** Confessions of a Failing Audiophile ** - I hated the LCD2

[DavidMahler]

I was surprised by this thread!
 
I can't imagine truly hating the LCD2.  I haven't read through the whole thread and it's probably been discussed, but what amp are you using Mike?
 
edit: re-read the OP..... surprised that you disliked it so much.  I feel it handles certain things better than any other in-production headphone (minus electrostatic ones)
 
The midrange is really truly where the headphone shines I think, I only have the original pair...not the revs. 
 
In some ways I prefer the HD800 and HE6, but the LCD2 to me is the most transparent headphone currently being produced today. 

 

[swbf2cheater]

My amp collection at the time included a Cavalli CHT with my home desktop which had a fatality brand high end sound card, a loaner HA160 I had for a few weeks during my run with the LCD2, an Asgard, Pico Slim, SR71A, and lastly my trusty little dot MKIII 
 
I agree about its clarity, mid experience and overall stage depth and texture.  It just didn't do it for me at all.  I didn't enjoy it, it was too big, too heavy, and required way too much power to sound its best.  ( even though directly out of the j3 it sounded pretty great, just that extra kick and boost in every area was too hard to achieve, pretty much only a Lyr and any amp with serious output could do it justice) 
 
...that to me is a deal breaker.  Time to grow up and get out of the dark ages.  Things should be getting smaller and easier to drive, not larger and harder to drive.

 

[LauZaIM]

Quote:

My amp collection at the time included a Cavalli CHT with my home desktop which had a fatality brand high end sound card, a loaner HA160 I had for a few weeks during my run with the LCD2, an Asgard, Pico Slim, SR71A, and lastly my trusty little dot MKIII 
 
I agree about its clarity, mid experience and overall stage depth and texture.  It just didn't do it for me at all.  I didn't enjoy it, it was too big, too heavy, and required way too much power to sound its best.  ( even though directly out of the j3 it sounded pretty great, just that extra kick and boost in every area was too hard to achieve, pretty much only a Lyr and any amp with serious output could do it justice) 
 
...that to me is a deal breaker.  Time to grow up and get out of the dark ages.  Things should be getting smaller and easier to drive, not larger and harder to drive.

Sure, all we need to do is rewrite the laws of physics.
 

 

[DavidMahler]

Quote:

My amp collection at the time included a Cavalli CHT with my home desktop which had a fatality brand high end sound card, a loaner HA160 I had for a few weeks during my run with the LCD2, an Asgard, Pico Slim, SR71A, and lastly my trusty little dot MKIII 
 
I agree about its clarity, mid experience and overall stage depth and texture.  It just didn't do it for me at all.  I didn't enjoy it, it was too big, too heavy, and required way too much power to sound its best.  ( even though directly out of the j3 it sounded pretty great, just that extra kick and boost in every area was too hard to achieve, pretty much only a Lyr and any amp with serious output could do it justice) 
 
...that to me is a deal breaker.  Time to grow up and get out of the dark ages.  Things should be getting smaller and easier to drive, not larger and harder to drive.

 
I guess its all subjective
 
I don't find the LCD-2 to be particularly comfortable.  Headband a little tight, the pads not as soft as they should be. I'm not a huge fan of the stepped headband poles either which really are not as customizable as they should be.
 
I do like the connectors of the cable on both ends.  I think it's superior to the design of the Hifiman line and the Sennheiser lines.  But most of all the sound for me....is so grain free, so free of anything metallic or nasal.  I don't hear the soundstage as small though, I think it's way above normal personally.  I'm not sure it has a superior soundstage, but I do think the LCD-2 has a larger soundstage than the Edition 8.  The Edition 8's soundstage is more centered but ultimately smaller.

 
 

 

[MorbidToaster]

Completely agree with this. I'm not a huge fan of the huge connectors on any of them...but Audeze at least has the nicest ones. After owning an HE 500 and handling the LCD 2 I hated the HE 500s cable system so much.
 
Senns are the middle I'd say.
 
Quote:

 
I guess its all subjective
 
I don't find the LCD-2 to be particularly comfortable.  Headband a little tight, the pads not as soft as they should be. I'm not a huge fan of the stepped headband poles either which really are not as customizable as they should be.
 
I do like the connectors of the cable on both ends.  I think it's superior to the design of the Hifiman line and the Sennheiser lines.  But most of all the sound for me....is so grain free, so free of anything metallic or nasal.  I don't hear the soundstage as small though, I think it's way above normal personally.  I'm not sure it has a superior soundstage, but I do think the LCD-2 has a larger soundstage than the Edition 8.  The Edition 8's soundstage is more centered but ultimately smaller.

 
 

 
 

 

[TwoTrack]

Ouch!
 
Quote:

No, but being a fan of Will Ferrell's movies does.

 

 

[swbf2cheater]

I don't think there should be ANYTHING sticking out, especially connectors which can easily be damaged simply by sitting down to fast and having the cable bunch up on your chest or something, causing major stresses on it...but what do I know, im just some dude on the internet
 
As for the soundstaging qualities, yes, loved the Edition 8.  To have that sound in a closed back is ideal for me but I ended up enjoying the HD 598 more. The only thing the Edition 8 had on the HD 598 was clarity, looks, and portability.  Everything else was inferior from soundstage and separation qualities, to pure fun factor and usability in various situations like gaming or movies, which the Edition 8 was not so good for.  For $1500 bucks you should be able to do darn near anything you want but in the case of the LCD2 and edition 8, you can't.  
 
Don't mistake me bashing Audeze or any other brand, as I've said I think they are pretty much the best you can get.  I simply find the top rated mid-fi sets a better overall value

 

[DavidMahler]

Quote:

I don't think there should be ANYTHING sticking out, especially connectors which can easily be damaged simply by sitting down to fast and having the cable bunch up on your chest or something, causing major stresses on it...but what do I know, im just some dude on the internet
 
As for the soundstaging qualities, yes, loved the Edition 8.  To have that sound in a closed back is ideal for me but I ended up enjoying the HD 598 more. The only thing the Edition 8 had on the HD 598 was clarity, looks, and portability.  Everything else was inferior from soundstage and separation qualities, to pure fun factor and usability in various situations like gaming or movies, which the Edition 8 was not so good for.  For $1500 bucks you should be able to do darn near anything you want but in the case of the LCD2 and edition 8, you can't.  
 
Don't mistake me bashing Audeze or any other brand, as I've said I think they are pretty much the best you can get.  I simply find the top rated mid-fi sets a better overall value

That'd defintely one way to look at it.
 
I remember having a similar conversation a long time ago about the SR60 and the ipod buds with a friend... "why spend $80 when the quality i get from the free buds is good enough."  But I definitely agree that perceptively the value starts to not be reflective in the price...
 
another way to look at it though is I could see the argument being made where some says "why should I spend 5000+ dollars on an SR009 15,000+ dollars on HE-90 system when the LCD2 plugged into a decent amp is pretty close.  In the sense that I think the LCD-2 competes with the R10 (not quite as good, but so so close) I think the LCD2 is an impressive value.  I personally like the LCD-2's sound a ton more than Edition 8 but I think the Edition 8 has a very unique sound that is the Ultrasone sound.  I also like to plug it right into my iPod.  But compared against a well-amped LCD-2 there's very few headphones I would prefer.  I hope the LCD-3 will be significantly more comfortable because a really comfortable LCD-2 with better angling in the drivers and a slightly more complete looking design which doesn't go through too many revisions after release.... will most likely be the best headphone around
 

 

[Digital-Pride]

Quote:

Ouch!

 
Just kidding!  Admittedly I'm a fan too!

 

[Armaegis]

Quote:

That'd defintely one way to look at it.
 
I remember having a similar conversation a long time ago about the SR60 and the ipod buds with a friend... "why spend $80 when the quality i get from the free buds is good enough."  But I definitely agree that perceptively the value starts to not be reflective in the price...

I'm finding that more and more of the general populace actually do know what good sound it, but simply don't care. They've head good speakers and headphones, but then shrug and go back to their buds and laptop speakers.
 
Ridiculous example: I've got a friend taking broadcasting and studio classes in college and she works with a bunch of AKGs and Senns all day long. She fully acknowledges that those headphones sound far better than her ibuds, but she still likes the buds because she's used to them.
 
Ugh, it's like the current generation of listeners are being trained to prefer poorly recorded and poorly reproduced music.
 

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

Time to grow up and get out of the dark ages.  Things should be getting smaller and easier to drive, not larger and harder to drive.

Yeah and enough with having to put something on your head, I want my telepathic projection device!

 

[swbf2cheater]

Hell ya, I'll be first in line for surgical media player and speakers implanted into my ears as well as a projector behind my eyes!
 
too bad the tech exists to make it smaller and easily driven, or else I might not have taken your comment seriously

 

[rhythmdevils]

The LCD-2 is easy to drive.  And on purpose, they engineered the driver to be as efficient as possible so it wouldn't be like the HIfiman orthos.

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

Hell ya, I'll be first in line for surgical media player and speakers implanted into my ears as well as a projector behind my eyes!
 
too bad the tech exists to make it smaller and easily driven, or else I might not have taken your comment seriously

You wouldn't need to surgically implant anything for a telepathy device to work. They have them now, music can be 'streamed' to the listener wirelessly with some sort of cap that speaks to the brain.
 
Whether or not this is something we will see in our lifetime is unknown.

 

[Armaegis]

Quote:

Hell ya, I'll be first in line for surgical media player and speakers implanted into my ears as well as a projector behind my eyes!
 
too bad the tech exists to make it smaller and easily driven, or else I might not have taken your comment seriously

Why bother with putting a speaker in there? Might as well attach a piezo actuator directly to the, uh, well whatever the appropriate fiddly bits are inside that need to be vibrated. (wow these sentences just keep getting worse and worse)