Only LCDs I've heard are the LCD X and LCD MX4. The latter I owned briefly. Neither headphone had great imaging and LCD X was better tonally than the MX4. MX4 was also a bit too soft and lacked bite, excitement. I didn't like the fit of either on the head. I like NDH 30 better than the both of those headphones when I consider everything it does well. Haven't heard the Raal CA-1 or D8000s. I have heard Susvara and Expanse. I think I'd need more time w both to really say definitively, but from memory the feeling I get when comparing is that NDH 30 isn't far off from them (if it at all re Susvara). I was more impressed w Expanse than Susvara. Expanse is probably better than the NDH 30, but i don't know if I'd say the same thing about Susvara. I'm more impressed with the NDH 30 frankly just going off my impression from memory. I had Susvara in a pretty quiet room from a superb amp and it just didn't grab me like Expanse did. If Expanse ever goes on a good sale I may have to fork over for it. It's an extremely serious beast of a headphone.
I''ve heard all of the high end Meze line (Lyric, Elite and Empyrean). None of those headphones sound right tonally, and I didn't find them to be detailed enough to warrant the price. I would take NDH 30 over each of them. MDR-Z1R, owned it. It doesn't perform as well as NDH 30 from a staging perspective. NDH 30 images a lot better. NDH 30 also has more height, about the same width (Z1R is maybe a hair wider). Detail retrieval, attack/decay, layering and overall resolution goes to NDH 30. A note on bass performance - Z1R bleeds bass into the mids and you have to do a lot to tune that out of the tonality w cables and pads. It's a pain, and then that tuning job is still not quite fully done even w those mods. Also depending on slight variations in pad shape you may get a channel imbalance with Z1R. NDH 30 bass performs admirably. Because of the ability NDH 30 has to faithfully portray a track, it will show you movements and reverberations in live recordings and they show up as they are - huge, deep and textured. It's wild when you hear inadvertent bass sounds you haven't heard before in songs. NDH 30 bass is linear and goes deep when called upon. Z1R bass is higher in quantity and reaches the depths more effortlessly. But overall i felt like there was just too much lower and mid bass tuned in to Z1R frequency response. NDH 30 has better mids hands down. Mids are more forward and detailed on NDH30. MDR-Z1R has more treble. I found it sweet sounding but I think NDH 30 treble is providing a similar level of detail. Build quality on both is similar to me. NDH 30 build reminded me of the Z1R's build quality when I held and scanned over it. It's that good. I've owned Ananda. NDH 30 beats Ananda on all fronts. HE500 has more and sweeter treble than NDH 30. The level of treble detail is so strong on HE500. I think it beats NDH 30 in that department. Mid performance is similar, maybe NDH 30 has a hair more micro detail. They both handle macro detail and large dynamic swings so well. Bass performance I'd give it to NDH30 as I mentioned but not by much. NDH images/layers instruments better and has the taller, deeper stage over HE500. Width is about the same. Overall resolution is a little higher on NDH30. Please take all of that w a grain, as it's from memory. Okay I'm really done gushing about this NDH 30 for now