[John Massaria]

Owning gear doesn't me you know every technical aspect. Do you know the valve lift mapping of your car? What about the trace density of your phones camera module?

I litteraly linked you an article backing up the magnepans are not true ribbons but quasi/pseudo ribbons, so unless you have something to counter that there isn't realy much you are adding here.

free floating in air is considered true ribbon
if you are speaking about the mylar film for midrange and bass portions then thats a different story - the point is the GL1200 is 100% free floating ribbons and so are the tweeters on the Magnepan 3.6r - we can call Jim Winey I have his number... the 1.6 and 1.7 yes do use quasi ribbons not my 3.6r tho and not the GL1200 and who cares- the point is the LCD-R are NOT at all close to quasi ribbon either they are a sort of ribbon mylar planar from what I gather

 

[brams]

The driver in the lcd-r is not a true ribbon, but can be classified as a quasi-ribbon in the same way that Magnepan classifies their midrange and in some cases full-range drivers as such. In either case they are basically low impedance planar drivers that use a very light backing that is almost completely covered by the conducting traces. A true ribbon does not have this backing and is driven from the top and bottom so that the conductor itself is the driver.

As @John Massaria stated above high end Magnepan models uses true ribbons for their tweeters only. The other drivers used on Magnepan speakers are quasi-ribbons and planers. Ultimately if Audeze wants to call this a ribbon driver vs a quasi-ribbon or low impedance planar is it really that important?

Got my lcd-r last week and as others have already stated it is impressive from a speed, detail and smoothness point if view, With the Jot-a bass is very extended but neutral so not for bassheads. However the headphones definitely give the impression that they are capable of much more. It's almost the same sense as coasting along at legal speeds in a luxury car with a big V8!

Next up is to try with a good, high current speaker amp. Since the power requurements are not high it should not be problem . The Jot-a does well as a starting point, but I would love to see a manufacturer (maybe even Schiit) offer something that's a step up.

 

[dleblanc343]

Next up is to try with a good, high current speaker amp. Since the power requurements are not high it should not be problem . The Jot-a does well as a starting point, but I would love to see a manufacturer (maybe even Schiit) offer something that's a step up.

Be careful with the low impedance of the headphone + high sensitivity. Speaker amp gain might be high and require some resistance.

 

[brams]

Yes, controlling the amplifier gain is the biggest issue provided of course that the amp is ok for continuous operation into the 2 ohm impedance. Such amps do exist and there are many more that do not advertise this capability . Old school audiophiles might recall the difficult loads presented by some speakers like the Apogee Scintillas and some Thiels! Luckily, unlike those speakers, in this case my assumption is that the impedance is almost purely resistive.

To a certain extent the gain issue might be offset by the taper on the volume control of the preamp or dac used to control the amp volume. Some controls have a very gradual taper for the bottom end of their range so volume increases slowly in the range in which I would be listening. Regardless, I have no intention of blowng up these headphones!

As an aside, even though I have not yet compared directly, listening to the Utopia after the lcd-r really underscores how good the Utopia is if driven correctly ...

 

[M3NTAL]

Utopia is no-joke. Still in the talks of top dog for dynamic driver headphones. I think a few low-key DIY groups are going to come upset a little bit of that market soon, but time shall tell and Focal will hopefully answer and so-on-so-forth.

I also think that Schiit is far from done with producing amplifiers that can tackle ribbon drivers. They stock the Jot-R. Too many witch hunt Schiit posts in here regarding the paired amplifier - which may hold the headphone back, but we are talking about a system that I'd rather have than the HE-1. Way less douchey and tuned-by committee

 

[chargedcapacitor]

Be careful with the low impedance of the headphone + high sensitivity. Speaker amp gain might be high and require some resistance.

+1 right here. Any speaker amp can drive these headphones with an L-pad, but you must have the gain very low. For many amps this puts the listening volume into a high-noise area of the amps output.

 

[brams]

Definitely agree on the noise issue related to the high gain. Would need to choose the amp carefully. The better ones have a low noise floor and therefore perform quite well at low volumes and with high sensitivity speakers.

Noticing that the Jot-a/lcd-r combination appears to open up a bit after its been on for a while. Maybe I'll leave it on constantly and see if and how the already great sounding combination improves.

Not intending to stir the pot, but when you think about it, why couldn't one use a standard headphone (with an appropriate adapter) with the Jot-a? There is no baffle step compensation as with the Jot-r and the amp draw is dictated solely by the driving voltage and headphone impedance regardless of what amperage the Jot-a is capable of supporting. In fact, since it should work with both standard headphones and Audeze style ribbons why wouldn't Schiit just stock the Jot-a as the standard sku to support future ribbon/quasi ribbon development?

Maybe the extra component cost of supporting the Jot-a high amperage would not be offset by the additional volume associated with making it the standard configuration.

 

[dleblanc343]

Got mine in today. Beauties. These are super resolving and effortlessly detailed.

Hands down the most forward sounding Audeze LCD I’ve heard (heard all gen LCD2, LCD3, owned LCD4). Upper mids and low treble are actually quite spicy, but mostly in a good way.

I think these are overall more refined than the Utopia even, and as crazy as I thought users reporting it being close to Susvara sounded… it’s not entirely wrong!

Prettiest things ever along with D8000 Pro

 

[chargedcapacitor]

Definitely agree on the noise issue related to the high gain. Would need to choose the amp carefully. The better ones have a low noise floor and therefore perform quite well at low volumes and with high sensitivity speakers.

Noticing that the Jot-a/lcd-r combination appears to open up a bit after its been on for a while. Maybe I'll leave it on constantly and see if and how the already great sounding combination improves.

Not intending to stir the pot, but when you think about it, why couldn't one use a standard headphone (with an appropriate adapter) with the Jot-a? There is no baffle step compensation as with the Jot-r and the amp draw is dictated solely by the driving voltage and headphone impedance regardless of what amperage the Jot-a is capable of supporting. In fact, since it should work with both standard headphones and Audeze style ribbons why wouldn't Schiit just stock the Jot-a as the standard sku to support future ribbon/quasi ribbon development?

Maybe the extra component cost of supporting the Jot-a high amperage would not be offset by the additional volume associated with making it the standard configuration.

I would imagine headphones like the Lcd-4z with 15 ohms would be a candidate to test out, for the brave... If anything, it might be possible to just put a resistor in parallel to get it the impedance down.

 

[M3NTAL]

Got mine in today. Beauties. These are super resolving and effortlessly detailed.

Hands down the most forward sounding Audeze LCD I’ve heard (heard all gen LCD2, LCD3, owned LCD4). Upper mids and low treble are actually quite spicy, but mostly in a good way.

I think these are overall more refined than the Utopia even, and as crazy as I thought users reporting it being close to Susvara sounded… it’s not entirely wrong!

Prettiest things ever along with D8000 Pro

Atta-boy! They are legit.

Like most Schiit gear - it seems to like being nice and warmed up.

Another factor is that the LCD-R is so revealing that sometimes you just get a string of tracks that sound so different than you are used to that you question if it is "good, better, best" or sometimes "Dang.. this sounded so good on my walkman in 1990.. what happened?"

I love that Audeze is low-key lurking this thread. Sitting there soaking up the juice. They know they made something bitching! Ride the Lichtenberg Lightning Baby.

 

[brams]

The detail and smoothness is amazing especially since it's difficult to have one without compromising the other. Listening to some Emeli Sande as I type this and it's quite the thing. Vocals are presented naturally in the mix with no hint of stridency. Reverb trails are laughably easy to follow. The bass on "Garden" and "I'd Rather Not" is as it should be: deep, but fast and tight.

The Utopia is a little edgier, but generally retains the detail. A lot if this is a function of the playback chain so difficult to compare.

Truly an amazing deal for $2500! Can't believe I'm saying this as I am not a fan of the rapidly escalating prices, but relative to the competition Audeze could have sold these for a lot more.

 

[John Massaria]

Owning gear doesn't me you know every technical aspect. Do you know the valve lift mapping of your car? What about the trace density of your phones camera module?

I litteraly linked you an article backing up the magnepans are not true ribbons but quasi/pseudo ribbons, so unless you have something to counter that there isn't realy much you are adding here.

Are you admitting your wrong yet? Youre so confrontational - lighten up - the gl1200 are real ribbons and the lcd-x are planar ribbons- be nice and be honest- remember enjoy the music and chill out- the bottom line is the lcdR is a wonderful sounding headphone and so are my true ribbon GL1200s one day I will compare them both I hope

Got mine in today. Beauties. These are super resolving and effortlessly detailed.

Hands down the most forward sounding Audeze LCD I’ve heard (heard all gen LCD2, LCD3, owned LCD4). Upper mids and low treble are actually quite spicy, but mostly in a good way.

I think these are overall more refined than the Utopia even, and as crazy as I thought users reporting it being close to Susvara sounded… it’s not entirely wrong!

Prettiest things ever along with D8000 Pro

Gorgeous set dude- enjoy them man lots of luck ! If anyone is in ny or Long Island and owns a pair of LCD-R s maybe we can do a headphone session and compare them to the GL1200 and vice versa would be great idea

 

[mammal]

Another factor is that the LCD-R is so revealing that sometimes you just get a string of tracks that sound so different than you are used to that you question if it is "good, better, best" or sometimes "Dang.. this sounded so good on my walkman in 1990.. what happened?"

The price of resolution I guess. When I moved into TOTL space, I kinda stopped listening to music from when I was a kid, as it sounded terrible. Had to add some harmonics with tubes to smooth it out a bit. A pity this isn't really possible right now with Audeze ribbon.

 

[deafenears]

Had to add some harmonics with tubes to smooth it out a bit. A pity this isn't really possible right now with Audeze ribbon.

You could do this still with a tube buffer / preamp before the Jot-A, couldn't you?

 

[mammal]

You could do this still with a tube buffer / preamp before the Jot-A, couldn't you?

You are most likely right, I should have thought of that. Thanks!