Audeze LCD2C Great Expectations

That’s great. I still have a problem with an almost 34% price increase over the “holiday price”. What? Where they giving them away at Christmas? Ho ho ho. I know, I know, it’s a great price at $799. I fear we are losing perspective on prices. Look back to the start of Changstar. The HD800 was considered ridiculously priced. So were the Audeze’s. A $300 can was considered a significant purchase. Now $6000, $7000? That wasn’t that long ago folks. Not sure if the improvements are worth that kind of pricing. So what are they really worth Audeze? $600 or $800? Just saying.

 

It's very interesting to remember @Tyll Hertsens raved LCD2 (rev 2 pre-fazor) in 2012 with adding them to WoF. I rushed to a blind buy after reading that review (yes I was a complete idiot haha).. but later found he500 suited my preference better, which Tyll might think just meh (I am guessing based on the fact he didn't post full reviews about any of classic HFMs except this).

After 2-3 years, LCD2 was removed from IF's WOF after several newer competitors appeared in the market.

Now we all are in 2018. Audeze perfected lcd2, Tyll likes lcd2c again. What a circulating history!
The difference is that this time I also liked it very very much (regardless of its significant shortcomings). lol

 

Just wait until the vegan pads get to you, though I'm not sure you are more for a neutral sound. Less hash on the treble spectrum. As for the WOF....I could really care less.....Having your own WOF shows you are not a sheep and you know your preferences. I still feel that the LCD2C works best as a strong complimentary planar headphone, but not so much as a main headphone.

 

Well said! Based on my experience so far, I cannot help agreeing with this statement..

Btw how would you compare lcd2c+vegan pad to your reference cans (I guess Clear)?

 

The LCD2C is probably more neutral and linear but don't sound as open and still not good at imaging. Clear does a lot of things better in terms of technicalities and I find them much more enjoyable. I would say I vastly prefer the clears to the LCD2C even with vegan pads. But then I recently discovered I like dynamics more than planars. I still prefered listening to the andromedas over the LCD2Cs when I owned them both Lol. Just realized this is all before the new preset for the LCD2C on Reveal. I still don't think I would choose it as my primary can.

 

I agree, the LCD2C dose well in genres that have that fast, punchy, deep bass like electronic, modern pop, some rock. But for more mid focused, natural instrument and heavy vocal stuff like singer songwriter, acoustic, jazz, orchestra, etc LCD2C just has too much of an upper mid/treble dip that makes instruments feel a little hollow or dead. It is super laid back, non-fatiguing and easy to listen to, but it just falls a bit short to be a do-everything primary headphone.

 

Yeah I can't imagine recommending it as a single can, even if we find a magical pad that equals or beats the old vegans and is actually available.

You can even and smooth things out, but it won't be a neutral can by any standard without major modding.

 

I'm finding myself grabbing the LCD2C more frequently than any other can lately; objectively they are not as technically proficient as the Clear (I concur with the above), nor as engaging as my LCDX, but the LCD2C are simply... nice to listen to. Sometimes, I want to just enjoy the music, vs. analyze it. I've been in that kind of mood lately, and for that, LCD2C is perfect.

I never feel in the mood to A/B or analyze the LCD2C's performance, and that's a good place to be for me (read: nervosa prone).

 

I got seriously worried once I read...

'...the next thing to become obvious is how similar these two cans sound. The LCD2C seems to be a solid affordable alternative to the LCD-X.'

... since I always disliked how artificially and rather grainy LCDX sounded to my ears.

Given the similar impressions from @Hands (rather rough and grainy sounding even with vegan pads), I guess it is time to cancel my order. Too bad, I was really excited, guys!

 

IMO they sound dissimilar. Listening to my LCDX after LCD2C makes the LCDX sound broken...

LCDX hits harder, and offers more insight into the "stage," as well as detail. But there's something discontinuous about the presentation (lumpy freq response?) that they require more ear/brain compensation to listen to.

 

I totally get this.

It does seem to depend on what one is looking for. It seems to be no doubt that the Clear is the more 'neutral' can.

I'm still experimenting (a frikin' constant in this hobby isn't it?) and my modded Elear (thx Hands) and LCD2F are the most 'neutral' cans I have (EDIT: I'm such a douche...I didn't mention my HD600 because it's on loan). More & more I find myself gravitating to and more satisfied by my Eikon though (usually Jriver or Foobar-Hugo V1-ican pro). IDK if it's akin to the tube/SS thing (stereotype that is, where tubes=musical SS= accurate) but I seem to be going more toward the musical tonality.

I'm going to CanJam NYC this weekend & look forward to hearing this, the AFO & Auteur, but I have a feeling I know which I'll gravitate toward. If the AFO doesn't sound too 'confined' I might like that best, but these might scratch the itch better than my 2F (of course I'll likely love the Auteur and my wallet will cry mercy)

 

Alright, hope is restored on this end. Apologies to all for the noise!

(Not expecting miracles from LCD2C but 'similar to LCDX' would make me worried regardless what headphone we are talking about. Or maybe I just heard two 'grade S' LCDXs? Oh, I rather dont wanna know since there is no positive answer to my question... )

 

If the LCD2C sounds anything like the original LCD2 rev2, then it will sound like this in comparison to the X (lcd2c in green)

 

Man these headphones are so good with dance music. I didn’t expect them to be so quick and slam so hard.

 

As much as I enjoy Tyll's reviews, his "WoF" is worthless, because he just removes cans whenever the next flavor of the month is out. Can you imagine if like, Jerry Rice was removed from the HoF because Randy Moss was inducted ? It's absurd. /rant

The headphones out now are def better than they were. I don't think the prices are justified tho. But that's up to people to decide, the market sets the pricing. Too expensive ? Don't buy them ! I don't see it happening anytime soon. First 10,000 dollar cans are coming, mark my words

 

While I certainly enjoy the LCD-2 (I have a 2.2 NF from August 2013 in rosewood)

It just isn't detailed enough. It has a nice holographic quality, although even that sometimes seems a bit confused. While I certainly enjoy it's bass response compared to the HD800, I often found myself taking it off and using the HD800 instead many times which has better soundstage and details IMO. And that can predates the LCD2 so... it's just slightly veiled to me. The fix is to get a LCD4 if you are an Audeze fan, but at that price you can get Focal Clear, Utopia even SR-009 or used AB1266 PHI... so the value proposition is not there like it is in the LCD2 price range.

Many headphones since then have better detail retrieval so it's kind of hard to consider the LCD series that are not priced insanely to be worth what they're asking when I got my HD800 NIB for 800 and it can compete with even the Focal Utopias in details. And it's soundstage is still the best of all cans I've tried so....Yeah. It's not 2012 anymore.

 

I think it's fair to keep updating the wall of fame. May be you have a problem with his terminology but its usefulness will be pretty limited if there were dozens of headphones that he thought were good some time in the past.

 

We can certainly agree to disagree, it's just how I feel. But as a reviewer we as users were relying on whether things are in the WoF (it's supposed to be an all time list right ? that's what a Hall of Fame is....) to be worthy of buying, and when he removes things so often it's quite annoying. You have companies that still have his WoF sticker on their websites when their stuff is not even in the WoF anymore.

I no longer rely on internet reviewers now, I've learned my lesson that many of them don't know that much more than I do at this point. Plus this hobby is so subjective anyhow. Now I try to listen to cans or borrow them to explore on my equipment since equipment synergy makes them sound differently anyway.

But it certainly does annoy me that cans I've bought get thrown off the list for new cans when they're still available and still considered quite good in their price range.

To be fair, he does still list the cans that were previously there, but it's really muddied the waters and I've lost enthusiasm for IF as a result.

 

I see that you find the terminology misleading, which is fair. I see his WoF as an indicator of what he likes. It's also a good thing to keep it updated even if out current favorite headphone gets thrown out. It just means people are building better things.