Could I be throwing my 2 cents in ?
I will try and share the experience I had one evening at a friend's place which is not entirely related to the Schiit topic but rather made me realize some things about gear in general.
When I tested the LCD2 and compared them to my K550 ( I know, right ?
) - I made a few fast tests. First off let me start by saying that I KNOW fast tests mean **** ( not Schiit
) so it would take someone days, if not weeks to actually hear the differences between 2 pieces of gear, be it amps, dacs and ( a bit skeptical on these ) - cables. So let me run down what gear we had laying around and what my conclusions were. So there was my Fiio E10 ( non K but the golden connectors edition ), a Fiio X5, a Fiio E12 amp and also my Sony Vaio laptop - wired to a hi-end DAC/Amp ExaSound E20
http://www.exasound.com/e20/Overview.aspx with a AudioQuest Diamond USB Cable - along with my K550s and the Audeze LCD2 ( v2.1 ). So dac/amps solutions ranging from a wh00ping $80 for the E10 to $2.500 for the E20 ( funny model name in my gear list for that evening
). Along side were 2 friends, one of them was the owned of the LCD + X5 + E12 and the other the owner of the ExaSound E20 which was actually a part of a hi-end speaker system that topped the $15.000 mark considering msrp prices on everything, including pretty expensive cables, racks - I know I know, one of THOSE guys
) Only FLACs were used in the listening session.
Now - first off I tried the LCD2s on the E20 and was a bit disappointed - I probably expected so drop on my knees ( I was actually sitting down so that may have been the reason why I didn't haha ). Coming from a pair of pretty bright and "forward" headphones like the K550 the LCDs sounded pretty dark and muffed to me at start. I felt they don't have any details in the upped end ... minutes went by - gone through 3-4 tracks I knew pretty good and I started to hear the details I thought they don't exist - still I wasn't blown away by the sound as I expected, highest level HPs I tried until then were the K550 and the K701 so jumping to a LCD "should" have been mindblowing. Then I tried the LCDs on the X5 + E12 combo ... and thought they sound pretty similar to what I just heard on the E20 - which also surprised me as I was expecting some obvious differences. After a few more minutes of listening I decided to check out my K550 to see how they sound after the 15-20 mins with the LCDs. Again I must state that I didn't find the LCDs to be as mindblowing as I expected. Putting the K550s on - hit play and I started laughing like an idiot in the first 5 seconds of the first song played. The other 2 guys were looking at me like What ? I couldn't believe my ears ... I honestly felt like I was on one of those idiotic hidden cameras shows and someone exchanged my beloved K550s with some crap 15$ phones you would buy from the grocery store. I was like : did any of you just fwcked up my headphones while I wasn't paying attention ?? The sound was sooo forward, so bright and crisp but in a fatiguing way, it was just MINDBLOWING
) Listening to some Katie Melua tracks ( which I knew very well ) and comparing the K550s directly to the LCD2s - I felt like she was screaming right next to my ear on the K550s while on the LCDs she felt like singing laying down on a furry and relaxing bed. Everything was so laid back, so relaxing, if you take account the quality of the leather pad of the LCDs ( compared to the pleather on the K550s ) I actually felt like the LCDs were trying to make love to my ears. I just realized there and then that although I didn't really like the LCDs - I instantly started to "see the light" once I had them side by side with my HP which I was very much enjoying up until then. So the decision to upgrade my HPs came as more of a brain thing rather than a heart thing.
After realizing there aren't many tests that need to be done to compare the 2 HPs as it was pretty obvious where it was going - I started playing around with the LCDs on the other pieces of gear I had at my disposal. Tried them on the E10 alone and AS EXPECTED - they sounded pretty bad - I couldn't put my finger on what it was exactly but it was pretty awful ( yeah go figure the $80 couldn't handle the big-boys ).
I then stared to play around with the E20 vs the X5+E12 combo trying to hear any differences... There were single track tests, and to my untrained wooden ears - they sounded the same. I mean considering the price of the USB Cable used between the laptop and the E20 which was higher than the whole X5 + E12 setup I was expecting more. The other 2 guys said they COULD hear differences and I'm not to say they weren't or it was placebo but really I was expecting something obvious considering the huge price difference. The X5 + E12 with the LCDs sounded VERY GOOD TO ME. I said why not try the E10 - with the E12 to see what's what. Surprisingly, it didn't sound bad at all TO ME which again was a bit of a shock and sudden realized just HOW MUCH importance the AMP plays in a Headphone setup compared the the DAC. What's funny is that I left pretty shaken from my friend - pretty decided to purchase something I wasn't even thinking of purchasing, I know I know - what was I thinking when I decided to try out the LCDs in the first place
I am pretty sure that if I were to have listened to the E20 for 2 days and then got back to the E10+E12 I would have felt some obvious differences BUT this made me think: REALLY WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT in the end ? I already concluded that between headphones the difference was huge, that is BY FAAAAAAAAAAAR the biggest difference in the sound - and the other 2 components although important - a lot further down the line. The AMP is visibly more important then the DAC. But what's the bottom line here - my purpose is to listen to music and feel good about it. Would a pair of LCDs ( and hopefully the HE-500 ) would bring a big improvement ? Absolutely. Would a decent DAC/Amp be enough TO ENJOY MUSIC ? For me it would. Yeah I'm sure the X5 + E12 sounds a bit worse against the E20 or other hi-end combos but for me it's pretty darn close when listened to 20 minutes of tracks I know very well. Why do we need to spend 1 week of crazy ANALytical listening sessions just to justify spending 5-10 times as much as the current dac/amp/cables gear for some differences that PERHAPS are there but DO NOT do anything to enhance the music listening experience too much. I think we're too much drown to the technical perfection which we will never achieve - even if we have millions at our disposal because next year "they" will come up with something "better". Yes Headphones do bring a huge difference in sound - but as long as they are driven properly and you have a decent source - it should suffice the music listening goal. But that's just my opinion - it's perhaps because I don't hear the subtilities and to be honest, I'm not even sure I WANT TO
PS. Ohhhh SCHIIT this was a very long post - sorry bout that =))
