[pitchshifter]

Damn, you say you prefer the L2 to the 550s in every respect...except hard rock?
 
I listen to metal probably 70% of the time (black, death, tech, ie lots of cymbals), and post-rock the rest of the time...and I'm finding the treble pretty fatiguing with this kind of music. It's perfect for something like 65daysofstatic where you can appreciate all the high programmed drums...
 
I've got choice paralysis here now, do you guys think something else would suit me better (and I have to say the 550s look a lot less 'toy' then the L2, though still nowhere near as good as the L1)....and perhaps try the 551s (portable 550s). They're nearly half the price of the L2 as well...
 
Or should I just appreciate what I've got, shut up and turn down the top band in eq (and is there anything I'm defeating the point of by doing that?)
 
First pair of good quality phones in a long time so I'm getting into the whole experience...of course in the middle of exams

 

[Jonfairway]

All personal at the end of the day, the K550 is very comfy, easy to drive, the have a very coherent sound signature, i have ever found them to make a poorer recording sound bad in much the way the LCD2 does.... They have good seperation and good dynamics, they are very well built...
 
but they dont have the soundstage of the L2 or that accurate portrayal of instruments,  i find the K550 seems to want to place instruments and vocals where it wants and not actually where the other headphones as them.... hey don't gt me wrong.... its not the be all and end all for instrument placement to be spot on....  they sound really enjoyable...The L2 is more punchy, faster, bigger....it has deeper bass, and more field of depth....
 
But for loud Rock i am not listening for these specifics as much,,, i am listining to an overall balance of sound.... the K550 does this well.....
 
they are really cheap to buy too ...  i paid £109 for mine.....
 
there are a couple of things people should be aware of for them tho.... the ear foam isnt deep, sticky out ears will catch the driver area, they dont seal perfectly without bending the headband a little...i am lucky i have small ears   LOL
 
both K550 and L2 are good buys......not sure i would go wandering around in the K550..... it would fall off i think....
 
Good valve amp, L2s with a new cable, and use AIMP3 on flac and its not going to be far off as good as anyone would ever require....
 
only a few people scratching around looking for the last 10% of perfection.... would need to go selling the house to seek more...
 
go listen to both of them.... and choose one..... Hey the P7 is a cracking headphone as well.....if only it was £100    LOL

 

[pitchshifter]

Thanks for your detailed answer! I'll probably hold onto the L2s I guess and use some eq. I've never seen the point of flac before since 256kbps mp3 is perceptually transparent and even streaming downloads from Google music is 320kbps... But now that I have some decent headphones I'll give it another try.

Will also check out AIMP3, though I'm totally in love with MusicBee...

 

[vanen]

If you can obtain the information please show it here! I have Q Jays too (alive ) and i'm waiting for L2 this we.

lucky you xD i'm pretty sure i can get them fixed though. these littles earphones are not easy to drive (source wise, every tiny default is revealed, don't bother hooking it to an older gen portable console), but they sound so good. so acurate and yet not boring at all... i miss these babies T_T

 

[Jonfairway]

I remember the first reviews of the L2 saying they were kind to bad recordings.... not something i  agree with ..... i find them quite ruthless of poor recordings..... maybe that is the silver cable..... 
 
But on a well recorded piece.... they can sound pretty amazing
 
have three rigs set up at the moment
 
LCD2 and Kenwood KA3020se
 
L2 silver cable.. Dac-Ah ( BaddyMod level ) with Dared with new tubes rolled to suit L2 signature
 
K550  with Microstreamer
 
The overall signature of sound from each is now pretty no in balance with each other....
 
 The LCD2 sounding the more full and coherent and realistic
The L2 more fun and fast and spacious
The K550 sits in between.. doesnt excel in any of the above but over all steady and enjoyable... its portable too  !!!!
 
However if i am on the road i am using the Microstreamer with my Hd25ii's  this is a great pairing for on the road   light, comfy, robust, no leak in or out.... and they look cool too....

 

[Jonfairway]

The Kenwood KA 3020se makes a really good headphone amplifier
 
It has a discrete driver stage and the Pre amp section is class A
 
all other stuff is by-passable like tone , speakers....
 
Drives my LCD2's easily to mind shattering volumes and is clean all the way..
 
has beautiful mid range and a powerful deep bass... pandering to the LCD2's strengths and the LCD2's calm the slightly bright sounding highs that the 3020se was known for back in 1995
 
the two make a good combination
 
and best of all
 
a perfect KA3020se can be had for £30
 
and it is a damn good amplifier for driving desktop speakers too !!!!
 

 

 

[Jonfairway]

Question is
 
Can these LCD2's really make the L2 look bad with a top range amplifier setup ?  they are not putting them to shame at the moment !!!
 
where do I need to look to get the headphone Nirvana out of these huge headphones ?
 
I am thinking Graham Slee ????
 
 
my god Lady Antebellum sounds damn good with the L2's

 

[AngryGoldfish]

Thanks for your detailed answer! I'll probably hold onto the L2s I guess and use some eq. I've never seen the point of flac before since 256kbps mp3 is perceptually transparent and even streaming downloads from Google music is 320kbps... But now that I have some decent headphones I'll give it another try.

Will also check out AIMP3, though I'm totally in love with MusicBee...

There is definitely an improvement with lossless formats. It's not as massive as going from a £20 pair of headphones to a £250 pair of headphones, but it's definitely worth it if you have the hard drive space. I never used to until now, so I'm currently reformatting everything into FLAC where I can. All the music on my Cowon J3 will remain 320 MP3, but that's because of being limited to 64GB. Even with MP3 I'm not able to have my entire music collection on my portable player. I really don't understand how modern players, once that cost upwards of £500, still only have 32GB of storage capacity. 32GB would be nowhere near enough if everything was in a lossless format.
 
 
On the topic of the L2's, I'm tempted to buy them as an emergency pair. I'm going away on holiday on the 29th of May and my beloved in-earphones broke a few days ago. They've been on their last legs for a long time now and it was foolish of me not to replace them sooner. Anyway, I purchased a pair of HiFiMan RE-400's from China, but I'm worried they won't arrive in time, so I'm thinking of picking up a pair of portable headphones that aren't extortionate and fit my criteria. I'm also looking at the KEF M500's (they're too expensive for me right now) and the Sony MDR-1R's, which are probably not up to the Philips in terms of sound quality, but are slightly cheaper. Ideally I'd get a pair of Sennheiser HD25 Aluminium's, but I don't know how well I'd do with an on the ear design for long periods of time. Plus, it's £200 and I don't know whether I can scrape that. The Amperior is even more expensive.

 

[Jonfairway]

Lossless formats tend to sound a little smoother, same detail and to some a slightly larger defined soundstage, depends on quality of original source recording after all, some are very good....
Subtle but worth while diffference.....
 
I have not had the pleasure of the up-rated Hd25ii's  either the aluminum or Amperior, the second hand pair of HD25ii's i got are pretty darned good all round, and make a very good set of cans for mixing as well as pleasure.....
 
I paid £50 for them like new, so bargains can be had  
 
They are not as sophisticated in sound as the L2, but have a knack of making music engrossing, which is an amazing quality to have...
 
How about a temp pair of Soundmagic E10's  ???

 

[pitchshifter]

Well, I just spent about an hour A/Bing my L2s with some of the new AKG 545s....in pictures online, the AKG looked like it had the full industrial, 'professional' look I was after (no orange!), with the 50mm driver perhaps giving a little more bass without compromising anything else.
 
Not much to say except that I decided to stick with L2s...despite my previous post about the L2s being of lower material quality than the L1s, they are still better (and cheaper) than the AKGs in that respect. Proper leather, much better quality cable, sturdier headband, comfier ear cups.
 
The part that really surprised me, is how can AKG use a 50mm driver yet create a perfectly round ear cup? No ear is perfectly round, so even though the cups look so much bigger than the L2 ones, with zero consideration and moulding for the natural shape of one's ears, the net effect is far less room for the top and bottom of my ears, which were both needing to be 'tucked in' to the AKG in a way:
 

My ears also touched the insides of the AKG, the pleather was a bit more scratchy, and of course being close backed my ears heated up much more quickly, but this isn't a negative against the AKG.
 
Must say that the headband of the AKG is more comfortable though, just due to the flatter, larger surface area creating less pressure per square inch. Now that I'm definitely keeping the L2s though (unless someone recommends another phone in this vein that sound almost like the L2s but are close backed!), I will still attempt to mod them by putting a bit more padding inside and under the centre-top of the headband.
 
Sound-wise, the AKG brings more bass and rolled off high end, which un-EQed does give for an 'easier' listening experience for the AKG for the type of music I wanted to investigate a bit more with it (metal, post rock, natural, foregrounded drums basically). However, the sound of a played bass was more present but really lost the clarity and subtlety that was possible to discern on the L2. This might be due to the open-backed nature.
 
Listening to a FLAC version of the 'Palms' self-titled CD through an L2 made me realise that the whole album is kind of focused around the bass riffs - which was later confirmed by me reading more and discovering that it is a side project of the bass player of ISIS, and he wrote the songs bass first - so if anything, the L2 led me to new discoveries in music just through its clarity! I didn't get any of the same bass clarity through the AKGs - there was more of it, but it didn't bring me any of this recognition.
 
Regarding the high end, the L2 can still be somewhat unpleasant for this type of music, but I figured that since I can make it 'perfect' for my tastes on my Sansa Clip + by just putting the bottom EQ up one notch and the top down one notch, why not just retain the headphone with greater possible sonic possibilities? The treble is there for other music where I need it (sounds amazing unEQed on the newest 65daysofstatic album, for instance).
 
As an aside, I had assumed the monitoring jack out on my M-Audio M-Track would give me the best results for listening, since it was in effect an amplifier for the headphone. Not so - its output is horribly trebly, which is what led to me overestimating the treble on my initial A-Bing with the L1. Through my Nexus 5, Clip+ and even the line out on my Asus Zenbook, the sound is very warm and well rounded. Avoid the M-Track for listening!
 
Having said that, the AKG is definitely probably 'easier listening' for more styles of music - somewhere in between the L1 and L2. But I'm prepared to fiddle with the EQ a bit for the sake of keeping my L2s, 'cause besides sounding better, they're an awful lot more comfortable.

 

[fathom79]

Does anyone know when these are coming out? They are hard to find in the states. I know you can import them but they are so much more expensive to import with the shipping costs and all.

 

[Head1]

Does anyone know how the L2 compares with the HD600 or the DT880? Thanks.

 

[m8te]

Looking to get a pair of the L2s as on Amazon they are down to £152, seems a bit of a bargain. One question regarding the remote, does it have the volume up and down or is it only a mic and play and pause?

 

[DaaDaa]

where is the cheapest place to buy them online inside US?

 

[BB 808]

where is the cheapest place to buy them online inside US?

L2 not available for USA purchase yet. I've been waiting for these to become available here but...nothing.

Looking at this but I might wait until it's available here.

http://www.accessoryjack.com/philips-fidelio-l2-over-ear-headphones-with-mic-for-smartphone-black.html?gclid=CjkKEQjw_N-cBRD2k73X3OjJ8eMBEiQAbdPic8cBTqfRmYYrmBiyzPYDhqUhl7fJzMGLjpYY41TJ0hnw_wcB