Are Audeze really that bad quality-wise?

I bought my LCD-2s in January - in August the left Driver started to make problems.

Fortunately for me, the dealer replaced the LCDs right away, no problem.
The new replacement pair sounded a lot better as well. But you obviously don't have a few
pairs lying around to compare them with.

Now - yesterday the right driver of the replacement LCD-2s started to fail.

I think Audeze has got serious reliability issues, from what I can tell ;-)
Or Perhaps it's just bad luck. Since the LCD-2s have been around the longest, one would think, that they should have ironed out their problems by now!

I like the sound of the LCD2s best - but obviously I am very disappointed.
What should I get instead??

The Ethers are nice but can't compete bass-wise….

 

What is it anyways with the Audeze drivers that makes them stop working? Crap soldering work? Does the driver magically self destruct?
Has anyone tried just re-soldering the driver if they stop working to see if that's the issue?

 

Hifiman something if you care about linear subbass and your amp is warm to dull the upper treble. Or you could go "cheap" with an HD 600/650 and wait and see what the HD 800S actually sounds likes.

 

That is the best HD800 insult I've heard so far, "treble cannon" is down one position.

 

1) Face Tweeter

I like that!

 

Well the HD800 can "become" a reference level headphone,but that really only happens "after" you fix it. On top of that (for my taste) I feel you have to go beyond the "Anax" mod (unless this mod now acknowledges the 800 treble brightness really isn"t solely due to how it is just reproducing the actual treble response as it exists on the recording & gives you the steps to remove the parts that are causing this) (Which by the way only requires you work carefully to accomplish this; but does void the warranty).

Hmmm... Treble Canon definitely fits here ,as Face Tweeter isn"t completely accurate as the HD800 "Redefines" the treble (That"s fine if you prefer Senns version of it I guess).

Still considering the HD800 ? Well come on in, "Modding" is a rewarding activity . As Tyll says all you have to do is "Take Ownership" of your equipment & just "Get–r-done"

 

Modding sounds a lot like "car-tuning". Only a very few people really do know what they are doing, it can seriously damage your car's performance and appearance and usually dramatically reduces the re-sell value.

Not a very good proposition.

 

Audezes definitely had a driver problem on their hands, but apparently that has been fixed. Who knows, in waiting to get my 2s back right now.

The anti-Audeze bandwagon on changstar is very strong though. Little 2db variations here and there cause many people to think they sound trash, but I don't think that's the case.

It is also curious why the LCD2s of late seem to measure worse than LCD2.2s

 

Wow, yup, that's the type of response I was craving for. What do you think are the best alternative options in that range? I do definitely agree with you that for $1-2K you'd expect a little bit more consistency (that's what I tried to say in my original message).

 

Yup, I had first heard it from RD but I had just assumed it was standard CS jargon.

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but speaking of hifiman phones and modding, if you can find a code-x in the used market, I have only heard good things.

 

What is there to get about headphone modding? For some cans, just a bit of damping material in the back of the cup makes a big difference. And it doesn't take a genius to open the cups on most headphones and apply said materials.

 

Is there a linky to that ? Can't seem to find it anywhere.

 

Thanks for the answers everybody, after auditioning Audeze vs. Sennheiser for the 3rd time and Audeze LCD-2.2f all sounding like different units (one was veiled, one was much more "neutral")...

I've ended up with HD800, picture effin related. Anax mod pending.

Surprisingly, I don't hate those straight out Chord Mojo.

 

Just to be fair, my LCD-2 sounded like the left driver was dying one day, and then it turned out the stock cable that Audeze shipped with the headphone was somehow really bad, so a cable swap was all that was needed for tip-top performance again.

However, it still sounded like ass as Marv said. Drastic measures had to be taken for me to bring it back to about a C grade, but an A grade LCD-2 is still substantially better.

At this point in time, I think... if you'd like a sound similar to the LCD-2, you may well try to find a used pair of HE-6. It's about the same price, and it's much better sounding IMO.

 

I was really hoping that i'd like their sound. I got to auditon both LCD-2F and LCD-3F through my own system and I'd put them on bar with something like HE-400 (original). HE-400i for example is noticeably better to my ears. These sampled Audezes are not contenders for totl status. I quess I got to hear bell curve (that must be a broad curve) beginning samples.