AmanGeorge

I agree that the Stax is incredibly neutral (probably the closest thing to the definition of neutral that I can think of). That said, the bass reproduction of the LCD-3 is, in my mind, not just a question of exaggeration. While it's certainly on the warm side of neutral, there is bass and low bass information that is clearly present on the recording that is presented with an incredible amount of texture and detail that was (in my opinion, under show conditions, etc.) unmatched by the SR-009.

I wish somebody had told me this BEFORE I went to Denver

Just got back from RMAF. I hesitate to give detailed / definitive impressions given the fact that it was meet conditions (and there was a lot of background noise in the room), but I will say the following... -I found them really comfortable (the earpads feel absolutely amazing) and noticeably more luxuriant on the head than the LCD-2, BUT for those who have a big problem with the weight and clamping, I don't think the LCD-3 is going to be of much help. I also really liked the angled cable at the front - it feels like it's tugging less and isn't in the way as much. -If you're looking for sufficiently different from the SR-009 to justify a supplemental purchase, then you won't be disappointed. They sound very, very different from the SR-009. The Stax is incredibly neutral, airy and transparent; the LCD-3 sounds like the LCD-2 - thick, lush and musical, with the best bass I've ever heard on a headphone. Going from the Stax to the SR-009 was a huge change - I traded breathtaking transparency for the realization that there is an incredible amount of low-end information and richness that the Stax can't quite convey. -I didn't get a chance to A/B the LCD-3 with the LCD-2 while I was there, so I unfortunately don't have a strong opinion about whether it's worth a $1,000 upgrade. They certainly share a house sound, and there is a little more refinement apparent in the LCD-3 sound, but I can't give more definitive impressions than that without hearing them side by side in a quieter place.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/what-perfection-sounds-like/8377/ Anybody familiar with this technology?

Thanks for sharing. Looks like this might put a hurting on some folks' wallets...

I'm just glad this is no longer a meta-thread

I have heard very little about the companies who use soft silicone to make their earpieces (ACS / Sensaphonics), and what little I have heard hasn't been uniformly great. Would be very cool if we could get the best of both worlds (reputable TOTL earphones like JH/Westone/UE with soft silicone eartips)

Yep, exact same unit.

Milk stouts are a wonderful thing...

Hey - it's an amp made by Rethm (my Dad's company). Size-wise, it's a two-box unit (a power supply and the amp itself) - each one is maybe 9"x9"x5".

I've never owned an O2, but from what I've heard at meets it makes plenty of sense to use the O2 as a reference point for the LCD-2. Even if you think the O2 offers a higher degree of refinement, I think the two sound much more similar than different in terms of their presentation. Both have a rather warm frequency response while retaining detail, they are quite intimate, and both focus on precise imaging within a small-ish headstage rather than projecting a huge headstage like an HD800. And I wouldn't be surprised if most people who have a preference for the LCD-2 also like the O2, and vice-versa (although Solude sounds like he may end up being an exception to this) much the same way that folks who like the K701 are immediately taken in by the HD800.

I haven't ready anything except the Hyperion books (one of my two favorite pieces of Science Fiction ever written) and the Terror (which I thought was interesting but a bit slow, with a cool ending). It's interesting to me that he writes such different types of books, but I do wish he would get back to Sci-Fi and out of this historical horror mode he is currently in. PS -Salt Peanuts, if you haven't read World War Z you totally should. Probably my favorite or 2nd favorite book I've read this year.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3243[/ATTACH] Fuck.. why can't I get this to post at full size?

CD Cellar was what came to mind for me as well (it's like 5 min from my house). Pretty good selection of both used CDs and records.

My favorite joke: A frog and a scorpion are sitting on the banks of the Tigris River. The scorpion walks over to the frog and says "Hey, frog - How's about you let me hop on your back and you give me a ride across the river?" The frog looks at the scorpion like he's crazy, and says "Absolutely not, if I let you near me, you'll just kill me." To which the scorpion responds, "Come on, man. If I killed you, I would die in the river!" The frog thinks about it for a minute, and relents. "Alright scorpion, I'm convinced. Hop on." So the scorpion hops on the frog's back and they start swimming across the river. Halfway across, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog looks up at the scorpion, shocked, and says "What the hell, man! Now I'm going to die, and you're going to drown!" The scorpion smugly looks down at the frog and replies, "Welcome to the Middle East, bitch."

That's pretty much how the PS1000 made me feel when I had a listen (and what I remember of the GS1000) - a pillow on a prison bed with a crayon face drawn on it* *funny analogy not my own

earrapeish?

Top-end was definitely a bit recessed and the headphone was clearly voiced pretty far to the warm side of things, but I didn't get the sense that its overall resolution suffered from either of these things. We'll have to wait to hear from the one person who actually buys a pair and listens to the headphones not at the meet (if this mythical creature ever comes into existence).

I thought it sounded pretty damn far from Grado-like - it was very laid back, warm and smooth. Sounded way more like a 650 than a Grado to my ears (and I thought sounded very nice). Unfortunately, build quality and aesthetics were crappy, even for a pre-production prototype (I'm not sure how much more impressive the production photos look to me) - certainly not befitting a $1K+ headphone...

I've got the same old MHD sitting around my house, with a custom power supply he made. It doesn't see much use though, I don't like it as much as my current tube amp and it has a buzz in one of the channels, sadly.

At RMAF they were noticeably easier to drive than the HE-5, so I think you'll be good to go

My favorite closed cans that I've heard have been the CD3K (which I own and love - I think it's worth the wait and the markup) and the D7000s. I thought the DX1000 sounded weird and way too dark. The D5000 was fun while I had it, but the bass could definitely be a little much from time to time. The SRH840 was very nice (especially if isolation and leakage are important), but sounded very clearly closed-in (which the Sony and Denon do not, to my ears). I really didn't like any of the Ultrasones I heard at RMAF last year - they sounded harsh and grainy to my ears.

Yeah, sadly I'm not sure a production version of said amp will ever see the light of day (except as part of an integrated that is being sold in small doses in India).

That's what happens when you re-purpose speaker cables