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It's a design flaw that it's not yet another bright headphone? That is exactly why it is so popular. It is the most fundamental design choice to Audeze's success.
I still don't understand why the LCD-2's treble comes up so often. Almost every hi-end headphone is either bright or incredibly bright and then one headphone comes along that isn't and all the treble heads have a shitfit because now every headphone isn't catering to their tastes.
God forbid we have a little variety in the headphone landscape.
Also, why does every LCD-2 thread follow the same pattern? We even have the same misinformed representations of headphone graph measurements in every LCD-2 thread, assuming that they should measure as a flat line. I don't understand why this comes up in these threads, since no headphone measures close to a flat line.
It's obvious from your posts that you are an unabashed fan of this headphone and the company that manufactures it. You've said that you want Audeze to succeed, and that's rather sweet. However, I think that you tend to wear your heart on your sleeve by feeling compelled to defend the LCD-2 against any critical comments, despite having your own misgivings about the resonances that you detect when you listen to it, and its heavy weight. By the way, would you regard these as flaws or design choices?
If you've read my posts in this thread, you would have seen that I liked the LCD-2 overall. I've said that there's a lot to like about it, and I can understand why others do. I can also understand why others don't, and why LCD-2s are appearing in the FS thread. A fellow Head-Fi'er just sold his after wanting to like it and giving it a fair hearing. I hope that he will post his thoughtful impressions at some point. Like any other headphone, the LCD-2 is not for everyone.
To dismiss him and every other person who has tried it and found it not to their liking as a "treble head" is just ridiculous. And to describe almost every other high-end headphone as "bright" just because they sound that way to you, doesn't make it objectively so. You've been around here long enough to know how subjective this hobby is, and after all of the discussion, debate, heated arguments and pointing to frequency response measurements, it inevitably comes down to a matter of personal preference.
I found the LCD-2 to have a powerful sound signature with an emphasis on meaty mids and impressive bass, at the expense of some top-end sparkle. If the HD800 could be described as ethereal then the LCD-2 is earthy. It was smooth and non-fatiguing, but its highs sounded "shelved down" to me, and I know that I am not alone in noticing this.
Now your ears obviously find this agreeable and you appear to regard it as a strength. I also found it agreeable but see it as a weakness or a flaw in a high fidelity, high-end, headphone. As I've already said, the reproduction of higher frequencies is no less important in a high-end headphone than the middle and low frequencies, and I think that this is the LCD-2's Achilles heel because the treble presentation sounds somewhat muted to me. That's not to say that it is lacking in detail, but instruments that should sound vivid as they do to me in "real life" and through other hi-fi systems and high-end headphones that I have heard, do not sound like this through the LCD-2.
Do you also view Tyll Hertsen's own interpretation of the LCD-2's frequency response measurements that he has taken as misinformed? His latest measurements of a newer model LCD-2 indicate that its "shelved down" highs (I'll refrain from using the term "roll-off" as he did, lest I start another pedantic disagreement) have been redressed. As he stated at his website:
"And ... measurements of the latest LCD2 ... now with more highs!"; and posted on the previous page:
"I think the LCD-2 changed significantly with the new pad, and is now basically dead on in the treble but for a little sumpin' sumpin' that I just can't explain yet." If
that proves to be the case, then I'd be prepared to give it another try.
The LCD-2 brings its own take on high fidelity sound to the headphone market and of course that should be welcomed, but that does not place it beyond reproach. It is no different from any other high-end headphone in that regard. I obviously don't rate it as highly as you and some others here do. If I did, I'd own one, but I do recognise that it is a fine headphone. I hope that it continues to
"dew eet" for you.
