I have a feeling many came to the LCD-5 expecting to enjoy them based on the tunings from previous LCD's, hooked them up, and threw on their favorite hard rock and metal tracks and were probably left wanting for a bit "more."
Not that these are bad with metal, but it seems many want more V-shaped tuning for those genres. Not to mention there's almost too much detail with these for genres like metal. It's information overload lol.
Now, for any of the more traditional genres or even most electronica, I'm finding these to be amazing. I'm a soundtrack [mostly video game] nerd and these are the best I've heard these tracks.
If Audeze we're consulting with mastering engineers who primarily worked on scores, jazz, and with more contemporary artists, I could see how this tuning would sound "correct." Based on what I'm hearing, I'm assuming the engineers they collaborated on tuning with likely weren't mixing for metal bands lol.
But, I think I prefer that anyways. For such a technically proficient headphone, I'd prefer it to be stronger in the genres I'm finding it strong in, and delegate the metal listening to my other cans. I'm sure with the right EQ, these could be awesome for metal tho too.
The ZMF VC seem to complement these well in this regard, though. Metal, EDM, and rock seem to be a bit more "fun" through the VC, while classical/soundtracks/jazz/vocals/acoustic seem to really sing on the LCD-5. But it's not like either one doesn't work these other genres -- they're both quite versatile.
