Based on your comments, I’d say you should give the Aeon Flow Closed and Focal Elex a listen too. IMHO the soundstage of both is better than the AFO and the AFC is more neutral in tone than all the others. None of the above are quite as meaty as the LCD2 fazor when it comes to bass but both are more detailed and resolving, and the Elex bass is pretty darn close though with a little roll off at the extreme bottom.
I have Shure SRH1540 closed backs that I like to use for rock music (especially loud songs with prominent drums and electric guitars like Led Zeppelin's Black Dog), which I want to keep for now. Those don't get much attention from anybody, and sound like their frequency response curve looks. That one has its own driver that you won't find with any other headphone Shure makes. These have so much bass, that I eq them down 3 db or more below 100 Hz. I think I we're down to the laws of physics with open vs closed backs: frequencies below a certain level are reproduced better with an enclosure, so now we're down to needing more than one pair, each excelling at a different type of music. The Sennheiser HD700s I just sold gave more detail with strings. They were "polite" in the bass, but not in the treble. I did not see the Elex at the store I was at, but I saw Elegia, which is probably better than any of the three I just mentioned, as it should be for $900.
The AFC may not sound quite so warm as the AFO, but I had passed on listening to that one during my second visit. I ended up getting the Focal Clears (at a price I couldn't resist, like close to half), after listening to the following, with a Chord Qutest DAC and a Gilmore Lite mk2 (the same amp that I use at home):
1. Quad ERA-1: had the Quad signature sound: midrange really good, and a bit warm throughout. Vocals sounded great. It's obvious that they had worked to produce that sound. Sounded balanced and pleasing, though there's others that have more detail in the bass and treble (but at a higher price). They come with two sets of pads which is commendable as each was an engineered solution. I prefer these to the LCD-2 but not the other Audezes.
2. Audeze LCD-2 open with fazor: astonishing clean bass with good heft that I feel may be the best you can get in an open back. I heard a recessed area or "hole" somewhere in the midrange that gave an overall "dark" presentation with everything I had listened to. Frequency response curves only tell part of the story. Inner Fidelity's frequency response curves do show the fazor keeps the frequency response dead flat to 2 kHz instead of 1 kHz, affecting how vocals sound. Very good sound stage (like wide as a stadium) and low distortion, as for all Audeze products tested. Store doesn't have the LCD-2 classic, I would have had to go to Santa Ana to hear that one, and I didn't want to. I would have spent a bit more money and got the LCD-X, but those are insanely large and heavy and come with thicker pads than the others.
3. Mr. Speakers Ether Flow open: it's a toss up between these and the similarly priced Audeze models. I would say its closest peer is the LCD-X. I felt that the Mr. Speakers was a bit more lively in the upper midrange and treble, but still balanced. Incidentally, the salesman says that he owns the HiFiMan HE-1000 and HE-6 personally, and that those don't sound dark at all, giving lots of detail in vocals and treble.
4. Beyerdynamic T1: well made but had "silly" treble, as is visible on its frequency response curve. Might sound ok eq'd.
5. Focal Elear: they have the Focal signature sound described below, but with a touch less detail and a touch of sibilance. They have a spike in distortion at 6000 Hz (see Inner Fidelity curve) that I would be able to hear as "grain", though auditioned material didn't contain much information in that region. On the whole, they are almost as good as the Clear for a lot less money.
6. Audeze LCD-MX4 with fazor: better than the LCD-2, giving a more balanced presentation with a touch less grain in the treble, but not worth the extra money over the LCD-X. These gave the best bass out of any I had heard that day: clean, and good volume, and having "slam". This the only light and small model Audeze makes! My favorite out of all I had tested, but they're not worth the $2999 that they list for.
7. Focal Clear: the Focal signature sound is a more forward upper midrange and treble presentation than most others. In this case, that hadn't extended to being brassy or sibilant though I can think of parts of loud tracks having a lot of cymbal hits (like Whole Lotta Love) that might be tiring to listen to on these headphones. These have an astonishing level of detail in a certain frequency range that I hadn't heard even in other headphones at the same price point (like shimmering cymbals). Reverberation and decay of some instruments was more noticeable than with other headphones. The Audezes all had more prominent bass, and may sound better with rock music for some people. I feel that the Tyll Hertsens review for the Clears was bang on, except I heard the treble as more lively than he had reported (don't know if it's age related hearing loss or not). I was reading it at the store while I was listening to the headphones. The owner of the store says that he gave Tyll a pair of these free of charge because they had to stay with the company when Tyll left.
I had brought my own music this time, and had used only exceptionally mastered and highly varied material like Pink Floyd Dark Side, and had played the same songs on all cans I tested, some of them no more than twenty seconds of each song.
. Im sitting here with my hd600 a bit disappointed honestly. The tonality is amazing, instruments sound very life like, especially drums/cymbals despite the dip after the mids to avoid sibilance, but there just isn't any sense of space when compared to the hd600, even with the CTH. I would've assumed the sense of space in a recording would've been retained but somehow the air I'm used to hearing is also missing. I find the hd600 more comfortable too since the clamp has molded to the shape of my head, the AFO will definitely get hot and and uncomfortable here in Miami.
