[hawk13]

Why not? Because you don't EQ, or because EQ doesn't bump it enough for you?

Because they distort before I reach my desired bass response. Disclaimer: I am a bass head. I have very high standards for my bass. It’s purely a quantity issue with the 5 for me. It should be enough for the vast majority of people, just not folks like me.

 

[chargedcapacitor]

Because they distort before I reach my desired bass response. Disclaimer: I am a bass head. I have very high standards for my bass. It’s purely a quantity issue with the 5 for me. It should be enough for the vast majority of people, just not folks like me.

I very much doubt they distort at your desired listening volume. You would be deaf after 5 minutes at their distortion volume.

 

[ufospls2]

Because they distort before I reach my desired bass response. Disclaimer: I am a bass head. I have very high standards for my bass. It’s purely a quantity issue with the 5 for me. It should be enough for the vast majority of people, just not folks like me.

Lets say you do a low shelve from 100hz down, How many dB boost are we talking with the LCD-5 to get to your preferred level?

Also, are you saying that based off THD measurements, or did you actually try EQ'ing an LCD-5 with a low end boost, and it was distorting. Also, how powerful was the amp you were using whilst doing the test?

 

[EMINENT]

Because they distort before I reach my desired bass response. Disclaimer: I am a bass head. I have very high standards for my bass. It’s purely a quantity issue with the 5 for me. It should be enough for the vast majority of people, just not folks like me.

I very much doubt they distort at your desired listening volume. You would be deaf after 5 minutes at their distortion volume.

Maybe he was a former SPL competitor with a ride with eleventy 24" subs.

 

[hawk13]

I very much doubt they distort at your desired listening volume. You would be deaf after 5 minutes at their distortion volume.

Desired bass level via PEQ, not volume level.

 

[chargedcapacitor]

Desired bass level via PEQ, not volume level.

I'm betting you're clipping, or the amp you use is pegging out. Any other situation and I'd just say you're trolling.

 

[hawk13]

I'm betting you're clipping, or the amp you use is pegging out. Any other situation and I'd just say you're trolling.

A little humility might do you some good.

I was offering my experience for the benefit of the community.

Cheers,
h

 

[geta123]

there shouldn’t be distortion, make sure you have enough headroom

 

[ufospls2]

A little humility might do you some good.

I was offering my experience for the benefit of the community.

Cheers,
h

Ok so it was lived experience with a bass boost with parametric EQ. What was the boost level in dB? and Where was the low shelve set?

Which amp was being used?

You should be able to boost to insane levels (like+18db or more) even at high volumes before running into distortion if the amp has the power to do it, unless Audeze has changed something about their drivers drastically.

 

[tawmizzzz]

As my first TOTL open-back HPs, gotta say I am quite impressed, even out-of-box. Currently around 10 hours in and noticing a slow increase in upper-mid smoothness and overall organic timbre.

The detail retrieval on these are very impressive, allowing me to notice small details I couldn't even pick up from summit-fi IEMs such as Trailli or Elysian X. What surprises me even more is the bass quality. My favorite IEM for bass is easily the EE EVO, and I would say these are just as good with less overall elevation but even more detail and speed than the EVO. I added a small bass shelf as per EQ recommendations which helps with the subbass rumble. I also really appreciate how the LCD5s tend to do all genres well, whether metal, EDM, indie, or rock, etc.

Looking forward to how these continue to burn-in as I am hoping for a bit more "meat" and "wetness" in the midrange along with even smoother upper mids. It's taking some time to get used to the open-back presentation as I am so used to the "direct sound" and intimacy that isolated IEMs provide, but they are quickly growing on me .

 

[IZONE]

I am a sucker for Audeze bass. IMO they created the best available bass in a headphone, but other qualities were not quite there versus the competition. For example mids and treble of the Empyrean are more opened and more natural, HiFiMan flagships were more opened and airier, more lifelike in many cases.
But none of them have ever reached the level of Audeze bass impact, extension, refinement and quality.

This reviewer previously loved the LCD-2C and then the LCD-X, similarly to me. Since then I disagreed with him in many things, for example the importance of better DACs and amps. But I definitely share the initial Audeze bass love with him. (He thinks, $500 amps are good enough. I strongly disagree.)

Audeze always remained the king of bass in my book. My personal taste even in bass however has evolved during the years. Although I have not heard the LCD-5, somehow I feel it would be my personal perfect headphone. As it still carries the DNA of that perfect Audeze bass extension and impact which captivated me with the LCD2/X many years ago, but at the same time it has become more balanced and much more open and subtle, natural in the upper mids/treble. As far as my impressions go by reading everyone else's thoughts...

Until I can find a reasonably priced second-hand LCD-5 I keep enjoying my D8K with G pads in balanced mode from my 3XP or iFi Pro iCan Signature as the bass on this headphone is better than anything else I have heard before (pretty much LCD-4 level bass refinement, impact and enjoyment by memory) without the compromises on space and openness versus LCD-3 or Empyrean. In this regard the D8K clearly beats any dynamic drivers like Utopia. The D8K is more condensed but to me more lifelike than the HE1000SE. Thicker but more fun to me. IMO the D8K is heavily underrated. Out of a good audio chain they can outperform many more common favourites.

D8K series is very underappreciated on Head-Fi. The D8K Pro bass is the best quality out of all my cans. That's my overall impression without doing a detailed A-B comparison with my four Audeze headphones. D8K Pro somehow has the timbre of a dynamic headphone and not that typical planar timbre, which leads to the bass having the speed of a planar yet punching like a dynamic with great reverb and details. They're truly one of the worthy kings on the summit in my humble system

 

[Benno1988]

there shouldn’t be distortion, make sure you have enough headroom

This. Preamp (digitally) down more to ensure you aren't driving them into clipping (digitally).

I can't get modern headphones to distort due to bass EQ really, and I like me dat bass.

 

[sahmen]

Technically, the 5's bass is better than the 4. Faster, more detail, more texture, cleaner. The 5 has the most technically capable bass of any headphone I've heard. Just not quite enough quantity for personal taste which is easily remedied with a low shelf.

I think in the 4, the bass was tuned to relatively overwhelm the mids slightly in prominence-- The effect wasn't necessarily "bad," but one does feel the effects of some bass bloom on the mids of the LCD-4, which, I suspect, is also what gives the 4 the reputation of having "more bass quantity" to some ears.

On the other hand, in giving more relative prominence to the mids, LCD-5's tuning seems to cause an apparent "recession" of its bass, but I place emphasis on apparent, because the quantity and weight of the bass on both cans are actually identical or almost so. The paradox involved in praising the mids while complaining about some allegedly diminished bass is that the mids sound as great as they do on the 5 precisely because of its more subtle integration with the bass, in spite of its mid-forwardness, not necessarily because the bass is absent or lacking.

It is clear to me, at least, that neither the sumptuousness nor dynamism of the 5's mids that Valour praises would be that exciting (or would even exist) were it not for the new--more sophisticated and nuanced--way in which the mids both integrate the bass and balances its own prominence against it. Even so, the apparent "recession" of the bass can be very easily set right by a low shelf, of which I have become an avowed fan since I was taught how to implement one in my Roon PEQ settings (Many thanks to my teacher). The best part is that the low shelf restores some of the old "bite of the bass" without throwing any bass shadows or "bloom" and the mids... The result is a thing of beauty indeed, at least to my ears. Other mileages may vary, of course.

 

[triggsviola]

I just received my Audeze LCD-5 and I'm having some trouble. It is plugged directly into my TT2 and it is making a 60HZ (or maybe 120HZ) tone. It's faint until I touch my keyboard that's plugged into my computer, at which point it gets very loud. This happens whether the TT2 is plugged in to the computer or not. It happens when the computer is off. It happens when the TT2 is in standby. It happens when plugged into another amp. This does not happen at all with any of my other headphones (Audeze LCD-XC , Focal Utopia, or Sen 6xx). What do you think could be causing this ONLY in my LCD-5? It's very frustrating.

 

[ufospls2]

I just received my Audeze LCD-5 and I'm having some trouble. It is plugged directly into my TT2 and it is making a 60HZ (or maybe 120HZ) tone. It's faint until I touch my keyboard that's plugged into my computer, at which point it gets very loud. This happens whether the TT2 is plugged in to the computer or not. It happens when the computer is off. It happens when the TT2 is in standby. It happens when plugged into another amp. This does not happen at all with any of my other headphones (Audeze LCD-XC , Focal Utopia, or Sen 6xx). What do you think could be causing this ONLY in my LCD-5? It's very frustrating.

Strange it only happens with the LCD-5. Could you try a different cable, or have you already tried that?