LCD-2 using rosewood again

Update: The new LCD-2's use Caribbean rosewood, which is not true rosewood and a different wood altogether though it looks similar.

Noticed the new rosewood LCD-2F's today at the SourceAV and the finish and wood is spectacular. They look better than LCD-4's used to look a number of years ago. What I don't understand is how they can use rosewood again because I recall they originally stopped doing that because it contributed to rainforest destruction and the rosewood trade is often illegal. I reached out to them for comment to see how they are sourcing these. Maybe there's a new sustainable rosewood forest, who knows?

As for the sound, the mids and bass were good but the treble was awful. They had the newer mesh style backing instead of the older foam. They were some of the worst Audeze's I've heard, save a very early pair of LCD-2C's which were more or less defective.

Pictures show LCD2.1 (bottom) in rosewood vs. new production LCD-2F (top). Pics aren't the best but the 2.1's seem to have a light oil finish while the new LCD-2F is like a polished lacquer. Really stunning.

 

Damn I had a driver fail in my LCD-2F which was supposed to be a good pair. Now I’m going to get shitty drivers out into it.

Get your shit together Audeze. It’s been over a decade.

i could care less about the wood. f**k, I think the black plastic LCD-2 Classic looks and feels the best by far.

 

My LCD-2's (maybe 2 years old?) are rosewood with foam and the shinier finish.

I love the sound of mine -- they're just too damned heavy.

 

Agree with @JeffYoung - new production LCD2's (about 4 or 5 pairs) that I've heard since about 2018 sound good out of the right chain. Definitely different from the old LCD2's though if you specifically want that sound.

 

Audeze Support replied back. The new LCD-2F's are made with Caribbean rosewood.

Googling, Caribbean rosewood is not rosewood anymore than pyrite is gold. While visually they look similar, real rosewood (Dalbergia) is a different genus than Caribbean rosewood (Metopium), which is also sometimes called Chechem or Black Poisonwood. Therefore, no environmental sin appears to be being committed, although I am not an arboriculturist, so anyone with greater expertise please correct any errors.

As for the sound, to clarify my comments that I thought the highs on the new unit sounded like shit, I mean the upper mids scoop was the most intense I've heard and the treble was muted, grainy, and indistinct. It's like the highs fell down a hole.

 

I hate to see more natural resources exported out of the Caribbean. In Jamaica the government converted farms that used to provide locally grown food to Jamaicans into sugar cane fields exporting sugar. Now Jamaicans eat imported rice etc. fucked up.

 

As per Tim at Audeze:

I believe you are correct about the differences in types of Rosewood. Caribbean Rosewood is not true Rosewood, but the intent by Audeze is to look as similar as possible to the previously used type. Additionally, patterns in wood will deviate from headset to headset and ring to ring, so any individual headset may not look exactly like what you are shopping for online. Unless bought in person, of course.

 

So I guess that means the new pads don't improve the LCD-2F like they do the LCD-X and perhaps make them sound worse?

 

I don't expect the pads were the issue. I have skinny pads on my LCD2.1 and the switch did not impact the sound much and certainly nothing like the scoop I heard on the current production.

 

Hmmm my experience with the new pads is that they made a significant difference. For the better.

 

It's also possible switching to new skinny pads on my LCD2.1 didn't make a difference because the original LCD-2.1 pads are basically skinny pads.