Son of HD650

Except there's very little hump on the current HD 600/650. It's about one decibel with the new pads, silver baffles, and current HD 650 tuning. This gives both headphones some extra muscle while still sounding very neutral. The 3k planar dip shelves higher notes on guitars. Since these usually tend to be leads, the interplay between the rhythm and lead guitars in twin guitar rock/metal can fucked up on otherwise perfectly fine recordings.

The LCD-X has better subbass extension if it seals so it will have more THUMP but it doesn't really have that extra muscle.

 

Maybe impressions of the HD6x0 differ due to using a "synergistic" tube amp vs. SS.

When I used the HD650 with a Headroom SS amp, it sounded quite refined. When I plugged it into an integrated AV amp, though nearly not as refined and with uncontrolled bass, the additional power took it to another level in terms of openness and slam. I can imagine with the right tube-esque amp powering it, the HD6x0 could provide deep and impactful sonics similar to the LCDs.

 

Which makes me rethink the whole 1 amp for both LCD-X and HD6x0 solution. Looking forward to trying out the Liquid Carbon, but maybe need to also think about a Schiit or Garage1217 tube amp. More wattage (or voltage?) delivered at 300 ohms is what I should be looking for, right?

 

I've never heard the ATM-50, so can't speak to that; the impactfulness of the LCD-X is in comparison to the 650 and the HP50. And what I'm trying to get across is something more than just frequency response, becuse the HP50 probably has more bass -- but it's not controlled in the same way that it is with the LCD-X, so you just get that diffuse thumpfield feel to it. The LCD-X gives you a sharp, controlled attack; the 650 gives you the control, but not the impact along with the control.

Like, as an example, the bass line in "Get Lucky" -- on the 650, it's present in the recording, and if you listen for it, you can hear it; but you don't feel it. With the HP50, you feel it as sort of a "whump whump whump." The LCD-X gives you tightly controlled individual notes.

(As for amps, I'm listening most recently through the Lyr 2; before that the Headroom Micro. But these same impressions persist even just going direct from a tablet/phone through any of the headphones -- the sound of each is different, but how they sound relative to each other is not.)

 

Well yeah the LCD-X with a seal gives you the thump as the HD 650 starts rolling off before it gets to the 20Hz thump frequencies that feel totally different on mid-field and main speakers due to fully body bone conduction aka "chest thump." As I said the LCD-X lacks that 1-2 db (that's really all it is now and why it doesn't bleed) hump that gives the HD 600/650 muscle, weight, and authority like speakers in a room.

The current HD 650 is a neutral beast on a neutralish amp like a Magni or O2 with an almost linear downward slop to benefit long term listening sessions on capable solid state amps. It's an HD 600 with the slight shout and sizzle damped away. I just plugged it into an okay mid 90s stereo with broken speakers and put on Suffcation's Effigy of the Forgotten CD, the original bassy hit people brutal death metal album. I see what you mean, the bass quantity and slam is a lot more and addicting but it frequency masks/bleeds into the lower mids where the rhythm guitars are. If I listened to them like this, I would probably stick some rugliner in there to clean up the bass but with my more neutral listening preferences, I don't really give a damn as it doesn't raise the lower bass; it just makes the bass the 600 series actually has slightly less wooly which isn't that big of a deal if you accept that is how much bass it actually has.

 

So it occurred to me that I really hadn't listened to the 650 very much on the Lyr 2 -- I had the LCD-X before I got the Lyr/Bifrost Multibit stack, and while I'd plugged the 650 into it a bit, I hadn't really spent much time with that combination. So I did some more critical listening with that, and my immediate thought was: Okay, I was being unfair to the 650. The bass is a lot more present than I was giving them credit for, out of that stack. So I'd walk back some of my comments about the 650's bass being light.

But... then I plugged the LCD-X back in and it's still a no-contest upgrade in every way. Immediately and obviously, it has more impactful bass, it has a treble that is both airier and less veiled, but also less harsh (and I never thought to describe the 650 as "harsh" in any way before). It's more resolving, but also smoother. It's just plain ol' better, to a degree that seems really obvious and uncontroversial to me, such that I really do wonder what other people are hearing to disagree with that.

One possibility that occurs to me: Some people here have mentioned their ears hitting the Fazor things, which mine don't even come close to. But when I smush the phones down (keeping my hands clear of the open back) closer to my ears so that they do hit the Fazors, the sound is a LOT different -- much moreso than if I smush the 650s in. It's almost an IEM-like sensitivity to positioning. It makes me wonder if maybe a lot of the variation in what people hear with Audeze headphones isn't sample variation, but physiological variation in how they're interacting with individual ear/head shapes. Might be some productive pad-modding to be done by someone who's less pleased with the sound they get from stock than I am.

(For completeness, I should maybe mention that I also tried out the HP-50 with the Lyr, to see if maybe that would tame the sloppy bass; I'd never listened to them amped at all before, as I bought them explicitly as direct-from-phone work headphones. Result is: Meh, maybe it's better, but they sound so much worse than either the 650 or the LCD-X that they're only worth considering when you need closed phones or unamped (where the 650 has virtually no bass at all... though the LCD-X is shockingly good straight from a phone, which makes sense as that was apparently one of its explicit design goals). I think through the Lyr, even for pop music I'd prefer the 650 to the HP-50 -- the HP-50 still has way more bass, but the 650 has enough that it wouldn't be worth taking the hit in other aspects of the sound.)

So yeah, my main takeaway doesn't really change too much on the headphones. The 650 is better than I was thinking, but I'd still take the LCD-X every time without thinking twice. (Unless my neck was feeling stiff. The comfort advantage of the 650 is enormous, and if I didn't mostly listen to headphones while lying down, not sure I could tolerate the LCD-X's weight.)

 

Due to circumstances I had 2 new LCD-X at one time, and one sounded like it had a tad bit more bass present than the other.

In the case of HD6x0, how does going from SE to balanced improve things?

 

The LCD-X just sounds like plastic to me and has some upper mid weirdness. Audeze's quality control is so bad though as we're talking about hitting fazors, sealing problems, and channel imbalances all around due to the varying clamp and poorly made pads. The cups and drivers are still incredibly inconsistent too. You can't recommend that anyone really buy one even if certain individual Audeze headphones sound good with only minor channel imbalances. The problems are not worth anyone's time and money.

 

Hello and I have something to say. I rhyme all the way. I can*t rap.

I run HD650 and LCD-X from Oppo HA-1.
Windows 10 USB to the Oppo.
Spotify premium mostly.

From the Oppo:
HD650 are exquisite. Absolutely stellar. Heavenly highs and everything below is dream-like. I have nothing else to say.
LCD-X are different, mostly because they are heavier and feel different. BUT sure they sound better, without a doubt.

I'm not sure there will ever be a son of the HD650.

And I wonder why you would want one.

 

Because even a benchmark product can be improved upon.

 

Of course. But yet to be seen.

 

The Xs are so heavily colored that it's no surprise you'll ether find people who love them or hate them. When I had mine, I was in the latter, but at the same time I could also see myself being part of the former very easily, as I enjoyed the HE-400 (not too dissimilar a coloration) for 2 years prior.

 

A long time ago it was said that the Goldring DR150 was the son of the HD650.

 

100% agree. LCD-X is so much better in every aspect. I had hd650 for years and hd800 for years, but LCD-X beats both of them hands down, but I still use hd800 because the comfort of Audeze headphones is the worst I ever experienced. I absolutely can't understand the hd650 hype in this forum. It has been my favorite headphone but there are much better options right now and to my ears hd650 can't compete with any headphone that is more expensive or even any flagship.