Audeze LCD2 Classic Over ear | Open Back headphone | Leather free ear pads

Update: I've been using these for several hours a day for the last 10 days. There has been no noticeable change in tone after more burning in. I'm really happy with them, and have quickly grown accustomed to the width of the sound-stage. These are my initial views after spending several hours last night going through my music collection. I don't really believe in "burn-in" in general, and these certainly sounded impressive straight out of the box. 20 odd hours of constant playback later there hasn't been any sonic change worth mentioning. I'm going to be comparing them to my trusty Sennheiser HD650s, since many people know how those sound and these LCDs are an obvious potential upgrade from them. SOUND Moving from a pair of (very old) HD650s to these it was immediately clear that the overall sound signature is somewhat similar, with enough roll-off in the treble to avoid too much sizzle in snares and hats, or screeching in the high vocal range, but enough to be able to pick out details. That's good, because I like the HD650s slightly soft sound (I also have Shure iems, which are even more rolled off, ideal for long fatigue-free listening periods while travelling) . That said, there is definitely more treble present in the LCDs sound than the HDs. I think I understand now when people call it "grainy", as it does have a few peaks and troughs in the 2-6kHz range, but for me it is very pleasing in tone. Tone aside, it definitely offers more detail, across all frequencies, than the 650s. There is a small but noteworthy bump in response at 1k, which is perhaps not ideal given this is also where hearing is most sensitive, but it does mean that vocals (particularly more "modern" music-style vocals - Radiohead sound epic on these, as does Nina Simone) tend to be very well-presented in the mix. I will mainly be using these for electronic music production (Trance, Breakbeat, House etc), so would prefer a flatter response in this critical area, but, the bump is small enough that it shouldn't cause any problems. I did listen to a few pieces of classical music, and K626 Gardiner Bonney/Von Otter in particular showed that the LCDs are in a different class, though that is as much about the stereo image as the frequency response. Compared to the 650's pleasant but veiled presentation I could really place pick out individual voices from the choir in certain sections. The only downside was that there are a few moments where that 1k hump over-cooks the strong female choral notes when they coincide with that frequency. Note enough to grate however. What also impressed me everywhere was the transient response. From delicate vocal trills hidden in the choral section of Domine Jesu, to the biting full-on kick/bass grooves and electronic plinks in psytrance tracks like Liquid Soul/ViniVici's Universe inside me and Astrix/Avalon Moonshine the LCD2C delivers them all accurately and with punch or delicacy as called for. While this headphone is not as full-bodied in it's bass as the 650, this is mainly because the 650, like most dynamic headphones it seems, has a humped and rolled-off bass response. The hump in the 650s is wide, from 800Hz to 70Hz, with a fairly steady roll-off from there. The LCD2C on the other hand is virtually flat right the way from 700Hz all the way down to 10Hz!! Massive Attack sound immense on these things, and the slightly kooky Luke Vibert track SharpA2, which rattle my Senns, is handled with consummate ease by the LCDs. This does however mean that bass-heads might want to boost in the 100-500hz range to generate the boomy bass that seems so popular. But purists will love the accuracy and clarity of the, essentially bottomless, bass. It has made headphone monitoring bass-heavy tracks so much easier, without needing to cross-reference against my Genelecs all the time. Sound Stage So good that it was actually off-putting. I spent the first few hours listening to a wide variety of 60s-00s "pop" music, and so much of it was to the left in the sound stage that I thought maybe I had a badly-matched pair and the right earphone was dodgy. Turns out that just seems to be the way many tracks were produced, and I'd just never heard it so vividly before! The 650s are very narrow by comparison. So much so that I think it will take some time to become fully accustomed to the very real width provided by the LCD2s as it is a totally different type of presentation. The kick and bass on all the EDM stuff I listened to was dead-centre with everything else dancing around it nice and symmetrically, so it there clearly is anything wrong with the right headphone...! This width is part of why the sound is so detailed and you are able to pick voices out of a choir. The separation is excellent. Comfort Big, heavy, tight, but not uncomfortable for me even after 4 or 5 hours yesterday. The headstrap should be further from the metal headband when on, or padded, as this would improve the comfort. Ymmv though, as I believe comfort depends a lot on head size/shape. These leak noise rather a lot, and don't really cut out any background noise either. They are open, though, so that's to be expected. Amps I plugged straight into my RME Babyface headphone output and it does the business. I'm pretty sure any non-mobile amp will be able to power these. They're only 72 Ohm impedance, and also twice as sensitive as the HDs, so should get plenty loud with even basic equipment. Overall Expensive, heavy, but definitely a fine pair of headphones. Like: Detailed, with great transient response, super flat bass response, and pleasant overall tone, nice wide presentation Dislike: Bulky, 1kHz bump could be smaller, high freq response could be flatter, expensive but quite possibly worth it

Firstly I never thought I'd ever spend this amount on money on a set of headphones. I had tried a number of sets over the years but always felt something was missing. I had luckily came into some money so treated myself. Upon delivery I found out the postage box was the headphone storage / protection box. Possibly not the best idea but Audeze seem to have pulled it off. Taking out of the box they seemed unnecessarily heavy but they fit really well and even after a couple of hours you do not notice the weight. They are brilliantly & professionally made using high class materials that will last. On first using I admit I was not overly impressed & wondered if they were really worth the money. Subsequent plays have slowly bought out the outstanding quality of theses headphones. I can't wax lyrical about the openess of the mids, the depth & fullness of the bass, the sweetness of the highs. The techies can do that. I listen to classic American 70's & 80's rock, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue & my weapon of choice - Kiss. Ultimately it does to matter what you listen to, you will hear things that you never heard before & more importantly hear your music the way it was meant to be listed to. Yes the phones are expensive, but as my header says (for me) these are end gamers. I look forward to the phones developing over time.

Planer Bass what can I say! deep bass clear separation not as dark as others have said originally. take EQ's easily but is not completely necessary & no harsh treble. Only negative is to "cut" cost having just a plain cardboard box makes it look less impressive on first appearance but don't let that put you off from the cans themselves. These are none Fazor implementations to allow the authentic original sound of the 2008 LCD2's.

I'm happy with this headphones

Provengo da una Hifiman Sundara che non mi ha soddisfatto poichè essendo troppo sensibile alle alte frequenze, mi trapanavano le orecchie fino a farmi venire il mal di testa dopo appena 30 minuti di ascolto. Deluso, ho voluto provare queste LC-2 Classic che si sono rivelate sin da subito molto più educate nella zona alta, anche se inizialmente le ho trovate un po' granulose, dopo circa 10 ore di rodaggio sono più vellutate e musicali. I bassi che dire, hanno un rolloff molto stretto ma esteso con un punch fantastico nella zona medio bassa, cosa che con le Sundara non si ottiene. Le medie sono letteralmente DIVINE, soprattutto con le voci maschili da il meglio di sè, il cantante è come ce lo avessi davanti la fronte, meno invece con le voci femminili dove tendono a rimanere dietro, in particolare con le voci squillanti. Hanno una firma sonora calda ed avvolgente, il soundstage soprattutto nelle medie è qualcosa di indescrivibile. Le piloto con il cavo stock attraverso un DAC Aune S6 Pro è i volumi sono ottimi per me riuscendo ad ottenere dei volumi decisamente più alti delle Sundara, anche se credo che acquisterò il cavo bilanciato CBL-XL-1015 direttamente dalla Audeze del valore di 150€ per poterle pilotare attraverso l'uscita bilanciata del mio DAC dove so che da il meglio di sè Credo che queste sono le cuffie perfette per chi come me è sensibile alle alte frequenze, finalmente posso godermi la mia musica per ore senza emicranie. Per quanto riguarda il peso, stiamo parlando di 550gr ma sinceramente a meno che non siate dei debolucci non sono assolutamente un problema, appena indossate non si sentono nemmeno. L'unica nota negativa ma che non intacca tutti gli aspetti positivi è un certo effetto sottovuoto dei padiglioni nelle orecchie ma nulla di che.

Da der Kopfhörer ja immer gegen Monatsende hier verfügbar ist hab ich dann nach langem überlegen ihn doch Bestellt. Und mein Fazit ist, dass ich es schon wesentlich früher hätte tun sollen. Der LCD-2C ist Klanglich sehr warm und meiner Meinung nach angelehnt an seinen Großen Bruder dem LCD-X, nur wesentlich sanftere und etwas zurück steckende Höhen (Was auf keinen Fall heißt, dass er in den Hochtönen nachlässt, er "versanft" nur alles was er zu spielen bekommt) Für mich ein absoluter Wohlfühl Kopfhörer. Es sei nocheinmal gesagt, dass er nicht auf der leichten seite von Kopfhörer liegt (jedoch für mich einer, wenn nicht DER, bequemste Kopfhörer ist den ich je getragen habe). Seine 70 Ohm mit den Planaren Treibern machen ihn zwar auch vielleicht nicht mobil tauglich aber ich denke, dass jemand der sich in dieser Preisklasse einen Kopfhörer kauft auch einen AMP hat um ihn zu betreiben (ich habe mir mittlerweile auch ein Kabel für den Symmetrischen betrieb gebaut und kann nur sagen, dass er sich dadurch noch ein wenig Imposanter in der Darstellung anhört. Höhen sind etwas dramatischer und die Tiefen werden auch einen tick aggressiver, ich bin ein Fan von beiden Symmetrisch und Unsymmetrisch) Ansonsten kann ich nur sagen dass ich sehr gespannt auf die Fazor mods der Hifi-Community gespannt bin und möchte auch schon bis dahin jedem diesen Kopfhörer empfehlen.

The build is like a tank. Everything is quality. The comfort is good, but not the best. The weight is high, but they should break in to be better, as most headphones do. The sound is very good, there is almost no ceiling to the volume these can achieve and still sound clean. Its dynamic, Mids are forward, treble is recessed but not lacking detail, Bass is clean, fast detailed, and subbass is where this can really dig in and outshine most headphones you can get such a beautiful slam out of them and subbass is so deep while maintaining detail in other bands of the EQ, or can enjoy a tame song with plenty of detail. They are forgiving to recording quality and genres. They take an EQ well. The soundstage is decent. Reverb in vocals standout particularly well to me. Price is well, I would say fair (with build quality and American made and sound quality all considered) but I would always appreciate something with bang for the buck in mind (and these are not that). There are a lot of other much cheaper and very good headphones to consider so you really have to think about it. I still have 150$-400$ cans in my collection I love and use. But these edge any of them out in all but the upper air of sparkly cans, and I would say the HD 600 mids are still more to my liking but these are more detailed still to my ears. When it comes to bass, I dont think anything can touch them however if you feed them enough power and the song calls for it they will rattle your skull with not even the slightest hint of giving up.

I fell in love with the original LCD-2 many years ago, and having the LCD-2 Classic meant re-experiencing the quality of the LCD-2 at a more affordable price. The headphones are surprisingly easy to drive, and can be used at reasonable output levels straight from the laptop or cellphone using an appropriate adapter dongle. My headphone amp setup is a Schiit Modi+Magni uber combo, which tends to accentuate the darkness of the headphones to the point that the lower highs lack brightness to drive orchestral tracks. Regardless, the lows are very well resolved, have excellent attack and decay, and bass drum strikes sound more like a pedal striking a diaphragm than thump. Mids are less forward than more mid-centric models (like an AKG K701), placing the singer comfortably in-between the performance at a reasonable distance. That said, the soundstage is wide, but not as expansive as a K701 or AH-1000. Slightly veiled mids, but otherwise soothing to listen to. Highs have enough sibilance to remain crisp, but don't get too crazy to cause listening fatigue. Dynamic range is superb with proper amplification, so you can enjoy the "impact" of soft segments in a piece even at low listening volumes. Comfort is also very good, although you can feel the weight of the headphones if you shake your head. Take note that these are open-ear headphones, so there's a lot of sound leak. Cable could also be a bit longer. Otherwise, a very solid purchase indeed!

Es díficil escribir una opinión sobre estos auriculares, porque intervienen muchos factores que son subjetivos/personales y muchas veces el matiz de pasar de unos cascos de 200 euros a otros de 900 es mínimo, pero ya digo intervienen otros factores entre ellos una pasión irracional por querer tener un poquito más de calidad. Digo esto porque he leido alguna opinión que decían que estos cascos no eran para rock, pop, etc y no estoy de acuerdo, en mi opinión, todos los cascos tienen una firma sonora que los puede hacer más idoneos para según que estilo de música, pero no hay una correlación género musical/precio, en mi opinión. La música que escucho es Metal, practicamente todos los subgeneros, pero sobre todo, black y death, en estos estilos la presencia y rapidez de los graves es fundamental y por ese motivo me incliné por estos Audeze, son el modelo que más se asemeja al LCD-2 original, y al no llevar los fazors, tienen una mayor presencia de graves y ahí está el punto fuerte de estos cascos, ¿unos beats? no, no, no, esos son calientaorejas de lujo, estos audeze aparte de darte unos bajos llenos, tiene buenos medios y unos agudos que ahí están, simplemente están. Tienen una buena escena sonora He notado un cambio radical, porque hasta ahora usaba en casa los AKG k701, que son todo lo contrario a estos audeze, su fuerte están en los medios/agudos, tengo tambien unos B&W P5 y unos IEM, los westone 4R, los dos muy buenos para el Metal, sobre todo los segundos, pero prefiero unos auriculares abiertos para estar en casa. Hace tiempo que estaba deseando un cambio y quería unos planares por su rapidez, al final despues de leer sobre mas de 6 modelos, dudaba entre los hifiman sundara, un sonido más neutro y estos audeze, pero no había leido opiniones buenas sobre los controles de calidad de hifiman, así que todo me empujó a los Audeze. Lo ideal hubiera sido poder escucharlos todos, pero desgracidamente no todos tenemos esta posibilidad y no te queda más remedio que guiarte por opiniones e imaginarte como puedan sonar. En mi caso he acertado. Son unos cascos pesados, pero comodísimos, los he tenido puestos hoy durante un par de horas y sin problemas, no se si es pasión, pero diría que son hasta mas cómodos que los akg (que ya es decir).