[dBel84]

I am not going to convert this into another audeze thread - BUT LCD3 is the game changer. This is the headphone you have been looking for Wualta ..dB

 

[wualta]

It's got a LOTUS diaphragm! Haven't I said I've always wanted one of those? I think I have. Oh, and it has Don's favorite, zebra wood. Not that any of us would steal a zebra's wood.
 
I think I'd like one of those Reality-1 nearfield monitors, too. How nice of them to announce these things on my birthday.
 
Sounds like Skylab will be doing a review of the LCD-3, and I can't help but think Tyll will be right in there too with some measurements.
 
I have to say, the 3 arrived sooner than I'd hoped, a good sign that the market is healthy for this type of 'phone. Go Audeze!

 

[Armaegis]

What exactly is a lotus diaphragm?

 

[gurubhai]

^Don't think Audeze are gonna tell.

 
Quote:

I think I'd like one of those Reality-1 nearfield monitors, too. How nice of them to announce these things on my birthday.

mine too !
 
 

 

[ludoo]

An update on my T20v1. I added a first light damping: I put a ring of industrial double-sided tape on top of the driver housing, that serves to keep in place a disc of light felt. I only had the aussie 2mm felt at home, which is thick enough to stay in place without flapping but less dense than what I had in mind for these.
 
Sound impressions are pretty good: the felt cured most of the resonances and honkiness, they are stil somewhat underdamped but perfectly listenable. Compared to the small driver Yamahas they have a flatter response and are thus easier to damp, but they are less musical (if that makes sense, I know it does to Kabeer), have less punch, and absolutely zero soundstage which imho is their biggest flaw. They are very comfortable and sensitive enough to be used straight out of a DAP, so they make pretty good walk around phones.
 
Pics of the damping next time I open them to swap a denser felt. BTW it feels kind of good to be back in this thread.

 

[wualta]

 
Quote:

What exactly is a lotus diaphragm?

 
Dunno, but it sounds good, doesn't it? Seriously, they said they've managed to pull some mass from their earlier diaphragm tech, so we can guess that the L in LOTUS means lighter or something equivalent. Possibly they wanted to draw a connection between their drive to "add lightness" and Colin Chapman's drive to make his Lotus race cars and passenger cars as light as possible. The advantages pile on and add exponentially when that happens in a car, and if the idea is to recover some headstage and obviate the need for heavy damping, the diaphragm has to be both big and light. Efficiency goes up too, which you can trade off for something else (lighter magnets?). The headphone also gets harder to make, and thus more expensive. But Audeze is in the happy position of not having to aim for a price point. They can take ortho tech as high as they can get it, and their current target market cheers them on and cheerfully pays. Which is about as win-win as you can reasonably ask.
 
Plus I can't help but think they looked at the impulse response (and I'm assuming here that Tyll's results aren't measurement artifacts) and said "Hm! Needs something!" That ringing on the square waves, the wiggles on top that makes them look like the ridges on baby teeth, shouldn't be there either. A lighter diaphragm is easier to slap some vibration management on without messing something else up.

Quote:

mine too ! 

Happy feast-day-of-your-nativity!


Quote:

1) An update on my T20v1. I put a ring of industrial double-sided tape on top of the driver housing, that serves to keep in place a disc of light felt...
 
2) ...the felt cured most of the resonances and honkiness, they are stil somewhat underdamped but perfectly listenable.
 
3) Compared to the small driver Yamahas they have a flatter response, have less punch, and absolutely zero soundstage. 
 
4) ...[and] they are less musical (if that makes sense, I know it does to Kabeer).
 
5) BTW it feels kind of good to be back in this thread.

 
1) Does this mean there's a small space, dare we say plenum, between the felt disc and the back magnet? 
 
2) Glad to hear you conquered the honk. 
 
3) Interesting. Less punch? you mean, in the bass?
 
4) Ha ha!  I'd love someday to delve into this "musical" stuff. 
 
5) Hey, it's good to have you back. You're kind a of linchpin, y'know?

 

[ludoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wualta /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
1) Does this mean there's a small space, dare we say plenum, between the felt disc and the back magnet? 
 
2) Glad to hear you conquered the honk. 
 
3) Interesting. Less punch? you mean, in the bass?
 
4) Ha ha!  I'd love someday to delve into this "musical" stuff. 
 
5) Hey, it's good to have you back. You're kind a of linchpin, y'know?

1) Yes, there's a small space. I know it's not ideal, but I wanted a quick damping and this was the only thing that came to mind. To keep some felt firm against the drivers I'd need foam, and I have none at the moment. Plus, there's space between the driver and the damping layer anyway, in the magnet holes.
 
2) Yes, but the damping is not ideal as the bass is not tight enough, but it's decreased too much; oh, the joys of damping.
 
3) In the bass, but also in a more general sense; the small Yamas when properly damped, especially the HP50, have lots of presence.
 
4) Ask Kabeer when he gets back from SL, he's the main theorist of "musicalness".
 
5) Thanks!

 

[gurubhai]

Quote:

Happy feast-day-of-your-nativity!

Belated festivities to you too..


Quote:

1) Yes, there's a small space. I know it's not ideal, but I wanted a quick damping and this was the only thing that came to mind. To keep some felt firm against the drivers I'd need foam, and I have none at the moment. Plus, there's space between the driver and the damping layer anyway, in the magnet holes.

 
4) Ask Kabeer when he gets back from SL, he's the main theorist of "musicalness".
 
 

1) I have been experimenting with spaces behind the driver too, though I have tried with much smaller volumes ( height about 1-2 mm).
 
4) I have had some chats with Kabeer regarding these & he believes, & I agree, that Yammies do 'vocals' better than anything else.
 
Regarding the differences between fostex & yammies, my opinion is that the yammies do the vocals & acoustical instruments better & have a more 'rounded' & laid back presentation.
While the fostex are snappier, better defined & sound better with electronic instruments.

 

[wualta]

Ludo: The plenum might indeed not be ideal, whatever that might mean, but I was actually hoping it would give you more bass. It's similar to a technique I used on ericj's Maior.
 
Space (ie, distance) in the magnet holes but very little volume. Still, you might try the old idea of stuffing the holes with felt. With the denser felt at your disposal this might work.

 

[ludoo]

Quote:

1) I have been experimenting with spaces behind the driver too, though I have tried with much smaller volumes ( height about 1-2 mm).
 
4) I have had some chats with Kabeer regarding these & he believes, & I agree, that Yammies do 'vocals' better than anything else.
 
Regarding the differences between fostex & yammies, my opinion is that the yammies do the vocals & acoustical instruments better & have a more 'rounded' & laid back presentation.
While the fostex are snappier, better defined & sound better with electronic instruments.

Well, height between the magnets and felt is not much, maybe a couple of millimeters. As for the difference between Yamahas and Fostexens, I agree with you and Kabeer that mids, vocals and acoustical instruments are special on the Yamahas. But one of the "good" ones tuned within a hair of being overdamped is very very snappy, and impossibily detailed. My experience with Fostex is limited (T20v1, T20v2, T40v1, and briefly a pair of NAD), but I have always found them duller than Yamahas, kind of "meh" sounding.
 
Quote:

Ludo: The plenum might indeed not be ideal, whatever that might mean, but I was actually hoping it would give you more bass. It's similar to a technique I used on ericj's Maior.
 
Space (ie, distance) in the magnet holes but very little volume. Still, you might try the old idea of stuffing the holes with felt. With the denser felt at your disposal this might work.

Hmmm, in this case the plenum is not giving more bass, but I suspect the felt is too dense and a whole disc is the wrong shape, and that's what is killing bass and the little soundstage they have. I'd like to try with a denser but thinner felt (good old Moorbrook), shaped as a central disc with petals (or peripheral holes depending on how you look at it), kept in place with thick foam. The opposite of what I do with some Yamahas, where a dense donut damps them without killing all the bass and soundstage. I need to go hunt for foam, or maybe sell the t20v1 as they are and keep enjoying my Yamahas.

 

[dBel84]

good to see you back old friend. The T20V1 is one of my most used headphones - you need to get rid of the pads. I use stax pads on mine but anything with a little loft will do. 
 
Happy birthday to our orthoheaders too!
 
and a tidbit for the possible future - we may get to see a lotus move ( high speed capture ) 
 
..dB

 

[ludoo]

Quote:

good to see you back old friend. The T20V1 is one of my most used headphones - you need to get rid of the pads. I use stax pads on mine but anything with a little loft will do. 

 
Thanks Don, I have to say I missed you all orthoheads.
 
As for pads, one of the things I did was to insert a large donut of felt in them to put some distance between the drivers and my ears, but yes the pads are comfortable but they leak a lot I guess. Any suggestions on which specific pads to look for? The cheaper the better, as usual.

 

[dBel84]

I would shoot smeggy 
 
 
hehe , seemed a good place to stop that sentence  
 
 
perhaps if the smegster comes up for breath, he can share some of the reasonably priced sources for decent pads. I know the likes of panasonic, sony etc have been mentioned but I am unclear as to which models specifically. It might, just might be listed in the "listened to a T50RP like wow " thread. 
 
I am thinking I need to haul out the sewing machine..dB

 

[wualta]

And I just noticed that Audeze showed a planar-magnetic microphone somewhere at RMAF. Shades of Fostex back in the '80s!

 

[dBel84]

oooh speaking of fostex and mikes - they ( fostex ) had this nifty gadget that you pop your iphone into and it becomes a digital ( sound and video ) recording device - stereo microphones , very inventive. I didn't see the Audeze mike but a few folk commented about how good it was..dB