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

[purrin]

Quote:

I'm all for anything that sounds great and doesn't require me to buy something else just to make it sound nice

I totally understand where you are coming from. The money that you have to throw out get any of these cans to sound good. I've just measured another set of five headphones. You can get $700-$1000 speakers that are much better behaved - more linear that is.
 

 

[WarriorAnt]

Quote:

I did say *most* not all. I do love headphone listening, but it's just not the same as good speakers, for me personally. It speaks volumes about your listening choices to mention that you're a professional sound mixer, which means that for you personally, the experience of sound is going to be a much more involved, and analytical one.
 

I can't argue about the two worlds of speakers and headphones.  They are two different realms for sure.   I've had speaker rigs for 30 years and I prefer music to travel through the air  across a room and into my ears.  Having said that I don't begrudge the LCD-2 rig I have when I find myself listening to it.  I don't think well it's not a speaker rig but it will do.  I forget about the speaker experience and enjoy the music from the rig.  That's why I say I am enamored with it. I really enjoy it.   The rig is involving and musical and I don't equate it with anything analytical in terms of what some folks might equate with high end.  And though I may have acquired an analytical ear for the professional realm I do not find myself engaging that ear in any analytical manner while listening to my current rig.  My perception does not focus in and out with an analytical lens but rather I just get lost in the music and very often I forget I have the LCD's on my head.    

Now I'm in a bit a of pickle because my 17 year old daughter has discovered my rig and is amazed by the sound of the LCD's and wants a pair of her own.  She told me that she has to keep taking them off her head to see if the music is actually coming from them.
 
I must admit that when I first obtained the LCD's they were a bit heavy on my head. I have arthritis in my neck and the weight was a bit of a burden.  But after one month I acclimated to them and am pain free and now I do not notice them on my head.   Also I switched out the stock cable for  Steve Eddy's Q Cable and that litz2 cable is so light that is simply disappears from use and is the closet thing to a wireless set up I an imagine. The sonics from that cable are superior to the stock cable also.
 
 

 

[fejnomit]

OP you just contradicted yourself in one post!  The part where you go from talking about the heaphones to talking about another's enjoyment of them.  You categorically cannot comment on another's relationship to an object, any object. It just makes no sense.  If you are upset and feel like you fell for something, then so be it.  That does not mean that everyone who has ever owned a pair of LCD-2s "fell for it" too.  And to echo another post, what no one is really talking about here is EARS.  They are as different as headphones and sources.  Every single pair is unique.  So all you can really say with any justifiable certainty is that this pair of headphones does or does not work FOR YOUR EARS. Simple as that.  Until there are genetic mods we can do to our ears, then we are stuck with the pair we have and they COLOR EVERYTHING WE HEAR.  Just as you like a certain food and another may hate the very same thing.  But I would never criticize someone for their TASTE.   So, the LCD-2 sound is not for you.  It's not to your taste.  And it made you angry at the whole audiophile world.  Great. Stop buying overpriced stuff.  I don't think anyone here believes the stuff we covet is fairly priced.  But there's no need to harsh on those of us who continue to pursue the hobby with enjoyment.  I, for one, do not judge my headphones.  I swap them out with different cables and different sources and different amps AND I HAVE FUN DOING IT.  Like a science, it is interesting to me to observe the differences between all elements of a rig, including the music itself.  I find it helpful to keep notes about which combination of album/source/amp/cable/headphone works FOR ME and to then play that combination for my friends and see if they agree.  They then do the same for me.  It's fun.  As any hobby should be.  So to call me or anyone who remains enamored of the hobby in denial about price to quality ratios and comfort is truly missing the point.  Comfort is a question of taste too.  So to echo the previous  post about music, FUN is the point.  A break from all the toxic gunk out in the world. So no toxicity in here please!

 

[Armaegis]

Quote:

So far it seemed that Audeze treats the earpads with heroin or something.

Maybe this is why there are always such long delays at the border...
 

 

[RudeWolf]

Personal use, man! Though the veil of doubt falls when a certain Bottlehead amp is discovered in the suspects luggage...

P.S. Also the new ALO RX MK2 in camo isn't making the airport security work any easier.
 
Quote:

Maybe this is why there are always such long delays at the border...
 

 

 

[roadcykler]

Quote:

But yeah, I think we tend to expect too much from a new set of cans so it's easy to get disappointed.

This is the crux of the biscuit, imo, but first, allow me to backtrack a bit. To the OP, you are not a failed audiophile because there is no such thing. You are someone who is being honest with yourself and not buying in to the hype that surrounds these high dollar things. You have to find what works for you and maybe you've done that now.
 
As to the quoted post, I have read so much about how these LCD's are superb, exquisite, profound, and on and on, yet the pair I listened to didn't wow me like I was expecting. It was connected to a Liquid Fire amp so that wasn't the issue. The issue, as I see it, is anything that gets hyped to the extent these have, sets up some listeners for disappointment. Be it a band, a restaurant, a movie, or whatever, when something gets such high praise, some people are going to be disappointed. I don't doubt that these are good headphones, but they aren't going to be for everyone. To quote Flavor Flav, "don't believe the hype". Do your own listening and let YOUR hearing be your guide.  

 

[MorbidToaster]

I actually didn't really like the rev 1 out of the Liquid Fire. Might just be a bad pairing (rev 2 or rev 1). However this isn't meant to defend them. Just stating my experience.
 
Quote:

This is the crux of the biscuit, imo, but first, allow me to backtrack a bit. To the OP, you are not a failed audiophile because there is no such thing. You are someone who is being honest with yourself and not buying in to the hype that surrounds these high dollar things. You have to find what works for you and maybe you've done that now.
 
As to the quoted post, I have read so much about how these LCD's are superb, exquisite, profound, and on and on, yet the pair I listened to didn't wow me like I was expecting. It was connected to a Liquid Fire amp so that wasn't the issue. The issue, as I see it, is anything that gets hyped to the extent these have, sets up some listeners for disappointment. Be it a band, a restaurant, a movie, or whatever, when something gets such high praise, some people are going to be disappointed. I don't doubt that these are good headphones, but they aren't going to be for everyone. To quote Flavor Flav, "don't believe the hype". Do your own listening and let YOUR hearing be your guide.  

 
 

 

[Gwarmi]

Quote:

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.
 

I can top that (unfortunately) ~ its even worse when one of your friends own the largest physical collections of CD's of anyone you know (650+)
who listens to his collection through a bass, bloated Logitech 5.1 system running through his ASUS netbook headphone out
at home and on low end Sennheiser buds on the go. He handed back my SR80i's after noting that they were no different to his buds.
Fair enough, but the cheek of it all was asking if there was any chance I'd drop off the headphone amplifier + the K601's and 325i's for
a week or two borrow just 'because' he felt like it.
 
In other words, music is almost his life, he's cashed up but if he can enjoy a superior experience at someone else's expense without
spending a dollar. Then so be it.

 

[disastermouse]

Quote:

I actually think it's wire loose with us.

It's a potential that somehow gets flipped on.  My friend loves coffee - he bought a special vacuum pot and roasts his own beans, etc.  I enjoy his coffee when I'm over (very much, in fact) but I don't love ANY coffee enough to put the time, energy, and money into it like he does.  Then again, for awhile I was importing French and Swiss absinthes at about $150 a bottle, so....madness comes in all varieties.
 
Currently, I'm really thinking about buying the SVS Realizer and then upgrading the cans and amp to a WES and SR-009s over time.  It could be a 'little-bite-at-a-time' way to get the best headphone experience I can imagine having.  And if you get tired of it, you just take a road trip to a better system/room, ask and-or pay a little bit to set up a virtual replication of it, and BOOM, you have a whole new experience.  Either way, the Realizer sounds like it's amazing and it comes with a free introduction to low-end electrostatic headphones (heh, wouldn't it be nice in the head-fi world if the first one was always free?).
 

 

[purrin]

 
Quote:

It's a potential that somehow gets flipped on.  My friend loves coffee - he bought a special vacuum pot and roasts his own beans, etc.  I enjoy his coffee when I'm over (very much, in fact) but I don't love ANY coffee enough to put the time, energy, and money into it like he does.  Then again, for awhile I was importing French and Swiss absinthes at about $150 a bottle, so....madness comes in all varieties.

Haha. I too do the "roast my own green coffee beans from <insert terrorist haven>" (it's actually cheaper to do this than buy from a grocery store.)
 
As to headphones, my solution to the dilemma was is throw a lot of energy, time, and money into it. Still doing it. Running out of money (or at least finally turning off the spigot.) I have to say that I'm extremely satisfied.

 

[swbf2cheater]

mmm coffee

 

[purrin]

If you are into coffee, check out Sweet Maria's and get the starter package to roast your own beans. A far more cost effective venture than headphones. Starbucks (and Pete's, since they sold out and are no longer in the Bezerkley area) are considered the "Dr. Dre's" of the roast-your-own-beans hobbyist world. Also, the more unstable the country, the better the beans. However, do not expect bean matching - the quality from batch to batch can vary wildly.

 

[rroseperry]

Here's the link to Sweet Maria's. They've got about all you need to know about roasting coffee and are great people to deal with. When I've got the time, I still like to drive down to the warehouse to pick up my beans.

 

[disastermouse]

My coffee friend I spoke about raves about Sweet Maria's.

 

[khaos974]

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.
 

Can we appreciate the workmanship that goes with a Vuitton bag, a pair of expensive leather shoes?
Can we see how much more solid and stable a $1000 Really Right Stuff (yeah, it's the name of the brand) tripod is compared to your average tripod?
Can we see how the max setting on a game with a $500 graphic improve the experience?
Can we taste how much better a really nice Bordeau is? how special a Lagavulin single malt is? how micro brews and Belgian beers are much better than Heinekens?
Can we taste how fresh milk is so much better than pasteurized milk? how 'real' cheese is so much tastier?
Can we appreciate how well an Audi handles compared to a low end car?

Certainly yes, but do we actually make the effort of choosing all the "high end" options, or are sometimes content with having the low end ones? Same issue with high quality audio.

I'll even add that I know people who can appreciate the beauty of a music piece simply by reading the partition without any aural help, do they imagine how this will be once played, do they use an entirely different part of their brains? I don't know but I'm simply glad they have the ability too perceive beauty, no matter how they do it.

My coffee friend I spoke about raves about Sweet Maria's.

And yeah, I like really good coffee too, especially an espresso made with a good roast.:rolleyes: