[DoctaCosmos]

Very curious of the audio technical sound. Still might purchase some w1000x at income tax just to hear them. I know my next headphone needs to be smoother and have smooth treble extension also less weighty sound. My ears just can't take in as much sound as they use to

 

[Makiah S]

Very curious of the audio technical sound. Still might purchase some w1000x at income tax just to hear them. I know my next headphone needs to be smoother and have smooth treble extension also less weighty sound. My ears just can't take in as much sound as they use to

The w1000x are not smoother in the treble unless you pair them with a warm Source/Amp 
 
but they W1000x is a neutralish headphone that LOVES warm sources, with a warm sources it's been describbed as a neutral but slightly relaxed can. I own the HE 4 and W1000x [Modded] so I enjoy both, although I modded a lot of warmth and decay out of my W1000x, made it a touch direr and weightier but I mainly use it portable with my OMG WARM hm801... and my OMG TRANSPARENT pb2 +Lme 49990 Op Amps/Dummy Buffers 

 

[conquerator2]

  The w1000x are not smoother in the treble unless you pair them with a warm Source/Amp 
 
but they W1000x is a neutralish headphone that LOVES warm sources, with a warm sources it's been describbed as a neutral but slightly relaxed can. I own the HE 4 and W1000x [Modded] so I enjoy both, although I modded a lot of warmth and decay out of my W1000x, made it a touch direr and weightier but I mainly use it portable with my OMG WARM hm801... and my OMG TRANSPARENT pb2 +Lme 49990 Op Amps/Dummy Buffers 

Well I found the stock W1000X to be pretty bassy. It is more bassy than all the headphones I've compared it to [K612, MA900, X1].
I'd definitely call it a warm headphone with extended highs, not necessarily V-shaped, but not dead neutral either.
I consider it the least neutral/most colored headphone of all headphones I've ever had [short of Pro 900 and XB 300].
 
So, I'd assume the modding helps a lot in this aspect and so does a warmer amp [yes, my Mstage certainly helped there]
 
Compared to HiFiMAN headphones though [HE-500, HE-6. HE-5LE, HE-4] I would definitely consider it less neutral.

 

[DoctaCosmos]

I think I just figured out the 3s and what it is that they do that I couldn't put my finger on but it's a neat trick. It's almost like the headphones focus on the micro dynamics and smooth them out. A lot of the harmonics that my ears are most entranced by are in these micro dynamics. It reminded me of a fish-eye lens on a camera. That's why they weren't transparent

 

[Makiah S]

  Well I found the stock W1000X to be pretty bassy. It is more bassy than all the headphones I've compared it to [K612, MA900, X1].
I'd definitely call it a warm headphone with extended highs, not necessarily V-shaped, but not dead neutral either.
I consider it the least neutral/most colored headphone of all headphones I've ever had [short of Pro 900 and XB 300].
 
So, I'd assume the modding helps a lot in this aspect and so does a warmer amp [yes, my Mstage certainly helped there]
 
Compared to HiFiMAN headphones though [HE-500, HE-6. HE-5LE, HE-4] I would definitely consider it less neutral.

True, I've not heard the stock W1000x in forever, I do rember it being bassy and warm... I modded that damned bass hump out, then slapped L3000 pads to even everything up. I've now got a pretty sterile headphone, that's still slighty intimate with the mids.  But no not dead neutral, the central and upper mids are forward and will always be a touch forward
 
I actually did my mod kinda wrong... and SUCKED it DRY apparently... so yay for me it seems
 
still it's know to be very overly romantic in stock form 

 

[TMRaven]

Just looking at the graphs of the XC, it looks like it's a bit too energetic in the 2khz area, which could lead to some shoutiness.  The HE-400 is super relaxed in the upper mids so it tends to make everything else sound shouty and plasticky if you're used to its sound signature.  I'll see for myself once I get to try the XC out.
 
I can't imagine the LCD3 ringing.  

 

[Ultramus]

  That's a naive state of mind, costlier cans can and often do exhibit issues that certain cheaper cans don't have. Especially things like ringing or tonal annoyances, plenty of >$1000 headphones have them to various degrees at certain frequencies.

Definitely, listening to a jazz track when I heard the LCD3s for the first time had a cymbal crash that made me actually cringe, I was thoroughly surprised, especially considering I didn't have the same effect through either HD800s or HE-500s, and all of that was through a balanced setup.

 

[Makiah S]

  Just looking at the graphs of the XC, it looks like it's a bit too energetic in the 2khz area, which could lead to some shoutiness.  The HE-400 is super relaxed in the upper mids so it tends to make everything else sound shouty and plasticky if you're used to its sound signature.  I'll see for myself once I get to try the XC out.

I'd really like to hear the XC... my poor w1000x needs an upgrade before 2014 is over 

 

[DoctaCosmos]

I just thought I heard a quick echo in a female vocal for a quick sec. Literally only a quick sec and only twice. Hell could have been the track I listened to. Wasn't my playlist. I brought a demo cd but it sounded VERY off at first and I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought maybe it was their gear being that much better than mine and that my burned cd was flawed somehow. Come to find out it was just the tubes needed warmed up

 

[Articnoise]

My LCD3 doesn’t have any ringing and the transparency and image are IMO good if used in a decent setup.
 
My system: Jriver ---Audiophilleo 2 with pure power---Hegel HD 20---Audioquest panther---Master-9 --- Q cable french silk ---Audeze LCD 3/Hifiman He 500. I also have 4 power cords from LessLoss and a power strip from Furetech.

 

[DoctaCosmos]

The abyss is a transparent headphone. The lcd3 drew plenty of attention to it. You let it go quickly but it's an attention whore

 

[money4me247]

  That's a naive state of mind, costlier cans can and often do exhibit issues that certain cheaper cans don't have. Especially things like ringing or tonal annoyances, plenty of >$1000 headphones have them to various degrees at certain frequencies.

lol, by no means i am saying that more expensive headphones are perfect, but from the description of the problem, it does not sound like a "headphone problem," but more an issue with the recording. If the ringing was due to the headphones improperly reproducing certain frequencies, you will hear it much more often than once or twice. Only hearing it once or twice sounds like you have one or two bad tracks. it doesn't sound like he did a direct A/B comparison of the source files with different equipment, so I think it is premature to jump to blaming one or two instances of ringing on the headphones themselves. it sounds more like a source issue to me that needs to be checked with other headphones. I actually fell into that kind of trap as well before. I thought the HE-400 had too much sibilance, but then I found the sibilance was isolatable to like 3 source files and upon relistening with a variety of other headphones, all the headphones reproduced that distortion to some degree.
 
it's kind of funny because the superior sonic traits of higher-end headphones are so intrinsically dependent in the source quality... if you are using $1.7k headphones with low bit rate mp3s... it's going to actually sound worse or reproduce the distortion present in the source more accurately lol.
 
I really get tired of reading about subjective impressions about a specific XYZ audio issue with headphones without any background. Getting any accurate information about headphones is close to impossible if people don't give some sort of objective reference point that other people can relate too. At least provide the track & time that you hear that distortion so other people can check to see if they experience such an issue as well, and be more descriptive about the issue as i often find that 'audiophile terms' seem to have a different definition depending on the person saying it lol. For example, what exactly does the poster mean by "shouty" or "ringing"?

 

[money4me247]

I just thought I heard a quick echo in a female vocal for a quick sec. Literally only a quick sec and only twice. Hell could have been the track I listened to. Wasn't my playlist. I brought a demo cd but it sounded VERY off at first and I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought maybe it was their gear being that much better than mine and that my burned cd was flawed somehow. Come to find out it was just the tubes needed warmed up

mmm... so a quick echo in the female vocals for less than one second only twice on the same track? that sounds totally like a source issue, especially since you didn't get the chance to relisten to the track or compare with other equipment. The echo might just be in the source file lol. Are you saying it was a demo cd or a burned home-made cd? if the later, then god knows what kind of quality is on it.

 

[zxc]

Recently I did a comparison of HD600, 700, 800, HE500 and LCD-2. Naturally I checked their performance on specific tracks that I chose for evaluating purposes. But I was surprised to see that I was actually able to accurately assess the qualities of each headphone just as well using a 96 kbps MP3. This shouldn't be surprising, after all, we're interested in how the headphone reflects on the source.

 

[Makiah S]

I got my HE 4 today, sounds like my DT 880 with a touch more Sub Bass... oh and that is with this cheap Canare Cable [or the STock Balanced cable from HifiMan... going to have to spend another $150 to get a half decent looking and sound Balanced Cable from Btg... oh well still worth it.