[shwnwllms]

What is a great Amp for the Audeze LCD X. Heard a good laid back sound would be a great match. Im thinking about the Asgard 3 or the Cayin ha-1a. What are your thoughts about it? Or do you prefer other? I dont wanna spent more than 500$ also looking in the used market

​

Another vote for the Singxer SA-1, it’s within your budget, pairs well will planars (esp the LCD-X) and you won’t be disappointed.

 

[426563]

Thank you, but i have to ask i find the Arcam rHead for around 200€ used and the Singxer for around 500€. Is it worth the 300€ more? The Cayin HA-1a costs around 550€ used and with tubes it costs for me too much. I think i could be a great Combo for the Focal Series to get more Punch from it.

Im also think about the Audio GD R2R 11 but more from a Bass and flavour perspective. Its technical garbage but dosent mean its sounds bad, like a lot of Tube Amps we know

 

[Lohb]

Thank you, but i have to ask i find the Arcam rHead for around 200€ used and the Singxer for around 500€. Is it worth the 300€ more? The Cayin HA-1a costs around 550€ used and with tubes it costs for me too much. I think i could be a great Combo for the Focal Series to get more Punch from it.

Im also think about the Audio GD R2R 11 but more from a Bass and flavour perspective. Its technical garbage but dosent mean its sounds bad, like a lot of Tube Amps we know

R11 sounds good to me solely as a DAC-out (ignoring ASR measurements)..I actually found it tonally ('temperature') close to the £2800 Holo Spring 2 Kitsune L3 A|B-ing them .ASRs other great measuring DACs sounded clinical or dry to me.
The amp section is collapsed on the R11....so if you want to use R11 as a dac/amp I'd say pass on that with X.
The singxer, you need to bypass the large caps inside dealing with the jumper tabs near the caps..it brings better dynamics to singxer. If that means nothing to you...you can see Currawong's review talking about the stock sound and the bypassed sound on singxer @YT.
JDS Labs Atom and R11 DAC section may workout for your tighter budget maybe, if you buy used.

 

[426563]

R11 sounds good to me solely as a DAC-out (ignoring ASR measurements)..I actually found it tonally ('temperature') close to the £2800 Holo Spring 2 Kitsune L3 A|B-ing them .ASRs other great measuring DACs sounded clinical or dry to me.
The amp section is collapsed on the R11....so if you want to use R11 as a dac/amp I'd say pass on that with X.
The singxer, you need to bypass the large caps inside dealing with the jumper tabs near the caps..it brings better dynamics to singxer. If that means nothing to you...you can see Currawong's review talking about the stock sound and the bypassed sound on singxer @YT.
JDS Labs Atom and R11 DAC section may workout for your tighter budget maybe, if you buy used.

I think youre post is really helpful for many of us. Good Points, different price points and relation to other devices. Is it me, or is it just a bit critical to get the most of Gear if you tweak it? I mean you spend so much money on it and have to put more effort on it like on the singxer you talked about.

My impressions about the Audio GD R2R 11 which i unfortunately just heared with the Focal Elear.

Compared to the JDS Labs C5D with Dac section and Bass Boost; At first glance, the R2R 11 sounds very full, warm and, thanks to the power available, also impressive. It can sound alive. But when I compared it to my former C5D out of curiosity, I quickly became disillusioned - the C5D simply sounded better from the first moment I heard it. And then I asked myself why. The Audio GD is not only bigger, it has more capacity for electronics, a lot more power and should be superior in appearance. But it wasn't. The sound of the C5D was cleaner, perhaps also because of the warmth it reproduced the sound more naturally and clearly. But strangely enough, I think it can be different with the LCD X and sound right. The focal was very dynamic, open and you noticed the smallest details and nuances. The LCD X, on the other hand, has such a fresh and lively way that it expresses itself to you without compromise. It is the overall impression of the music that is given to you rather than individual aspects. Here the slightly muddy, undefined but nevertheless very powerful and "different" sounding R2R can work wonders. But unfortunately you have to buy everything instead of just testing it somewhere in the store. I would like to try everything, but that doesn't work and my budget is limited. I just saw that the Asgart 3 is available from me in Germany for € 175. In this review: it is said the LCD X works best with the Asgart. I'm not really a fan of his channels, I don't share many of his statements - just the claim that the new reworked Audeze cable is bad - but he has a lot of expensive audio equipment that he can directly compare with

 

[listenerwww]

Mark from Audeze posted a composite graph that outlines the overall change that the new pads will make across *all* of the LCD line. Thanks Mark for finally making it happen!

 

[shwnwllms]

I think youre post is really helpful for many of us. Good Points, different price points and relation to other devices. Is it me, or is it just a bit critical to get the most of Gear if you tweak it? I mean you spend so much money on it and have to put more effort on it like on the singxer you talked about.

FWIW there are many of us who are very happy with the Singxer SA-1 without the DC jumper mod, myself included (and we still have our warranties intact). There are varying opinions on whether or not it makes a difference and no one has A/B tested it, so I would take it all with a grain of salt. Singxer is removing the jumpers on the new production models anyway so unless you have one of the original units you won’t be able to mod it. It’s a great amp regardless of whether you decide to mod it or not, but don’t think its absolutely necessary.

 

[mikecheck95]

I think youre post is really helpful for many of us. Good Points, different price points and relation to other devices. Is it me, or is it just a bit critical to get the most of Gear if you tweak it? I mean you spend so much money on it and have to put more effort on it like on the singxer you talked about.

My impressions about the Audio GD R2R 11 which i unfortunately just heared with the Focal Elear.

Compared to the JDS Labs C5D with Dac section and Bass Boost; At first glance, the R2R 11 sounds very full, warm and, thanks to the power available, also impressive. It can sound alive. But when I compared it to my former C5D out of curiosity, I quickly became disillusioned - the C5D simply sounded better from the first moment I heard it. And then I asked myself why. The Audio GD is not only bigger, it has more capacity for electronics, a lot more power and should be superior in appearance. But it wasn't. The sound of the C5D was cleaner, perhaps also because of the warmth it reproduced the sound more naturally and clearly. But strangely enough, I think it can be different with the LCD X and sound right. The focal was very dynamic, open and you noticed the smallest details and nuances. The LCD X, on the other hand, has such a fresh and lively way that it expresses itself to you without compromise. It is the overall impression of the music that is given to you rather than individual aspects. Here the slightly muddy, undefined but nevertheless very powerful and "different" sounding R2R can work wonders. But unfortunately you have to buy everything instead of just testing it somewhere in the store. I would like to try everything, but that doesn't work and my budget is limited. I just saw that the Asgart 3 is available from me in Germany for € 175. In this review: it is said the LCD X works best with the Asgart. I'm not really a fan of his channels, I don't share many of his statements - just the claim that the new reworked Audeze cable is bad - but he has a lot of expensive audio equipment that he can directly compare with

just looking at the pads I suspect this to be an older revision of LCD-X... @GoldenOne can you confirm either way (old or new revision). Doesn't necessarily nullify anything he has said though... I think even the new revision would benefit from a warmer source.

 

[omniweltall]

Yeah pretty sure that is the old revision just by listening to his review. Never liked the old one because of the exact reasons he stated. The new one is not wonky.

 

[426563]

Is the Singxer SA-1 more on the warm/laid back side of Amps? The opposite side would be for me the THX Line like he AAA 789, The Massdrop AAA One or SMSL SP 200

 

[chris.d.m.]

Mark from Audeze posted a composite graph that outlines the overall change that the new pads will make across *all* of the LCD line. Thanks Mark for finally making it happen!

Which pads are we referring to here?? This graph is "very different" from the graph of my new 2021 X's with NL pads.

 

[vsg28]

Which pads are we referring to here?? This graph is "very different" from the graph of my new 2021 X's with NL pads.

The way I see it is that is simply the change in frequency response from the pads itself, not the entire headphones with the new pads.

 

[mikecheck95]

Which pads are we referring to here?? This graph is "very different" from the graph of my new 2021 X's with NL pads.

This is a graph that shows the average “change” that is caused by the new pads vs. The old (across models).

Obviously it will affect each of their headphones slightly differently but this shows, roughly, the effect that the pads have had. It also confirms that a big part of the improvement to the LCD-X & XC comes from the driver revision and that the pads themselves do not cause the drastic improvement that has been made to the 4k region on the new revision.

 

[CarolKarine]

Yeah pretty sure that is the old revision just by listening to his review. Never liked the old one because of the exact reasons he stated. The new one is not wonky.

I just asked Koji, the dude who lent Golden the pair, it was a 2019.

 

[CarolKarine]

I see "unit variation" mentioned in a lot of LCDX reviews (of prior revisions) and I can't help but wonder if what they really mean is difference between silent revisions. In Golden's review he throws up 3 different LCDX measurements, but doesn't give year or revision. I know that this isn't an unknown thing in headphones, cause hifiman revisions are notoriously important. I'd be really interested to see consistency sampling between and within revisions.

 

[mikecheck95]

I see "unit variation" mentioned in a lot of LCDX reviews (of prior revisions) and I can't help but wonder if what they really mean is difference between silent revisions. In Golden's review he throws up 3 different LCDX measurements, but doesn't give year or revision. I know that this isn't an unknown thing in headphones, cause hifiman revisions are notoriously important. I'd be really interested to see consistency sampling between and within revisions.

The differences can also be explained by differences in the equipment used for measurement as well as the methodology. Even different seatings on the same measurement rig will produce slightly different measurements.