I spent a little time this evening A/B'ing between the HE1000 Stealth and my LCD-3F.
My immediate, overwhelming reaction to my old favorite, the Audeze, was VEIL! DARK! CONGESTED!
I've put in so many hours the last week listening to the Stealth, I recalibrated my hearing. I swear the LCD-3F never sounded so dark before. In fact, I remember being mildly disappointed it wasn't darker when I first acquired it years back.
After letting myself reacquaint with the Audeze, the sense of darkness never went away, but the veil morphed into fullness and body. With the HE1000, there is so much air and space between the instruments, but with the LCD-3F, there is a thick, warm pool of music connecting all the instruments. It's not like there isn't separation. You can easily pin point where everything is. There's simply an audible presence uniting them all.
Another thing I never noticed before about the LCD-3F, is the vocals sound a little... funny. First off, they are much, much smaller on the stage. The Stealth, on the other hand, gives you larger vocals, closer to you. But also, on the LCD-3F's vocals, there is a quality I struggle to define. Almost... squeaky. Not sibilant. That's entirely different. In my experience, the LCD-3F isn't sibilant. No, this is just a subtle weirdness. Almost like the singers are making a funny voice on purpose. Again, not something which ever jumped out at me until I heard the how profoundly natural the vocals on the Stealth is.
Other than that, there's the obvious things, like the Audeze has a thicker bass presence, at least in the upper bass, which is likely the source of all that fullness. However, the HiFiMan has more sub bass, I feel. Gives it a deeper rumble, but a cleaner, quicker sound. And of course, the HiFiMan has more treble. No surprise there. The LCD-3F sounds dark and rolled off up high. While the HE1000 is bright, airy, and detailed.
The soundstage on the HE1000 Stealth is grander in all dimensions. Particularly height. They are markedly wider and deeper, but good lord do these have a tall ceiling! The HiFiMan is infinitely more transparent and holographic, with significantly better resolution, and sharper detailing. As a result, I must say, it's also far, far more immersive.
If the HiFiMan HE1000 Stealth was overly bright, energetic, and in your face about it, I'd gladly retreat back into the warm embrace of Audeze. Honestly, that's kind of what I expected with this purchase. But the Stealth is not like that. It's easy. Effortless. Relaxed. Somehow, it achieves all this awe-inspiring performance without breaking a sweat. Never does it attack you, demanding your attention. It does it all naturally, with refinement and maturity.
When I first put on the LCD-3F, I thought, "Oh my god. The HE1000 Stealth has ruined my favorite headphones! I'm going to have to sell the LCD-3." But maybe that's not the case. While I very much favor more what the Stealth is doing, they are different enough that I could see myself going for the Audeze when I really want that dark, lush sound. The problem is, the HE1000 is quite warm and musical in its own right. The treble is bright-ish. Especially compared to the Audeze, but the mids are easy and organic and warm, and just so bleeding natural. I worry there may never be a case where the LCD-3F presents as the better choice.
We'll see. If you see my LCD-3 on the Classifieds, you'll know why.