[Canadian411]

  While they are sensitive enough to get volume from a portable, as soon as the music becomes in the least complex, you'll hear the soundstage collapse and the sound become congested. Listening at quieter volumes though it may not be so noticeable. Volume makes a considerable difference in the perception of headphones, as does the music being played.
 
ag8908: I hope you get a chance to try them with a better amp than straight out of your phone. 

 
Collapsing sound stage and congested sound ? is this with respect to cheap portable amp ? or overall impression of LCDXC ? This is not very good news

 

[twodog]

I have been using my LCD-XC straight out of my iPhone 4S and my Macbook Pro and having truly immersive experiences with my music which I stream at "high quality" from Spotify.  I know that having so much monetary value locked up in the Audeze and not using them with something equally as "high end" in terms of source and amplification is perhaps a small travesty.  I do have a portable headphone amp and a lower end although dedicated imported tube amp that I sometimes use to listen.  Bottom line for me is that these headphones open up my music so much more than any others I have used (modified Grado RS-2, Senheiser Momentums, Klipsh S4) that as I am using them they are worth the investment.  
 
Speaking of investment, I know everyone here is aware of things like this but was able to purchase LCD-2's in November then sell them in January on Ebay for a loss of only about 20 percent of their value - which for something electronic seems awfully good deal (of course I bought them on that 20 percent off Black Friday sale so I didn't really loose anything) and now I am happily listening to the LCD-XCs and enjoying the conversations about them as it enhances my appreciation even more.  Thanks

 

[vcoheda]

I had the LCD-XC for a few days as part of the HeadAmp loaner program. I did some comparisons between the LCD-XC and my LCD2. Music was mostly classical but some rock as well in lossless and high-quality MP3 format. Source and amp were HeadRoom Balanced Max as well as my Merdian G08 plus Eddie Current Balancing Act. Headphones were listened to in balanced.
 
Pros. Compared to the LCD2, the LCD-XC offers more of pretty much everything. Instruments and voices are more full bodied, have greater weight. Separation and detail retrieval are better. Notes and voices are more nuanced and pronunciated. The bass while not deeper is stronger. The highs and sound stage are on par with the LCD2. The headphone is easier to drive than the LCD2. At the same volume, the XC is louder (or appears so). I find the XC to be very comfortable. On the whole, the music has more presence.
 
Cons. This greater presence is partly due to the presentation of the LCD-XC being more forward. This is not always a positive. There is a fine line between music having presence and the sound being aggressive. In addition, and probably related, the treble energy is strong. Some passages or recordings are irritating to listen to (bright). The LCD-XC is very different from the LCD2. Although better in most areas, it lacks the smooth, laid-back sound of the LCD2 that I have grown accustomed to.
 
In Sum. The LCD-XC is a wonderful looking and very solid sounding headphone. I often found myself entranced by the music. There are moments where, in these closed headphones, it is just you and the music to the exclusion of the outside. The price is a bit of a turn off although (I suppose) in line with other high-end headphones. On the other hand, I could see myself listening to these daily and deriving much enjoyment.

 

[figaro69]

  I had the LCD-XC for a few days as part of the HeadAmp loaner program. I did some comparisons between the LCD-XC and my LCD2. Music was mostly classical but some rock as well in lossless and high-quality MP3 format. Source and amp were HeadRoom Balanced Max as well as my Merdian G08 plus Eddie Current Balancing Act. Headphones were listened to in balanced.
 
Pros. Compared to the LCD2, the LCD-XC offers more of pretty much everything. Instruments and voices are more full bodied, have greater weight. Separation and detail retrieval are better. Notes and voices are more nuanced and pronunciated. The bass while not deeper is stronger. The highs and sound stage are on par with the LCD2. The headphone is easier to drive than the LCD2. At the same volume, the XC is louder (or appears so). I find the XC to be very comfortable. On the whole, the music has more presence.
 
Cons. This greater presence is partly due to the presentation of the LCD-XC being more forward. This is not always a positive. There is a fine line between music having presence and the sound being aggressive. In addition, and probably related, the treble energy is strong. Some passages or recordings are irritating to listen to (bright). The LCD-XC is very different from the LCD2. Although better in most areas, it lacks the smooth, laid-back sound of the LCD2 that I have grown accustomed to.
 
In Sum. The LCD-XC is a wonderful looking and very solid sounding headphone. I often found myself entranced by the music. There are moments where, in these closed headphones, it is just you and the music to the exclusion of the outside. The price is a bit of a turn off although (I suppose) in line with other high-end headphones. On the other hand, I could see myself listening to these daily and deriving much enjoyment.

Same here.  The treble energy is somewhat troubling at times.  Can be at times bright, even with a darker-sounding source (i.e., in my case, the Ray Samuels Darkstar).  They're a hell of a pair of headphones, but that seems to be their Achilles heel.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Collapsing sound stage and congested sound ? is this with respect to cheap portable amp ? or overall impression of LCDXC ? This is not very good news

It is quite clear from the context that he is referring to listening from portable sources.

 

[twodog]

  I had the LCD-XC for a few days as part of the HeadAmp loaner program. I did some comparisons between the LCD-XC and my LCD2. Music was mostly classical but some rock as well in lossless and high-quality MP3 format. Source and amp were HeadRoom Balanced Max as well as my Merdian G08 plus Eddie Current Balancing Act. Headphones were listened to in balanced.
 
Pros. Compared to the LCD2, the LCD-XC offers more of pretty much everything. Instruments and voices are more full bodied, have greater weight. Separation and detail retrieval are better. Notes and voices are more nuanced and pronunciated. The bass while not deeper is stronger. The highs and sound stage are on par with the LCD2. The headphone is easier to drive than the LCD2. At the same volume, the XC is louder (or appears so). I find the XC to be very comfortable. On the whole, the music has more presence.
 
Cons. This greater presence is partly due to the presentation of the LCD-XC being more forward. This is not always a positive. There is a fine line between music having presence and the sound being aggressive. In addition, and probably related, the treble energy is strong. Some passages or recordings are irritating to listen to (bright). The LCD-XC is very different from the LCD2. Although better in most areas, it lacks the smooth, laid-back sound of the LCD2 that I have grown accustomed to.
 
In Sum. The LCD-XC is a wonderful looking and very solid sounding headphone. I often found myself entranced by the music. There are moments where, in these closed headphones, it is just you and the music to the exclusion of the outside. The price is a bit of a turn off although (I suppose) in line with other high-end headphones. On the other hand, I could see myself listening to these daily and deriving much enjoyment.

I was listening to and comparing the same headphones the LCD-2 and the LCD-XC and I really feel I perceived exactly the same issues you have addressed here.  The treble energy you cited concerned me greatly during passages of higher pitched classical piano music on two recordings that I had to turn down from my normal listening level due to the aggressiveness of the presentation.  On other recordings this was not in evidence at all or was just a part of the overall mixture of the sound and not a negative in any way.  I would have liked to have kept both pair as there were some aspects of the LCD-2 that I preferred.  I think on a scale of 1-10 I might have given the LCD-XC an overall point or two higher than whatever I would have given the LCD-2 - maybe a 15 to 20 percent improvement in sound but I would place that improvement at different amounts in different categories of the sound and then give 25 percent extra credit in addition since I really need to use closed headphones for most of my listening.

 

[Canadian411]

It is quite clear from the context that he is referring to listening from portable sources.

Ya, just to confirm that before I pull the trigger on either T5p or LCDXC.

 

[justin w.]

no but i spoke with one of their technical experts and they said that the headphones do not need an amp to perform well, although an amp does provide some improvement. they said these were designed to be driven by mp3 players. but since I'm comparing them to the Sennheisers which are reportedly very finicky about their amps, it doesn't seem like getting an amp is going to cause these to be better than the Sennheisers.

I'm also turned off to the company due to their 15 percent restocking fee policy. To me that shows that they don't have confidence in their product and they know that once you buy their headphones there's a good chance that you won't like them and will want to return them. if you're going to play in the $2000 headphone space, you should have confidence in your product's desirability, as senn does. and the restocking fee was an audeze company policy not the policy of the store where I purchase them.

Just my opinion no offense and these are clearly better than $500 headphones I've tried.

 
i wasn't aware of this, but there are lots of dealers and i'm not sure any of us have restocking fees, and all tend to have free shipping. I will say that return rates on headphones are very high -- around 20%. This results in a stack of open box headphones to try to sell, and it is very time consuming. Some are returned in disgusting condition, others look brand new. Missing accessories is also very common. Some headphone manufacturers also won't allow dealers to sell open/returned headphones, even advertised as such. For comparison, return rates on the amplifiers i build is 0.3%.

 

[ag8908]

The background is in my review of the xc and we really don't need to bring all that up again, but out of curiosity what do you do with returned audezes? Are you allowed to share the wholesale price btw ? Just curious

 

[sbradley02]

  Ya, just to confirm that before I pull the trigger on either T5p or LCDXC.

Having experience with the LCD-XC and lower priced Beyers, I would pick the Beyer for portable use. I am using my DT770-80s for travel.
Others may disagree...

 

[figaro69]

  Having experience with the LCD-XC and lower priced Beyers, I would pick the Beyer for portable use. I am using my DT770-80s for travel.
Others may disagree...

I would NEVER use the LCD-Xs for portable use.  There are better options for portability, the best ones (at least for me) being the quite expensive T5ps and Edition 8s (I prefer the T5ps with regard to sound, but the Edition 8s, being smaller, are definitely better for portability).

 

[Currawong]

Spoiler: Off-topic reply for ag8908

The background is in my review of the xc and we really don't need to bring all that up again, but out of curiosity what do you do with returned audezes? Are you allowed to share the wholesale price btw ? Just curious

 
Many companies (not referring to headphones particularly) will only accept un-opened returns (excepting faulty products). There are many dishonest people out there who consider a 30 day return policy a free ticket to try headphones and send them back, which is not the intent. Many companies that are on Head-Fi are small -- sometimes with only one or two people total in the company, so every bit of dishonesty by a customer is a much bigger financial hit. They aren't like Amazon that can absorb this kind of thing due to the huge quantities of products they sell.

 

[jgwak2]

I'm a newbie, but I wanted to start a collection.  After all the great reviews, I purchased the XC's in bubinga.
What amp are these good with? Aren't these designed to not necessarily need an amp/dac?

 

[Canadian411]

For portable headphone I will go with edition 8. Its smalller and isolate better imo. The cable is bit too long. Somehow it's as good as d7000 when I audition my friends ed8.

 

[NZtechfreak]

For portable headphone I will go with edition 8. Its smalller and isolate better imo. The cable is bit too long. Somehow it's as good as d7000 when I audition my friends ed8.

Interesting, I thought you were after neutral? Their size is a plus for portable, no doubt, I didn't think that much of their sound though. Before you spend that money I'd try and audition the T5p too.