No love for LCD-5?

A few years ago, I bought an LCD-3, LCD-i4, Focal Clear, and Sennheiser HD800S. All are still very good. Back then, I compared the LCD-3 and LCD-4 and didn't think the LCD-4 was significantly better. I also compared the Clear and Utopia and slightly preferred the Clear (Utopia was a touch too...

To my ears, the Clear sounds clear and accurate with energetic bass, whereas the Z1R sounds like junk with a poor frequency response and an illusion of clarity from overboosted spike in the highs (the problem is very apparent when listening to acoustic instruments like cymbals). I wouldn't pay...

I've had the Clear for a while now, and it still sounds great to me. But, despite my not using them too often (I rotate through multiple headphones) and being gentle with them, the connection for the short cable recently failed. Surprising to see that kind of failure from an expensive piece of...

Enjoy:

I agree that everything is (maybe) ultimately physical, but I don't think we can expect to model biological systems and minds effectively with the same types of models, especially quantitative models, which are used in physical science. The problem of free will is vexing, and my hypothesis is...

All of our interactions with reality are through models. Depending on the situation, some models are judged to be better than others. No model is perfect, but some can be very good. Models in the physical sciences tend to be better than those in the social sciences with respect to predictive...

For me, when the discussion goes in circles, it becomes uninteresting. It would be possible for the discussions to enter new territory if they were truly scientific, but the predominant agenda of Sound Science is to debunk audiophile myths rather than do science. That's not an unreasonable...

I see that this thread came back to life. I only glanced at the recent posts. I doubt there's much to say and beyond what's already been said many times. People may need to agree to disagree. Here are the conclusions I came to after months of talking to you guys, doing my own tests, and...

Here's an interesting experiment I stumbled on. Play something that sounds great to you on the LCD-3. Now cover the outside of each earcup with each hand for about 10-20 secs. If you're like me, the sound will initially be horrendous, but will get somewhat better over time. Now take your...

I find that if I read a lot of opinions about gear, the body of opinions gives me an idea of what I might personally like. But it’s true that we have to take all opinions with a grain of salt, since they involve an element of subjective perception which can differ among people, differ within a...

I'm subscribed, but haven't been reading the whole thread. Have enough people heard this headphone for us to say how, on average, it's perceived to compare with the LCD-3, LCD-4, HD800S, Clear, Utopia, etc.? Is it just another really good headphone, or does it stand out as something truly special?

When I hear a recording which blows me away on sound quality with a particular headphone, I like to share. With the HD800S, try the album "Nine Firmaments" by Arne Jansen Trio. The sense of realism of the instruments is stunning.

I wouldn't expect a 'reset' effect after not listening to a headphone for a while. The process of perceiving sound produced by a headphone involves 'learning', and that learning can be very long lasting or permanent. The learning can also continue after you stop listening to a headphone, as...

The bolded seems contradictory. You listened to the headphones, took some time away from them, and they sounded better when you returned to them. That's strong evidence that your ears/brain changed rather than the headphones physically burning in.

Ricc is overrated and overpaid ...

That was boring. Hamilton showed, once again, that he's capable of digging to find something more during races.

No pic to share at the moment, I just want to say that I think Allan Holdsworth is the greatest guitarist that ever lived.

This is pretty much what my issue with the Z1R was. There's a pronounced dip somewhere in the upper mids or lower highs, maybe combined with some boost in the highs above that. It creates a sense of solid bass, sparkle at the top, and larger stage, but at the expense of rendering the sound of...

Whether there’s any audible physical burn in is debated, but most people will agree that most headphones will be perceived as sounding better over time. That has been my experience with the Clear and several other headphones.

Yup, can’t really have it both ways.

Give your ears/brain some time to get used to them. The realism of acoustic instruments with the Clear is one of the strong points for me. I play drums and know what real cymbals sound like, and to me the Clear does a great job of reproducing cymbal sounds (assuming the recording is good).

I tried the Z1R and hated it (ok, let's say I didn't like it). I love the Clear.

For me, the perception of openness of a headphones seems to be mostly about how the bass is handled. Open headphones seem to typically have more accurate bass with less tendency towards 'boominess' than closed backs. For some tracks with weaker bass, like some older rock recordings, the bass...

This perception may be partly due to the Clear not being quite as bright as the Utopia, which may make it sound a bit more distant, and therefore more open. I didn't perceive a substantial difference in openness when I extensively compared them, but overall I preferred the Clear a bit more...