[BeAsTMode4MVP]

    I wanted to get some opinions on listening to lo-fi recordings, as well as recordings from the 60s and 70s, on headphones of this caliber. The general consensus of the LCD-3s seem to be: transparent, great bass response and impact, elite midrange, good (but not elite) soundstage. This type of sound signature very much appeals to me;I have only one concern.
 
    I would like to hear the music the way the artist intended, but I don't want the flaws in the recordings to take away from my enjoyment of the music. I would like to hear the forums thoughts on listening to older/less than stellar studio recordings on the LCD-3s. Thank you.     

 

[MacedonianHero]

Garbage in = garbage out. If the bulk of your recordings are poor, either look to upgrade them or buy a much cheaper headphone.

 

[BeAsTMode4MVP]

      Thank you for your reply. I was not referring to the bit-rate quality of my music collection, but to the equipment and production techniques (or lack thereof) of some of my favorite artists over the years. I am not sure I described my question clearly enough, I will try to give some examples of some recordings that come to mind:
 
    Elliott Smith debut "Roman Candle" - recorded in his basement on a 4-track recorder, The Pixies "Surfer Rosa" (along with pretty much every other album Steve Albini has ever been involved with), The first two Big Star records are notoriously bright sounding (as with much of the music from the 70s).
 
    I would like to hear what other members have to say about listening to these type of recordings on the high end "Flagship" headphones of today. Thank you.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

    I wanted to get some opinions on listening to lo-fi recordings, as well as recordings from the 60s and 70s, on headphones of this caliber. The general consensus of the LCD-3s seem to be: transparent, great bass response and impact, elite midrange, good (but not elite) soundstage. This type of sound signature very much appeals to me;I have only one concern.
 
    I would like to hear the music the way the artist intended, but I don't want the flaws in the recordings to take away from my enjoyment of the music. I would like to hear the forums thoughts on listening to older/less than stellar studio recordings on the LCD-3s. Thank you.     

 
Waste of money.
 
You don't buy a $1,000,000 sports car to idle in the parking lot at some dilapidated gas station food-mart and never drive it.
 
If all you want is a true to source headphone, there are plenty of mid-fi headphones that will do what you're looking for, for way less. $100~300 is all you need to spend for a good piece of hardware, without essentially wasting money in an offensive way.
 
DT880
HD600
HD650
HE300
HE400
AD900X
Mad Dog
 
Schiit Magni/Modi or Fiio E10 where needed.
 
In fact, if your collection was recorded poorly, I would actually suggest the HD650.
 
Very best,

 

[brokenthumb]

Quote:

 
Waste of money.
 
You don't buy a $1,000,000 sports car to idle in the parking lot at some dilapidated gas station food-mart and never drive it.
 
If all you want is a true to source headphone, there are plenty of mid-fi headphones that will do what you're looking for, for way less. $100~300 is all you need to spend for a good piece of hardware, without essentially wasting money in an offensive way.
 
DT880
HD600
HD650
HE300
HE400
AD900X
Mad Dog
 
Schiit Magni/Modi or Fiio E10 where needed.
 
In fact, if your collection was recorded poorly, I would actually suggest the HD650.
 
Very best,

 
Agreed.  The HD650 has a way of making anything sound decent.

 

[tdockweiler]

"elite" mid-range and "elite" soundstage! Wow!
What does that sound like and how do I know if I'm getting the fully elite HD-650?
I knew something wasn't right with my HD-650.

 

[eucariote]

I'm with you - some of my favorite music is raw and made with very simple production (GBB's Bee Thousand, PJ Harvey 4 track demos, Sebadoh's Bakesale/The Sebadoh, Mountain Goat's Full Force Galesburg, Dum Dum Girls).  In fact one of my most discriminating tracks for demoing headphones is Sebadoh's So Long.  It has heavy distortion, clipped guitars and minimal production but I find that very few headphones can do justice to the bone-shaking drums, sweet vocals and guitar crunch in that song.  For example, I've sold off Senns because are too polite with this song, SR series Grados don't carry the low-end, Denons can't place the vocals, Shures can't reproduce the drums, etc.  LCD-2/3 have very fast dynamics, which handle clipping without decays and very well-controlled bass that can show off texture and details in the bass, which makes percussion realistic and satisfying.  If anything, purposefully flawed production poses a bigger challenge to audio gear imo.

 

[BeAsTMode4MVP]

    I am getting some great replies, thanks guys!
 
    Mal, I do own the HD600s and have been happily listening to them for 2 years now. My purpose for starting this thread was to get some opinions on how people felt listening to these type of recordings on the most transparent headphones in the world.
 
    Again, I am not sure if you mistook my first post as referring to the bitrate of my music or not (see my 2nd post for clarification), your reply is interesting nonetheless. Obviously, not all the cds i own are old/lo-fi, but I thought this was an interesting topic to discuss.
 
    Eucariote, that is an extremely interesting perspective. I do own Bakesale and Bee Thousand, but I haven't heard anything from either of these groups: Mountain Goat's Full Force Galesburg, Dum Dum Girls. Any album recommendations to start with for those groups?
 
    Obviously, not every album in my collection would fall into this category, in fact, there is alot of very well- recorded music from the 60s and 70s, or from any era for that matter. 
 
    I look forward to others chiming in as well, thank you. 

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

    I am getting some great replies, thanks guys!
 
    Mal, I do own the HD600s and have been happily listening to them for 2 years now. My purpose for starting this thread was to get some opinions on how people felt listening to these type of recordings on the most transparent headphones in the world.
 
    Again, I am not sure if you mistook my first post as referring to the bitrate of my music or not (see my 2nd post for clarification), your reply is interesting nonetheless. Obviously, not all the cds i own are old/lo-fi, but I thought this was an interesting topic to discuss.
 
    Eucariote, that is an extremely interesting perspective. I do own Bakesale and Bee Thousand, but I haven't heard anything from either of these groups: Mountain Goat's Full Force Galesburg, Dum Dum Girls. Any album recommendations to start with for those groups?
 
    Obviously, not every album in my collection would fall into this category, in fact, there is alot of very well- recorded music from the 60s and 70s, or from any era for that matter. 
 
    I look forward to others chiming in as well, thank you. 

 
Heya,
 
I actually understood you, both perspectives.
 
A lot of the old jazz I like was horribly recorded. And listening to it on the LCD2 and HE500, I can honestly say, is not worth the expense. Granted that's just my preference. I personally don't like to listen to half music, and half distortion, hiss, noise floor, pops, grain, etc. Even if it's part of the nostalgia or "truth" to the recording. It's straight up unpleasant. For $2k, I'd rather buy speakers for this level of listening and enjoyment of the music.
 
Very best,

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

      Thank you for your reply. I was not referring to the bit-rate quality of my music collection, but to the equipment and production techniques (or lack thereof) of some of my favorite artists over the years. I am not sure I described my question clearly enough, I will try to give some examples of some recordings that come to mind:
 
    Elliott Smith debut "Roman Candle" - recorded in his basement on a 4-track recorder, The Pixies "Surfer Rosa" (along with pretty much every other album Steve Albini has ever been involved with), The first two Big Star records are notoriously bright sounding (as with much of the music from the 70s).
 
    I would like to hear what other members have to say about listening to these type of recordings on the high end "Flagship" headphones of today. Thank you.

I was actually referring to both (low bitrate and poorly recorded music). 

 

[Dubstep Girl]

grados make older 60s, 70s and poor recordings sound pretty good. probably cause the midrange is brought out so well. but they sound harsh on poor recordings when it comes to loud/overly compresssed music, because it tends to sound harsh and shouty/noisy.
 
the hd 650s make those recordings sound dull, making u feel like ur missing alot of detail, but are very forgiving towards highly compressed music and poor digital recordings in general, as well as harsher/overly loud recordings. hd 650s make youtube music videos sound really good.