[funch]

Yes, guitar does sound very good through them. Listening to some Acoustic Alchemy atm. Very clear, airy and punchy.

 

[ag8908]

Yes. Checking out a huge guitar (not heavy metal riff, but rather things like the Eagles) playlist. These are apparently ideal for guitars. The SRH940s can't play the sound of a guitar being picked as well, because they're too bright for that. Slowly the puzzle is being solved.

 

[figaro69]

   
Thanks. Out of curiosity, I assume you played it at the same volume as you played it on the Iphone right? Just want to make sure we're not conflating volume/power. I'll get an amp and see how that works.
 
By the way, I just saw that Tyll from innerfidelity seems to have given the LCD XCs a bad review. But he also strongly dislikes the Shure full sized line as well . . .
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/innerfidelity-february-2014-update
 
Audeze LCD-XC - Measurements show some unevenness through the mid-range and a bit too excessive spike on the leading edge of square waves. Brief listening has me thinking they're a bit rough sounding and uneven...review uncertain as yet.

Tyll dislikes most everything that has even the slightest hint of treble...so I'm not surprised he panned them.

 

[funch]

Listning to some bluegrass now. Very nice. Mandolin, dobro and banjo sound as good as I've heard. Good snap off the string plucks.
 
Next I need to scare up some good piano recordings to see how that sounds.

 

[Tony1110]

Tyll dislikes most everything that has even the slightest hint of treble...so I'm not surprised he panned them.

That's very true. His favourite headphones all tend to be dark sounding.

 

[ag8908]

These also reproduce the voices of male country singers very well. I think the voices seemed pushed back in the other songs because they were female or higher pitched voices.
 
As I listen to music, I'm realizing how high-pitched male pop voices are. Forget bass or baritone voices, you can't even find a nice tenor pitched male singer these days! It's all high-pitched and sometimes squeaky or whispery sounding voices. I never noticed that until I got these headphones. Chrissie Hynde of the pretenders has a deeper voice than most of them.

 

[sbradley02]

600ohm headphones are often far easier to drive than current-hungry orthos. There's no MP3 player on the market that'll drive the XC to its full potential. I doubt whether you're even hearing a fraction of what they can do. You need a half-decent desktop setup or at the very least a very good portable amp to get the best out of these. Even a budget amp like the Schiit Asgard 2 would improve the sound drastically.

Being compatible with portable devices doesn't mean they'll sound good out of them. Mine sound awful out of my MP3 player or laptop.

Personally I am not cutting it with my Asgard 1, but I agree it is loads better than any portable device unless you are using a serious separate amp in a stack along with it.
I also thought the new X series would be less picky about amps due to their efficiency - I was wrong...
Next weekend I am going to drag them home from the office, and try them out on my home setup (which I typically only use at meet-ups) and which I know works extremely well with orthos.

 

[ag8908]

These have gotten much much better over the last few days. The bass has toned down a slight bit and the treble has picked up. It's close to how I remember it in the original store.

I noticed that Tyll's innerfidelity website had two reading charts for the LCD XCs, (sample 1 and sample 2) which were quite different, perhaps suggesting that the LCD XCs change by a nontrivial amount as they burn in from use.

 

[Jones Bob]

I noticed that Tyll's innerfidelity website had two reading charts for the LCD XCs, (sample 1 and sample 2) which were quite different, perhaps suggesting that the LCD XCs change by a nontrivial amount as they burn in from use.

It suggests no such thing. It is simply sample to sample variation.

 

[ag8908]

It suggests no such thing. It is simply sample to sample variation.

 
Do you have any other information on the two readings? The raw frequency response readings are 5db higher in numerous places on the second reading.

 

[Jones Bob]

Do you have any other information on the two readings? The raw frequency response readings are 5db higher in numerous places on the second reading.

Sorry only one "sample". I took your comment too literally.

The red trace is the right driver, the blue is the left of the same headphone, averaged and compensated response of 5 measurements. There is nothing about burn-in addressed in the graph, only how well matched the drivers of one pair of headphones were side to side.

My LCD-2.2 and LCD-3 both did not exhibit burn-In. I did not keep my LCD-X for more than a month, and I could not detect any burn-in in that time. I wrote Audeze about this and they replied they burn them in for 12 hours before measurement and that the headphones as delivered are "premium quality out of the box and will stay premium." Maybe the LCD-XC is different, as I have not owned them or asked Audeze about them in particular.

I have had lots of experience with audio components that burn-in, so I am not agnostic.

 

[ag8908]

Dood I know what the red and blue lines are, lol. For the LCD XC, Tyll has two completely different graphs, sample1 and sample2. Sample 2 is 5db louder than sample 1 in numerous (but not all) spots and it has a much higher spike on square waves. See here http://www.innerfidelity.com/headphone-data-sheet-downloads

 

[funch]

It seems as though I have found the missing bass in my XC's, in an iPod Classic of all places. It's the only thing I have solid state at the moment. That's with the EQ flat btw.
 
I may reconsider selling these and order the HiFi M8 I was planning on using with these. So, it seems that these 'phones do pair better with solid state than with tube gear.
At least in my case (Decware CSP2+/Taboo II combo). I get plenty of bass with my LCD2's out of the Decware, but not the XC's.
 
FWIW

 

[funch]

I just found one of my old Cmoy's, and am listening thru the iPod's line out. It seems to be driving the XC's very well. The sound is quite balanced, clear, and punchy.

 

[Jones Bob]

Thanks for the link. The link earlier was for one sample graph.

I do not understand how one could confuse headphone burn-in as result in different measurements between two different headphones....