What are your favorite headphones for electronic music and why?

I haven’t listened to any of Hifiman’s offerings. I’ve heard a lot of great praise regarding them, but I don’t find them appealing. Perhaps it’s the QC issues that many people have reported in the past, or the many ‘silent’ revisions. It just doesn’t seem like a brand I want to try.

I really like Audeze’s sound, and in the future I’d like to give HEDD a try. I’m sure they’ll expand their line at some point, maybe a future offering will be compelling enough (the HEDDphone already receives much praise).

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I think high end fatigue would be something to avoid with lots of electronic music. The LCD-X sounds a bit more balanced while still providing that “Wall of Sound” @ValentineLuke mentioned. I think that the importance of the wall of sound can’t be understated for providing a great experience with electronic music. When you go to say Burning Man and listen to giant setups in middle of the desert similarly it sounds as if there is a giant wall of sound.

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Yeah, the build quality on the Ananda’s is not great. The sound is pretty awesome for most genres. I wonder if the Arya with lower bass extension and deeper stage is better for Electronic music or the LCD-X? @Resolve what are your thoughts?

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I think you get the most out the LCD-X if you EQ them. Several people have mentioned this, and Audeze themselves have embraced EQ with presents available on many services.

@metal571 would know more about EQ. It’s kind of his thing… :upside_down_face:

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Yeah as @ValentineLuke said, it’s best with EQ. I think they both do well with EQ though, and my preference in general would be for the Arya, for all genres. The one consideration would be how well the LCD-X slams, and for that I’m not really sure. I haven’t spent much time with one.

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Lots of great headphones being listed. My first electronica headphone was the LCD-2.2 pf. Fantastic sub bass,though the rest of the frequencies werent to my liking.

If you can find a pair,the Sennheiser HD250 is utterly fantastic for trance and other electronica genres for not a lot of coin. Great sub bass and midbass slam. More energy in the highs than the Audeze. However they can be a bit bright in the wrong set-up. They do indeed love tubes to soften the highs up a bit.

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What are your go to headphones now for Electronica @Monsterzero , the Sennheiser? I am pretty treble sensitive.

I think that would be cool, maybe I can work on putting some together across Qobuz, Amazon Music HD, and Spotify then maybe after @ValentineLuke can create on Tidal so we cover the majority of Streaming services.

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Im sensitive to bright highs as well and the HD250s do not bother me,though I could see where it might be a bit bright for some.

My go to headphone for all genres is the VC. Its just pretty much perfect for everything I throw at it. Of course its 25 times more $ than what I paid for the 250s.

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I’ll see what I can throw together. I may do an Apple Music list as well.

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@TylersEclectic how did you feel about the LCD-GX for electronic music? Great review by the way!

I actually prefer the GX to all the other LCD headphones I’ve heard so far… it might not be as detailed but for enjoyment it ticks all the right boxes and diminishing returns etc it is quite excellent. I think that it is very enjoyable with electronic music…and if you have been following my playlists you can tell I listen to a lot of different electronic music lol

I found the LCD-X to be too neutral for my preference, it is technically a better headphone… but I actually prefer the GX to it, plus the GX is more versatile in that I can plug it into almost anything and it will sound good…where as most of the other LCD series really need a proper amp.

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That’s why I asked haha! So how well is the low end? Is the bass pretty tight, well controlled and has some slam? What would you compare the stage to? Or all of the above and how do they compare to the Aeolus!?

Aeolus beats them across the board…in fact, if one had the Aeolus on hand I would just say be happy with that and forget the rest… (but that is my opinion)

As far as low end… it is good, controlled, not super bass cannons… but, not lite either.

Honestly the GX falls into probably for me at least, the best upgrade path up from an entry/mid level headphone, I haven’t heard the new sundara revision but I would say I like the GX more than it, based on memory, so I would say something like

Koss Porta-Pro w/Yaxipads -> HD6xx->Sundara ->LCD-GX/Focal Elegia ->Focal Clears/ZMF Aeolus

or something along those lines, depending on ones preferences… more or less :wink: I reserve the right to change my mind and rearrange lol

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Lol! Sounds good, I think the Aeolus are my favorite for electronic currently that I have on hand. However the stage isn’t as wide or deep for some electronic music and a more open and deeper/wider soundstage would be great. I’m not sure the bass is as tight/controlled on the Aeolus as some planars. The Elegia wouldn’t work for my ears for that genre. I do think there is something about the headphones with larger drivers too that does something special with the genre.

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A few oddities thrown in, but in general a very chill mix.

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I may be in the minority here, but I feel that the Elear with stock pads and a touch of EQ is probably my pick for most electronic music right now.
However, I listen to a variety of tracks, from EDM/trance to a lot of Vaporwave/Synthwave/Lo-fi as well as Psytrance. Some of them are actually well-mastered, avoiding the ‘brick-wall’ syndrome of most modern music.
Other ones I have tried/owned include my modded HD650’s, HE-4XX with sheepskin HM5 pads, stock LCD-2’s (2019 model), and the DT770 Edition.
I find that for certain types of electronic music, there may be a compromise between a treble roll-off (the in-the-club feel) and overall dynamic slam/wall of sound experience.

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I can definitely see that; when I had the Elears I enjoyed them with electronic music. I would say of all the Focal headphones I have heard they were my favorite for electronic music especially with a little tone control via the Loki.

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I have to go with my Abyss TC. Huge soundstage with visceral bass. Still very fast and detailed. The LCD4 would be second.

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Thank you! It sounds like those two are very good for Electronic. Jumping from another thread over to here @antdroid have you listended to the Arya with any electronic music?

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