General purchase advice: Ask your questions/for advice here!

The type of headphone/amp/DAC I am looking for is (Closed-back, open-back, in-ear, wireless, etc):

My price range is:

I like to listen to:

I will be using them for: (Travel, commuting, home, gym, etc…):

Please follow the above guidelines when asking for help on future purchases!

Cheers and have fun on your journey to new audio gear!

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I’m able to the Arya for around 1300… just wondering what people thought of the Arya vs the LCD X. Which one should I buy? I’m driving these headphones with the Monoproce Monolith DACAMP. Any thoughts or recs would be appreciated. thank you!

My price range is $1600 and under
I like plan to use these headphones for music (all genres), movies and occasional zoom webinar
I will be using them daily

Thank you for the updated guidelines!

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I’ve owned the LCD-X for over a year now and I really enjoy it as a daily driver.

I enjoy the neutral sound signature, and it’s large sound presentation is pretty fantastic.

I haven’t even tried the Reveal plug-in, but I’m curious to since it makes it sound even better according to many reviewers.

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You should and it does :yum:

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Nice!

My main issue is that I use the LCD-X on a non computer setup using a Bluesound Node 2i. It works great, but I don’t think it currently supports plug-ins.

I’ll have to try it out on my computer setup. :+1:t4:

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Headphones for Glasses Wearer
Hi, new to the forum, so hoping I am posting in the right place.

I am looking to purchase a new pair of headphones and upgrade my experience. Based upon the Headphone show video on “Best headphones for glasses” I am looking at an open back planar, but don’t want to spend more than $800 (and he recommended more expensive headphones in that video). So, trying to understand the overall weight and clamp of various headphones and the impact on my glasses.

I listen to mostly Rock / Pop, but with some classical thrown in. I currently use Tidal HiFi with DragonFly Black (with iFi IE Match) and FiiO FH7 (love these) and Grado SR80e off desktop computer and phone (both iPhone and Android with UAAP). The IEM’s work great with glasses and the Grado’s are on ear so they don’t bother my glasses, but looking for a bump up from the Grado (great detail, but short on base and no sound stage).

I was looking at Audeze LCD-X or 2, but thinking these will be too heavy and concerned about reduced treble. Hifiman Sundara looks perfect, but not sure how these will work with glasses. Ananda also look good, but not sure if the bigger earcups will be better or worse with glasses. Interested in people thoughts and recommendations?

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Welcome to the forum!

I actually wear glasses and I’ve found that the LCD-X are quite comfortable (they are on the heavy side, but not an issue for me). I also have the Focal Clear and those are fine with glasses as well.

Both headphones are just short of being too ‘bright’ for me, but are on the right side of that line. I find the LCD-X to be less fatiguing in regards to the highs.

There was one that went up for sale earlier today.

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What kind of frames do you use? In my experience thin metal/wire glasses frames work okay with almost anything. Plastic frames can be an issue, but this is a complex function of head shape, pad shape/thickness, and the general headphone design.

My fleet has included Sennheiser, Focal, Dan Clark, HiFiMan, Audeze, AudioQuest, Grado, and more.

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Unfortunately, I have “thick” plastic frames. My eyes are poor enough that I cannot get the thin wire frames anymore.

In that case I favor very thick and soft pads, so they can envelop the frames without adding much pressure. Pads can often be swapped too. I hesitate to generalize because head shapes are so different. Someone with a thin head may be able to use almost anything, while a wider head can have trouble even without glasses.

Headphones are often like clothes, and must be matched to the user.

I used to have a set of HiFiMan HE-560s (they eventually died; as is common with that model). From the factory they were head murder clamps, but I got some thicker pads and bent the yokes out. After that they were great.

Sennheiser HD-600/6XX/650 can also be murder clamps.

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Glasses wearer here.

  1. Thick pads
  2. Open headphones that use a perforated or “open” structure pad (to ensure the seal isn’t a super important factor). So perforated or fenstrated leathers, or soft velours.
  3. Suede suede suede. Good suede or velour sits around frames much better than leather.
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Not only do they look good but they sound great, imho one of the best headphone under $600 even if it’s way under. I wear glasses with largish plastic frames and the Sundara’s pads adapted to them and formed a shallow crease around the frame branch while maintaining a seal with the skin all around the ear except under the frames (obviously). The crease disappears after 2 or 3 days when I don’t use those phones so I’d say it’s just bouncy enough to have good contact. Open-backs are not as dependent on airtightness as closed-backs anyway, I don’t notice any difference whether the crease is there or not as I sometimes listen to music without wearing glasses and the pad surface is even.

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The LCD-2C would meet your criteria. I wear glasses with thick plastic frames and have no trouble with my LCD-2C. These headphones are also pretty great for rock music, which you mentioned as a preference. You might need a more powerful amp than the Dragonfly Black, though. A Magni 3+ would more than suffice (I use the previous model, the Magni 3).

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Sundara’s are great. I wear thick frame reading glasses and they do fine for me. Sundara’s are the only HPs that sound better than Sennheiser HD-600, that I can afford. But you REALLY gotta break them in. I’m at 160 hours and they are still sounding better every day. (Get out your audiophile test tracks. Whoa, “Saxophone Colossus” Remaster/MQA by Sonny Rollins.)

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Indeed they require quite a long break-in, early on they sound too bright and those godawful high-mids screaming at your head, eesh! It’s something one must be very aware of when purchasing this model or they might just set them aside and never get to know the true personality of what I consider to be the best single-sided planar Hifiman ever made, and they made a lot of good ones, though none with the Sundara’s build quality which is very similar if not identical to that of the much pricier HE6se.

I’d say they require a good 200 hours before they stabilize but once they get there the sound is very accurate with a neutral response and very moderate amplifier requirements. What would be the point in recommending an affordable phone if it demanded unreasonably fancy electronics to be driven right. Of course the Sundara’s performance increases with amp quality but it doesn’t ask for much to start sounding great.

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Man LCD-X need to be added to my list of must hear headphones in 2020 too!

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I own the Ananda’s and wear them with glasses with no issue.

There not perfect, but I really enjoy them. And if you’re okay with eq (I know some people have an aversion to it! :laughing:), they’ll sound even better.

The thing I like best about them is their large sound presentation. It’s not very wide, but it’s just this big sound that really envelops you.

The mids are a tad recessed, and their are some minor peaks in the treble region (nothing glaring or sibilant), and the bass isn’t the typical Audeze ‘elevated’ bass. It’s a very neutral sound that extends well in both directions. I definitely recommend trying them.

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Thanks for everyone input and help with my earlier questions about headphones for a glasses user. I ended up ordering the Sundara’s and received them today. Great first impressions. They feel fine with my glasses and they sound great.

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Let us know your impressions when you’ve gotten used to the Sundaras, I’d be interested to read them. Congrats on getting them!

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