[Serenitty]

Have you read this?

http://www.head-fi.org/products/chord-mojo/reviews/15145

Thanks, interesting read.. The mojo is tempting, not that the LC is hard to move around, but there are times when that kind of portability would be nice.

 

[Serenitty]

As someone waiting for the LCD-XC to get here but thinking maybe one of the Ethers would've been a wiser choice, would love to have that expanded upon.

Bass, the XC has very prominent bass. The Ether C sounds good, but the bass is much more subtle. The weight difference is substantial too. Miss and highs I can't say much on, the meet conditions were too loud, even with closed phones.

 

[Serenitty]

At the price of the AK120ii, you should be looking at the DAC-19 or GMB, not the BMB.  I haven't had a chance to dig into the BMB at all (I've heard it at loud shows, so same problem as you), but I've been reading some mixed things about it.  If you want R2R done at the level of the AK DACs, you might want to step up from it.

Good point, and maybe a good argument to just be happy with the AK. Sheldaze had an LC on a black GMB and while it might have sounded good, the size difference was enormous.

 

[x RELIC x]

Bass, the XC has very prominent bass. The Ether C sounds good, but the bass is much more subtle. The weight difference is substantial too. Miss and highs I can't say much on, the meet conditions were too loud, even with closed phones.

And that's where the Audeze variance kicks in. My XC doesn't have very prominent bass, compared with other XC's. Mine's down about 5 dB compared to the mids and treble when I look at other graphs.

 

[yage]

Bass, the XC has very prominent bass. The Ether C sounds good, but the bass is much more subtle. The weight difference is substantial too. Miss and highs I can't say much on, the meet conditions were too loud, even with closed phones.

 
I own the LCD-XC's that @Serenitty listened to during the meet. I really liked the Ether C's midrange. I feel that the XC's upper midrange / lower treble is slightly accentuated. The Ether C's sounded more natural to me, albeit with less bass kick (at least when compared to my pair of XC's). However I felt that bass extension was about the same.

 

[Stillhart]

I've heard the XC several times at shows and they've never impressed me.  They sound nothing like the awesome LCD-X and they are the heaviest headphone around that isn't the Abyss.  The Ether C, on the other hand, is super light and impressed me with its sound immediately.  Honestly, the only things they have in common (in my mind) are the closed cups, the planar drivers, and the price tag.

 

[AxelCloris]

Thanks, interesting read.. The mojo is tempting, not that the LC is hard to move around, but there are times when that kind of portability would be nice.

The Mojo and the LC play quite well together. It's easy to grab the Mojo from my setup and hit the road with it.

 

[x RELIC x]

The Mojo and the LC play quite well together. It's easy to grab the Mojo from my setup and hit the road with it.

Yup, and you have the ETHER (C?) connected (with the DUM cable?) as well. Perfect sound.

 

[AxelCloris]

Yup, and you have the ETHER (C?) connected (with the DUM cable?) as well. Perfect sound.

 
Ether, yeah. Sadly I don't own the C. And that's indeed the early version of the DUM cable. Stiff and unwieldy at times, but it sounds awesome.

 

[sheldaze]

Good point, and maybe a good argument to just be happy with the AK. Sheldaze had an LC on a black GMB and while it might have sounded good, the size difference was enormous.

And I wish I had known you were interested in hearing Mojo. It was sitting in the box 

Next meet though, definitely...

 

[zaintachik]

Certainly not night and day difference by any means, but certainly better to my ears.

Mine was quite substantial difference coming from HD 700

 

[Serenitty]

And I wish I had known you were interested in hearing Mojo. It was sitting in the box 
Next meet though, definitely...

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Though I think I'll need more quiet and time to really compare..

 

[RichardA1]

I am new to these forums and have a question about the Liquid Carbon. I currently have a my Liquid Carbon running with balanced cables from my Lumin A1 network player as a source and balanced headphone cables to my EtherC's . If I was to swich to a dac with single ended outputs and run a balanced cable to the Liquid Carbon from my preamp would I be still getting the best experience from my Cavalli headphone amp without a complete balanced path from source to headphones ? 
 
Any input or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Stillhart]

  I am new to these forums and have a question about the Liquid Carbon. I currently have a my Liquid Carbon running with balanced cables from my Lumin A1 network player as a source and balanced headphone cables to my EtherC's . If I was to swich to a dac with single ended outputs and run a balanced cable to the Liquid Carbon from my preamp would I be still getting the best experience from my Cavalli headphone amp without a complete balanced path from source to headphones ? 
 
Any input or suggestions would be appreciated.

 
Welcome to Head-fi, sorry about your wallet!
 
The LC is somewhat special in that it converts all SE inputs to balanced before amplifying the signal.  That means you can get all the benefits of balanced amplification when using an SE input.  
 
The question on whether or not you need balanced output from your DAC to get all the benefits of going "fully balanced" is... well I'll call it subjective.  Some people are big believers in it and others not so much.  I use an SE DAC and I love it.  I've also used a balanced DAC where I couldn't tell the difference between balanced and SE on the LC.  I've also used a balanced DAC where the balanced output sounded noticeably better than the SE output (with the LC).  
 
At the end of the day, when using the LC, how good your DAC is will be more important that whether it's balanced or not.

 

[RichardA1]

Thank You Stillhart
That was just the information I needed