[xgeekgammax]

I am currently saving up for a LCD-X. I am not a sound engineer or a DJ. I watch movies and play games and mostly get high and listen to different types of music. I like feeling immersed in what I listen to and upgrading to V-MODA for a punchy bass and Hifiman - Sundara (for my first experience of a wide sound stage) has helped me achieve that. I'm trying to bump it up another notch. There's alot of talk of mixing and referencing but I am just a leisure listener. any recommendations?
ideally its <$1300 but feel free to suggest your own pick for the most immersive headphone out there.

P.S. I understand that this is also subjective to each person's experience of immersion.

 

[Audio Aficionado]

I have no experience with the LCD-X and very little experience with planar magnetic headphones for that matter, but in my experience, the most immersive dynamic transducer headphones i've owned would be (in order of most immersive to least):

Bowers and Wilkins P9 Signature.
.
.
.
(a big gap) then:
Fostex TH-X00 Purple Heart
Ultrasone Pro 900

All three have a fun sound signature, but the P9 has the highest level of sound quality and is much closer to neutral/reference level. The P9 easily has the most 3 dimensional sound stage, though the TH-X00 Purple Heart has the widest. The Pro 900 has a very energetic sound signature and it's easy to get caught up in the music, especially electronic music (such as EDM), but the P9 has even more energy..

 

[serman005]

You might look into the ZMF line and see what you think. It's possible one of them could work for you.

 

[buke9]

I am currently saving up for a LCD-X. I am not a sound engineer or a DJ. I watch movies and play games and mostly get high and listen to different types of music. I like feeling immersed in what I listen to and upgrading to V-MODA for a punchy bass and Hifiman - Sundara (for my first experience of a wide sound stage) has helped me achieve that. I'm trying to bump it up another notch. There's alot of talk of mixing and referencing but I am just a leisure listener. any recommendations?
ideally its <$1300 but feel free to suggest your own pick for the most immersive headphone out there.

P.S. I understand that this is also subjective to each person's experience of immersion.

Yes immersion is going to be subjective at the least. I think it has zero to do with soundstage and all to do with the feeling of the song and how it hits you. I have the HD-800’s and are some of the best at soundstage and can be totally drawn in by a song from my Bottlehead Crack and 6xx’s and just don’t realize that time is passing until the song stops. It isn’t soundstage it is what you like with some really great tunes .

 

[HBen]

I kind of agree and disagree with the previous poster(s).

Immersion is indeed very subjective but I still think that technical factors and things like soundstage do or at least can have an effect on your subjective immersion. It does have a lot to do with your state of mind, the lightning, how comfortable your chair or sofa is etc. but all that aside I still think some headphones can be more immersive than other headphones simply because of their capabilities which shine more than others when all the other factors are right.

I would definitely count stax headphones on the list of headphones that are capable of delivering high immersion, but also abyss headphones.
Of course it also depends a lot on your music preferences etc. For female singers I find no headphone more immersive than my stax 007's for example. For listening to an acoustic guitar trio I would go with my stax 009's but for pop that's a different story. As so often: pick your poison