I congratulate you on this purchase!
So far, I’ve actually only heard and read positive reviews.
I therefore very much hope that this concept will actually result in a series product.
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I’m about an hour in. Again, no sus or 1266 experience but I am enjoying the hell out of this thing. I prefer it over empy easily and its looking like over diana as well (on my gear at least, which is fairly hampered by being pirtable). My real question is how this compairs to susvara tbh. Hoping to get a sus setup in a month or so though so hopefully won’t be too long
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They look very nice. I like the case too. Glad you’re enjoying them!
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Disclaimer: I am not a reviewer with extensive TOTL experience (had utopia shortly, but diana v2 is the next higher can I’ve owned) and am almost exclusively portable further hampering the stuff I do have (though I have a plethora of totl portable sources and several portable amps that well outperform the GSX-mini i owned previously). On top of that, as much as I try not to be biased, these are $2.5k (may actualy be a negative?) and extremely fucking pretty. I’m sure thats biasing me some how. Now onto my thoughts.
Thoughts:
Got about 7 hours of listening in today. Its amazing how fast you get use to new SQ gains. It was about an hour before I could concentrate on my work and about 1 more before it sounded completely normal. My listening today was mostly weeby edm (porter Robinson radio on roon) in the morning finished off with some relaxing bosa nova style jazz after lunch (last about hour and a half of my day) out of a hugo 2 rca → jot a.
I am currently fully convinced this is the highest-fi experience I have had. Seperation and layering are amazing. The imaging could be better (far shaper image on utopia) but it never once felt smeared at all and movement was well tracked. The instrument texture was on the level of diana V2 and the raw resolution is distinctly a step higher. I’d love to comapire the resolution to utopia but tbh its just been too long since I’ve listened to them so I dont have a high confidence in my feeling.
All that is great, but what realy stands out to me is the timbre. It truly is exceptional at strings and drums. Indont trust my ears on vocal timbre so I won’t comment on the naturalness there, but violin, guitar (acoustic and electric), bass (upright and electric), banjo (if yall have any electric banjo let me know), and drums are truly amazing. The only thing I have heard that had a similar level of realism here is the raal on an mha150 (severly underpowered).
My only real complaint here so far is bass slam/impact. I dont want anyone to take this like the LCD-R doesn’t have bass. It absalutely does. The extension is realy damn solid, the presence is excelent, the texture/control is easily on par with diana v2, and the bass presentation is extremely reminiscent of LCD-X. I just listen at an average of 55-60 dB SPL (yes, I did type that right) and want to feel like I have a bazooka tube lodged in my colon. The LCD-R does not deliver there bass boost on or off (doesn’t change slam at all, just presence). That said, the only cans I’ve ever had that do hit hard enough where I like to listen are t50 mk3 argons and I’m fairly certain that’s just because I could use them higher in volume from a non-existant trebble extension. I have some vauge hope susvara would make that happen, but over all I’m actualy very very satisfied now.
I was actualy gearing up to buy myself a holo may, Rivera AIC-10 and susvara some time in the next month or so. These legitimately have me rethinking that plan. I expect that chain to be better than this one, but I’m just not sure I care. We will see how the feeling develops over the next several weeks, but as of right this second, I want to buy more audio gear to play, not because I’m unsatisfied like I have been since I started my journey. Honestly, its a bit of a wierd feeling. Its safe to say though that I enjoy these quite a bit.
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appreciate the thoughts. I should hopefully get mine mid next week.
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Descriptive.
And telling.
Enjoy.
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I wasn’t sure how saying I like a 2003 civic strapped to my taint would go over so I figured I would sensor myself slightly
Fwiw, I’ve never heard any susvara (or 1266 or d8kp or solitaire) much the less owned one, so this is all based off of my satisfaction level and not raw SQ level
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Effective censoring. I used to run Bazooka bass tubes in my truck.
Got it. Appreciate the context.
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Not gunna lie. I have a 2001 bazooka tube in my bug and its actualy not that bad (that said, my other cars are 80s GM and 70s Italian stock radios)
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Cool. It’s been a while since I’ve heard Bazooka tubes mentioned.
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Was not sure if I was in a headphone forum, or a BDSM forum…
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My dodge omni speakers make me wish I was a masochist
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You should watch the Currawong review. He used the Audio gd master 10 amp and he said it’s even more phenomenal.
Eh, he’s the same YouTube guy who said the Audio GD S19 was the best DAC ever. Go Google that thing. The dac was such an embarrassment, Currawong had pulled his shill review video.
Point is, take what he says with a (massive) grain of salt.
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I wouldn’t call him a shill necessary, but one who tends to remember recent/current items but maybe not compare effectively to other stuff. Several Youtube and web/print reviewers fall into the category too, perhaps most of them. Get emotional, get on a hype train, get views and more clicks, find another hype train, repeat.
Emotion drives a lot of audio decisions in the end. Fact of life.
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Agree with you so much on Curra.
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Hey I wouldn’t doubt it. However, he tried to pull his ass out that video and put a guy who isn’t an audiophile to see his thoughts and reaction to the master 10 vs the Schitt and dude was also saying it sounds a lot better as well.
I think he maybe out of it on many things, yet this seems like a very peculiar unit. Doesn’t work with every amp, so I am guessing you’re fairly limited on options.
From what I have heard there was already 1 that had a driver fail, so I wouldn’t wanna plug it into anything that could affect my warranty and ability to get them fixed once they fail.
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Agree with this. It sounded like he got the OK from Audeze but, at the same time, that was a unit loaned to him vs. buying. I would get some written concurrence from Audeze before trying with anything else, unless you don’t mind losing your monies.
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Yea he actually mentioned that @bigshel99, he actually got permission from Audeze to use the master and master said it can handle a 2 ohm load.
Anything is possible. I don’t want @Eskamobob1 to ruin his beautiful headphone.
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