[jmills8]

Don't start then, it's a bad habit...

Yeah only the "experts" know how , the rest just press play and take it.

 

[marcan]

Yeah only the "experts" know how , the rest just press play and take it.

Experts know that eq has a sonic price so they only use it to solve a problem that won't be overcome by the side effects. The rest think they can add eq all over.

 

[Roybenz]

I read that the eq in roon wont affect the lcd 4 in any negative way.? I was only going to ad 4db around the 4k. And maybe 1db at 100hz

 

[Dinrog]

Experts know that eq has a sonic price so they only use it to solve a problem that won't be overcome by the side effects. The rest think they can add eq all over.

Never heard of that, can you elaborate on sideeffects? Personally never heard any

 

[marcan]

Never heard of that, can you elaborate on sideeffects? Personally never heard any

Depends on the eq type (linear phase or minimum phase) but to name a few: pre ringing, post ringing, ripple, phase shift, distortion, ...
In short it will kill the transient and add a digital edge (linear phase).

 

[manishex]

No matter what I eq even the smallest amount, I hear that sound quality drop. Your end aim is to match gears, cables & software to get the right synergy.

 

[jmills8]

No matter what I eq even the smallest amount, I hear that sound quality drop. Your end aim is to match gears, cables & software to get the right synergy.

Eq on what ?

 

[Roybenz]

I did up the 4k band in roon. By +4db. Lcd 4 does benefit from that. I cant hear any quality drop what so ever.

 

[marcan]

What float your boat. If you don't hear a quality drop and it makes sound good for you.
Me and other fellows can hear the quality loss when using an eq.
Actually the brain will eq the sound naturally after a certain period (what other call burn in). But my ear can't adapt to the distortion introduced by an eq.
In line with manishex, I would say, if you have to eq it's probably that you have to fix something in your chain.

 

[jmills8]

What float your boat. If you don't hear a quality drop and it makes sound good for you.
Me and other fellows can hear the quality loss when using an eq.
Actually the brain will eq the sound naturally after a certain period (what other call burn in). But my ear can't adapt to the distortion introduced by an eq.
In line with manishex, I would say, if you have to eq it's probably that you have to fix something in your chain.

Are you talking about eq on roon pr on which gear. Not all companies do eq correctly.

 

[Roybenz]

I have never done eq before. Until i saw the dip around 4k. The guy in the review said he'd recommend making it a bit higher. So i tried. I dont have to use the eq. But it sure does alot with the sound. Only adding 4db to the 4k. And Q 1

Please share your settings if you eq

Here is the video.

 

[marcan]

Are you talking about eq on roon pr on which gear. Not all companies do eq correctly.

Sure some companies make better eq but all will have some degradation mainly in the time domain. Because it all use delays to achieve a frequency modification..

 

[jmills8]

Sure some companies make better eq but all will have some degradation mainly in the time domain. Because it all use delays to achieve a frequency modification..

Guess you cab believe ALL are bad and so NEVER eq. In my case with good eqs I eq and it still sounds clean.

 

[snatex]

I’ve been thinking lately about this passage about the LCD4 and amplifier power from Herb Reichert in Stereophile:

After studying headphones for a year, I began to think that the headphone amps I was using were the weak link: that they were limiting headphone dynamics, vividness, and transparency. I wondered about the issues I alluded to above. I began to ask the designers of the best headphones what amps they used to evaluate their creations. To my surprise, several were using low-powered single-ended directly heated triode amps. To my greater surprise, the amps they said they were using were just regular loudspeaker amplifiers; with no special provisions for protecting delicate headphone diaphragms. Naturally, I was Rythmik L12 to make up a set of balanced-to-banana headphone cables and connect my JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 Phi headphones directly to the output jacks of my First Watt J2. And WOW!

That was it folks.

That was the moment I first experienced the complete full potential of two-channel audio. Every audio experience before that fell into the category of a messy constricted boom-box thing. This was the moment I realized I needed a whole new vocabulary to describe what I was experiencing. Reproduction was clear and vivid beyond words.

The first words that jumped into my head were: direct, explicit, descriptive, un-impeded, immediate, essence, true, graspable, and some new word that means more transparent than the old word transparent.

I played Todd Garfinkle’s spaced-omni two microphone pure DSD2x recording of Puente Celeste’s Nama (M-A recordings MA030) through a Holo Audio Spring Level 3 Katsune Edition DAC feeding a line-level input of the Pass Labs HPA-1 headphone amp/line-level preamplifier driving the 25W First Watt J2.

With this setup, it was easy to compare the output of the J2 power amplifier to the output of the headphone jack on the HPA-1 headphone amplifier that proceeded the J2 in the audio chain. But surprisingly, there was no comparison; and I have still not recovered from how the output of the basic power amplifier could be so much more intense and real. When I closed my eyes, the performers and their instruments occupied an utterly life-like three-dimensional space with a reach out and touch it crystalline presence. I had never experienced anything like this.

I was so excited I called my headphone buddy Steve Guttenberg and literally screamed into the phone, “I found it! The Holy Grail/the Dead Sea Scrolls/the Secret of the Pyramids… of Two-Channel Audio!” The next day, I brought him my DIY cables and we tried it together. It was so amazing we both laughed.

Over the weeks and months that followed, I connected the Abyss AB-1266 Phi, the Audeze LCD-4, and the HiFiMan Susvara headphones to a variety of basic tube and solid-state power amplifiers including the Line Magnetic LM-518, the Pass Labs XA25, and the PrimaLuna Prologue Premium. The only “headphone amp” that equaled any of these amplifiers was HiFiMan’s own $15,000 USD EF-1000; which outputs 20 watts class-A (with high gain and high voltage) into a 35-ohm headphone load.

The easy, obvious answer as to why these three world-class headphones sounded more real and transparent than any audio reproduction I’ve known is: these basic power amplifier’s connected via a line-level preamp offered more gain and more clean watts than any of the headphone amps I used.

I have been messing around with increasing the pregain on my Violectric V280 even though I don't need more volume. Running my Qutest at 2V I had been using the V280 with a +6DB pregain and the volume pot usually ends up at 12 o'clock. I increased the pregain to +12 and the volume is now at about 10 o'clock. Anyone else run similar experiments with power?

Also, what amplifiers in your experience make the LCD4 sound the best?

 

[Roybenz]

That is very interesting for sure. Im very happy with the moon neo 430had. It sounds fantastic to my ears. Just can't seem to make up my mind if its better with lo gain or high gain setting. If anyone runs the LCD 4 from 430had, please let me know what setting you like best.