I’ve wanted a set of LCD-X for a number of years now and finally saved up enough to get my hands on a pair.
They’re my first serious headphone so I don’t really have a point of reference to other offerings on the market, but they’re just as enjoyable to listen to as my Neumann KH120 which is saying something.
They feel beautiful in the hands, and despite my concerns over weight, they’re incredibly comfortable to wear. The distribution of the weight works wonders.
I’ve paired them up with a SubPac for tactile bass, and it’s mind-blowing how enveloping the sound is when they’re both dialled in.
I still have mixed feelings on the Oratory preset, but the more I listen, the more my ears adjust.
I found Oratory’s EQ quite a bit too hot in the upper mids. I’m fine with his profiles for most of my other headphones, so I think this may come down to unit variance, Audeze can’t make the same headphone twice and the FR for samples is all over the place. So it’s hard to EQ from third party measurements.
I was using various variations of Oratory’s EQ that brought down the upper mid bump quite a bit:
This is a minimal EQ alternative that just ups the bass and fixes up the mids recess a bit without major changes, this is what I use most these days. It’s a headphone that absolutely needs EQ to sound right/good but particularly with the sample variance if you don’t have your own measuring rig a lighter touch may be worth trying. If you are doing detailed EQ your sample has to be very close to Oratory’s sample and I don’t think that is reliable with Audeze. I do have an IEM measuring rig, and a Euclid, and it’s way off other people’s measurements (which are also all way off each other).