I really came to this way of thinking after trying to listen to rock (especially classic rock like Zeppelin and Pink Floyd) with the SR1a. The SR1a is absolutely sublime for classical, jazz, acoustic, vocal music, ambient electronic and soundtracks but, man, I was not digging it at all for rock and blues. What I pinpointed it to were the electric guitars but the overall sound and the general vibe of the productions as well.
The LCD-4 is pretty good for rock but still a little too smooth and tubby in the mids, a little too refined sounding overall. With rock, I want to hear more grit, bite, cut and raunch - mainly in the high-mids - but the LCD-4 has more forward low-mids. The LCD-4 is just beautiful for jazz vocals like Diana Krall and Norah Jones and small ensemble jazz, in general, but I think a part of that refinement is its pairing with the TT2. It’s a little too polite for rock. It’s like you are in a ritzy dinner party setting with people in tuxedos and one-piece dresses when you want to be wearing jeans in a smoky and rowdy bar/club.
It’s really kind of the same with guitars and guitar amps. There are appropriate ones for particular applications, genres, styles, and setting. One does not use a Dimebag signature model guitar through a Randall solid-state 200w metal amp to play Joe Pass solo chordal jazz or even to play authentic Journey covers although it’s certainly possible for one to fake through anything with such gear. A blues player is going to use a Strat, Tele or something like an ES-335 through a low-wattage tube amp so the output tubes can be pushed harder for overdrive. Metal players primarily get their high-gain distortion from the preamp tubes with multiple gain stages and the power section is mainly just for making that sound louder.
I’ve fully come to see that different headphones along with different amp combinations will suit certain genres and sounds better than others. The requirements for classical, jazz, and acoustic are way different from rock and blues. The same goes for electronic, EDM and modern super slick pop as well as today’s over-the-top metal with their detuned 7- and 8-string guitars that are about going as low as possible while still getting heard somehow. For these genres and styles, clarity, resolution, detail, precision and plenty of reserve power (mainly to push the sub-bass frequencies) are very much desired. But for rock and blues, I don’t think so, which is the same from the guitar playing perspective.
The classic rock and blues players often go for amps in the 15~30 watt range. The more modern (80’s and on) hard rock and metal players will want minimum of 50 watts and very often 100 or even up to 200. It’s not so much about playing that much louder but getting the faster transient attack and the feel of having that much power on tap. The lows will also sound and feel much more coherent, tighter and punchier. The classic rock and blues sounds are inherently lo-fi. They go for what is the total antithesis of what hifi amp makers try to avoid as much as possible: distortion.
I’ve also come to the conclusion that, ultimately, the quality of the source (the recording and its quality of production) is what matters the most in determining what you hear at the end of the signal chain. Again, garbage-in, garbage-out or great stuff in, great stuff out. It’s the same with guitar players. A bad guitar player is still going to sound like crap with a $5,000 custom guitar through a $4,000 boutique tube amp with another $2,000 worth of effects devices. A great guitar player is going to sound way better with a $1,500 production guitar (which is certainly pro quality) through a mass-produced $1,000 assembly line amp (also good enough for pro usage). Jeff Beck plays something like the latter. He doesn’t play boutique stuff and still sounds like God! Jeff Beck can sound amazing with a $200 Squier through a little transistor amp. Well, getting off topic but you know what I’m getting at.
I’ve noticed that ZMF fans are primarily rock listeners. I’ve seen and read reviews from ZMF adherents where they say they haven’t even tried listening to classical and jazz with the ZMF cans so they really don’t know how they would sound for those genres. I thought that was funny. It’s like, “I don’t have time for that. All I know is that I love my VO/VC for what I like to listen to and that’s all that matters.” Haha. Love it! I have to admit that made me want the ZMF headphone (and a tube amp partner) even more for rock! 