[dfiled]

I have the Susvara, and to my taste it definitely needs eq.

 

[geta123]

Stealth is the way to go. Even the CRBN is better look at the graphs (a lot better highs vs LCD-5). Time will tell and @Nomax is right as always!

Seems like you’re using your eyes too much, albeit measurements have their place. But what happened to using your ears and using your own judgement to make points?

 

[Trance_Gott]

You keep making all of these matter-of-fact statements based off of a few reviews and post you have seen. At this level, what is "best" becomes completely subjective. As someone who has owned the susvara, and now owns the LCD-5, I can say that I subjectively prefer the LCD-5. It presents bass texture in a way the susvara never could.

Try Niimbus and you know what bass texture is possible. A90 nor IHA-6 can drive Susvara effortless.

 

[chargedcapacitor]

Try Niimbus and you know what bass texture is possible. A90 nor IHA-6 can drive Susvara effortless.

Oh, an amp that cost more than the headphone. Of course! I should have known my 250Watt speaker amp couldn't give the susvara what it needed.

 

[Fegefeuer]

This thread is kinda unreadable

 

[OneEyedHito]

I own both the Stealth and the LCD-5, as well as the Susvara and all 3 powered by the same source chain and there is not a close comparison between the Stealth and the other two premium headphones to my ears. These trolls have been hitting all of the threads about how the Stealth is the butter to their buns........I would venture to say they are on the “Acult” Science Reviews forums with the same drivel. Been a long day so there you have it.

 

[Trance_Gott]

I own both the Stealth and the LCD-5, as well as the Susvara and all 3 powered by the same source chain and there is not a comparison between the Stealth and the other two premium headphones. These trolls have been hitting all of the threads about how the Stealth is the butter to their buns........I would venture to say they are on the Occult Science Reviews forums with the same drivel. Been a long day so there you have it.

Many people are not even able to compare "CORRECTLY".
So now I'm going to bed because to discuss further is useless. Everyone should now form his own opinion.

 

[bfreedma]

Anyone else getting whiplash watching as opinions change based on a single review or post?

IMO, unless you‘ve been following a reviewer for a long time and know how well their preferences consistently align (or consistently diverge) with yours, making a decision on a single review in isolation isn’t a very good way to make headphone purchasee.

 

[KMann]

Let us all keep calm, press the ignore button, and carry on.

 

[BassicScience]

Anyone else getting whiplash watching as opinions change based on a single review or post?

IMO, unless you‘ve been following a reviewer for a long time and know how well their preferences consistently align (or consistently diverge) with yours, making a decision on a single review in isolation isn’t a very good way to make headphone purchasee.

FWIW, my preferences seem to align very closely with @Resolve 's, so I put a lot of stock in his reviews. As well, the number of people on this thread who are reporting that they prefer the LCD-5 with EQ over the stock tuning leads me to conclude that I'm likely to feel the same way. YMMV.

The things that give me a bit of pause about the LCD-5 are that EQ is not practical for me in every listening context, plus I don't feel like anything's missing when I listen to the Susvara without EQ. If I find that the quality of the LCD-5's bass is as fantastic as folks are claiming, it might be enough for me to justify purchasing the LCD-5 (and likely dealing with EQ). TBD, but I'm currently in no rush.

 

[Nomax]

Stealth is the way to go. Even the CRBN is better look at the graphs (a lot better highs vs LCD-5). Time will tell and @Nomax is right as always!

NOMAX

PS.lol

 

[Barone Birra]

Not necessary frequency response don't lie. To high in 3Khz. Too warm in the highs. This is not a neutral headphone. Tonality is the key.

That graph - for me - only solves the problems of the LCD4 This "5" inspires me a lot.

 

[KMann]

Back to LCD-5 (may be?), while I do not believe in purchasing a cable to alter the sound, when I find one I like, I am not shy to talk about it. I just received a Transparent Ultra cable, I am quite impressed by it (burn-in, or not, this is a demo cable so I think it has been used adequately before so I can eliminate that variable). No, it does not magically transform LCD-5 into a different headphone. The cable is more transparent than the cable I am using now. Whether it is worth spending about half the cost of the headphone on the cable, that I cannot answer for you. (This is my personal opinion and not an endorsement by Audeze, we are also as as varied in tastes as this community).

 

[ozz007]

I own both the Stealth and the LCD-5, as well as the Susvara and all 3 powered by the same source chain and there is not a close comparison between the Stealth and the other two premium headphones to my ears. These trolls have been hitting all of the threads about how the Stealth is the butter to their buns........I would venture to say they are on the “Acult” Science Reviews forums with the same drivel. Been a long day so there you have it.

When the cult will start we need 10k cables for us to hear all of the details? lol

 

[Xcalibur255]

Anyone else finding burn-in to be important here?

I guess with the LCD5 it's especially tricky to separate any potential headphone burn-in from the always-very-real brain burn-in process, since its tonal profile definitely forces your brain to adjust, making the latter a very real thing.

For me, for what it's worth, on day 1, doing about two hours of listening, I found the headphone to sound pretty underwhelming, sounding stiff and altogether un-relaxed, and un-extended in the bass ("lacking personality" was the phrase that came to mind). Though its great technicalities were pretty obvious.

After doing 1-2 hours of listening every day since then, it was only on I think day 4 with about 60-70 hours of burn-in when I really started taking a shine to it (either with or without eq), and really started to do a lot of listening with it.

There will always be two entrenched camps on this subject. I personally remember being rather shocked at how much the sound of my LCD-2 changed over their first 150 hours. They sounded thin, shouty and 2-dimensional on first listen. Doesn't quite line up with that headphone's reputation for sure. Whether this is an electro-mechanical change happening in the headphone or hijinks happening in your brain and how it processes sensory perception (and compares it to your previous memories of similar events, which is super critical here), the key thing is that whatever is going on is impacting what we hear and it matters regardless of cause or mechanism.

I'll be particularly interested to see how the folks who are comparing their LCD-5 to their old LCD-4 feel as months go by. I'm willing to bet that if they consistently listen to only their LCD-5 for a month straight those people who were initially finding them to sound thin will suddenly have an aha moment and things will start to sound much better to them. I personally only trust my listening impressions of any audio equipment now if I have formed them over a long period of time. Your brain and subconsicious is just doing too much meddling and comparing to other things in the background outside of your consious awareness that affects your perceptions during shorter time periods.