[Radio_head]

Edit- never post on oxy.

 

[m0gwai]

I can think of a few things more horrible, but I would indeed rank it between aids and world hunger.
 
I will see what they say.

 

[TruBrew]

I was told my pair was checked before shipping. Not that I have any proof of that.
 
Quote:

Wow. That's horrible, m0gwai.
 
I think one of the previous posts said it best: "Does Audez'e actually bother listening to these before they ship them out now?"

 

 

[MuppetFace]

I guess one of the drivers could have been damaged during shipping, but that seems unlikely.
 
I know this might sound silly, but have you tried twisting the plug around while it's plugged in m0gwai? With my HE-6, sometimes the connection isn't secure and one of the channels will be cut off. I have to twist the plug to get a full connection, and even then it can sometimes cut out.
 
Just a suggestion.

 

[Loevhagen]

Twist a 4-pin-mini-XLR plug?
 
I guess it is not the driver, but a loose soldering - has happened before.

 

[CanDude]

Quote:

Do you have the graphs? Might be interesting to see them as well.
 
FWIW, there have been a few differences in T1s reported as well.
 
 

Here are the graphs. Sorry for bad pictures...
 
First "A":
 

 
Then "B":
 

 
If someone gets any wiser from this, please tell me.
 
Remember, A = clear high mids + treble, B = shelved down high mids + treble and maybe some muddines (minor differences).
According to my ears and tests. In my setup. Yesterday and the day before.
 
Bought "A" today. The guy at the shop said something like "headphone geeks crazier than hifi geeks". Don't quite understand that... 

 
 
 

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

Twist a 4-pin-mini-XLR plug?

My statement applies to a 1/4" plug. Obviously if he's not using the 1/4" termination, then it doesn't apply.
 

 

[dagothur]

Quote:

Here are the graphs. Sorry for bad pictures...
 
First "A":
 

 
Then "B":
 

 
If someone gets any wiser from this, please tell me.
 
Remember, A = clear high mids + treble, B = shelved down high mids + treble and maybe some muddines (minor differences).
According to my ears and tests. In my setup. Yesterday and the day before.
 
Bought "A" today. The guy at the shop said something like "headphone geeks crazier than hifi geeks". Don't quite understand that... 

 
 
 

I'm no graph genius, but that's a noticeable amount of product variation.  It wasn't this bad with the LCD-2s, as far as I recall.
 
 

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Here are the graphs. Sorry for bad pictures...
 
First "A":
 

 
Then "B":
 

 
If someone gets any wiser from this, please tell me.
 
Remember, A = clear high mids + treble, B = shelved down high mids + treble and maybe some muddines (minor differences).
According to my ears and tests. In my setup. Yesterday and the day before.
 
Bought "A" today. The guy at the shop said something like "headphone geeks crazier than hifi geeks". Don't quite understand that... 

At first glance B looks like it would be clearer, but I'll take a stab at pointing to some possible reasons why it's not:
 
A has more lower mid-range in that plateau around 500 Hz. You say clear high mids, but I think the boost here might add to an overall increase in perceived mid-range, like low guitar tones and male vocals.
A also has more upper mid-range around 2-3 kHz, but probably not enough to be too significant. Might add some bite to guitars, if the difference is even audible.
B has a hole around 7-8 kHz that A doesn't, which is right in the lower treble range where the HD800 is boosted. The boost in A might increase treble clarity.
The decline that starts around 3 kHz on A seems to contradict your feelings about clear upper mid-range though. How do snare drums sound on both of them? I've heard perceived snare drum attack is reliant on 4-5 kHz or so.
 
All the differences will be larger or smaller in reality, because of how they smooth the graph.
 
Quote:

I'm no graph genius, but that's a noticeable amount of product variation.  It wasn't this bad with the LCD-2s, as far as I recall.

It may not seem like the LCD-2 had as much product variation from the graphs Audeze supplies, but graphs without smoothing might tell a different story. I believe purrin found that all the LCD-2s (rev. 1 at least, from memory) he tested were pretty different.

 

[CanDude]

Quote:

How do snare drums sound on both of them? I've heard perceived snare drum attack is reliant on 4-5 kHz or so.
 

 
I no longer have B available.
As I remember it snaredrums sounded quite similar on A and B. As I said in my first post I noticed that resonances in rimshots where more noticable in A than B, B sounded more like a wooden rim. Enough for me to notice it anyway.
 
With "high-mids" I mean like from 2k upwards or so.

 

[arnaud]

 
Quote:

It may not seem like the LCD-2 had as much product variation from the graphs Audeze supplies, but graphs without smoothing might tell a different story. I believe purrin found that all the LCD-2s (rev. 1 at least, from memory) he tested were pretty different.

^^
This. It's pretty difficult to tell anything from audeze supplied graphs due to the very heavy smoothing / 100dB scale. Indeed, some smoothing may be necessary to remove some of the meaningless result (like sharp deeps that are highly sensitive to the mic position and measuring apparatus). But too much smoothing and you loose the features like actual damping of the various resonances. 
 
 

 

[sphinxvc]

CanDude, very interesting.  Thanks for posting that.  I think another head-fi-er put it best when he referred to my decision to buy an Audez'e as "playing the Audez'e lottery". 
 
Quote:

I guess one of the drivers could have been damaged during shipping, but that seems unlikely.
 
I know this might sound silly, but have you tried twisting the plug around while it's plugged in m0gwai? With my HE-6, sometimes the connection isn't secure and one of the channels will be cut off. I have to twist the plug to get a full connection, and even then it can sometimes cut out.
 
Just a suggestion.

I hate that about the HE-6, and have come across it one several pairs I've tried.  It also happened on my 5LEs from time to time.
 

 

[CanDude]

Has anyone got an LCD-3 graph that looks similar to the one at Audez'e's site? http://audeze.com/lcd-3-frequency-response-and-waterfall-plot
I haven't seen any with this amount of treble. Me want.
 

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

 

^^
This. It's pretty difficult to tell anything from audeze supplied graphs due to the very heavy smoothing / 100dB scale. Indeed, some smoothing may be necessary to remove some of the meaningless result (like sharp deeps that are highly sensitive to the mic position and measuring apparatus). But too much smoothing and you loose the features like actual damping of the various resonances. 
 
 

Arnaud, how's this for "smoothing"?
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/433059/sennheiser-hd800-certificate-for-frequency-response-arrived
 
FWIW, they variations in the LCD-3s look similar to those of the LCD-2s from what I can tell. That is to say, yes its there, but overall very similar sounding headphones. Chart A has more high-mids / lower-treble energy while Chart B has slightly more treble around 8kHz.
 
Seeing that most headphone manufacturers don't provide these graphs, I'm curious just how much variation there is out there? Sennheiser's don't seem very useful (above) and beyer, Hifiman, Ultrasone don't provide them at all.
 

 

[lithe1]

Received my pair today, right driver dead, not a sound, nice quality control Audeze.
 
Guess I have to wait another 2 weeks now

I also had the same result (dead right driver) with my LCD-3 order from ALO Audio, week before last. I'm expecting receipt of my replacement LCD-3's tomorrow...we'll see how my replacement LCD-3's are when I get them.