Kudos to
@sheldaze for an excellent meet. The venue was great for a small meet.
My thoughts in no particular order. All my opinion. Take with a grain of salt. Your mileage may vary... and all the other warnings:
The hybrids that LTA brought: I'm not a fan. The mids and bass sounded overly warm and the treble overly sharp. Both sounded similar
Beyer Amiron: Simiarly to above, there was a discrepancy between the character of the treble and mids/bass, but it was nowhere near as pronounced. It's warm/smooth, but not dark in the mids and bass, with a bit of punch and speed. The treble has a touch of the beyer house sound, but no more than a touch. The overall sound was actually quite good. Comfort and build is awesome, but it's a beyer, so you can expect that.
LCD-2: Just as good as the ones I heard last meet: Warm, intimate, and punch, but relaxed when need be. I love them. To quote myself: "Deep, hard-hitting bass. Warm mids and treble with a lot of detail, but I don't think quite as much as the HD800. The timbre is spot on IMO, and the overall sound is relaxed. Intimate, but well-formed soundstage."
Utopia: The resolution is amazing. The rendition of textures is perfect. Listen to Elton John's Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (yes, it is 11 mins), or Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms (the track) and you will understand. Strings were also rendered very well. Very quick and punchy. A
slightly thin/bright presentation They are not very forgiving, either, so badly recorded music can be a bit hard to listen to. They are very good overall, but I don't think I could justify spending 4k on them, particularly considering the amount of imperfectly recorded music I listen to.
Fostex (thx00?): Woa, that's a large soundstage from a closed pair of cans. A touch bass-heavy, with a very slightly recessed midrange; fun with no sacrifice to resolution. Good for rocking out. I didn't spend a ton of time with them, so I didn't get a great idea of their sound.
Final Audio Sonorous VI: Crisp is the word that comes to mind. Like an LCD-2, but brighter and crisper. Very nice sound, but comfort is not perfect. The headband adjustment bits slide as you wear it. I think I only used it with my DIY OTL amp, so I'm sure it wasn't a good pairing (8 ohm dual driver headphones and an amp with a ~120 ohm output impedance)
LCD-XC: From the ZOTL, fairly similar to the LCD-2, but warmer. A bit too warm for me. I put them down before making any more detailed conclusions.
ZMF Atticus or Eikon, I'm not sure which: Warm, fluid and organic, not quite as warm as the LCD-XC, but I still found them a bit too warm from the ZOTL.
Ether (non-flow): Pure neutral. I prefer the touch of warmth from the LCD-2, but if neutral is your thing, these are your cans.
