[NZtechfreak]

What did you like for metal? 

I got the LCD2 mainly because I've seen it recommended for metal. 

I took your advice though and bought Mjolnir it's on the way. I'm listening to it through the Lyr right now though and my impressions are, for lo-fi black metal, it sounds pretty killer, but I do wish it it had more "bite". So I'm glad I've got the other amp on the way.

Just for an example, I'm listening to Immortal's "Pure Holocaust" ATM, an album that previously was literally nearly painful for me to listen to. It's much more listenable now but just a tad too "muddy" feeling. Granted this is black metal, which is not the most well produced stuff, but still.

Anyways, excited to see what the Mjolnir will do with this. Up until now I thought that I preferred a dark sound by far (was scared off by some very bright sounding IEMs - to my ears at least) but now I just frankly have no clue anymore.

For metal? The HE-6 well driven, my god so good.

The 'bite' you speak of is one of the things lacking in the LCD2 for my tastes in metal sound (mind that I was listening pre-fazor of course). As a guitarist I found distorted guitars didn't sound right, ever so slightly rounded off and 'politened'. Of course with how a lot of metal is recorded that can be an asset too in terms of reducing listening fatigue, as you point out.

I value transparency more than being forgiving of poorly mastered/bright albums myself, but like everything in this hobby that comes down to personal preference.

 

[bavinck]

Does anyone use dt880/600 for metal? I just got one and am really enjoying the detail and speed. Bass is just barely enough for my tastes though.

 

[levap]

  I took your advice though and bought Mjolnir it's on the way. I'm listening to it through the Lyr right now though and my impressions are, for lo-fi black metal, it sounds pretty killer, but I do wish it it had more "bite". So I'm glad I've got the other amp on the way.
 
Just for an example, I'm listening to Immortal's "Pure Holocaust" ATM, an album that previously was literally nearly painful for me to listen to. It's much more listenable now but just a tad too "muddy" feeling. Granted this is black metal, which is not the most well produced stuff, but still.
 
Anyways, excited to see what the Mjolnir will do with this. Up until now I thought that I preferred a dark sound by far (was scared off by some very bright sounding IEMs - to my ears at least) but now I just frankly have no clue anymore.

Mjolnir seems like possible solution (it can rid you of "muddness" and excessive "darkness" added by amp), by if it'll be real solution? Only your ears can give an answer for you ) LCD-2 are inherently dark headphones, so wish you a luck to find a right personal balance )
 
 

For metal? The HE-6 well driven, my god so good.

HE-6 are my personal favourite for now )
 
 

Does anyone use dt880/600 for metal? I just got one and am really enjoying the detail and speed. Bass is just barely enough for my tastes though.

Look through a couple of pages above.

 

[stang]

Does anyone use dt880/600 for metal? I just got one and am really enjoying the detail and speed. Bass is just barely enough for my tastes though.

I used it for several thousand hours for metal and loved it. The velour pads on it were worn down though so the drivers were close to my ears and it also had a copper recable. I compared them to a stock pair with new pads and mine sounded soooo much nicer. Much, much smoother treble, harder hitting bass with more presence and the mids were more pronounced. I did eventually make the move to LCD-2 2.2 and that was a fantastic decision. Expensive, however. I now have DT770 600ohm (HE-4 for my Vinyl rig which consists mainly of Rock) and enjoy their speed for metal, definitely. I just like need more bass since I got used to my LCD-2. EQ'ing is about the best I can do right now and it's mostly fine.

 

[bavinck]

  I used it for several thousand hours for metal and loved it. The velour pads on it were worn down though so the drivers were close to my ears and it also had a copper recable. I compared them to a stock pair with new pads and mine sounded soooo much nicer. Much, much smoother treble, harder hitting bass with more presence and the mids were more pronounced. I did eventually make the move to LCD-2 2.2 and that was a fantastic decision. Expensive, however. I now have DT770 600ohm (HE-4 for my Vinyl rig which consists mainly of Rock) and enjoy their speed for metal, definitely. I just like need more bass since I got used to my LCD-2. EQ'ing is about the best I can do right now and it's mostly fine.

I have read that the LCD 2s are too slow for metal, I guess that is untrue. I have dt770/250s and they are good, but the detail in the dt880s is great. FYI: I just recently have been trying out my AKG K7XXs on metal, absolutely excellent so far, just wonderful. In fact, I think I like the bass presentation on the akgs better than the dt880 for metal. That might change though, so YMMV

 

[stang]

  I have read that the LCD 2s are too slow for metal, I guess that is untrue. I have dt770/250s and they are good, but the detail in the dt880s is great. FYI: I just recently have been trying out my AKG K7XXs on metal, absolutely excellent so far, just wonderful. In fact, I think I like the bass presentation on the akgs better than the dt880 for metal. That might change though, so YMMV

 
It depends what sub-genre of metal we are talking about. For example, my HE-4 sound absolutely fantastic with fast paced metal, though they still lack bass for me. Same story with the DT770 600ohm, though generally the HE-4 are far more engaging. I will try to improve the bass presence and authority in the future with some appropriate tubes for my amplifier. Right now I have way too many other things to concentrate on financially. LCD-2 2.2 were amazing with a lot of Metallica's albums in my opinion, especially the Black album. It really depends on your tastes. Also, FWIW, I noticed a far greater difference between DACs with the LCD-2 compared to amplifiers, especially in the soundstage and bass department.

 

[NoxNoctum]

What kind of amps do you guys reccommend for the HE-6? Can the Mjolnir I have on the way for LCD2 handle it ?

I ordered a HE-6 to compare with the LCD2 from amazon and I guess I *could* buy a separate amp for it but I feel nervous having that many high price items out at once (30 day return and all that). I mostly listen to BM metal-wise.

 

[Music Alchemist]

What kind of amps do you guys reccommend for the HE-6? Can the Mjolnir I have on the way for LCD2 handle it ?

I ordered a HE-6 to compare with the LCD2 from amazon and I guess I *could* buy a separate amp for it but I feel nervous having that many high price items out at once (30 day return and all that). I mostly listen to BM metal-wise.

 
I know there are affordable speaker amps out there, which could potentially make the HE-6 sound better than through a headphone amp. ...Then again, the Mjolnir has very high output power! If you don't want to bother with another amp, the HE-6 should at least get near its full potential with it. (I haven't seen an official statement pertaining to recommended output power for it to reach its peak.)

 

[Jazic]

Any chance you'll be reviewing the LCD-XC's?

 

[NZtechfreak]

The Mjolnir unfortunately isn't great with the HE-6,the Ragnarok is pretty good from what I've read (while still falling short of good speaker amp pairings). It'll give you a little taste of the 6 though, so if you like it from the Mjolnir just be aware it has quite a lot more to give.

 

[Hansotek]

What did you like for metal? 

I got the LCD2 mainly because I've seen it recommended for metal. 

I took your advice though and bought Mjolnir it's on the way. I'm listening to it through the Lyr right now though and my impressions are, for lo-fi black metal, it sounds pretty killer, but I do wish it it had more "bite". So I'm glad I've got the other amp on the way.

Just for an example, I'm listening to Immortal's "Pure Holocaust" ATM, an album that previously was literally nearly painful for me to listen to. It's much more listenable now but just a tad too "muddy" feeling. Granted this is black metal, which is not the most well produced stuff, but still.

Anyways, excited to see what the Mjolnir will do with this. Up until now I thought that I preferred a dark sound by far (was scared off by some very bright sounding IEMs - to my ears at least) but now I just frankly have no clue anymore.

For metal? The HE-6 well driven, my god so good.

The 'bite' you speak of is one of the things lacking in the LCD2 for my tastes in metal sound (mind that I was listening pre-fazor of course). As a guitarist I found distorted guitars didn't sound right, ever so slightly rounded off and 'politened'. Of course with how a lot of metal is recorded that can be an asset too in terms of reducing listening fatigue, as you point out.

I value transparency more than being forgiving of poorly mastered/bright albums myself, but like everything in this hobby that comes down to personal preference.

NoxNoctum the missing "bite" you are speaking of (and that NZtechfreak is referring to here) is likely a bump in the high upper midrange between 3k and 4k. This highlights the upper hamonics of the guitars, giving them extra sparkle, bite, presence and aggression. The difference is easy to see when comparing the frequency response of the very laid back sounding LCD2 with the very tactile and aggressive sounding HE-6.

 

[NoxNoctum]

Thanks for the technical explanation, helps me understand some of what I'm looking for -- both the HE-6 and Mjolnir arrive tomorrow so I'll be able to experiment some. 
 
NZtech --do you think the Mjolnir will be able to give me a decent experience of the HE-6 to be able to judge or not really? I don't have any experience with what a headphone "under amped" sounds like so I'm not really sure what would be affected. I might just go ahead and buy an amp for the HE-6 so I can give it a real audition (feel a bit snobby using that term but I can't think of better one ). Any suggestions?
 
Also I'm curious what the HE-6 fans in here listen to specifically. I mentioned earlier I mostly listen to BM: think Emperor, Dissection, Immortal, Enslaved etc, though not as big a fan of the "tr00 NWBM" type ala Darkthrone etc... My experience with a couple high-endish IEMs (Hifiman RE600 and Sennheiser IE80) with this kind of music was what put me off anything close to the neutral-to-bright category, it just sounded far too shrill and didn't have any "chunk". The opposite of lush I guess you could say. If I could get lush+bite I'd be very happy.
 
Later Immortal (SoND era) actually sounded pretty good on the RE600s (Emperor is what sounded truly awful) in that I felt like I was in the room with the band, but it also took a lot of the magic away. Hard to explain really. 

 

[levap]

What kind of amps do you guys reccommend for the HE-6? Can the Mjolnir I have on the way for LCD2 handle it ?

I ordered a HE-6 to compare with the LCD2 from amazon and I guess I *could* buy a separate amp for it but I feel nervous having that many high price items out at once (30 day return and all that). I mostly listen to BM metal-wise.

Mjolnir is good for HE-6 but far from great, they can be much better with speaker amp. Mjolnir don't "underamp" HE-6, it has enough power for them, but I personally do not like to much sound signature of Mjolnir. 
And btw I would recommend to play with earpads/cable mods to fine tune "bite"/"darkness" ratio.
 
 

  Any chance you'll be reviewing the LCD-XC's?

Currently I have plans to go deeper in a theme of fine-tuning my current favourites for listening at home (HE-6) and at work (Fostex 900). To play mostly with cables for HE-6 and software equalization for both of them. For now I have no extensive plans on new headphones reviews (only AKG K1000 and Stax 407 for next coulple of weeks).

 

[Angelbelow]

Been wanting to upgrade to the HE6s for awhile now. Currently hesitating because I'm really enjoying my HE500s (recently did the grill/pad mods) right now and the HE1000s are on the horizon. Hopefully some good deals start showing up for the HE6s.

 

[NoxNoctum]

Gah -- so I just got the Mjolnir in the mail but neglected to get balanced cables -- so looks like I'm going to go ahead and get a separate amp to try the HE-6. I posted in the HE-6 amp thread as well but am wondering what you guys would suggest for speaker amps? Something that I can get off of Amazon (or another site that offers refunds/expedited shipping) would be ideal. As I said in a previous post, looking for a lush+full sound but with bite. Thanks!
 
DAC is Gungnir.