[HaVoC-28]

EDIT 2: Oh one more very important thing; if you get the Titanium HD or a Creative Z, don't get the O2. The soundcards already have amps built in so you will essentially be double amping. You should decide between ODAC/O2 vs sound card.

 
Hum no double amping unless he connect to the dedicated headphone out where is the built in headphone amp  , if he use an external amp such as o² he will plug it in their respective line out (RCA for titan HD ans jack 3.5 for Z) .

 

[DObleX]

Medaud, thanks for respond. So, I'd like to clarify my post. I have Titanium HD. Sound quality I mean the music only. I have 250Ohm headphones and feel, that sound card cannot fully open them. Amp is necessary. I don't use of any DSP and CMSS 3D. Play games very rare. So, foobar (flac)+creative+O2 vs foobar (flac)+O2/ODAC without any dsp or other. Furthermore, it's possible to replace op apms on Creative.
Quote:

EDIT 2: Oh one more very important thing; if you get the Titanium HD or a Creative Z, don't get the O2. The soundcards already have amps built in so you will essentially be double amping. You should decide between ODAC/O2 vs sound card.

Wrong! Built in amp in Titanium HD is crap, trash, useless. I use analog out (that much better!) for headphones.
 

 

[HaVoC-28]

Then only buy an O² , you don't need an ODAC .

 

[Medaud]

Hum no double amping unless he connect to the dedicated headphone out where is the built in headphone amp  , if he use an external amp such as o² he will plug it in their respective line out (RCA for titan HD ans jack 3.5 for Z) .

Wrong! Built in amp in Titanium HD is crap, trash, useless. I use analog out (that much better!) for headphones.

You are right, I forgot the Titan HD has outs without amps.

DObleX I don't think you would get much sound difference if you exchange the Titan HD with an ODAC, unless you're using some DSP with the Titan HD. We all know of tom's Hardware blind test, you won't get better quality.

EDIT: I agree with HaVoC, if you're satisfied with your Titan HD setup, just get the O2.

 

[DObleX]

HaVoC-28, Medaud, thanks! But I'd like to hear the owners, who have both and Titanium HD, and ODAC to make a final decision.

 

[HaVoC-28]

At level matched it will sound the same .

 

[muscleking]

fixed the dust problem when turning volume dial distortion sound.
somehow fixed itself but i just turned it back and forth many times and seems ok now.

 

[audionewbi]

I have a pair of Muses01 opamp and I like to try to put in O2 to see how it sounds. Can someone guide me on which one I need to remove and replace with Muses01? Thanks in advance.

 

[50Hz]

I haven't seen from many other LCD-X owners with the O2. I've got just the amp running from my Mbox 3. I usually have it on 1 X gain but occasionally if I want to really crank it I'll switch it to 3.5. So clean and loud and punchy. Couldn't want anything more.
 
I do eq the headphones to closer match the harman target response curve. I can share the Equalizer APO config file if anybody is interested. 

 

[HaVoC-28]

  I haven't seen from many other LCD-X owners with the O2. I've got just the amp running from my Mbox 3. I usually have it on 1 X gain but occasionally if I want to really crank it I'll switch it to 3.5. So clean and loud and punchy. Couldn't want anything more.
 
I do eq the headphones to closer match the harman target response curve. I can share the Equalizer APO config file if anybody is interested. 

 
Well because many says that ortho/planar/isometric drivers needs a lot of mW to work well , also the product page specification from audeze say something like :  "Optimal power 1-4W" .
 
Is this a kind of hype to have a "hard to drive" headphone , or a way to encourage people in buying expensive stuffs to put Audeze on a good light ? Marketing ?
 
 
But it's great that you report your liking with LCD-X and O² .

 

[Dark_wizzie]

I had LCD-X with my O2. Worked very well. It's almost as if, running a hard to run headphone somehow validates a person as an ultra-audiophile, so people want to brag about how they are able to run hard-to-drive headphones. 

 
 
BTW JDS, I'm sure you're aware of the ODA. What say you if your competitors start making it for sale?

 

[Solrighal]

I haven't seen from many other LCD-X owners with the O2. I've got just the amp running from my Mbox 3. I usually have it on 1 X gain but occasionally if I want to really crank it I'll switch it to 3.5. So clean and loud and punchy. Couldn't want anything more.

I do eq the headphones to closer match the harman target response curve. I can share the Equalizer APO config file if anybody is interested. 

I also use EQ but I don't know what the Harman response curve but I'm interested. I use GlissEQ in JRiverMC right now.

 

[castleofargh]

 

I haven't seen from many other LCD-X owners with the O2. I've got just the amp running from my Mbox 3. I usually have it on 1 X gain but occasionally if I want to really crank it I'll switch it to 3.5. So clean and loud and punchy. Couldn't want anything more.

I do eq the headphones to closer match the harman target response curve. I can share the Equalizer APO config file if anybody is interested. 

I also use EQ but I don't know what the Harman response curve but I'm interested. I use GlissEQ in JRiverMC right now.

I think I originally stole this from innerfidelity.

 
the black one is what people preferred/found neutral for headphones. so if your raw measurement of headphone (the gray lines on tyll's graphs) looks like the black curve here, harman claims from the study that it is what most people will find neutral and prefer.  the main conclusion of the studies at harman showed pretty much that all people of all ages of all races did tend to favor neutral sounding gears, as in with the same FR that from flat speakers in an ideal room once the sound has travelled toward us. so not really neutral anymore as trebles get attenuated with distance.
 
compared to the usual compensation curves, this one does ask for a bass boost, and does let the trebles go down as they would naturally in the air when coming from speakers. 
to make it simple, you take the graphs from almost everywhere, and when they show something like a slow regular down slope from bass to trebles, chances are it would be close to flat on harman's target curve.
think LCD2 as closer to flat for them than ER4 or HD800. something I clearly tend to agree with ^_^.
 
http://seanolive.blogspot.fr/2014/01/the-perception-and-measurement-of.html   this video is a "short" version of the 2 main papers done on the subject.

 

[tinyman392]

 
I think I originally stole this from innerfidelity.

 
the black one is what people preferred/found neutral for headphones. so if your raw measurement of headphone (the gray lines on tyll's graphs) looks like the black curve here, harman claims from the study that it is what most people will find neutral and prefer.  the main conclusion of the studies at harman showed pretty much that all people of all ages of all races did tend to favor neutral sounding gears, as in with the same FR that from flat speakers in an ideal room once the sound has travelled toward us. so not really neutral anymore as trebles get attenuated with distance.
 
compared to the usual compensation curves, this one does ask for a bass boost, and does let the trebles go down as they would naturally in the air when coming from speakers. 
to make it simple, you take the graphs from almost everywhere, and when they show something like a slow regular down slope from bass to trebles, chances are it would be close to flat on harman's target curve.
think LCD2 as closer to flat for them than ER4 or HD800. something I clearly tend to agree with ^_^.
 
http://seanolive.blogspot.fr/2014/01/the-perception-and-measurement-of.html   this video is a "short" version of the 2 main papers done on the subject.

 
The Olive Welti experiments were designed to find the most preferred sound, with respect to music, regardless of sound signature type (e.g., any sound signature).  They were not designed to find the most neutral sound, it shouldn't be read that way (it wasn't its focus or intent).  They wanted to find out what people's preferred sound signature was, and they determined that it was non-neutral.  I should also note that in terms of speaker response, the preferred also was non-neutral, rather, they also preferred a warm tilt.  With headphones, they preferred slightly more bass, specifically sub-bass.  
 
Now we have to figure out why they prefer that sound over neutral (which Etymotics are not DF neutral still, they tone down the treble by a few dB to compensate for compression which has gone way up since then).  IMO, I feel that this preference towards a warmer sound is due to compression.  But, that's just speculation.  

 

[miceblue]

 


I think I originally stole this from innerfidelity.



the black one is what people preferred/found neutral for headphones. so if your raw measurement of headphone (the gray lines on tyll's graphs) looks like the black curve here, harman claims from the study that it is what most people will find neutral and prefer.  the main conclusion of the studies at harman showed pretty much that all people of all ages of all races did tend to favor neutral sounding gears, as in with the same FR that from flat speakers in an ideal room once the sound has travelled toward us. so not really neutral anymore as trebles get attenuated with distance.

compared to the usual compensation curves, this one does ask for a bass boost, and does let the trebles go down as they would naturally in the air when coming from speakers. 
to make it simple, you take the graphs from almost everywhere, and when they show something like a slow regular down slope from bass to trebles, chances are it would be close to flat on harman's target curve.
think LCD2 as closer to flat for them than ER4 or HD800. something I clearly tend to agree with ^_^.

http://seanolive.blogspot.fr/2014/01/the-perception-and-measurement-of.html   this video is a "short" version of the 2 main papers done on the subject.

The Olive Welti experiments were designed to find the most preferred sound, with respect to music, regardless of sound signature type (e.g., any sound signature).  They were not designed to find the most neutral sound, it shouldn't be read that way (it wasn't its focus or intent).  They wanted to find out what people's preferred sound signature was, and they determined that it was non-neutral.  

Now we have to figure out why they prefer that sound over neutral (which Etymotics are not DF neutral still, they tone down the treble by a few dB to compensate for compression which has gone way up since then).  IMO, I feel that this preference towards a warmer sound is due to compression.  But, that's just speculation.  

Yup, exactly that.

What defines a preferred sound in headphones? I think the video is saying the preferred sound is more akin to the sound of flat speakers?

And then, what does neutral mean in this case?