had with LCD-3 was Alo Studio 6.

At that time (2013), it was one of the best systems I have heard in my life.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

To each his own and all that but I absolutely would suggest trying an LCD3 with a tube amp; I use mine with a mid 60's HH Scott 299D (that is also amazing with my HE1000 v1) and it was probably the most satisfying combo I have. Just make sure the tube amp has plenty of current into your headphones and it should work well.

Ok, but that is not what comes to mind when most people think about buying a tube headamp

 

[Nayyte]

My first post on head-fi! Joined in 2017 and always been a lurker. I'm fairly seasoned into this hobby and currently I'm looking to graduate from the upper end of midfi (bit vague). This past spring I went a little crazy and purchased a lot of headphones around the $1k price point used. I've been going back and forth between the LCD-2f Aluminum, LCD-3f, and ZMF Auteur OG for the past few months. I'll be focusing on the LCD-3 to begin my head-fi journey!

Bought a pair of LCD-3's on ebay that someone had received as a gift but never used. Like new condition but needed new pads. I really don't know what year they're from. The freq graph I requested from Audeze is dated 2018 but these have the metal connectors and old headband design. I believe that they are from 2015, before they updated the driver but after they added the fazor. So pre-fazor driver but with fazor. Below is the graph with the serial 2822856.

I replaced the headband and the pads. I decided to go with a set of dekoni fenestrated sheepskin pads. Comfort on these is really special. I have been blessed with a strong neck so the weight doesn't really bother me for the LCD-3's though they are the heaviest of the three. I managed to snag a used carbon fiber headband as well and while the looks are cool, I really don't notice a difference really in comfort. The real issue with the carbon fiber is the rigidity. It is significantly less rigid than the stock steel. With the stock headband these almost disappear on my head while the cf rocks around a lot and if I lean forward they do slide to "oh crap these are gonna fall off" levels. My normal listening session is around 1-3 hours so these definitely remain comfortable for the better part of it.

My setup is currently a bit haphazard. I have a Questyle CMA400i that I used to use exclusively. Then I got into CD's and bought a AudioLab 6000CDT transport. Then I purchased a PS-Audio GCHA headphone amp (xlr input version). The GCHA was a huge upgrade for me. Now my CMA400i sounds very congested and overly warm. I find the GCHA to be extremely transparent and really blissful. There aren't any published specs of this amp oddly but I read somewhere that it can get up to 10W output which would be crazy. My current chain is CD transport > toslink to CMA400i > line level RCA to GCHA. I can go to 10-11:30 comfortably on the GCHA. A very awesome amp and I don't see it leaving my collection.

Current albums in heavy rotation:

• The Prince of Egypt OST
• Arctic Monkeys "The Car"
• Pink Floyd "A Momentary Lapse of Reason"
• Deftones "Koi No Yokan"
• David Byrne "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today"
• Gorillaz "Humans"
• Shalosh "Onwards and Upwards"

My music tastes are pretty wide but currently I'm listening to OST's, classical, jazz fusion, alt rock, alt metal, and progressive. Sonically I like an engaging and intimate presentation, different flavors of neutral, and balanced male/female vocals. I've started to realize that I don't really crave big soundstage and I'm pretty sensitive to layering and where specific instruments sit in the presentation. I've done quite a lot of A/B testing these three cans and wow, brain burn in is so real. After listening to the Auteur's the most since they were the first ones I purchased, I've been really captivated by them and I know they will be staying with me. I then started getting used to these LCD-3's and at first it was rough. I found them very different to what I was used to. They really changed my music in a way that I wasn't sure I liked. Eventually I got used to them and started to really like them overall.

How would I describe the sound of these... Big, bass forward, and detail focused. Lots of words can describe these. Once you get used to them they are extremely relaxed while providing tasteful detail into your music. Definitely totl in detail and texture. These will change your music. I found that slow music works best with them but they still perform good with most genres. Organic instruments sound life like and have a rich tonality. Vocals sound pure and have really nice sparkle. They can handle the faster bits of pink floyd but sometimes not so great with the electronic points in fusion jazz tracks. Digging deep into why this is, I suppose that they are really transparent; preferring great masters and telling you strait up how poor any specific recording actually is (despite how much you like X album on other headphones or speakers).

While these definitely leave an impression there are some glaring side effects that I don't love. There is a significant and seemingly unnatural hump in the bass that I don't always agree with. Some songs it's quite fitting but with others it really feels borderline harsh. I tend to prefer a more linear and controlled bass response with a relaxed sub-bass. These aren't that but I was still able to get used to them. On terms of resolution I believe that these headphones are spreading and stretching out the music more than simply providing a large resolution. They do still have great resolution especially on great recordings; pink floyd sounds like the music is coming from space itself right into your ears. Critical comparisons to the LCD-2 and Auteur lead me to believe that the resolution is that of a sub $1000 headphone rather than a $2000 one. Thankfully I didn't pay anywhere close to either of those prices .

I had just about dismissed the LCD-2's for lacking resolution and detail in comparison to the 3's until I decided to give them one final long listen; boy am I thankful I did. These LCD's are very source dependent and scale so very nicely. I was shocked to discover how pleasurable the LCD-2's are overall on my current chain with the PS-audio GCHA. Only after a few mins of listening I'm finding the LCD-2's to have a more agreeable tonality and presentation. The 2's just have this amazing ability to throw the music at you in a blissful structure. Like a pyramid of layers; the tip contains what you want to hear front and center with everything else presented just a few steps back. All the instruments have the ability to jump up from their levels on the pyramid to the top and right back to where they used to be. So pleasurable to me and unfortunately the LCD-3 lacks this trait entirely. It heavily favors the bass and overall warmth of the lower region. I can adapt to it but it's not without gripe.

So do I like these? Yes, sometimes very much. Their uniqueness alone is reason enough for me to keep them. And did I mention how gorgeous they are?

Originally I wanted to settle down and only keep one of these headphones. The more I listen the more I don't see that happening.

My wallet is not happy... at all.

Help.

Hope you enjoyed my ramble impressions!

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I believe that they are from 2015, before they updated the driver but after they added the fazor. So pre-fazor driver but with fazor. Below is the graph with the serial 2822856.

If the headphone came in for fazors, that means the drivers have been swapped out. There is no pre-fazor driver with fazors. It would be a pre-fazor headphone that has had its drivers replaced to post-fazor drivers. If it's from 2015, then the drivers were updated to post 2016 driver spec, but they were both post-fazors.

Do you feel the fazors on the driver surface? That headphone with that headband and pads, with that serial, something isn't adding up.

The Serial Number is on the barcode sticker on the cardboard box, the Certificate Of Authenticity that came with the headphones, and also on the headphones themselves...



- on one adjustment block (for the padded headband style):

Is the serial on that part the same as on your graph?

The only way to verify those drivers would be you would have to remove those very old earpads and provide the driver serial numbers on the surce of the driver housing.

It would be insanely unlikely that we replaced the drivers and kept those earpads on in 2018. Unless you yourself swapped back to the those pads after the driver upgrade.

We have nothing on record for the serial number on your graphs other than it being from 2018. Which again, doesn't line up with the parts that are shown unless you swapped to old pads and old headband.

 

[Nayyte]

Definitely mine have fazors, I'm not going to peel back the new dekoni pads to look at the serial number. So what you're saying is that these originally were the pre-fazor model and they were sent in for repair/upgrade. That would explain why the chart is labeled 2018. I just requested it from Audeze yesterday so no doubt there. This makes more sense but now I really wonder what the pre-fazor sounds like .
Who knows, maybe the original owner didn't like them after their update and kept the newer pads from the upgrade, then gave them to the seller I got it from.

 

[Livnmuskoka]

My first post on head-fi! Joined in 2017 and always been a lurker. I'm fairly seasoned into this hobby and currently I'm looking to graduate from the upper end of midfi (bit vague). This past spring I went a little crazy and purchased a lot of headphones around the $1k price point used. I've been going back and forth between the LCD-2f Aluminum, LCD-3f, and ZMF Auteur OG for the past few months. I'll be focusing on the LCD-3 to begin my head-fi journey!

Bought a pair of LCD-3's on ebay that someone had received as a gift but never used. Like new condition but needed new pads. I really don't know what year they're from. The freq graph I requested from Audeze is dated 2018 but these have the metal connectors and old headband design. I believe that they are from 2015, before they updated the driver but after they added the fazor. So pre-fazor driver but with fazor. Below is the graph with the serial 2822856.



I replaced the headband and the pads. I decided to go with a set of dekoni fenestrated sheepskin pads. Comfort on these is really special. I have been blessed with a strong neck so the weight doesn't really bother me for the LCD-3's though they are the heaviest of the three. I managed to snag a used carbon fiber headband as well and while the looks are cool, I really don't notice a difference really in comfort. The real issue with the carbon fiber is the rigidity. It is significantly less rigid than the stock steel. With the stock headband these almost disappear on my head while the cf rocks around a lot and if I lean forward they do slide to "oh crap these are gonna fall off" levels. My normal listening session is around 1-3 hours so these definitely remain comfortable for the better part of it.

My setup is currently a bit haphazard. I have a Questyle CMA400i that I used to use exclusively. Then I got into CD's and bought a AudioLab 6000CDT transport. Then I purchased a PS-Audio GCHA headphone amp (xlr input version). The GCHA was a huge upgrade for me. Now my CMA400i sounds very congested and overly warm. I find the GCHA to be extremely transparent and really blissful. There aren't any published specs of this amp oddly but I read somewhere that it can get up to 10W output which would be crazy. My current chain is CD transport > toslink to CMA400i > line level RCA to GCHA. I can go to 10-11:30 comfortably on the GCHA. A very awesome amp and I don't see it leaving my collection.

Current albums in heavy rotation:

• The Prince of Egypt OST
• Arctic Monkeys "The Car"
• Pink Floyd "A Momentary Lapse of Reason"
• Deftones "Koi No Yokan"
• David Byrne "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today"
• Gorillaz "Humans"
• Shalosh "Onwards and Upwards"

My music tastes are pretty wide but currently I'm listening to OST's, classical, jazz fusion, alt rock, alt metal, and progressive. Sonically I like an engaging and intimate presentation, different flavors of neutral, and balanced male/female vocals. I've started to realize that I don't really crave big soundstage and I'm pretty sensitive to layering and where specific instruments sit in the presentation. I've done quite a lot of A/B testing these three cans and wow, brain burn in is so real. After listening to the Auteur's the most since they were the first ones I purchased, I've been really captivated by them and I know they will be staying with me. I then started getting used to these LCD-3's and at first it was rough. I found them very different to what I was used to. They really changed my music in a way that I wasn't sure I liked. Eventually I got used to them and started to really like them overall.

How would I describe the sound of these... Big, bass forward, and detail focused. Lots of words can describe these. Once you get used to them they are extremely relaxed while providing tasteful detail into your music. Definitely totl in detail and texture. These will change your music. I found that slow music works best with them but they still perform good with most genres. Organic instruments sound life like and have a rich tonality. Vocals sound pure and have really nice sparkle. They can handle the faster bits of pink floyd but sometimes not so great with the electronic points in fusion jazz tracks. Digging deep into why this is, I suppose that they are really transparent; preferring great masters and telling you strait up how poor any specific recording actually is (despite how much you like X album on other headphones or speakers).

While these definitely leave an impression there are some glaring side effects that I don't love. There is a significant and seemingly unnatural hump in the bass that I don't always agree with. Some songs it's quite fitting but with others it really feels borderline harsh. I tend to prefer a more linear and controlled bass response with a relaxed sub-bass. These aren't that but I was still able to get used to them. On terms of resolution I believe that these headphones are spreading and stretching out the music more than simply providing a large resolution. They do still have great resolution especially on great recordings; pink floyd sounds like the music is coming from space itself right into your ears. Critical comparisons to the LCD-2 and Auteur lead me to believe that the resolution is that of a sub $1000 headphone rather than a $2000 one. Thankfully I didn't pay anywhere close to either of those prices .

I had just about dismissed the LCD-2's for lacking resolution and detail in comparison to the 3's until I decided to give them one final long listen; boy am I thankful I did. These LCD's are very source dependent and scale so very nicely. I was shocked to discover how pleasurable the LCD-2's are overall on my current chain with the PS-audio GCHA. Only after a few mins of listening I'm finding the LCD-2's to have a more agreeable tonality and presentation. The 2's just have this amazing ability to throw the music at you in a blissful structure. Like a pyramid of layers; the tip contains what you want to hear front and center with everything else presented just a few steps back. All the instruments have the ability to jump up from their levels on the pyramid to the top and right back to where they used to be. So pleasurable to me and unfortunately the LCD-3 lacks this trait entirely. It heavily favors the bass and overall warmth of the lower region. I can adapt to it but it's not without gripe.

So do I like these? Yes, sometimes very much. Their uniqueness alone is reason enough for me to keep them. And did I mention how gorgeous they are?



Originally I wanted to settle down and only keep one of these headphones. The more I listen the more I don't see that happening.

My wallet is not happy... at all.

Help.

Hope you enjoyed my ramble impressions!

They look like the ones I bought in early 2018 and sold about 1.5 years ago. When I sold them they had very low hours on them, and were in mint condition other than the same peeling vinyl as those, although it wasn't as bad at that time.
I even sold them with the plastic still on the headband. Did you buy them from Canada?
Nevermind, I just found the serial number from mine: 2822393.
Which I believe yours would also be a 2018 model then.
I loved them at first, with an RME adi-2 dac fs. But then after having a calibrated home theatre system for a few years, I like the 2022 model HD600's better, that are EQ'd and using Tidal hifi and LDAC 990 from a Fiio BTR7 with a balanced cable.
The HD600's give up a slight amount of clarity and detail from the LCD3's, but I prefer the more natural tone, accuracy, dynamic drivers, and lighter weight of the HD600's.