The SBAF Headphone Compendium

Hifiman to me is a land of soaring highs and terrible lows. Sus is a towering achievement, many of their inexpensive headphones are quite good, but Arya stealth magnet is to me among the worst timbred headphones, and Jade II one of the worst estats in terms of sound.

 

That was such a disappointing waste of money to try. Such a plastic sound and garbage build quality. Nice bass extension though…

 

Any mention of the pre-fazor LCD-2? These things are sought after as much as OG HE-500's, and some are just quite overpriced. Yes they are thick and not the greatest at detail retrieval, but they still have something quite special about them. Yes, the more old school Audeze laid back sound, but just way different than the newer LCD-2C's.

 

I used to have a pre-fazor LCD-2 that I sold a couple of years ago and I've missed it. But I recently got the RAD-0 and I feel like it captures a lot of what made the LCD-2r2 special while having much better resolution (not to the level of the Utopia or Verite Closed, but somewhere around the Atrium, I think). It is thick without being too thick and it's got more macrodynamics than most orthos that I've heard. @Tchoupitoulas left a positive review in the RAD-0 thread that I quite agree with.

 

Judging by what I've heard from some circa 300$ offerings from China (FiiO FT3, Moondrop Para), we might get something interesting sometime soon from them. It's not there yet, but they're getting there. I'm sick of always having to use the 30 year old HD6XX design as some benchmark and always looking at trade-offs if I'd like to get something that's better.

 

This would be great fun. I can toss my original HFM Code-X and HE-4 in there. Love those things to death. I hope they never die.

 

Unlike others, I simply do not miss my pair of significantly heavy, clampy, and sweaty circa 2012 Audeze LCD-2 headphones. They gathered dust for years until I finally gifted them to a good friend whom lusted after them.

 

I'm trying to post less cuz I feel bad adding noise but:

@Hrodulf I don't see what's wrong with a design from 30 years ago still being a standard. Sure it's far from perfect, but while I'd jump to a Utopia if budget allowed I'm actually pretty damned happy with the HD600s (provided they've got pancake pads) still, and don't miss the HP-3s all THAT much other than the biodyna slam, great headstage/layering/directionality, and just a great amount of rumble.

@purr1n Just feels like a lot of people, i.e. regular consumers, tend to overestimate how much things actually COST. I have a bit of context now for how gross the markups for a bunch of in-demand items actually is and I gotta say it almost makes headphone margins seem generous by comparison. The fact that folks in CN can make comparable products for MUCH less than it'd cost people in the western hemisphere is unsurprising.

 

Ok, I get it. I was only trying to point out that the LCD-2pf IS a classic just like the many others mentioned (HD600/650, DT770). And although yes, they are harder and harder to find these days. However, they do show up from time to time (almost as often as older EC amps). They may just be more unobtainable now because people like me hold on to them. I also forget how old they are. I still think 10 years ago is 1990, lol.

And yes, old Fostex orthos and the others mentioned, that is a different thread. I did not mean to insinuate you take this thread that far. I get it.

There are rumors all the time saying that the HD600 and HD650 are going to be discontinued or they are already discontinued, yet I still see dealers selling new models and they are still on the Sennheiser website. I keep waiting myself, but nothing has excited me more than my HD605's I got awhile back in just starting in this hobby, maybe the ETA Genesis-G v1.1 300Ω, but those are more of a one off custom tuned pair. But everyday I keep gravitating back to the HD650's because they do so much so well.

 

It might be helpful to include some of the Fostex/Denon/E-Mu Teak headphones with the biodynamic/biocellulose drivers.

They get less attention now that Drop no longer sells the TR-X00 series, but they have their fans, and headphones with these drivers do to have a nice sound to them. They're snappy but not too sharp in the leading edges, and they have a pleasing and distinctive tone to them. As closed-backs, they have great, fun bass. The ZMF Atrium, open and closed, are the best implementation of these drivers that I've heard.

(I get confused by the terminology, are they're "bio-cellulose dynamic drivers" whose name gets shortened to "biodynamic drivers"?)

 

I totally agree for IEM's and DAC/AMP/electronics things. Full-size headphones seem different for me, there's not that much frequency in product releases and in terms of tonal balance they seem to on the right track at least. For my ears the FT3/Para are closer to the mark than just about everything Beyer has put out. In other words - I see some method to the madness. Of course, just like there is SINAD myopia (willful and not), there's also similar for frequency response. But being able to consistently hit a target response with physical design seems promising to me. Hopefully, they find the right target to hit...

I'm just tired of being disappointed with shiny new stuff.

Unlikely. They sell like hot pie. HD660Swhatevskies should have replaced them but instead the old guard got a facelift.

 

IIRC they're nominally "bio-cellulose", but the Foster folk coined the term "biodynamic" cuz it sounds cooler? Found this ages ago and I've just been going by the definitions herein. I remember wanting the GR07s years ago, still never gotten to hear the legendary originals, hah.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bio...e-recent-iem-example-vsonic-gr-07-r07.568694/

Oh yeah it's fun rooting for the underdogs lmao, I'm with you there. Still, there's something fun about how the like of the SM57 in mics is still a standard despite it being superseded by newer mics.

 

Very well said, they were indeed a horror show back in the early days. I hated mine (circa 2012) immensely both sound performance and fit wise.

 

Very appreciative of this thread. I've largely been away from shopping for and auditioning headphones for about 6-7 years now and both the quantity of new models and the sheer uptick in prices have kept me away (to give an idea, I still consider $1500 for a new HD800 to be high end, but fair and anything past that to be "better be blessed with audiophile holy water and come with a gold-plated serial certificate"). FWIW, I've been in a position where I can use speakers regularly, but for HP's I'm in the camp of sticking with the HD650 (the 600 is too bright for me) and my daily driver was/is a Mr Speakers Mad Dog, but have been eyeing the ZMF options and possibly the HE-1000, since it appears to be regularly marked down.

 

I knew there were some early issues, but I thought this was more cosmetic issues on the wood band. Unicorn headphones are the opposite of a compendium for sure. And people always be hot unplugging and hot plugging headphones at meets.

I guess my LCD2r2's don't have any of these qualities you describe. Although they are a later model right before the fazors were added. Not sure what "grade" they are, someone else who has heard all 3 grades will have to figure that out. I guess I will enjoy them until a driver goes bad.