[frankraindog]

Auralic Taurus MKII works great with the XC but it isn't portable

 

[jeffu]

  I just got my LCD-XC and I tried it with my Chord Mojo and also with Cypher Labs Theorem 720,,, but still I know that this headphone can do better...
I found lcd-xc with mojo to be a bad combo.... theorem 720 was better,, I don't know what I should do, I asked a friend to verify it and i'm still waiting...
Anyone got this combination? plz do comment...
Source is windows > foobar 2000 "WASAPI event" > chord mojo > lcd-xc
 
I'm thinking about an external amp (I love portable rigs) and using chord mojo as a DAC only?

Hey guys - so I'm really new to all of this, so take my impressions with a grain of salt.  Fist a quick background - I first heard of Audeze at CES in 2015 when I walked by the Pono Player booth and they had them set up to demo their player - I was blown away by the sound, but of course they were using the LCD-4's and that just wasn't in my budget.  Not sure, but looking back I wouldn't be surprised if it was also run through some sort of amp, the Pono isn't that powerful.  Spring forward this year at CES and I end up by the Audeze booth and discover the LCD-XC - perfect for the office and they sounded great, they had them running with a balanced connection through the Chord HugoTT - long story short I picked up a second hand pair a week ago and have been trying them out on different players.  I also picked up a Chord Mojo, thinking it would give me that great sound I heard at CES.  
 
Well, they're good, but I'm not really getting that "Wow" factor out of the Mojo - not a huge difference vs. just running it out of my phone with a Cayin C5 amp.  So reading some of the notes about the Mojo maybe not being the best with the LCD-XC, I thought I'd try running it as just a DAC and using the Cayin C5 - OMG, so that's what I'm missing?  
 
I by no means have audiophile hearing - I'm in my early 50's and have listened to too much loud music, so again, don't count my findings as truth, just my opinion.  Right now I'm running Tidal out of my Mac to the Mojo, line out mode to the Cayin C5 and out to the LCD-XC's.  I tried switching back and forth on a variety of music, Cinematic Orchestra, Steely Dan, Dire Straights, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Bowie, Massive Attack - it all just sounds better with the separate amp.  I don't know how to fully describe it, but it sounds fuller, deeper, more open.  The bass on Massive Attack's "Angel" is incredible, just that constant backbeat.  The opening notes on Cinematic Orchestra's "All That You Give" is clear and you can hear them strum through the chimes almost individually - if I play just through the Mojo it's good, but the chimes at the opening all just blend together.
 
Just another note, I tried hard to match the volume and get the same feeling if I have the gain and bass boost turned on for the Cayin vs having them both off - I prefer the Cayin with the bass boost and gain on, not sure what it's adding, but the power seems to help.
 
Again, just my opinion - I just know I'm liking what I'm hearing and don't feel like I'm chasing a pipe dream, these really do sound fantastic!

 

[iBrian]

What do you think of the Grace M9XX with these?

 

[makan]

I just got the fiio hs2 to do some a/b ing with my various rigs and headphones. The hs2 is a simple switch that allows a/bing with a knob...up to 4 inputs or headphones. Anyway, first up was between my bedroom rig bifrost uber/lyr 1 vs basement audio gd 10.33 and to my 45 year old ears, no real perceptible difference...maybe lyr has a deeper bass. I am using fiio X5 as the source for both (I have 2 first gen x5s). I will be trying out the x5/e12 in the next few days vs does desktop rigs. I. Do like e12 sound for the XC but don't use it often, but can let you guys know in comparison to the other rigs.

 

[x RELIC x]

Hey guys. Reading some recent posts I thought I'd update my thoughts on the LCD-XC / Mojo combo. First of all I want to clarify that I don't find the XC / Mojo combo terrible, just that compared to the other headphones I've tried I found the pairing less enjoyable, for me. I just connected the XC to the Mojo again and gave it a good couple hours listen. It sounds good to me but brighter than from my other gear with the XC. I think in the end it's just the sound signature of XC and the clarity/accuracy of the Mojo creating this enhanced perception. I found this strange in my review (and still do) because the Mojo has such a smooth presentation without any glare if it's not in the recording. It's definitely not a driveability issue.

I also did a comparison between the ETHER C and the LCD-XC on the Mojo and found the ETHER C less forward than the XC but preferred the XC with Mojo, and on the Liquid Carbon I love the ETHER C over the XC. In this case I'd just say its a synergy thing between my LCD-XC , the ETHER C, and the Mojo. A matter of the Mojo showing you what you've got on your head, again, IMO.

If you look around you'll find that the LCD-XC frequency graphs vary quite a lot in the bass region and I've mentioned it many times in this thread and elsewhere that my pair in particular are about 5dB lower in the bass than other graphs I've seen. This plays out 100% with the Mojo while less so with other gear I use. Compared to the ETHER C the XC has more upper mids/treble energy which is what I hear clearly from the Mojo.

I'm glad I tried the LCD-XC / Mojo combo again because it has cemented just how resolving the XC can really be. After getting used to the pair I do enjoy it and don't really find it a bad pairing, just another flavour. I can see why others would like an external amp in the mix adding more colouration but I prefer to hear my headphone gear as transparently as possible.

 

[BA_D_R]

Hey guys. Reading some recent posts I thought I'd update my thoughts on the LCD-XC / Mojo combo. First of all I want to clarify that I don't find the XC / Mojo combo terrible, just that compared to the other headphones I've tried I found the pairing less enjoyable, for me. I just connected the XC to the Mojo again and gave it a good couple hours listen. It sounds good to me but brighter than from my other gear with the XC. I think in the end it's just the sound signature of XC and the clarity/accuracy of the Mojo creating this enhanced perception. I found this strange in my review (and still do) because the Mojo has such a smooth presentation without any glare if it's not in the recording. It's definitely not a driveability issue.

I also did a comparison between the ETHER C and the LCD-XC on the Mojo and found the ETHER C less forward than the XC but preferred the XC with Mojo, and on the Liquid Carbon I love the ETHER C over the XC. In this case I'd just say its a synergy thing between my LCD-XC , the ETHER C, and the Mojo. A matter of the Mojo showing you what you've got on your head, again, IMO.

If you look around you'll find that the LCD-XC frequency graphs vary quite a lot in the bass region and I've mentioned it many times in this thread and elsewhere that my pair in particular are about 5dB lower in the bass than other graphs I've seen. This plays out 100% with the Mojo while less so with other gear I use. Compared to the ETHER C the XC has more upper mids/treble energy which is what I hear clearly from the Mojo.

I'm glad I tried the LCD-XC / Mojo combo again because it has cemented just how resolving the XC can really be. After getting used to the pair I do enjoy it and don't really find it a bad pairing, just another flavour. I can see why others would like an external amp in the mix adding more colouration but I prefer to hear my headphone gear as transparently as possible.

Thanx for the info,,
I found LCD-XC to better with Theorem 720 than the Mojo, specially at the bass and also more fun to listen with, so now i'm confused about my next step,, should I go for Chord Hugo? or using Mojo as a DAC and try to figure out what amp must be added to have a good synergy? Mojo > unknown amp > LCD-XC

 

[BA_D_R]

  Hey guys - so I'm really new to all of this, so take my impressions with a grain of salt.  Fist a quick background - I first heard of Audeze at CES in 2015 when I walked by the Pono Player booth and they had them set up to demo their player - I was blown away by the sound, but of course they were using the LCD-4's and that just wasn't in my budget.  Not sure, but looking back I wouldn't be surprised if it was also run through some sort of amp, the Pono isn't that powerful.  Spring forward this year at CES and I end up by the Audeze booth and discover the LCD-XC - perfect for the office and they sounded great, they had them running with a balanced connection through the Chord HugoTT - long story short I picked up a second hand pair a week ago and have been trying them out on different players.  I also picked up a Chord Mojo, thinking it would give me that great sound I heard at CES.  
 
Well, they're good, but I'm not really getting that "Wow" factor out of the Mojo - not a huge difference vs. just running it out of my phone with a Cayin C5 amp.  So reading some of the notes about the Mojo maybe not being the best with the LCD-XC, I thought I'd try running it as just a DAC and using the Cayin C5 - OMG, so that's what I'm missing?  
 
I by no means have audiophile hearing - I'm in my early 50's and have listened to too much loud music, so again, don't count my findings as truth, just my opinion.  Right now I'm running Tidal out of my Mac to the Mojo, line out mode to the Cayin C5 and out to the LCD-XC's.  I tried switching back and forth on a variety of music, Cinematic Orchestra, Steely Dan, Dire Straights, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Bowie, Massive Attack - it all just sounds better with the separate amp.  I don't know how to fully describe it, but it sounds fuller, deeper, more open.  The bass on Massive Attack's "Angel" is incredible, just that constant backbeat.  The opening notes on Cinematic Orchestra's "All That You Give" is clear and you can hear them strum through the chimes almost individually - if I play just through the Mojo it's good, but the chimes at the opening all just blend together.
 
Just another note, I tried hard to match the volume and get the same feeling if I have the gain and bass boost turned on for the Cayin vs having them both off - I prefer the Cayin with the bass boost and gain on, not sure what it's adding, but the power seems to help.
 
Again, just my opinion - I just know I'm liking what I'm hearing and don't feel like I'm chasing a pipe dream, these really do sound fantastic!

 
So you found Mojo > Cayin C5 > LCD-XC to be a good synergy?

 

[x RELIC x]

So you found Mojo > Cayin C5 > LCD-XC to be a good synergy?

I haven't heard the C5, but I do know the C5 will simply add distortion to the mix so I prefer the Mojo straight to the headphones usually. If a user likes the tonality of an extra amp after the Mojo then by all means run with that.

 

[x RELIC x]

Thanx for the info,,
I found LCD-XC to better with Theorem 720 than the Mojo, specially at the bass and also more fun to listen with, so now i'm confused about my next step,, should I go for Chord Hugo? or using Mojo as a DAC and try to figure out what amp must be added to have a good synergy? Mojo > unknown amp > LCD-XC

Chord has said many times in the forums and to me directly that the Mojo is just as capable as the Hugo, just that the Mojo is tuned slightly smoother for its intended portable use and has less features (input/output connections, Bluetooth, crossfeed). So in the end the Mojo's DAC is every bit as capable, according to Chord, so focus on that purpose if you want to use one with an external amp. The Hugo won't help in your case as it's apparently tuned slightly brighter.

If the output of the Mojo isn't to your liking then pairing it with an external amp is perfectly fine. The output is exceedingly clean from the Mojo's analogue section so I wouldn't worry about adding an extra amp if you don't like the synergy with the Mojo/LCD-XC.

 

[BA_D_R]

 

Chord has said many times in the forums and to me directly that the Mojo is just as capable as the Hugo, just that the Mojo is tuned slightly smoother for its intended portable use and has less features (input/output connections, Bluetooth, crossfeed). So in the end the Mojo's DAC is every bit as capable, according to Chord, so focus on that purpose if you want to use one with an external amp. The Hugo won't help in your case as it's apparently tuned slightly brighter.

If the output of the Mojo isn't to your liking then pairing it with an external amp is perfectly fine. The output is exceedingly clean from the Mojo's analogue section so I wouldn't worry about adding an extra amp if you don't like the synergy with the Mojo/LCD-XC.

 



Thanx alot, yeah I agree the mojo as a dac is unbeatable, so whats the best portable amp for LCD-XC?

 

[x RELIC x]

See above your last post... :rolleyes:

 

[jeffu]

   
So you found Mojo > Cayin C5 > LCD-XC to be a good synergy?

I do, but it's also the only thing I have to use, so I can't compare it to anything else - so YMMV.
 
I wish someone else would give it a go with the Cayin, it's a cheap amp, but really good for the $$

 

[BA_D_R]

I find LCD-XC to be heavy and the current headband isn't enough,, tho some maybe find it ok.
I bought the new (Audeze Carbon Fiber Suspension Headband) 200$ i'm still waiting for it now.
Good thing its carbon fiber so it must be so light, and also the headband surface is bigger.
 
Also a cheap alternative:
http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/015012-AKG-2058Z0902
 

  Wanted to share a suspension strap idea I had that worked out surprisingly well (I do my best thinking in bed) 

 
I went through a vintage AKG phase a few years back; the only remnant being a K240 Sextett MP in stellar shape that I couldn't bear to part with. It turns out with not much effort I was able to rig the headstrap it onto my LCD-X headband, improving the comfort by a large margin:
 

 

 


Others will disagree, but I really l really like how it looks as well, it adds a nice vintage aesthetic to the X. Sextett headbands aren't terribly easy to come by, but since AKG has been using the same design for decades a new K240 headband should work just as well: http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/015012-AKG-2058Z0902
 
Of course, this shares the same caveat of the Lohb strap in that those with larger heads will need to purchase the extended yokes. Otherwise, it's a very simple and inexpensive way to increase comfort if the stock band creates a pressure point at the very top of your head as it does with mine. It only requires removing the two screws from the top of the yoke rods, sliding the headband off and reassembling as shown (it was a bit tricky to get the tail ends of the K240 headband to fit onto the top of the rods).
 
I have some assorted scrap leather at home; at some point next week I'm going to use the K240 band as a template to make a leather version as well. We'll see how that goes!
 

 
 

  Alrighty, I had the chance to cut a leather suspension using the K240 headstrap from my earlier post as a template. The results are great! The leather I used is a bit on the floppy side, so it droops when not in use, but it is more comfortable than the (vinyl, I think) strap from my K240's and looks a bit nicer to boot. Here are some pics:
 

 

 

 


All in all, I'm very happy with the results of my little experiment, and I no longer find myself "needing" the new carbon fiber suspension strap, which for me is $200 better put towards a a cable or amp upgrade. I hope this has been helpful to someone else as well.
 
Happy listening! 

 
 

 

[dip registered]

Not that this helps anyone with the problem of the XCs being to heavy... But I find mine to be the perfect weight, and do not get fatigued by them at all. I work all day with them on, and can go for 4+ hours. I read so much about them being super heavy, and I prepared before I bought them by purchasing a leather strap to take the weight off the center of the head - But, I still haven't used it, as the XCs have been fine.

Could be a good idea to purchase a lighter cable - I have the Q-cable French silk and it just makes the entire XC experience light and amazing.

 

[BA_D_R]

Not that this helps anyone with the problem of the XCs being to heavy... But I find mine to be the perfect weight, and do not get fatigued by them at all. I work all day with them on, and can go for 4+ hours. I read so much about them being super heavy, and I prepared before I bought them by purchasing a leather strap to take the weight off the center of the head - But, I still haven't used it, as the XCs have been fine.

Could be a good idea to purchase a lighter cable - I have the Q-cable French silk and it just makes the entire XC experience light and amazing.

Yes some will never find XC as heavy but I do :"(
for me the cable doesn't matter because i'm sitting on the floor XD
btw I bought SAA Endorphin cable and i'm still waiting for them to arrive, a friend told me it's the best cable for all the LCDs