Listening to Leonard Cohen´ “You want it darker” made me think that I need darker, warmer and more laid back headphones than the Hifiman Ananda. Ananda is nice, but I never found myself lying in bed after a long day and relaxing with them - i think its both due to their clear and neutral sound, but also due to the weird big cups, which I never found 100% comfortable. I like the Ananda more for movies, gaming than music tbh. So lets go warmer and darker. (a big stage is also a plus)
Is there anything else besides Audese LCD 2 Classics I should consider? The budget would be around 800ish euros / 850ish dollars
Nighthawk Carbon and Nightowl Carbon are fantastic Dark headphones just hard to find due to discontinuation. Used to be high priced now you can get them around minimum of $300
The verum 1 are also a bit dark and spacious. Not overly dark but very relaxing with good balance and macro dynamics. Not very detailed tho. There is also a rather long wait to recieve them but they punch way above the $350 that they cost.
Honestly I think you’re on the right track with the audeze stuff as long as the weight isn’t an issue
maybe consider the sony mdr-z7, it has a very relaxing chill out sound signature imo, not necessarily dark in the entire high frequency range but not fatiguing whatsoever (also super comfortable)
I wouldn’t call them dark personally. I would say they are balanced W shaped, while leaning towards being warm. The KPH30i are darker, if you want something dark.
The LCD-2C are warmer than the LCD-2. With the LCD-2, it depends on which version/revision you end up with. The current LCD-2 is much more neutral sounding than the older pre fazor LCD-2.
The link below explains how to tell a fazor and pre fazor version apart.
Did you ever do a little write-up comparing your new-to-you pre Fazor LCD-2’s to your LCD-2 Classics?
I know part of that would just be memories, but I am curious old non Fazor vs new non Razor.
I don’t plan on doing a long write up on the LCD-2 Pre Fazor…but I might do one for the Aeolus seeing as it is now my very favorite headphone I own. But here are some major impressions between the LCD-2 pre fazor and the LCD-2C
The LCD-2 pre fazor has the better bass extension and doesn’t have wonky treble like the fazored versions or the LCD-2C. The LCD-2C sounds more grainy and compressed to me, whereas the LCD-2 pre fazor sounds natural and open. The LCD-2C starts to really fall apart at higher volumes…the pre fazor does as well but at a much higher volume (a non-listenable volume I should add as it is painfully loud).
The LCD-2C actually doesn’t sound anything like the pre fazor LCD-2 at all, IMO…not even close. The LCD-2C has a peak in the mids from 1 to 2 KHz and a 10 KHz peak that separates it from the LCD-2 pre fazor. Those 2 peaks completely separate the 2C from the pre fazor LCD-2.
The other big difference is that I feel the LCD-2 pre fazor has a wider soundstage than the LCD-2C, and also sounds more open…way way way more open.
It also should be highly stressed that the drivers that Audeze used for the LCD-2 Pre Fazor are no longer in production as they use a completely different driver for the current LCD-2 Fazored and LCD-2C. The LCD-2C has a slightly higher impedance than the LCD-2 prefazor (LCD-2C is 70 ohms, LCD-2 pre fazor is 60 ohms).
