[Anaxilus]

Quote:

You guys realize that "challenge" post of 5 years old, right?

 
Oh, so it's really $1.5M now!  

 

[snapple10]

Quote:

How much to change my avatar to this?
 

lolololol

 

[TheWuss]

I personally have gone over to the dark side with cables. But, i will share my personal experience with cables is this:

The closer to the speaker, the less difference you will hear.

So, speaker cables and headphone cables (carrying an more amplified signal i suppose) make very subtle difference to me.

However, i have heard quite substantial differences between coaxial digital cables between dac and transport.
And pretty large differences swapping power cords in dacs and amps.

But, to each his own.
You are all entitled to buy nice cables for your lcd3. Whether for looks, weight, feel, or sound.

 

[mwilson]

How much will you pay me to not change my avatar to his?  

I still naively believe in karma.

 

[googleli]

Back to the LCD3. I have to say, sometimes I actually prefer my LCD2 over my unveiled, RMA-ed LCD3. It is not that LCD-3 is in any aspect inferior, it is just that the LCD2 is more "forgiving" in many non-audiophile recordings. While the LCD3 sounds good generally with all kinds of music, I find the LCD2 more engaging in some less than optimally recorded albums. And for truly detailed sound and really good audiophile recordings, I always go to my SR009 setup. So the LCD3, to me, is stuck somewhere in between...

 

[zachchen1996]

Quote:

Back to the LCD3. I have to say, sometimes I actually prefer my LCD2 over my unveiled, RMA-ed LCD3. It is not that LCD-3 is in any aspect inferior, it is just that the LCD2 is more "forgiving" in many non-audiophile recordings. While the LCD3 sounds good generally with all kinds of music, I find the LCD2 more engaging in some less than optimally recorded albums. And for truly detailed sound and really good audiophile recordings, I always go to my SR009 setup. So the LCD3, to me, is stuck somewhere in between...

I thought I was decided on getting the 009's, but now your saying you rarely use your 009's, only for the absolute best recordings? Does that mean I should just get some lcd2's because most recordings are not amazing?

 

[MorbidToaster]

It's not like they are unlistenable with an 009...
 
It'd be good to have both (or at least something more forgiving for poorly recorded material). 
 
Quote:

I thought I was decided on getting the 009's, but now your saying you rarely use your 009's, only for the absolute best recordings? Does that mean I should just get some lcd2's because most recordings are not amazing?

 

[n3rdling]

I don't think he "backed out"...I remember reading that he got absolutely nobody to step up to the plate over the years.

 

[googleli]

You misread my post. I said I now rarely use my LCD3, not my 009.
 
I would gladly use my SR009 on most occasions, for good or bad recordings, but I feel glued to the chair and listening to it whenever I put it on. And with good recordings, the SR009 is my first go-to gear. With the LCD,2 I can put on my headphone with my portable gear and go around the house doing stuff and still get reasonably good sound. In comparison the LCD3 is like the middle of the two headphones, so it is actually getting much less head time from me than either.
 
Quote:

I thought I was decided on getting the 009's, but now your saying you rarely use your 009's, only for the absolute best recordings? Does that mean I should just get some lcd2's because most recordings are not amazing?

 

[zachchen1996]

Quote:

You misread my post. I said I now rarely use my LCD3, not my 009.
 
I would gladly use my SR009 on most occasions, for good or bad recordings, but I feel glued to the chair and listening to it whenever I put it on. And with good recordings, the SR009 is my first go-to gear. With the LCD,2 I can put on my headphone with my portable gear and go around the house doing stuff and still get reasonably good sound. In comparison the LCD3 is like the middle of the two headphones, so it is actually getting much less head time from me than either.
 

oh I see, back to saving up for 009's it is

 

[drez]

Quote:

This man will offer you $1million if you can tell the diff between a $7250 cable and a $80 cable.
 
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071009/015017.shtml
 
Go for it people..

 
The challenge is to tell between speaker cables unfortunately, and he probably wants level matching etc. so its not that simple.  If the offer was open for digital cables I would have a ball with this.  Different LCD-2 cables may sound different to people but to actually scientifically prove this (eliminating level difference and placebo etc) is something else altogether.

 

[Solude]

Could be wrong but my understanding was the cable selected was because although costing a fortune per foot, its just zip cord in a nice sheet and connectors.  Ie no one is going to hear a difference because its not there.  If you could bring your own cables to the party, its an easy million.

 

[Jamiee]

With the highly resolving systems we have these days I'm actually a bit surprised we are still having these cable debates.
To me it's a no brain-er that cables can and ultimately do sound different - for varying reasons.
Cable design, construction, materials used, etc. all play a role in the final result.
 
I like to think of cables more as tone controls "tweaks" if you will.
No one cable is necessarily going to match well with every set of electronics out there.
I have heard some great cables and some that are less so with my equipment over the years.
(Truly great cables don't actually sound like anything! - They are transparent, like you don't even have a cable attached to your headphones or speakers).
 
One thing for sure is the more resolving the equipment is, the more noticeable cable differences are to me.
I should also say that price has never dictated which stays and which gets passed off to the "good but not quite good enough" bin.
On occasion I have found cheaper cables to perform on par or better than more expensive ones.
 
I started out in this audio game with a rather negative view on all these "snake oil" products, tweaks, what have you...
But I have come to realize that with a bit of trial and error, a lot of research, asking questions, and just some plain old good common sense,
that you can end up with a complete audio setup that just sounds great!
All it takes is a bit of an open mind and some guts to make that first leap.
 
I'm not saying that cables are the end all and be all of an audio system, but they are a part of the audio chain and do require some
consideration in order to get the best possible system matching.
 
 
 
One last note.....  By all means keep it all in moderation.
If you have a $100 amp with $50 headphones, don't be silly and go buy $10,000 worth of cabling. 

 

[Solude]

Nods, 10% is a reasonable number for cable budget.

 

[edhou1]

Quote:

Hello all,
Just got back into hifi after an extended absence where I downsized for about 10 years.
Recently got a pair of demo LCD-3s from an online vendor and am trying to get a good amp + DAC without breaking the budget too much
 
Here is the plot:

 
Having read all 400+ pages of this thread, looking at the 800-2k hz rolloff this seems to be a "semi" veiled pair, but am not sure since I don't have a great amp and setup yet for it, and I'm sure I'm not getting the best out of it yet (using a budget Bravo v2 with upgraded tubes out of a universal Denon DVD-3910 SACD/CD player) while I ponder something like a Bitfrost + Mjolnir or a pre-owned Grace 902...
 
I like the idea of leaving the amp on so the idea of a SS amp really intrigues me, but I do like the general presentation of tube gear that I've had in the past (among them Cary, Audible Illusions, ASL...).   Very intrigued about the $400+ Lyr as well but it seems like if I have the LCD-3 I should just stretch my budget and go for something a bit more refined... Thoughts?
 
-Ed

 
Would be interested in knowing if anyone had a similar graph LCD3 and got it RMAed.  I don't want to ship it out if I don't have to...
 
Thanks
Ed