[b1ackwid0w]

For how you're describing the issues, if you're only getting that with some recordings, it most probably is due to the recording itself.

Metal seems to have a very natural imaging and depth to my ears on both LCD-4 and CD-MX4

Actually I found this on most of my recordings. Even if I sway left and right channel, sound still coming from the back. Doesn’t make sense to me

 

[DarKu]

Actually I found this on most of my recordings. Even if I sway left and right channel, sound still coming from the back. Doesn’t make sense to me

I think you are experiencing "sound depth" that is not present at all on regular headphones, LCD-4 do have the best depth I've heard in any headphone, sounding really deep and yes sometimes some sounds come from the back of the listener.
I actually like a lot this feeling and it was sound depth that draw my attention to LCD-4 in detriment of the fake soundstage heard on HD800/HD800S.

Do you have any experience with other high-end headphones?
Other top tier headphones have good depth as well but not like LCD-4...

 

[b1ackwid0w]

I think you are experiencing "sound depth" that is not present at all on regular headphones, LCD-4 do have the best depth I've heard in any headphone, sounding really deep and yes sometimes some sounds come from the back of the listener.
I actually like a lot this feeling and it was sound depth that draw my attention to LCD-4 in detriment of the fake soundstage heard on HD800/HD800S.

Do you have any experience with other high-end headphones?
Other top tier headphones have good depth as well but not like LCD-4...

I’ve tried 009 with woo 3es and he-1 really good imaging. I absolutely hate the fake no body sound coming from hd800s. I feels like they all coming from the back. I believe this might be a recording issue.
Since the singer are facing the microphone. And if the microphone has the same perspective as the stage which does make sense why sound coming from the rear.

 

[mlxx]

I think I am addicted to the LCD4 sound, especially the sound stage.
Is there a known cure?

 

[b1ackwid0w]

I think I am addicted to the LCD4 sound, especially the sound stage.
Is there a known cure?

Try sennheiser HE-1

 

[Dobrescu George]

I think I am addicted to the LCD4 sound, especially the sound stage.
Is there a known cure?

Why would that be a bad thing tho?

Those are pure summit-fi material, some of the best.

I think I am addicted to the LCD4 sound, especially the sound stage.
Is there a known cure?

I generally talk about them the other way around, when people tell me that they love HE-1, I tell them to try LCD-4

 

[LeoKane]

Hi All, I just purchased a set of LCD-4 after trying a number of other TOTL cans. It was a very simple choice for me with the 4's being the best sounding for my tastes by quite a long way. I reviewed them and will be using them on my Hugo 2 which I know does struggle to drive them fully, but I still preferred them to the others (inc Utopia) on Hugo 2 despite this and I know there is potential to improve later on with an amp.

Therefore I would like the benefit of everyone's advice as to what would be the most cost effective way of improving on the Hugo 2 with an external amp? initially I don't want to spend a lot (sub £1k) but also don't want to lose too much of that Hugo magic in terms of resolution and layering. So any suggestions or experience with this very welcome.

thanks!

 

[Dobrescu George]

Hi All, I just purchased a set of LCD-4 after trying a number of other TOTL cans. It was a very simple choice for me with the 4's being the best sounding for my tastes by quite a long way. I reviewed them and will be using them on my Hugo 2 which I know does struggle to drive them fully, but I still preferred them to the others (inc Utopia) on Hugo 2 despite this and I know there is potential to improve later on with an amp.

Therefore I would like the benefit of everyone's advice as to what would be the most cost effective way of improving on the Hugo 2 with an external amp? initially I don't want to spend a lot (sub £1k) but also don't want to lose too much of that Hugo magic in terms of resolution and layering. So any suggestions or experience with this very welcome.

thanks!

Since we're talking about LCD-4, I don't think you mean portable

@DarKu should have some interesting input on that, I think he has a really nice rig with LCD-4, but I'm not sure about the price of that amazing AMP he is rocking

 

[DarKu]

what would be the most cost effective way of improving on the Hugo 2 with an external amp? initially I don't want to spend a lot (sub £1k) but also don't want to lose too much of that Hugo magic in terms of resolution and layering.
thanks!

With a 2.7K DAC and a 4K headphone, a sub 1K headphone amp will not do justice to LCD-4, you'll bottleneck it's performance with that.
I'm using an Audio-GD Master 9 headphone amp (~1.5K ) and it drives LCD-4 perfectly. It has lots of headroom, transparency and power to spare. I do also recommend going balanced with the LCD-4, the difference is quite big.
If you ever wondering what might be among the best amp for LCD-4: HeadAmp GSX Mk2.
PS: please stay away from tube amps with LCD-4, it will make them too mellow and slow.

 

[LeoKane]

With a 2.7K DAC and a 4K headphone, a sub 1K headphone amp will not do justice to LCD-4, you'll bottleneck it's performance with that.
I'm using an Audio-GD Master 9 headphone amp (~1.5K ) and it drives LCD-4 perfectly. It has lots of headroom, transparency and power to spare. I do also recommend going balanced with the LCD-4, the difference is quite big.
If you ever wondering what might be among the best amp for LCD-4: HeadAmp GSX Mk2.
PS: please stay away from tube amps with LCD-4, it will make them too mellow and slow.

Thanks for the advice, looks like I need to start saving then! I didn't get a balanced cable with the LCD-4 though, should I have done?

 

[DarKu]

My amp has a Single ended output as well, but LCD-4 sound better on the 4pin XLR balanced out (deeper and wider stage, faster decays, better impact). A balanced cable would be a better choice - but in that case you could not use them directly from Hugo 2.
But you can always buy a separate balanced cable, check Norne Audio, they have really nice cables that looks and sounds great.

 

[pippen99]

PS: please stay away from tube amps with LCD-4, it will make them too mellow and slow.[/QUOTE]

I respectfully disagree. I spend about 50/50 running my LCD-4 out of my Woo WA5 and Cavalli Liquid Gold. I would not part with my WA5 unless I could move up to a WA33.

 

[Dobrescu George]

My cables from higher taste came in.

Van Damme cable within, for MX4

Those are smooth and musical cables, with a slightly less treble amount, but not rolled off, as it doesn't disappear, but lower in amount. I really would had wanted silver based cables rather than Cooper, but meh, this has nice bass and soundstage.

 

[b1ackwid0w]

Hi All, I just purchased a set of LCD-4 after trying a number of other TOTL cans. It was a very simple choice for me with the 4's being the best sounding for my tastes by quite a long way. I reviewed them and will be using them on my Hugo 2 which I know does struggle to drive them fully, but I still preferred them to the others (inc Utopia) on Hugo 2 despite this and I know there is potential to improve later on with an amp.

Therefore I would like the benefit of everyone's advice as to what would be the most cost effective way of improving on the Hugo 2 with an external amp? initially I don't want to spend a lot (sub £1k) but also don't want to lose too much of that Hugo magic in terms of resolution and layering. So any suggestions or experience with this very welcome.

thanks!

I pair my LCD-4 with cavalli audio liquid gold. I've tried my LCD-4 with tons of different high end amps like woo wa33 elite which is on par with my liquid gold set up(source in the show is not perfect). I also tried my setup with hugo 2 as the dac(currently I use yamaha CD-S3000 as the source). The hugo 2 does enter another level(brighter, better clarity, better detail presentation). I will definitely recommend ifi ican pro as the headphone amp. LCD-4 does require some serious amplification to drive well and it also need some serious burn in. (it sound worse than my LCD-3 when arrive, but start to shine after 200+ hours burn in)

 

[b1ackwid0w]

PS: please stay away from tube amps with LCD-4, it will make them too mellow and slow.

I respectfully disagree. I spend about 50/50 running my LCD-4 out of my Woo WA5 and Cavalli Liquid Gold. I would not part with my WA5 unless I could move up to a WA33.[/QUOTE]
I found liquid gold is the perfect pairing for the price. wa33 elite is overprice but looks and sound awesome