[fuzzypickle16]

Hello, and a premature thank you to anyone who can help. I am trying to find a really, really nice pair of headphones, and I think I found what I want. I would rather like to get the Audeze LCD2 Rosewoods. I would just like to get some extra background opinions. To anyone who owns/owned these specific headphones, or something very similar, I would like to know if you personally believe that these are totally worth the $1,000. If any other headphones parallel these and are cheaper, I'd like to know. I really do not want to sacrifice any quality though. This is a major purchase, its not every day that you throw around $1,000, that is why I came here to ask. I was recommended this site by a friend who said that I could possibly get some good help. Any at all is highly appreciated. Thanks again.
 
Here they are: http://audeze.com/audeze-lcd2-rosewood
 
tl;dr version: Are the Audeze LCD2 Rosewoods worth their cost?

 

[thecourier]

Welcome to head-fi
 
First, can you please post your favorite music genres? do you have associated gear (amp, dacs, etc) which headphones have you owned previously? 

 

[fuzzypickle16]

Thanks. I mainly listen to Rock and Roll music, with the occasional drift to pretty much anything. But mainly rock. And no, no other equipment.
 

 

[kyuuketsuki]

these are power hungry, of you have no other equipment you won't get the $1000 sound. You'd be better off getting a solid amp/dac set up and grado 325i.

 

[fuzzypickle16]

Okay, I will take that into consideration
 

 

[thecourier]

Quote:

these are power hungry, of you have no other equipment you won't get the $1000 sound. You'd be better off getting a solid amp/dac set up and grado 325i.

 
Well not necessary, they can be even plugged into an ipod. But always getting a dedicated amp is recommended to get the best out of them. 

 

[kyuuketsuki]

Quote:

 
Well not necessary, they can be even plugged into an ipod. But always getting a dedicated amp is recommended to get the best out of them. 

 
First off... These are Planar Magnetic Headphones he is talking about. An iPod Amp is no where NEAR the powerful enough to drive them. The ONLY planar magnetic headphones that can be driven sans amp is the HE-400. And even that isn't perfect. Heck, my J3 had issues driving HE-400 (the way I expected them to at least), and they aren't nearly as power hungry as LCD-2s. Unless you have Planar magnetic headphones or have demoed them, please don't say things as careless as that.
 
So yeah, you'd want a good amp and a good DAC to get the most out of them. Perhaps you are confused by the "60 ohm impedance" rating, but that is not a good measure of how much power Planar Magnetic headphones need at all. 
 
For $1000 he would be FAR better off getting Grado 325i headphones and a decent Amp/DAC set-up with the remaining ~$700, at least for his main purpose of rock. This is only my personal recommendation though. And I won't recommend amps, because I just started getting into that myself. Other users may chime in with their recommendations. But I'll stick by what I said and recommend not going for LCD-2's as a standalone headphone. 

 

[fuzzypickle16]

Okay, I was looking at a specific amp, but didn't get into too much detail. What do you/anyone think about the LCD-2s and this:
 
http://www.mav-audio.com/base/product/tube_magic_a1
 
Would that be a good combo? And what is a DAC, I tried to look it up, but couldn't find a straight answer that I understood.
 
I would be primarily using these headphones at home, listening to pandora or Itunes on my laptop if that makes a difference. If it would work, I might use them for TV when I play video games, but that isn't my main objective. I listen to music a lot, and am looking for the best quality I can get without having to win the lottery to pay. Im getting close to my limit on cash and just making sure Im not putting money down on something that is unnecessary or overpriced for what its worth. If I am going to pay a grand on headphones, I want all I can get from them.

 

[Oderi]

DAC is a digital to analog converter. Digital file/source -> DAC to convert digital signal to analog -> amp to amplify the analog signal to usable levels -> headphones.
 
For $1k, you're better off getting something like a modded T50RP (also planar magnetic; I've had good experience with my Mad Dog by MrSpeakers) and a O2 + ODAC combo.
 
Don't make the mistake of buying expensive headphones but not the gear to feed them a quality signal.

 

[Focker]

Quote:

Okay, I was looking at a specific amp, but didn't get into too much detail. What do you/anyone think about the LCD-2s and this:
 
http://www.mav-audio.com/base/product/tube_magic_a1
 
Would that be a good combo? And what is a DAC, I tried to look it up, but couldn't find a straight answer that I understood.
 
I would be primarily using these headphones at home, listening to pandora or Itunes on my laptop if that makes a difference. If it would work, I might use them for TV when I play video games, but that isn't my main objective. I listen to music a lot, and am looking for the best quality I can get without having to win the lottery to pay. Im getting close to my limit on cash and just making sure Im not putting money down on something that is unnecessary or overpriced for what its worth. If I am going to pay a grand on headphones, I want all I can get from them.

 
I like Pandora, but it's not the best quality in terms of sonics. Something like MOG or Spotify would get you to at least MP3 320kbps quality, but if you're going to drop 1k on headphones you really should be focusing on CD quality music, IMO. When you say you're using iTunes, are you ripping CDs to your iTunes library or do you mean you're buying music off iTunes? If the former, make sure your settings are set to "apple lossless" so that you're ripping in lossless format, which is the best quality. Or just use a regular old CD player and run it into a headphone amp. 
 
I just don't know that I'd go with something like the Audez'e LCD2s if I was just going to use Pandora. 

 

[fuzzypickle16]

Okay, I kinda see what you mean. But nobody really answered my question about the amplifier. This one.
Would it be a good match with the headphones, because if not, I have to start my search over again. Yet again, thanks to anyone who helped.