Here are my thoughts on LCD-2CB vs Aeon2 Noire, with a short side trip to the Lagoon, after 3 hours of listening today.
Overall:
- Audeze LCD-2 Closed Back has a very wide soundstage (closed back to closed back) with very good positioning of the instruments. It is overall reasonably neutral, with reasonably strong bass, a hump in the mid and a dip in the higher mid. That gives it a bit of a dated sound for some music when coming from the Noire, but also noticeable without A-B comparison. It's quite unwieldy in hand but still very comfortable on the head. If I were to keep it, I'd have to invest in a stand for the desk and IEMs for travel on top of the LCD-2 itself. It feels like a liability rather than an asset - I would use it despite itself, just for the great sound. It reminds me of a Chesterfield couch with brandy and cigar - a relic of the past, perhaps?
- Aeon2 Noire: Soundstage is much more limited (ear to ear, max), though it seemed to improve for some sounds when I started using the pads. Still far behind the LCD-2. I would describe the FR as strongly V-shaped. Bass and treble are very pronounced, to the point where some music becomes unlistenable. The pads help in tuning the treble but not the bass. It's a very practical set of headphones, easy to handle and they collapse into a practical fistful. They can travel. They're thoroughly modern, like a Scandinavian couch in a black&white room with gin&tonic. Non-smoking, of course.
- Compared to these seniors, the Lagoon is obviously cheaper, particularly in its build and fit. It hurts with glasses and feels cramped. The plastics also completely gave up on me and started disintegrating. Still, the sound is fairly good considering the price difference (4x cheaper). Bass doesn't extend so deeply, mids are congested and treble is not very present but the overall sound is pleasing. It's a third-hand worn down sofa, torn jeans, beer straight from the bottle, but boy, we're having fun!
This is causing me a bit of a problem because while I like a lot about the LCD-2, I don't like how unwieldy it is. I mean, if you ship your headphones with its own suitcase, perhaps you have a situation. The sound is also not really crisp in the upper mids, which is a shame, as it's overall really quite incredible. Soundstage, stereo imaging, detail in bass, rich mids, it's all so good. On the other hand - the Noire is absolutely brilliant as a physical object. But I really had to put it down mid-track on many occasions. The bright treble and heavy bass is just too fatiguing, even with the pads in some cases, and they cause the mids, which are already recessed, to not come out at all in some cases. Unfortunately, they are definitely going back. The LCD-2 - still in doubt. The Lagoon, well, I have it and it's taped back into a usable shape. It won't be going anywhere
Detailed listening notes:
- Marillion - Bitter Suite and Heart Of Lothian. The bass is pretty heavy on this album and the Noire renders it rather boomy. LCD-2 really brings out the 1980s production and sound, which makes it sound quite dated, but positions the instruments quite well. Despite that, it's clearly better than the Noire.
- Metal/punk: Jesu and Exploited both fare better on the Noire. Its V-shape doesn't bother in this case and suite the aggression. This is confirmed with other rock music (CPeX, Curve, Temple Of The Dog - though the latter is also really nice on the LCD-2).
- Electronic music: depends. Fluffy Clouds by The Orb is unlistenable on the Noire. Hi hats are so incredibly sharp. The pads fix this to a certain extend, but the bass is also overwhelming. On the other hand, Hajnal by Venetian Snares is slightly better on the Noire. I actually prefer the rendering of the violin over the LCD-2, and the V-shape suits the aggressive electronics quite well. In complex industrial wall-of-sound tracks like Benevolence by Deutsch Nepal, the detailed imaging and accurate mids of the LCD-2 help disentangle what is going on, which is very pleasing. It also helps with tracks by Crim3s (Salt) and Crystal Castles (Alice Practice and Crimewave). The Noire has problems on these three tracks, rendering a mid-tone noise on Salt as upper mids, and congesting the bass on Alice Practice where the bass line disappears behind the beats. I checked Crystal Castles on the Lagoon as well, which gets congested just about anywhere in the FR and turns it into a mess. But still a fun mess!
- Nick Cave (People Ain't No Good) and Tom Waits (Underground). Waits' voice has some treble because of the rasping timbre. Because of that, it's a bit aggressive on the Noire, which highlights this treble and surpresses the general mids timbre of the voice a bit. It's much more balanced on the LCD-2. With Nick Cave, the voice doesn't have this and sits nicely between the bass and the cymbals on the LCD-2. The Noire emphasises these two instruments, which jams Cave's voice claustrophobically between the two. It's a little bit ugly. LCD-2 is clearly better for this.
- Post-rock (Sigur Rós, Radiohead): the LCD-2 is subtly better for positioning subtle background sounds and for the voices, but the Noire does quite well.
- Classical: depends. I listened to less classical than usual today, but overall the LCD-2 is better. In Beethoven's 5th (Abbado, 1st movement), I expected the Noire to excel. However, because it's already powerful, the LCD-2 sounds better. The mix on this recording is has very beautiful mids and the LCD-2 renders it beautifully. In Beethoven's 7th (a personal favourite, Harnoncourt version, movement 3), the mix is a bit more laid back and the Noire actually brings out more character. In Sally Whitwell's beautifully musical rendering of Philip Glass' Etudes (listening to Etude 6), the LCD-2 brings out all the fun. The Noire renders it rather cold and some notes rather harsh. No thanks - there are plenty of sterile versions of the Etudes if I'd want that. I want Whitwells because of the fun way she brings them, and the Noire doesn't give me that.
Edit: all of this was listened to on my MacBook Pro 14", which has a built-in headphone amp. About half was uncompressed CD rips. The rest was high-quality MP3s, with a very small minority streamed from Apple Music (uncompressed if available).
