[Rossliew]

Curious to know what the frequency graphs of other XC's look like.

Here's mine.



Bass feels light in general, but I love the detail.

 
Deep bass is pretty strong if the recording calls for it but compared to the X, I found the X to be more a "fun" can similar to Grados. The XC does not do mid-bass well to my ears so a lot of my fav tunes sound flat and unexciting. 

 

[Gerzom]

Hi, I'm thinking of upgrading my LCD 2.2 to an XC.
Reason behind this is that I tend listen to music while my wife is watching TV a lot of the time and we seem to now have engaged in a kind of battle over volume I "bother" her with my music, escaping from my LCD 2's,  while she "bothers" me with TV back ground noise intruding via my open LCD 2's. resulting in ever changing volume settings on both TV and amp.
I love my Audeze's hence my logical next step: upgrade to XC's 
Currently I'm using a Schiit Mjolnir as my head-fi amp. (I also have a Gungnir, but that's only used to listen to Spotify Premium (I know, it might be a bit overkill) )
I drive my Mjolnir from the Rec Out on my Electrocompaniet EC 4.7 pre-amp and my sources are my cd player (also Electrocompaniet, an ECM-1) and my VPI Scout for vinyl.I use an Entreq Konstantin headphone cable.
 
My question is whether the Mjolnir would be a good amp to go with the XC?
 
Thanks in advance for your feedback!

 

[kothganesh]

  Hi, I'm thinking of upgrading my LCD 2.2 to an XC.
Reason behind this is that I tend listen to music while my wife is watching TV a lot of the time and we seem to now have engaged in a kind of battle over volume I "bother" her with my music, escaping from my LCD 2's,  while she "bothers" me with TV back ground noise intruding via my open LCD 2's. resulting in ever changing volume settings on both TV and amp.
I love my Audeze's hence my logical next step: upgrade to XC's 
Currently I'm using a Schiit Mjolnir as my head-fi amp. (I also have a Gungnir, but that's only used to listen to Spotify Premium (I know, it might be a bit overkill) )
I drive my Mjolnir from the Rec Out on my Electrocompaniet EC 4.7 pre-amp and my sources are my cd player (also Electrocompaniet, an ECM-1) and my VPI Scout for vinyl.I use an Entreq Konstantin headphone cable.
 
My question is whether the Mjolnir would be a good amp to go with the XC?
 
Thanks in advance for your feedback!

One word: Awesome, IMO (ok two words). Interesting you don't pair the Gungnir with the Mojo. That's as close to a perfect pairing as you can get.

 

[Gerzom]

  One word: Awesome, IMO (ok two words). Interesting you don't pair the Gungnir with the Mojo. That's as close to a perfect pairing as you can get.

Thanks for your quick reply!
Regarding Mjolnir and Gungnir pairing, I find the DAC of my cd player to be a bit better than the Gungnir (it's a bit more laid back, smoother sounding than the Gungnir) and as I only use Spotify for "streaming" I have no real use for my Gungnir other than Spotify.

 

[x RELIC x]

Deep bass is pretty strong if the recording calls for it but compared to the X, I found the X to be more a "fun" can similar to Grados. The XC does not do mid-bass well to my ears so a lot of my fav tunes sound flat and unexciting. 

Well, I wouldn't say flat and unexciting for me, just that the mids to highs on my pair seem more elevated than others so I'm wondering what the different frequency graphs look like. I perfectly fine with my set, just curious. I have a suspicion there is a lot of model variance.

 

[rudi0504]

My transportable Best set Up to drive LCD XC In High End Sound Quality :

http://www.head-fi.org/t/716479/bakoon-japan-launch-1st-portable-headphone-amplifier-hda-5520/60

 

[greenkiwi]

Has anyone tried using or making a leather weight distribution strap?  Similar to the ones that the Alpha Dogs have?  I was thinking that if one made a strap and put it through the metal rods, it might create a bit more even weight distribution.

 

[jwbrent]

I have a suspicion there is a lot of model variance.

 
I think any variance is in users ears more than the production of XCs.

 

[x RELIC x]

I think any variance is in users ears more than the production of XCs.

While I agree with you, that perception and previous experiences with headphones bring a lot of expectations to the table, I feel that (from what I've seen so far) there is a good amount of variance between XC frequency charts. My chart looks to be boosted 3-5 db in the mid to high frequencies compared to others that I have seen.

My set also sounds much more articulate and clear compared to what I demoed before I purchased. I'm not complaining, just making an observation. It could simply be that the measuring equipment is not reporting the same for each XC graph, but somehow I doubt that would account for what I'm seeing in variance.

At the end of the day I listen with my ears (which are of course different from others), but thought it would be worth a conversation.

 

[jwbrent]

While I agree with you, that perception and previous experiences with headphones bring a lot of expectations to the table, I feel that (from what I've seen so far) there is a good amount of variance between XC frequency charts. My chart looks to be boosted 3-5 db in the mid to high frequencies compared to others that I have seen.

My set also sounds much more articulate and clear compared to what I demoed before I purchased. I'm not complaining, just making an observation. It could simply be that the measuring equipment is not reporting the same for each XC graph, but somehow I doubt that would account for what I'm seeing in variance.

At the end of the day I listen with my ears (which are of course different from others), but thought it would be worth a conversation.

 
Thank you for your reply. I would think a high end company like Audeze would have a reference model to compare all production models to so any deviation is kept within a narrow range ... they certainly do that in high end speaker production. Additionally, drivers for each channel are usually matched within a .25dB, but maybe not so in headphone drivers.
 
I wonder if Audeze generates a chart at the completion of production or after they burn-in the units before shipping? This could be an explanation for the variance you speak of if the latter since there may not be a consistent quantity of time for burn-in prior to shipping.

 

[jwbrent]

I love products that are built extremely well and have a great attention to detail. When I bought my XCs, I noticed the cross stitching on the leather pads didn't line up with each other perfectly and I was wondering if anyone knows how to either remove the pads or better yet, just rotate them. I don't want to do any damage, so I figured someone here would know.
 
Thanks for any help ...

 

[jwbrent]

One more question to those who own the XCs and that is whether anyone has noticed a resonance around 200-300Hz. My pair occasionally reveals this small resonance depending on the music I listen to. Electronic music seems to reveal this more readily.
 
I did a google search about this and found a review on the XCs where the reviewer commented about his measurements:
 

 
"Spectral decay (waterfall) plot of the LCD-XC, right channel. Long blue streaks indicate resonances, which are generally undesirable. There's a little more hash between 500 Hz and 5 kHz than I usually see, but no strong resonances."
 
I'd be interested in comments from others about this ...

 

[TMRaven]

All headphones have long decay in the bass region.  That's nothing out of the ordinary.  Usually CSDs are helpful for picking out erratic resonances in the upper midrange and treble region.

 

[jwbrent]

  All headphones have long decay in the bass region.  That's nothing out of the ordinary.  Usually CSDs are helpful for picking out erratic resonances in the upper midrange and treble region.

 
Thank you for your reply, but I'm still wondering whether the resonance/break-up I'm hearing with certain types of music is innate to the XC design.
 
I've contacted Audeze about this and am waiting for their reply. They did get back to me on the pads which do not rotate without removing the pads and which require a new adhesive ring to reattach.

 

[TMRaven]

The bass of the XC no doubt has a slight characteristic of 'closed' sounding bass, which means the bass is a bit more pressurized than what you'd hear from open headphones.  The XC also exhibits the typical closed headphone coloration, which lowers the lower midrange by a couple db and raises the upper midrange by a couple db, as can be seen in the XC's many frequency charts.
 
The only resonance I heard in the XC was in that 2khz region, which was a hard sounding resonance, but not sharp sounding like you'd hear with resonances around 6 and 8khz.