scootermafia
MOT: Double Helix Cables
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2008
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[size=medium]
A: They're both winning.
So, I finally broke down and bought some LCD-2 - the following is my short review.
After about a month on the list, they sent me their link to their payment page. The cans shipped the same day, and even though I ordered regular shipping, they shipped them 2 day. 2 days later, I had the cans.
The cans were double boxed and packed pretty well. They came with a frequency response chart and a fancy manual. They were housed in a very shiny wood box with a powerful new car smell. The leather on the cans smelled like the few high-end Mercedes I've sat in. Included was some wood polish and a polishing cloth, and a wrench for tightening the bolts on the cans, as well as a simple and flexible cable with a 1/4" plug, containing four flexibly insulated 20awg finely-stranded copper wires. Not a bad stock cable.
I put the cans on. They have very deep leather pads surrounding a menacing-looking metal driver structure. The frame is made of heavy-duty steel from the looks of things, and the adjustments work pretty well, staying put when I click them into place. It is true that the headband has very chintzy backing foam (similar to the packing foam in boxes, that grey stuff) and hopefully someone will come up with a leather headband SOON. The headband looks easy enough to unscrew and replace, or a wrap-around band could be used like with beyers. Nevertheless the cans are comfortable, although they weigh a ton. The wood finish is a smooth matte color and not too garish, a laid-back looking rosewood ("Caribbean Rosewood") which looks nice. I don't think these cans look DIY at all, but their heavy metal structure is quite steampunk. I feel my neck vertebrae growing stronger as I wear these. There is a nice laser cut grille on the back of the cans. Remove those 4 screws back there and you will see that they are wired with what appears to be pure silver wire connecting the large driver contacts to the 4 pin mini XLR jacks on the cups. Being a moron, I assumed automatically that this was the standard copper dental-floss wire inside the cans, and promptly replaced it with with teflon-insulated OCC silver. This maneuver, which I will never again do, was not a pleasant bit of soldering, but what's done is done and warranty be damned. Once I closely inspected the dental floss wire, it appeared to be ~26awg silver with a very thin PVC insulation, better than what most cans have - good job Audez'e.
I put the cans on, attach some balanced OCC copper cables, and plug the LCD2s into my Beta22. Source is an RE-7 from AudioGD, a Sonicweld Diverter (the 96/24 older model), and a Macbook Pro with Amarra. I fire up the music, and the first thing I notice is wow, these cans have brute force. They require less volume knob than the HD800s by far - much more efficient, it seems. After reterminating the stock cable to miniplug, I confirm that these cans can be run just fine off an iPhone - they don't sound their absolute best by any means, but they are loud enough to hurt the ears when you max out the volume. I reterminated my DIY'd Silver Dragon 3 cable to LCD-2 and tested it with my iBasso Pelican/Boomslang system, which sounded terrific, nearly as nice as my home system. Back to the home system - these cans can probably beat HD800s solely on the fact that they actually have bass. Deep, paralyzing bass that clears my sinuses. They simply hit hard and have a closer more intimate presence than the HD800s, which sound a bit restrained, almost wimpy - I don't know how else to describe it, delicate perhaps. Doing some heavy A/B I find that HD800s have a more precisely laid out soundstage, they do sound excellent - but I'm having more fun with the LCD-2s, which have excellent detail and just deliver a more convincing performance. At their best, with perfect source material, the HD800s give a flawless image and are just as fun as the LCD-2s. But with anything less than the right tracks the HD800s are a serious let-down and are pretty worthless - while the LCD-2s can make the most of music that wasn't produced by hardcore nerds like Radiohead or Owl City (not my very favorite musicians, but they know how to make a clean recording that sounds good). At this point I'm just amazed that the LCD-2s can keep up with the very high tech HD800s and perhaps convince me that ortho is the way to go. Neither they nor their freshly built cable are anywhere near broken in, and they're not on OCC silver like the HD800s are, but they are delivering a super punchy sound that is just somehow more likeable. I didn't know whether to believe the hype, but these really are great headphones. They will never have the soundstage of the HD800s but they are very close in their own way, they handle more types of music and more files and still sound pleasant, and they are able to maintain a consistent volume level for a lot of frequencies (their chart shows that they are very flat down to 20hz or less, and it was able on the Ultimate Woofer Test file to completely reproduce the whole track in the same way as my car stereo). They don't seem to be as picky with gear, and they really do not need a speaker amp (that would be the HE-6s that allegedly do). These would be a great first headphone for anyone, although due to their weight and open layout they're not something you'd want to travel with or wear for very long periods. I don't think I'm going to sell these, although my justification for buying them was that if I didn't like them, some lucky person on head-fi could get them from me without a wait.
If anyone wants a pic of anything LCD-2 related, let me know.
[/size]So, I finally broke down and bought some LCD-2 - the following is my short review.
After about a month on the list, they sent me their link to their payment page. The cans shipped the same day, and even though I ordered regular shipping, they shipped them 2 day. 2 days later, I had the cans.
The cans were double boxed and packed pretty well. They came with a frequency response chart and a fancy manual. They were housed in a very shiny wood box with a powerful new car smell. The leather on the cans smelled like the few high-end Mercedes I've sat in. Included was some wood polish and a polishing cloth, and a wrench for tightening the bolts on the cans, as well as a simple and flexible cable with a 1/4" plug, containing four flexibly insulated 20awg finely-stranded copper wires. Not a bad stock cable.
I put the cans on. They have very deep leather pads surrounding a menacing-looking metal driver structure. The frame is made of heavy-duty steel from the looks of things, and the adjustments work pretty well, staying put when I click them into place. It is true that the headband has very chintzy backing foam (similar to the packing foam in boxes, that grey stuff) and hopefully someone will come up with a leather headband SOON. The headband looks easy enough to unscrew and replace, or a wrap-around band could be used like with beyers. Nevertheless the cans are comfortable, although they weigh a ton. The wood finish is a smooth matte color and not too garish, a laid-back looking rosewood ("Caribbean Rosewood") which looks nice. I don't think these cans look DIY at all, but their heavy metal structure is quite steampunk. I feel my neck vertebrae growing stronger as I wear these. There is a nice laser cut grille on the back of the cans. Remove those 4 screws back there and you will see that they are wired with what appears to be pure silver wire connecting the large driver contacts to the 4 pin mini XLR jacks on the cups. Being a moron, I assumed automatically that this was the standard copper dental-floss wire inside the cans, and promptly replaced it with with teflon-insulated OCC silver. This maneuver, which I will never again do, was not a pleasant bit of soldering, but what's done is done and warranty be damned. Once I closely inspected the dental floss wire, it appeared to be ~26awg silver with a very thin PVC insulation, better than what most cans have - good job Audez'e.
I put the cans on, attach some balanced OCC copper cables, and plug the LCD2s into my Beta22. Source is an RE-7 from AudioGD, a Sonicweld Diverter (the 96/24 older model), and a Macbook Pro with Amarra. I fire up the music, and the first thing I notice is wow, these cans have brute force. They require less volume knob than the HD800s by far - much more efficient, it seems. After reterminating the stock cable to miniplug, I confirm that these cans can be run just fine off an iPhone - they don't sound their absolute best by any means, but they are loud enough to hurt the ears when you max out the volume. I reterminated my DIY'd Silver Dragon 3 cable to LCD-2 and tested it with my iBasso Pelican/Boomslang system, which sounded terrific, nearly as nice as my home system. Back to the home system - these cans can probably beat HD800s solely on the fact that they actually have bass. Deep, paralyzing bass that clears my sinuses. They simply hit hard and have a closer more intimate presence than the HD800s, which sound a bit restrained, almost wimpy - I don't know how else to describe it, delicate perhaps. Doing some heavy A/B I find that HD800s have a more precisely laid out soundstage, they do sound excellent - but I'm having more fun with the LCD-2s, which have excellent detail and just deliver a more convincing performance. At their best, with perfect source material, the HD800s give a flawless image and are just as fun as the LCD-2s. But with anything less than the right tracks the HD800s are a serious let-down and are pretty worthless - while the LCD-2s can make the most of music that wasn't produced by hardcore nerds like Radiohead or Owl City (not my very favorite musicians, but they know how to make a clean recording that sounds good). At this point I'm just amazed that the LCD-2s can keep up with the very high tech HD800s and perhaps convince me that ortho is the way to go. Neither they nor their freshly built cable are anywhere near broken in, and they're not on OCC silver like the HD800s are, but they are delivering a super punchy sound that is just somehow more likeable. I didn't know whether to believe the hype, but these really are great headphones. They will never have the soundstage of the HD800s but they are very close in their own way, they handle more types of music and more files and still sound pleasant, and they are able to maintain a consistent volume level for a lot of frequencies (their chart shows that they are very flat down to 20hz or less, and it was able on the Ultimate Woofer Test file to completely reproduce the whole track in the same way as my car stereo). They don't seem to be as picky with gear, and they really do not need a speaker amp (that would be the HE-6s that allegedly do). These would be a great first headphone for anyone, although due to their weight and open layout they're not something you'd want to travel with or wear for very long periods. I don't think I'm going to sell these, although my justification for buying them was that if I didn't like them, some lucky person on head-fi could get them from me without a wait.
If anyone wants a pic of anything LCD-2 related, let me know.
