It’s nice. I really enjoy it.
Had rewards expiring here and didn’t know what to do so I bought this stack sans the power Supply which I got elsewhere. What a cute little stack. Mouse there for comparison …
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Just arrived, so these are VERY initial impressions after about an hour. But maybe, just maybe, this may be the best all-around headphones I’ve heard (and for context, my collection is VC, Aeolus, HD800S and Utopias).
Crystalline detail - I thought the Vocals were super-resolving but there’s a depth and three-dimensionality to each instrument that’s striking. Nice wide soundstage - I think that may be an aural byproduct of the space provided to each separate instrument - and I thought the HD800S had that covered.
I suppose there’s a lack of warmth as compared to the ZMFs - with a bad recording, the LCD-5s are like shining a super-bright fluorescent light - detail can spill over into an unforgiving harshness. But I think that’s what I’ve experienced with more poorly-produced or -mixed recordings.
Bass right out of the box is more than sufficient for me - maybe the Focals have more slam but these have real presence.
I find on my A&S Kenzie tube amp I need to pump up the volume more than on the other headphones - to 3:00 or so rather than 12:00 - 1:00. As a result, these pick up a little more on a noise floor, but that doesn’t interfere once the music starts.
So I guess I’m saying that individual alternatives may be better at one thing or another, but the overall presentation of the LCD-5s really presses my “oh wow” button. And when it comes to detail (which matters a lot to me), these are the best headphones I’ve heard.
I really want to spend time comparing each headphone’s different take, but any worries I had that the Audezes would simply provide incremental and non-differentiating improvements (and I definitely worried) are in my rear-view mirror.
More to come - I hope this amateur’s impressions are helpful. And thanks to everyone who nudged me into giving these a try - very, very much appreciated!
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Curious what the input tube is? (curious about the gain)
Stock tubes that came with the Kenzie. Can try to identify. Feeding lo-gain from the TT2 into the Kenzie (TT2 acting as DAC).
The rev 2 kenzie ovation allows 5751 at 70% but you can go with the au/at/ax tubes also. (cleaned this statement up, finding myself repeating myself…)
I have (I believe) rev 1, not the newest version that was announced a few months ago.
6sl/6sn similar to the ax/au tubes in regards to gain. If I remember correctly the Kenzie has the same output transformers as the bigger ben.
Congrats. You might want to consider trying a higher gain input tube (if not already) with the LCD-5, such as 6SL7 or 5751/12AX7.
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Something like this? Totally open to recommendations.
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Yup. When I had my Mogwai SE, I got better results (sonically, noise floor) with 9 pin tubes (12A_7, 5751) over 8 pin tubes (6S_7), so I mainly used the former with an adapter. You might want to determine at the outset whether to proceed with 9 pin vs 8 pin, then determine the amount of desired gain, which will allow you to narrow down to a certain tube type(s) to pursue.
Justin offers an informative discussion about tubes including 9 pin vs 8 pin in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WZ95EsIEkc
I believe the key here is figuring out which gain your intended pairing needs, which is why I have/had 1 or more of each in order to dial in.
I believe the gain of 6SL7 is similar to 5751 and 6SN7 is similar to 12AU7.
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Fantastic - thanks for this.
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I’ve got this sitting around and no amp to use it. Send me some shipping and I’ll get it in the mail probably tomorrow for you
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That’s probably a pretty nice sounding tube.
He should definitely take you up on it
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He did, I’m going to send it out to him this morning. It’s had very little use time, so it should have a pretty good amount of life left.
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@Sturosen I have a 12A_7 to 6SN7 adapter I’d be happy to send along to you as well if you’d like to try some of the tubes @bpcarb recommended. I had a Kenzie and liked the Telefunkens as an input tube with the adapter.
Just pm me if interested. You can have it, just cover the shipping. Shouldn’t be bad from Connecticut to you.
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Excellent! Do you know if they need much break-in time? I’ve got a pair arriving on Saturday, hopefully… I’ve currently got Utopia, VO, and Susvara, but I’ll be putting the VO up for sale; can’t keep everything; they’re great, but I just can’t connect with them like I can with the others…
I’ve read that they come burned in for 48 hours before shipping and a card that comes with the headphones simply says they’ve been burned in. I’ve also seen people in the forum say the sound opened up/improved after a couple weeks (though that could be the people adjusting to them).
I’m in the same position, thinking that I’m gonna have to unload something else, primarily because they won’t get enough head time. But the LCD-5s are staying.
I’ve had headphones (and other gear) that’s needed a good bit of breaking in; in the case of the headphones, I just put 'em on the stand and let 'em run for a few days, and when I put them back on, they sounded REALLY different from when I took them from the box. Same thing with speakers, though I can’t run those all day!
Glad to hear you’re enjoying those LCD-5’s! I’ve never tried Audeze phones before because I didn’t want to deal with that weight on the previous LCD’s. I’m very excited to try these out! Enjoy!!
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