Hello,
I do not typically post on forums so forgive me if I'm out of practice, Last evening I received the LCD-X and I gave it a good listen for several hours, mostly on classic rock. I also own the LCD Rev2,1. LCD Rev2.2, LCD-3, HE-6, HD800, Grado RS1, etc. I would take my comments with a grain of salt since my listening experience has been brief and the headphones have not had an opportunity to break-in. I used a couple of different headphone amps with the LCD-X. I used a Bryston HA-1 and the speaker outputs of a friend's integrated tube amp (Qinpu - A-6000 MKII ).
Just a few quick impressions -
1. Good impact and bass; mid-bass is not excessive and does not bleed into midrange
2. Treble still seems a bit lacking in quantity
3. There's a warmth that, to be honest, I'm not fond of; I was hoping the headphone would be brighter than my other Audeze headphones. I think the warmth stems from a slight over abundance of lower-midrange, not due to an excess of mid-bass. Because the LCD-x is balanced in mid-bass, the sound remains clean, despite the warmth.
4. I would say that, IMO, it was appropriate for Audeze to position this between the Rev 2 and the LCD-3.
4. The upper mids on the LCD-x are brighter than the Rev.2, slightly, but maybe not quite as bright as the LCD-3
5. The sound of drums on the X seems pretty good - impactful, clean, full bodied.
6. My friends described the sound of the LCD-X as the more neutral of the Audeze line; not sure I agree. I think the LCD-3 is more neutral, based upon listening thus far.
The biggest and most unique improvement I took note of? - The soundstag is densely populated, imaging is very good, and the sound is vivid, dynamic, large, and more forward than other Audeze's. To me, the headphones sound best when turned up.
I have not yet used my Toxic Silver Widow cables with the LCD-X, so I'm not sure what kind of additional benefit, if any, I will derive from changing cables. I used only the stock balanced cable.
I'm keeping an open mind and will allow for additional break-in / listening before making any final judgements. The only thing I can say is that I think the forwardness, soundstaging and imaging improvement is substantial enough to warrant keeping these in my stable of headphones. At this point, if I had to choose between the LCD-X and the LCD-3, I would opt for the 3 but that's my personal preference.
Incidentally, for those interested in a comparison to the HE-6 I'm not prepared to do that at this point. But I will say they sound nothing alike. I find the 6 to have a smaller, thinner sound than the LCD-X. The HE6 is significantly brighter and cleaner. In the interest of disclosing my preference, the HE-6 was not my favorite headphone. I always preferred Audeze's sound. But as of late, my taste has changed and the Toxic Silver Widow balanced cable with the HE-6 fills out the midrange and raises the bar of the HE-6 to a whole other level. Using Toxic cable with the LCD-3s, BTW, I did not find the same degree of improvement.
. The anticipation!!!
