So, as I said above, shamed by ldidiercs superb review of the LA7000s and comparison with the Grado GS1000s I thought I would try to do a more objective piece on the LA2000s.
To provide some structure (and allow for repeatability if anybody wants to try to replicate my findings) I concentrated on a handful of test tracks listed below, although I also listened to a much broader range of material including choral and chamber music, indie rock and bebop. Most of the material is stuff that I am intimately familiar with and forms part of the standard array of test tracks that I use to evaluate any new system. I should also mention that although all the tracks below are ripped at 16/44.1 from CDs I listened to quite a lot of hi rez masters at 24/88.2 and 24/96. I thought impressions based on tracks widely commercially available would be more helpful.
I listened to each track on my LA2000s with Mahogany cups, now with about 50 hours on them, and my AKG701s which have been re-cabled with dual-entry Moon Audio Black Dragon and are fully burned in (several hundred hours on them, I’ve stopped counting). The system was a PC playing FLAC files via a Lynx L22 card connected to my Grace m902 amp [Note: the K701s required about 7 extra notches of volume to produce the same perceived loudness as the LA2000s, so if I was listening to the LA2000s at 65 on the “LO” gain setting I would need to crank it up to 72 with the K701s]. The order in which I listened to them varied (although of course I always knew which phones I was listening to) and sometimes I swapped back-and-forth to make specific comparisons.
My impressions were pretty much consistent across all the tracks, I preferred the LA2000s on every track and by a considerable margin. The strengths compared to the K701s were principally:
- Transparency. The LA2000s provide an unrivalled sense of transparency and immediacy. Substitute your own favourite analogy here, cleaning windows, removing veils, like listening to a radio in the next room, etc.
- Detail. Again, I could go on at length about the little details I have discovered through these phones I have never heard before. I thought long and hard about that. I mean I regularly listen through the K701s, Moon or APS re-cabled HD650s and Ultimate Ears UE10 Pros, none of which are bad cans. So why the difference? The best analogy I can come up with is that with the other cans it is like watching a film, but the edges of the screen are all dark, only one part is at the proper brightness. The detail is all there but because it is not properly lit you just don’t notice it. Through the LA2000 it is like the whole screen is at the proper brightness.
- Bass. The bass with the Lawtons is simply phenomenal. Here it completely wipes the floor with the AKGs. The LA2000s have better extension, better weight, great detail and texture and a superb tunefulness. This is juicy, round, bouncy bass, not the buttoned-up repressed bass of the AKGs.
- Soundstaging. Again, the best I have heard from cans. A very spacious soundstage with (on some tracks) alarmingly precise positioning and separation of instruments.
- Balance. Whenever my attention is drawn to a particular area (e.g. the bass) I immediately begin to wonder if the treble is somehow not to the same standard, but then I listen and I realize it is. At their elevated performance level the LA2000s have an incredibly well rounded character and I can’t find any area of obvious weakness. Sure, cymbals and snare drums can have such biting attack that they make you flinch, but they do that in real life too!
Some specific notes:
Ella Fitzgerald “Love For Sale” from The Best of the Songbooks. Ella’s voice sounds huskier through the K701s and the dynamics sound flat by comparison with the LA2000s. The LA2000s give a sense of immediacy which is lacking with the K701s. The latter sound like one is listening to a second-generation recording, like someone has played it back on a really good system and recorded that. The detail and instrumental texture is also far superior through the LA2000s. The brass really “bleats” through the Lawtons.
Leftfield “Afro-Left” from Leftism. The separation between individual instruments and voices is incredible through the LA2000s, the best I have heard. The bass is phenomenal, it has detail and texture lacking with the K701s and it “bounces” to a completely different degree. The voice sounds incredibly present, like when someone speaks so close to your ear that you can feel their breath on it. Uncanny.
Lyle Lovett “Penguins” from I Love Everybody. Wow! I have never heard that snare bite like that before, the attack is so sharp and the detail on the hi-hat is incredible. More lovely, juicy, bouncy bass. The separation between instruments again grabs my attention and I can follow each of them at will.
David Roth “Pearl Diver” from Pearl Diver. The sense of the placement of the two guitars is absolute, as if they are nailed into space. The voice seems huge though, as if his head is twenty feet wide.
ABBA “Mamma Mia” from Thank You for the Music. Quite a surprise. This is a horrible recording and the Lawton cans let you hear just how horrible. That awful “tinny” snare is really spotlit in the mix and the splashy indistinct cymbals make me cringe. But what is that? A wood block! I never realized it was a wood block being struck before, but through the Lawtons I hear it clear as day, and completely distinct from the synth line. And bass, wow! Where did that tune on the bass line come from? Haven’t heard that before!
Some other observations:
- Comfort. I find the LA2000s extremely comfortable. Although they are quite large and ungainly they are not overly heavy and sit lightly on the head with a comfortable degree of “clamp”. The over-stuffed ear cups are extremely comfortable and my ears don’t get warm at all. Unfortunately the AKGs just don’t suit my shape of head. The grey band presses down on the tip of my dome to a degree that is noticeable after a short while and is becoming painful after half an hour-or-so. This is not a criticism, just an observation. Maybe someone else might find the LA2000s uncomfortable, I don’t know.
- Build Quality. The Denon AH-D2000s (what is left of them) appear to be well-made phones and the overall feeling of quality is fine if not super-luxury. The Lawton wood cups are gorgeous and nicely finished. It seems that some care has been taken with grain matching, both pattern and direction. The Jena cable is extremely evenly braided and all the terminations are very neat. I must admit to being less than enamoured of the salmon pink so I took the optional black sheathing, a $50-or-so extra.
Conclusions:
I am immeasurably impressed by these ‘phones. Not only are they the best I have heard, but they best all my other cans by a margin that is quite ridiculous in the context of the law of diminishing returns of the high-end. Even in the context of my bigrig (Boulder/Verity Audio) I struggle to remember a component change that has had this level of impact on the listening experience. My hat off to Mark for a supreme achievement in audio engineering. My mind keeps wandering back to the old Quad marketing slogan: “The closest approach to the original sound”.
Five strutses out of five, with a bullet!
