[Kojaku]

Quote:

 
My budget is actually anything below $1k. I was considering the gungnir but im not sure if I should get it or save up even more money so I can get the schiit flagship. Main reason i skipped the bifrost was because from initial impressions, gungnir trumps bifrost significantly. Im currently using a Lyr so im also not sure how well the gungnir will pair with it

Hm...I wasn't in the same boat, but that's totally up to you. I do think the Gungnir is a definite improvement in terms of imaging and to a lesser extent soundstage, though my recommendation would have been the Gungnir either way . Can't afford one myself, but if that's what floats your boat, man, go for it!
 
Kojaku

 

[justie]

Do u know of any other dacs I should consider?

 

[Kojaku]

Do u know of any other dacs I should consider?

I hear a lot of great things about the HA160D from Burson. A bit above your price range brand new, but I bet there are ones hovering around for less in the sources FS section or even on ebay/amazon.

Kojaku

 

[justie]

I might take a look at it as well as a better look at the violectric dac as well although when i went to the local headphone store I didnt get to audition both in depth. I did test the HA-160 and wasnt that impressed with it

 

[vinyl addict]

Quote:

Does the headphone over stack of books stretching worked for anyone else using the metal foam headband? Ive tried it numerous times but the clamping force just doesnt give. It still clamps down hard on the sides (particularly the area infront of my ears around my sideburns)
 
THese cans are so good and the only thing stopping me from wearing them continuously is the side clamp force :/ i can still wear them the whole day but i still need to take em off every two or three hours

I know Audeze doesn't recommend this but has anyone tried bending the headband?  I assume it's made of a thin metal sheet.

 

[grokit]

You can bend the metal headband some more where it's already bent at right angles, at both ends of the headband.

 

[pp312]

Quote:

I happen to find the soundstage appropriately wide.

 
 
Ditto.

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

 
My budget is actually anything below $1k. I was considering the gungnir but im not sure if I should get it or save up even more money so I can get the schiit flagship. Main reason i skipped the bifrost was because from initial impressions, gungnir trumps bifrost significantly. Im currently using a Lyr so im also not sure how well the gungnir will pair with it

You should go for Gungnir. If you opt for the Schiit statement DAC, you'll be waiting until at least early 2013, if not longer.
And even then, we really don't know what that offering will be, more feature sets you may not use, etc.
 
Bifrost is pretty good, but the Gungnir bests it in every single way. The only other DAC I'd look at if I were you
would be the Metrum Octave.

 

[rezolver]

The clamp does seem to be present for me as well and affects my lower jaw line. The LCD2v2's I have on borrow tend to angle/push themselves towards the front of my face. With a tad more soft padding on the front of the pad, I have a feeling the discomfort would be minimized or completely eliminated.
Quote:

I actually just got the vegan pads 2 days ago. They reduce the clamp a bit but the clamp is still there

 
I understand where you are coming from as that was my first impression of them, is that everything became much more intimate.  This seems to be the signature sound of the LCD2's. I've tried the V200 to see how it affects the sound in comparison to my ROC SA, and found that with the v200, everything is pushed even that much closer towards the listener while retaining the Left - Middle - Right soundstage effect.  On the ROC SA, the L-M-R effect is still present, while the listening position moves further back (v200 = on stage, ROC SA = 3rd row).
 
The intimate sound is something I have become very appriciative of, especially with vocals and female vocals at that, gives me goosebumps. If the LCD3's fix the lack of instrument seperation that I am hearing with LCD2v2's, then that would be as close to a perfect headphone as one could get.
Quote:

Im beginning to feel that the LCD2 has an extremely narrow and quite forward soundstage. Was wondering if there are any dacs/amps which can help widen the soundstage?

 
Quote:

 
Sadly im still using a E7 which is obviously bottlenecking my setup but im looking for a new dac which can help with soundstaging. Right now its like there is right left and middle without alot of in betweens. Like a wall of sound...?

 

[Mr.Sneis]

Quote:

Does the headphone over stack of books stretching worked for anyone else using the metal foam headband? Ive tried it numerous times but the clamping force just doesnt give. It still clamps down hard on the sides (particularly the area infront of my ears around my sideburns)
 
THese cans are so good and the only thing stopping me from wearing them continuously is the side clamp force :/ i can still wear them the whole day but i still need to take em off every two or three hours

If you think the foam headband is bad the leather one clamps 3x harder IME.  This coming from a guy who has a skinny head.

 

[justie]

the intimacy is excellent when ur listening to stuff like vocals or small jazz ensembles but for big complex pieces like symphonies, its too close together sometimes. I still think its my DAC bottlenecking it though :/ 

 

[theophile]

I'm not attempting to hold the LCD-2(rev.2) and Violectric V200 up as some kind of benchmark by which other 'phones and amps should be measured by, but my experience of these two products used together is; They are very transparent to the totality of what is being fed into them. Transparent to the point where the concept of absolutely honest, brutal honesty is what is on display.
 
I have never experienced any components in 35+ years of listening to hi-fidelity systems, that have such chameleon-like ability to shift the presentation in response to what is happening to the system components which are upstream of them. Even if the LCD-2/ V200 combination are not The Best available, their honesty enables a fair assessment of the upstream components' current capability/ operating environment/ optimisation to be arrived at.
 
That is an invaluable virtue.
 
It is so very, very easy to blame the messenger when the problem lies not in the delivery end of the chain, but in the supply end of the chain. The more anonymous that the delivery end of the chain becomes, the more exposed the supply end of the chain  finds itself. Of course intelligently, if one finds oneself in the enviable position of possessing a brutally honest delivery system, one sets-about utilising that honesty to set right the supply end of the chain. Rather than seeking a delivery system which through an inbuilt 'voicing' flatters the sub-optimised  supply system.
 
I know what posters here are saying about the 'flatness' of the LCD-2/Violectric V200, because they won't provide any artificially enhanced soundstaging. Although the soundstage is not inside the head, it will still appear quite flat if the supply elements are for one reason or another struggling to present a deeper stage to them. Issues of coherency within the soundstage and separation of the elements within the soundstage also manifest with this pairing when the supply elements are sub-optimised.
 
I keep using the term 'sub-optimised' because the supply components may be of extremely good quality, but somehow utilised in a manner which is not allowing the full potential of the supply components to reach full realisation. The brutal honesty of the LCD-2/ V200 can be an indispensible aid here to assessment of different strategies for rectifying the sub-optimal utilisation situation.
 
To the supply components we can also here include discussion of the software utilised. Specifically the quality of the recordings used to assess the supply chain. Great delivery components will allow a sorting of the wheat and the chaff when the choice of the software to be used is to be pared down to the most demanding of recordings. A great recording will involve little or no compression of the signal, no artificial reverb, minimal miking, a broad range of human voices through all registers and a large group of instruments. It might be easy to reproduce a solo voice and solo instrument, but keeping large groupings well resolved is the sole preserve of the better components. The best software will distinguish itself over a quality supply and delivery chain, and thus be the best arbiter of the determination of whether the chain is resolving everything well or is deficient in certain areas of reproduction.
 
The LCD-2/ Violectric V200 is a very high fidelity delivery system and that fact plus all the downsides that this type of honesty brings into play, should be kept in mind if the result delivered by them is deemed to be less than satisfactory.
 

 

[rezolver]

^ I WANT what he's smoking... In pounds.

But seriously, I'm glad you feel that passionate about your setup. There are people on here that keep chasing that sound signature without ever attaining it. Sounds like you have.
If I take what you wrote, and substitute ROC SA for V200 and HE-500 for LCD2, that's how I feel in a nutshell. Although, an amp upgrade would be my next course of action and the BHA-1 is looking mighty fine and would be my pick over a v200, no question.

 

[preproman]

Quote:

^ I WANT what he's smoking... In pounds.
But seriously, I'm glad you feel that passionate about your setup. There are people on here that keep chasing that sound signature without ever attaining it. Sounds like you have.

If I take what you wrote, and substitute ROC SA for V200 and HE-500 for LCD2, that's how I feel in a nutshell.

 
 
Same for me on the HE-500 for the LCD-2.2   The LCD-2.2 is not a transparent headphone "IMO" it's much tilted towards the bass.

 

[Kojaku]

Quote:

 
 
Same for me on the HE-500 for the LCD-2.2   The LCD-2.2 is not a transparent headphone "IMO" it's much tilted towards the bass.

I think we're mixing around transparent with natural. If you look at the measurements on the HE-500 (not to hate on it, as it IS a great headphone), it's a bit hot in the treble region. That is, however, the trend among cans nowadays, so it's understandable. I happen to find hot treble intolerable, while many find hot treble to be exciting or even revealing, as a great deal of lower level detail is rendered in the higher treble ranges anyway. 
 
Kojaku