Hey, guys!
I’m trying to make my mind between the Ananda or the LCD2 Classic. I got a chance to try the Ananda and they were pretty neutral, huge sound, but a very close soundstage. I have heard great things about the LCD2 Classic as been the best “bang for buck” open planar, and also love the looks.
On the other hand, hifiman quality control scares me a bit to invest on them for long term or any Chifi for that matter.
So i’m all ear for your opinions 
I have been looking into the same headphones and reading reviews for a month now and what I have learned that the Audeze LCD2 Classic basically requires to use an EQ. The upper mids and the treble frequencies are quite weird without EQ.
Luckily the LCD2 classic seems to have a really low distortion, so they take EQ very well and the many of the reviewers say that with EQ they are “the best for the buck”. Without EQ… not so much.
Yeah I have done some research on the LCD 2 C. Kind of reached the same conclusions.
I have heard that they are not the easiest to EQ due to, quote “unit to unit variations with audeze”. But personally these sound like a dream to me.
High quality overall, comfort could be very good but also heavy so it depends. Good planar sound for the price (scale and slam). Nice soundstage, decent imaging for the price (but not class leading or anything).
Great bass performance which you could possibly tailor to your liking with EQ.
There is something weird going with the mids it seems that this is the most controversial point of this headphone. This will be possibly harder to fix with EQ.
People seem to agree that there is a lot of detail to be had from this headphone and a generally high quality sound. The thing is that out of the box it is a very dark sound. Some people hate it some love it. Again you could probably bring this up a bit with EQ to tailor to your liking. Easiest would be to get a warm sound or slightly warm sound. Since this is already so dark.
While it can produce detail especially with EQ. Generally it is considered a fun-laid back- smooth sound. Not an analytical headphone
Not sure at all if this can change if you brighten it up. My experience with EQ tells me that you can’t change the nature of a headphone completely. Ofcourse many seem to agree that these and other planars take very well to EQ so this is up to the user to experiment.
I would like to mention that I have reached these thoughts form my research on this headphone. ( I would love to pick one up soon). I don’t actually own so can’t confirm any of this.
So i have the LCD2C since July 2019. It was my first highter tier headphone after several others that are in the 200 € range. It was a huge step up for sure. It looks and feels amazing, build is perfect, very comfortable.
The sound is, like said, dark, relaxing, smooth, resolution is there…everything fine here
After a while i started to research about it and saw EQ mentioned almost everytime someone talks about the headphone. Since im not there to eq everything for myself, i tried a few different settings from reviewers or people in audioforums.
Listening to the lcd2c with eq and than switching it off mid song to compare it without eq is indeed very weird. The headphone seems to sound weird compared to EQ on. You adjust to it for sure and after a while everything seems to be okay again till you switch eq on again.
I want to mention that i can give you a weird pressure feeling because how good the stock pads seal. I hated that, maybe it wouldnt bother you. Depends on the person.
I still have it and still like it, but it doesnt wow me anymore like it has done before. Other headphones have taken its place on my head.
Its a good headphone for sure and it has its own charm.
I have payed only 650€ new for it so it was a good deal for it.
i wouldnt buy it for 899€.
Havent heard the Ananda, so i cant compare here.
I just got my LCD-2 Classics literally 30 minutes ago 599euros BlackFriday deal 
. Did a fast listen with my iPhone and it was a bit meh… (no amp just the phone) Then I came home and connected them to my Universal Audio Apollo 4x and applied the Roon Audeze LCD-2 Classic filter EQ that is provided to Roon by Audeze and they sounded awesome. It is very late here in Finland, so I will do a better listening test tomorrow and add the Harman-curve EQ etc. and compare them to my Sennheiser HD600 headphones.
Remind me if I forget to write here about them.
you forgot : )
And you still have forgotten
So, i am not the original poster but i have spent like 30 days with both the Ananda and the LCD2C, i ended up giving up the two of them for the Focal Clears, here is what i found about the two:
Soundstage: The Ananda wins here, and it is not even close.
Bass: The LCD2C has more punch / slam but the Ananda has a nice texture to it, both are good in their own way
Mids: The LCD2 has super nice mids but they are not very natural and can be shouty at times, the Ananda has super natural mids, not much to fault
Highs: The Ananda wins imo, if you EQ the LCD2C it is pretty decent but still
Build quality: The Ananda feels and looks like a cheap toy compared to the LCD2C which imo is a work of art
The sounds presentation is totally different between the two, the Ananda has an airy and more natural sound, if you listen to lots of classic / acoustic stuff then the Ananda is the better set, but the LCD2C has that “wall of sound” everyone speaks about, it sounds awesome for rock / metal. But keep in mind you need to EQ the LCD2C in order for this comparison to make sense, without EQ the sound is just not right imo. Hope this helps…
It certainly helps, thank you very much