That super wierd considering the raal tap on the hsa-1b is at least a somewhat common pick for sus and 1266
Not too bothered about them being sold out. Audeze uses this limited edition to test out the waters. If it ends up being schit, you just saved 2.5k. If it is good, they will release more ribbon headphones, probably cheaper
Another review out
Tbh though, I didn’t think it was a super good review… I hate it when people talk about timbre and go “its got a good timbre that’s completely unrealistic”. Imo, the only good timbre is a realistic timbre. Everything else isn’t necessarily bad, but needs to be described outside of timbre. All I realy got from this review is its resolving as shit as there were no comparisons at all…
Yeah, oof…
If they compete with sus like the hype is claiming, thats pretty cheap. Hell, the recommended amps for sus start at like 4.5k and you still have to get the cans
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Even if the test sounds promising, it is unattractive.
For one thing, it’s a limited edition.
Price-wise, well, not for everyone.
Which is a bit of a shame on one hand, as it denies the opportunity to listen to something similar to Stax without leaving a hole in your wallet.
The only thing that is really successful is the optics of the LCD-R. They should keep that for the future, especially for the planar headphones, that would be a hit.
The colours dark red, yellow, blue, pink, green and grey would definitely make the headphones look fresh.
Maybe the crybabies would forget the weight where they always criticise when they have a nice headphone on their head.
Don’t realy get how you can say the only thing successful is yhe optics without having heard it tbh
You know, I was going to joke around and say if anyone wants to offer me 10k ill just ship em now, but not that I’ve listened I think I may need to reconsider. These are very very solid off of initial impressions (aka 15 songs). Never heard sus or 1266 but detail it similar to utopia is my gut check. We will see how opinions evolve over the next while.
Come general aesthetic comments. The grills are prettier than the cup surrounds. Reminds me of an old linnen loom made with brass due to the right hand twill weave. Also, the fazors are massive. Like holy crap. They don’t touch my ears but this will 1,000% be an issue for some
A couple of small cosmetic things. A blip in the powder coating i couldn’t possibly care about, but the knob on the amp still has the spru remnant which is kind of annoying tbh. Its not much effort to check the knows and blip em with a sander yo get rid of that. I couldn’t possibly see a dent from over sanding with where it is, but I can absalutely see the spru.
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Sweet!! What’s on the flash drive?
Not a clue. Havent plugged it in yet
Would not shock me if its their Reveal+ EQ software with a LCD-R preset. But very curious to see what you find out.
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Hm. We will see. Tbh the fr sounds solid at least
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Congrats bro.
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Man, now I’m hype for my pair. I haven’t gotten tracking yet, how has yours already arrived!
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I live like 7 miles from audeze and ordered before even currawongs review dropped
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Not fair! If you live that close you should at least be required to walk for pickup 
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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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Did the warm Filter on the Hugo2 make any noticeable difference ? If not I’m making the assumption that a Holo-May would not give you any more bass “slam”. Of course this is just speculation. It is rumored that the DAC with bass slam is the BiFrost2. Goldensound talked about the Bifrost a fair amount on one of his videos. Another thing I’d love to play with is cables and perceived bass slam. I know many people don’t think cables make a real world difference but I wish I had a pair of Silver cables that could deliver a lot of current very fast so I could hear for myself. I purchased a Lokius along with this LCD-R so I could play with the sound so I can Tweak it if needed without software. Sounds like you are having fun , congratulations on your new headphones. The anticipation is killing me I can’t wait for mine to arrive.
I actualy havent played with filters yet. Thats a good call. As for filters increasing slam though, tbh, I’ve never had them effect that. The clarity and defenition of the impact? Sure, but not the physical impact its self. In my experience that’s more often jusy to do with power or deliver type.
That said, currawong responded to me on headfi and said the slam really increases with more power. I’m fairly inclined to believe that since I can feel it wanting to slam and just not quite getting there. Debating trying an HSA-1B for these tbh
I think this may be a misunderstanding of what exactly a slammy dac experience entails. My experience is that instead of increasing max physicality, it just makes notes that shouldn’t slam (on other gear at least) do so. I will say that increasing sharpness and clarity of that impact and absalutely make it feel greater, but you have to already have some solid slam in the first place
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Mostly accurate here. The warm filter on the Hugo 2 shifts the focus of the FR down a bit and rolls off the highs. It also reduces the amount of upampling before the DAC portion does DAC things. To my ear it’s a more pleasing sound but not as resolving. It doesn’t do much for bass impact/slam either.
Yeah…it was a bit confusing when he gave the most glowing comments powering the LCD-R off the Audio G-d more than the Jot-A. Since the R and A are sold together it makes me think that the less impactful sound was the actual goal.
For some DACs this might be true. I think the BF2 actually is just a more dynamic DAC across the board than many other DACs. Schiit products in general tend to come with more dynamic punch than a lot of their competitors. I think the issue you’ll have more with the BF2 is that it doesn’t have the level of resolution to which you are now accustomed. It’s a fun, punchy, smooth, engaging DAC, but it’s not particularly resolving, at least not nearly as resolving as some of the DACs you’ve been using. I think you’ll miss that most, TBH.
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