New LCD-4 vs Utopia shootout from Innerfidelity.

LMFAO!

 

Don't be an edgy turd. Tyll is by far the most honest professional reviewer around. You may disagree with his tonal preferences but I've never been steered wrong by him (as I share his preferences). He's the only professional reviewer I trust is not going to hype up shit that has no merit.

 

Don't be an arrogant anus.

So you love the HD800, DT880 and K701 then?

 

does anyone think that its possible that focal did tune their review pair sent to Tyll and other reviewer differently?

I find it very strange that the review pair was tuned darker. what a weird coincidence. I find this very alarming. hard to believe focal in all this

 

He's an island of sanity among audio sites that are often more phool than phile.


.

 

Sorrodje, some lower number pairs in the same batch behave like all the other utopias. Tyll's pair is a singularity (pun not intended), within the batch.

 

So much drama about those cans

Ali

 

I really doubt it. It would be very silly for them to do something like that. Tyll goes to events and listens to many different pairs of headphones. If a company was thinking of sending him a differently tuned pair, they'd have to realize that eventually, he'd hear or measure another pair and realize that it sounds different.

 

This exactly. I could imagine a manufacturer considering what Tyll likes when designing their headphone sound overall in order to get his recommendation, or simply to have the can sound good. But spending the time to tune ONE pair on the chance he'd like it more than the standard product line and then never find out he'd been tricked is pretty far fetched.

Reviso: I could conceive of this if it was a smaller company and the product was a dog. A stupid marketer might ask the engineers for a specially tuned 'reviewers batch' of cans if they thought they had nothing to lose. But that's not the case here. These are excellent headphones and a respected company with a reputation on the line. I just dont see this happening.

 

No shit. Ridiculous. If they could do that, they'd make the whole lot of them the same way, tailored to Tyll's preferences, and then sell a boatload since half the headphone planet seems to follows what Tyll recommends.

BTW nothing against Tyll, he's been doing the headphone thing since '93, has listened and paid his dues in full. It's more the idea of using another persons findings and tastes to define their own. Seems to occur a lot here.

 

I don't blame Tyll here. But It is bit sad that one reviewer has so much influence on the whole industry...

First, the 4000$ headphones was stated by Tyll to be best of the best. And i am guessing that Focal did get ton of sells because of this statement. (They actually used Tyll's review-video on the Utopia's website)
Every other TOTL headphone was bashed because of this.

Now many people prefered LCD-4's over Utopia (Bob Katz one of them).
In the original LCD-4 review Tyll stated that LCD-4 did had "too much air" in the treble-section, and because of this it was boring. So at the time HD800S was the winner here. Couple of months later HD800S was removed from WoF. (Because it was too thin and analytical)

And Finally, we found out that out of 11 pairs tested. 1, only one. Did had frequency respond that corresponds to the Tyll's preference.... Every other pair is bit "treble happy"

I am not saying that Utopia sucks or LCD-4 sucks or anything like that. I am just saying that it is bit sad and worrisome that "defective" unit has so much influence on the market.

Just my two cents, but something smells fishy here....

 

That's pretty much the essence of it.

 

I struggle with that aspect of this job for sure, but...that is my job. Theoretically I act as a surrogate who has power for those who don't have that power alone. Very fortunately, forums and social media do a pretty good job of that as well. Welcome to the Fourth Estate, baby.

I don't want to do this on IF because I'll get too many randos to deal with. I'm interested in getting about four pairs of the 200 Ohm version of the LCD-4 for measurements. If anyone is interested, and lives in the US, I'd be happy to pay shipments both ways. Please PM me if interested. I'll post here again when I've got enough on the way. Thanks so much.

 

It's pretty sad that the requirement for testing multiple samples seems to be increasing along with the price of these "TOTL" headphones. My respect for @Tyll Hertsens has only increased from shedding some light onto his findings with the LCD4 and Utopia. He cared enough about the accuracy and integrity of his reviews to proactively measure multiple HD800S units to make sure that the bass distortion was accurate/consistent (which it was), but it should be embarrassing for the manufacturers involved if Tyll has to do more work to double check their QA process before he publishes reviews.

 

It's not exactly his fault. And take a look at the other sites in that group, and you will see names much, much bigger, and much, much more influential in the world of audio and hifi: check out their sanity levels! And that, for me, now includes names that I used to have respect for.

Hats off to Tyll's sanity, experience and basic decency. Which doesn't mean he's always right or anybody has to agree with him.

 

I would definitely like to see multiple 200 Ohm version of the LCD-4 measured.

It might end the debate that every headphone can vary wildly from Audeze.

 

Hey @YesThisIs welcome to SBAF!

Take a few minutes and head over to the must-read-for-new-members thread:

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/must-read-for-new-members.3/

Then go to introduction thread and introduce yourself:
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/new-members-introduce-yourself.17/

Again welcome to SBAF, hope you'll like it here.

 

Check...one, two...is this thing on?

Really need some LCD-4s to measure if possible. Thanks!