wider soundstage, better bass, more detail
Stock, too shouty for my tastes. All mids baby.
@Resolve EQ profile, completely different beast. I’ll keep tweaking it a touch as I learn it and to suit my ears, but off the bat its damn close to right. But so far, EQ’d, excellent headphone.
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DAC502 has Audeze specific EQ … something to be considered - ?
Thanks to @taronlissimore and headphones.com, I received my LCD-5 this morning. I was late to the party in ordering, so these arrived sooner than I really expected.
I got about 4 hours on them before having to run to the hospital (long, non-interesting story and I’m not the patient), but initial impressions are super-positive … superlative even.
Most interested to do extensive side-by-side, level-matched, comparisons with the CRBN (among others). Though at first blush, I’d say these are the closest thing I’ve heard.
Definite keepers, even after only about four hours listening.
I must have the same sized head as headphone model/test stands, as they are very comfortable, and the initial clamp force wasn’t apparent after a couple of minutes (and initially was much lower than, say, the RAD-0).
Seem to really want an amplifier/source with solid current capacity/delivery and high slew-rate over needing lots of raw power. Some former-favorite high-power amplifiers (that are not always so high power at lower impedances, let alone very low impedance) haven’t shone here the way I expected them to.
More testing time needed to figure that all out, though.
I can say that no amplifier is even remotely needed with a Chord DAVE, Hugo 2 (or even an RME ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, single ended or balanced) … they are incredibly dynamic, resolving and engaging driven directly from those sources. So putting an amplifier in there is, at least with the admittedly limited listening I’ve done so far, something you’re going to be doing for flavor rather than clean power.
No desire to EQ these at present, and the couple of EQ profiles I’ve tried do not work for me/my rig.
Really impressed.
(With all due caveats for new-toy syndrome, first few hours listening, and lack of time for detailed comparisons).
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Audeze confirmed your amp impressions regarding power/current:
“LCD-5 will definitely scale with better amps, but what you are looking for is not the max power rating (2W is plenty), but a fast amp that can deliver the instantaneous current demand. This is hard to tell from specs.”
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I’ve tweaked Resolves EQ a bit since having a good listen. I tend to like a lot more bass than you do, so no suprise there. But I also have a few frequencies that trigger me, so I’ve dragged down the 3k region a touch more, and the overall boost to the highs, brought that down a bit too.
Listening to the below track, late at night, off the TT2. Incredible. Haven’t felt that way about a headphone for a long time, and I’ve been through a lot of quality gear.
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Don’t forget we probably listen at different levels (equal loudness contours), and we likely have very different hearing profiles (mine currently measures much closer to a 25 year old female than the 51 year old man that I am) …
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I’ve seen you on weekends, not too dissimilar looking to a 25 yr old female.
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I also don’t mind the stock cable. Which is a stark difference coming from the Susvara.
In two minds if I make a custom one for it though, apart from preferring aroudn 2m, not 2.5m, I have some very very nice copper litz (and expensive as fk) here that comes out thicker and softer than the stock Audeze cable. This, though it’d be going Furutech or Switchcraft on the connectors not Eidolic for my own, this was for someone else.
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I thought it was pretty good, and certainly non-microphonic and very flexible.
HiFiMan’s cables are atrocious.
I am starting to think they do it on purpose to take the attention off the cheap-looking/feeling build of their headphones.
I pretty much use my own, modular, cables for everything. In the case of balanced feed to the LCD-5, it’s an Eidolic Peerless (seems to be discontinued) 4-pin XLR, and Furutech mini-XLRs on the headphone end.
And, of course, my proprietary twin-interleaved quad-helix geometry … 
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You’re secretive cable winding and treatment process. Yeah yeah.
Us plebs (people in Australia where its hard and expensive to get anything, and people without a electrical engineering background) have to just buy the best wire we can find.
The stuff I have is 22awg of metal, OD of each wire of 1.9mm. Has a nylon or cotton core and fairly thick jacket, but extremely soft and no-microphonics. And litz of course, need to have litz when leaving it all exposed for the world to see like a nudist. EDIT: Wire is also Cryo Treated. Not that I could tell or check though.
Think I’ll make a furutech mini XLR one, probably a lightweight heatshrink splitter, and maybe even a right angle 1/4" to suit my desktop use (pushes the cable sideways so it doesn’t clash with the keyboard!).
I’ll send you one of mine if you send me one of yours 
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Well, the treatment process is just electron-beam irradiation (a not particularly uncommon industrial process) to improve the flexibility of the sheathing and reduce microphonics.
And then cryo-treating, which shows visible (under an STM) changes in crystal structure/boundaries, but otherwise is a good way to legally say “my cables are cryo-treated” and not necessarily much else.
Litz is lovely.
As long as you’re not doing electrostatic cables …
One of mine is pointless, being a modular system …
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Those HiRose connectors you use for your modular connections cost a pretty penny to get here, I think I looked at them last year. Same with the Lemo variants, though the HiRose seem a bit more compact overall and visually appealing.
Also starts getting hard to work with using thicker wire, even squeezing this 22awg onto say a 4.4mm pentaconn gets iffy. And thats IF you can even get 4 of them through the connector body.
Anyway. LCD-5 cable good. Might make one still.
LCD-5 headphone good.
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I have a big head too. On the stock headband, Im at full extension, and its probably about right. Clamp is reasonable, not super high like a D8000, but not loose.
The big head headband is arriving today, apparently not many have got their hands on it yet, our distributor has asked I provide some feedback to pass back to Audeze.
On board for delivery, so should be here soon.
Will give me something to do to distract me from this 2 day long Zoom Webinar on Structural Steel. Very dry.
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Bought in bulk (which is getting harder to do), the 4 you need to make ONE modular cable is about $100. That’s without amp and headphone end connectors, or wire, or the build itself.
There’s a definite reason why my cable system only makes sense if you have multiple amplifier connection types feeding multiple headphones.
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Yep. So thats USD, then add a buttload of postage and convert to USD, ends up adding $200+ here. As you say, only really makes sense if you have a lot of gear, chopping and changing. For me here, it’s just cheaper to make a full new cable for someone.
I’ll take some snaps of the headband change over process when it comes. Curious what part ships, just headband itself? Rods / yokes / housing? We shall see!
The band has arrived.
Its the carbon fibre top, leather suspendsion strap and the housing part that holds the rod.
Dimensionally they are identical. I’ve been told it purely adjusts the clamping force, so my guess is a slightly different thickness to the carbon fibre part, to reduce the spring constant on it.
Will fit it tonight and see.
EDIT: I just put it on given its a 5 second task. Same clamp force. Legit think they just sent me the stock headband. Sending the model number that came on the bag to them to see that its right. Or maybe at full rod extension the clamp is basically the same between the bands anyway.
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What are your thoughts and impressions comparing it to the Susvara that you have/had? Sound, build quality, etc.
Stock or EQd bud ??20char?
Both? (20 chars too)
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