Audeze LCD-3 Impressions Thread
Feb 26, 2021 at 3:26 PM Post #5,881 of 6,385
They dropped the brown earpads? booooo!
Yeah, they did. But these earpads are nice and contoured and it's very comfortable. And the finish on the wood is thicker and shinier. I like it!
 
Feb 26, 2021 at 5:13 PM Post #5,882 of 6,385
I have been looking for this thread. I'm so used to having headphones in the mid tier price range. Previously my most expensive pair of headphones were the HD-560. I just bought a used pair of these and I'm playing the waiting game until they get here. I'm so psyched and I can't wait to listen through them. I'm digging through my music in storage and going to break out the weird stuff to break them in. In the mean time I'm going to dig though some of these 393 pages to see what balanced amps people are rocking with these cans. Thanks for reading my blog.
 
Feb 26, 2021 at 6:59 PM Post #5,883 of 6,385
I've love LCD-3f with all my tube amps but with this Bifrost 2 + Auralic Taurus Mk2, it's sublime. I thought I had heard the best from LCD-3f but it just gets more interesting with a change of amp.

Might I add that the skull just adds to the euphony.

IMG_1974.jpg
 
Feb 26, 2021 at 8:31 PM Post #5,884 of 6,385
I've love LCD-3f with all my tube amps but with this Bifrost 2 + Auralic Taurus Mk2, it's sublime. I thought I had heard the best from LCD-3f but it just gets more interesting with a change of amp.

Might I add that the skull just adds to the euphony.

IMG_1974.jpg
Interesting. I have the bifrost already. I might just start saving up for the Taurus. That amp keeps coming up over and over again s one of the better amps in its price range. It’s also not a tube amp which I think I’m going to move away from. My lyr 1 bit the dust recently and I’m not interested in getting it repaired. Since I’ll have to save for that amp, maybe I’ll get lucky and one will come up for sale used between now and then.
 
Feb 26, 2021 at 8:39 PM Post #5,885 of 6,385
Interesting. I have the bifrost already. I might just start saving up for the Taurus. That amp keeps coming up over and over again s one of the better amps in its price range. It’s also not a tube amp which I think I’m going to move away from. My lyr 1 bit the dust recently and I’m not interested in getting it repaired. Since I’ll have to save for that amp, maybe I’ll get lucky and one will come up for sale used between now and then.
In this price range, I find the v280 and Taurus best with my He1000se and LCD-3f. I have just sold off the v280 and was about to sell the Taurus but I won't now. I'm also a tube amp lover and incidentally I prefer my tube amps over the solid states but they are so close. It was a hard decision on which to sell. I kept the tube amps because I have very good NOS tubes for them and that transform the sound signature. However you can never get the pitch black quietness of solid states in tube amps. The best tube amps come close but it's never like the utter quietness you find in these 2 solid states. You can see my tube amps in my signature.

V280 and Taurus

IMG_1940.jpgIMG_1935.jpg
 
Feb 26, 2021 at 8:44 PM Post #5,886 of 6,385
This is just one of my tube amps (La Figaro 339i) that I'm comparing with the solid states before deciding which to let go. It was a very hard decision. :) They are all very capable performers.

LCD-3f sound great with all 3. Some days I would prefer one amp over the other and the next day, my mind would change.

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Feb 26, 2021 at 9:01 PM Post #5,887 of 6,385
I've heard LCD-3f with many amps and each change just make me love the Audeze more and more.

With Wa22 and Questyle CMA 12 - both amps are astonishing delightful with LCD-3f.
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With my favourite Elekit TU-8200 - this DIY SET amp is simply gorgeous especially with Telefunken EL12 spez and Brimar 12au7 long plates or GEC KT66.
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With McChanson KT150 set amp - amazing !
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With La Figaro 339i - there's something about this amp from China. I just love it.
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With Auris Nirvana - Jesus Christ !
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Finally with my unique Ultrasonic Studio Oblivion - excellence beyond compare.
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Feb 26, 2021 at 9:56 PM Post #5,890 of 6,385
All such amazing setups. I’m not sure I’ll ever having anything that rivals some of yours...though I never dreamed I’d go this far down the rabbit hole when buying my set of sr80s in 99.
That’s how it starts. Never regretted a moment of it though.

I will have a final SET tube amp being built in July and that will be my finale. After that I will just enjoy my music.
 
Feb 27, 2021 at 12:13 PM Post #5,891 of 6,385
That’s how it starts. Never regretted a moment of it though.

I will have a final SET tube amp being built in July and that will be my finale. After that I will just enjoy my music.
Oh yeah it’s so much fun. I’ve owned aground 20 different “high end” headphones and iems. A new set of headphones makes my favorite music come alive again with the attention and critical listen I do with a new set of headphones. I bought a pair of Chinese made planar headphones a couple of months ago, the measure like trash but they’re the most detailed set of headphones I’ve ever owned. They let me hear things in familiar music that I never had before. It was so much fun and it’s why I keep going further and further down this hobby.
 
Feb 27, 2021 at 12:40 PM Post #5,892 of 6,385
Oh yeah it’s so much fun. I’ve owned aground 20 different “high end” headphones and iems. A new set of headphones makes my favorite music come alive again with the attention and critical listen I do with a new set of headphones. I bought a pair of Chinese made planar headphones a couple of months ago, the measure like trash but they’re the most detailed set of headphones I’ve ever owned. They let me hear things in familiar music that I never had before. It was so much fun and it’s why I keep going further and further down this hobby.
If you have many headphones and many amps, you will go bananas with swapping them and the men in white suit will come and get you, to lock you away for good. Think Jack Nicholson in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'.
 
Mar 1, 2021 at 3:30 PM Post #5,893 of 6,385
Got by balanced cable, so I am listening to my LCD-3F into my Bryston 3B-ST.

I have yet to hear headphones that don't sound better out of this power amp. I don't know how much of the sound is from the components themselves, but I am quite confident direly needing to run the preamp at as low-gain as possible is a large part of the secret sauce.

I've found that in addition to adding gain (duh), running an amp at higher gain increases midrange presence. Or, perhaps running an amp at lower gain puts emphasis on the highs and lows (which is why some headphones can sound thin on low-gain). The LCD-3F has that romantic "haze" in the midrange that gets pulled back into order when plugged into this speaker amp. There's no mistaking it's an LCD-3F, but that "cigar smoke" isn't so prevalent, so the thing speeds up considerably.

Has anyone else done something like this? I think this whole max power/min gain thing is really beneficial to planars, but it really made my HD800 hit hard too.
 
Mar 1, 2021 at 8:59 PM Post #5,894 of 6,385
I run my amp in high gain for all of my planar headphones, though my HD560's are the old 350ohms variety and they sound downright anemic in the low gain setting even when compensating with turning the volume up.

I just got my LCD3's in mail and man-oh-man the bass is transcendent. Listening to Scott Walker's Bouncer See Bouncer, the throbbing of the bass drum is flat-out oppressive. These headphones are something else. I can't wait to dig into my library some more and see how they fair with some other genres.
 
Mar 2, 2021 at 6:48 PM Post #5,895 of 6,385
Man, it's so hard to pick an amp for these headphones. I've been losing it reading this thread and other information out there trying to find one in my price range. I'm ultimately going to get the Taurus MKII some day maybe next year. Until then I'm looking for something in the 500 dollar range. There's a Mjolnir Version 1 (the solid state version) on reverb for 500 after shipping. He's accepting offers and I might get it if he'll go for 450.

Is there something else I should be considering in that price range? I can go over let say to 800 USD if it, in the end matters.

The source in my chain is my computer going through USB audio into a Schiit Bifrost V1. This is the version that has RCA only. It also has the multibit upgrade card installed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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