whirlwind
Headphoneus Supremus
I think its the amp, the Espressivo is a OTL amp designed for higher impedance headphones like HD650, HD800 and T1, it will make most Grado headphones warmer sounding and give a bass boost so its a more euphoric sound at the expense of some distortion/muddy bass. The LCD-2 doesn't sound good on most OTL amps since most lack the current for driving a planar design properly. I think the Espressivo is similar to a Valhalla2 and the Valhalla2 was not a good pairing for any planar headphone that I tried.
I agree with this. I do not have an LCD-2, but I do have an ZMF Omni/Ori and i was listening to it with my OTL amp, which I thought was pretty good with the right tubes.
A new amp definitely changed the level that my planars are at now, i just thought the bass slam was good before, man these things need some current and then they will sound there best.