Hmm ,
thanks for the clarification. But,you surprise me again when saying that both LCD5 and Stealth aim to be "tonally correct and accurate" (albeit with different sonic goals)??? I fail to understand what you mean by that?
With my reference material if aiming for the same two criteria they should sound VERY similar, NOT different.
Regarding LCD and complex densely scored symphonic material their former top model LCD4 which is the only LCD headphone I have auditioned,to me exhibited clearly audible colourations and limitations and is a headphone I would not choose for optimal tonal accuracy with symphonic music.
How would you say their new LCD 5 sounds compared to Stealth or whichever headphones you rate as the most neutral and transparent with the reference point I am using?
Cheers CC
Both companies have different ideas about what is "correct". Audeze, for example, doesn't believe that the Harman curve is good, and their goal is making a pair of high-end studio monitors, whereas DCA does follow the Harman curve and its goals, so the tonality of each pair of headphones is slightly different. Also, the Stealth uses a completely unique waveguide between the driver and the ear, which removes a large amount of distortion that people are used to hearing in headphones, which goes back to the point about what people are used to hearing from headphones, which includes a lot of distortion.