[purrin]

 

^ Just curious, have you yourself heard for any extended period of time any of the "overkill" amps in a good setup with matching upstream and downstream components?
​

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

 

^ Just curious, have you yourself heard for any extended period of time any of the "overkill" amps in a good setup with matching upstream and downstream components?
​

No, but both my old Little Dot I+ and the DAC1 have more powerful headphone amps than the Essence STX and there's no difference in how well the headphones are "driven".
 
I couldn't trust my own impressions of an overkill amp anyway. That's why I don't want to know subjective impressions but reasons for why more power = better.

 

[EddieE]

There is no reason the class A amp in the DACmini is not getting the full potential of the LCD-2 - which only needs 0.2 volts RMS to reach 90db according to the stats on innerfidelity. 
 
Unless some logical argument can be made for why a DACmini would not be able to drive an LCD-2 perfectly, that topic should be left alone.
 
To the OP - either spend a couple of weeks with the LCD-2 and get used to the mid-bass level (believe me it doesn't take long for your mind to adjust to a new sound sig) or use a good software equaliser to change it. 

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

If I made a thread in the Sound Science forum about "Overkill amps", would you participate in discussion? I've been meaning to anyway, what with all the talk about the Objective2 amp.

Do what you like, but without said 'Overkill amp' you are simply making an uneducated statement.

 

[kiertijai]

May be this is late and out of context here.
I recently have my LCD2 rev2 ( I also own LCD2 rev1).   LCD2 rev1 does not have the problem with bass impact
and quantity but the dynamic and decay are relatively slow.   LCD2 rev2 is different , definitely less bass but more open
sound stage and no treble roll off.    However when I use a good amplifier (in my case it is eddiecurrent 300B new Balancing
Act), I am using the KR PX4 or AVVT 32B as power tubes.  The standard driver tube is tungsol BGRP.   The bass of LCD2 rev2
is more than adequate.   However I recently changed the driver tube to Sylvania  6SN7W metal base long bottle to use with the LCD2 rev 2  that changes the whole scenario.   LCD2 rev2 has a lot of good quality bass,   impact quantity dynamic decay slam  extension of the bass are excellent .   Even the bass dynamic of LCD2 rev1 also improved.   Please try a good amp with the Sylvania metal base, I also use apuresound V3 and Zeus silver clad cable   you will be surprised about the bass of the LCD2 which is one of the best.  For the LCD2 I do think you do need a good amplifier, good recable, good tube to make it shine.  I am still surprised too with the electronic music of Deadmau5 : for lack of a better name,  Rock music by Nickelback (greatest hits) , Muse (the resistance), and music of Black Keys : Brothers etc.
 

 

[purrin]

 
Quote:

May be this is late and out of context here.
I recently have my LCD2 rev2 ( I also own LCD2 rev1).   LCD2 rev1 does not have the problem with bass impact
and quantity but the dynamic and decay are relatively slow.   LCD2 rev2 is different , definitely less bass but more open
sound stage and no treble roll off.    However when I use a good amplifier (in my case it is eddiecurrent 300B new Balancing
Act), I am using the KR PX4 or AVVT 32B as power tubes.  The standard driver tube is tungsol BGRP.   The bass of LCD2 rev2
is adequate.   However I recently changed the driver tube to Sylvania  6SN7W metal base long bottle, that changes the whole
scenario.   LCD2 rev2 has a lot of good quality bass,   impact quantity dynamic decay slam  extension of the bass are excellent   even
the bass dynamic of LCD2 rev1 also improved.   Please try a good amp with the Sylvania metal base, I also use apuresound V3
and Zeus silver clad cable   you will be surprised about the bass of the LCD2 which is one of the best.  For the LCD2 I do think
you do need a good amplifier, good recable, good tube to make it shine.  I am still surprised too with the electronic music of Deadmau5
: for lack of a better name,  Rock music by Nickelback (greatest hits) , Muse (the resistance), and music of Black Keys : Brothers etc.
 

Good to see you finally got your ECBA! I hope you are enjoying it and rolling all sorts of 6SN7 tubes.
 
Anyways, back on topic.
 
I'm wondering here if there is confusion in this thread on whether the OP's complaint of "weak bass" is with lack of bass volume or lack of bass impact, or both. Sure the LCD2 is relatively easy to drive, but I've found it (r1) rather dull and not every open with lesser amps. With the better amps, the LCD2 sounds more effortless and relaxed with a ton more slam (we're just talking in the context of bass here,) but not necessarily more bass volume. It's not a power or wattage thing either - the ECBA only rates at 1.5 W into 32ohms (I don't know how it got turned into a power thing in the first place.)
 
Now I haven't heard the Dacmini, but it sounds like the OP may have just had different expectations of the LCD2's bass.
 

 

[sesshin]

So between the BA and WA2, it's looking like you need a TOTL $2k+ tube amp to get bass slam out of the LCD-2s?
 
Been meaning to pick one up anyways I guess. I'll be saving my pennies for a while. :/

 

[purrin]

^ LOL. Lemme think if there's amp that will do it for less...
 
 

A balanced EHHA will do the trick, but that's a DIY amp. The EC Super 7 prototype will do it too, but that's not in production yet. We are not talking about big differences anyways. What a lot of the mega-buck amp guys are saying is that the LCD2 scales well and has a lot of potential. The < $800 range for amps is tough. Honestly, I don't know of any "giant killers" or anything really stands out from the others.
 
​

 

[nieveulv]

Actually the bass impact is pretty good..its just that as a guitar and bass player, thats the 2 things i focused on rock music. With the lcd2/dacmini combo, the bass/kick drums are heard and the impact felt....However is the sound of the "bass guitar" that i found to be totally lacking in volume and impact...I feel i need to focus too hard just to hear the bass guitar sound for rock music.
 
Quote:

 

Good to see you finally got your ECBA! I hope you are enjoying it and rolling all sorts of 6SN7 tubes.
 
Anyways, back on topic.
 
I'm wondering here if there is confusion in this thread on whether the OP's complaint of "weak bass" is with lack of bass volume or lack of bass impact, or both. Sure the LCD2 is relatively easy to drive, but I've found it (r1) rather dull and not every open with lesser amps. With the better amps, the LCD2 sounds more effortless and relaxed with a ton more slam (we're just talking in the context of bass here,) but not necessarily more bass volume. It's not a power or wattage thing either - the ECBA only rates at 1.5 W into 32ohms (I don't know how it got turned into a power thing in the first place.)
 
Now I haven't heard the Dacmini, but it sounds like the OP may have just had different expectations of the LCD2's bass.
 

 

 

[kiertijai]

I am waiting for the result of  Super 7 of Craig Uthus.   I have heard that it was one of the highlight of Venice meeting
2 months ago.  It was said to be a perfect match for the HD800 and the LCD2.  But I heard that Craig need to improvise
its transformer a  little bit.   The 12 amplifier preorder were all gone by now.    You need 7  6SN7's for the amplifier
and Craig like the Melz 6H8C 1578 Russian tubes and they were not expensive around 160$ for a nos Quad.  The amplifier
itself will cost around 1499$.

 

[purrin]

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by nieveulv /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
...However is the sound of the "bass guitar" that i found to be totally lacking in volume and impact...I feel i need to focus too hard just to hear the bass guitar sound for rock music.

Sounds like a mid-bass bump volume thing. No mega-buck amp is going to help you there. It's just the nature of the headphone. I'm with you though - I prefer a  mid-bass bump myself, but only very slight. 
 
Try EQ +3db at 100Hz.

 

[nieveulv]

will a digizoid ZO portable subwoofer help? And how do you reckon i can connect it to a DACmini/lcd2 setup? I heard combining 2 amps is never good..

http://www.head-fi.org/t/504037/mini-review-digizoid-zo-portable-subwoofer

http://www.digizoid.com/the-zo/
 
 
Quote:

^ Sounds like a mid-bass bump volume thing. No mega-buck amp is going to help you there. It's just the nature of the headphone. I'm with you though - I prefer a  mid-bass bump myself, but only very slight. 
 
Try EQ +3db at 100Hz.

 

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

will a digizoid ZO portable subwoofer help? And how do you reckon i can connect it to a DACmini/lcd2 setup? I heard combining 2 amps is never good..

http://www.head-fi.org/t/504037/mini-review-digizoid-zo-portable-subwoofer

http://www.digizoid.com/the-zo/

I think this is designed more for bass lovers on the go. Some of the best affordable IEMs are relatively bass-light, and bass is the first thing to go in a noisy environment.
 
You should try EQ first. That's free. What program are you using for playback?

 

[nieveulv]

How bout a subwoofer to g o along with the lcd2
 
I use VLC for flacs, and itunes for ALAF and WAV files..
Is there a better player? Sorry...im new to the good sound quality world
 
Quote:

I think this is designed more for bass lovers on the go. Some of the best affordable IEMs are relatively bass-light, and bass is the first thing to go in a noisy environment.
 
You should try EQ first. That's free. What program are you using for playback?

 

 

[Graphicism]

Foobar