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blorg t1_j9jerk5 wrote

You can look at the frequency response, it is ~10dB below Harman at 4kHz. That's pretty muffled to me.

Or compare with the HD6XX which you own. That, to me, is just about perfectly tuned in the mids. It is not the most technically proficient headphone in existence, but the mids tuning, for my preference, is on point. The LCD-X is WAY recessed, comparatively.

https://crinacle.com/graphs/headphones/graphtool/?share=Harman_AE_OE_2018_Target,HD650_S2_(2020)(fresh_pads),LCD-X(2021)

You can like this and find it warm, dark, relaxed, smooth, all this stuff. I find a -10dB chasm in the upper mids to sound muffled, and I correct it with EQ. It's a great headphone... after EQ.

Anyway, more just making the point you don't NEED to go to >$1,000 to get to "significant improvements". The Edition XS can be total end-game, I have several >$1,000 sets and it competes at that level despite costing much less. I'm not saying the LCD-X is bad either, I wouldn't have bought it if I thought it was bad. I bought it for the bass, and it delivered on that, it has the best bass of anything I have. But it needs EQ to fix the muffled upper mids, IMO.

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jfleysh t1_j9jx3gq wrote

u/blorg I agree with you 100000%. I own a Focal Clear OG, Arya Stealth, and I received the LCDX a couple days ago. When I first put them on I was so frustrated because it sounded so unbelievably muffled when compared to the Arya Stealth. I couldn't believe the hype for these things.

Then I added Oratory's EQ which raised the 4k frequency by a ton and it opened up the headphone a LOT. I think now it definitely compares to the Arya. I still think the Arya does everything the LCDX does and includes extra soundstage so I'm not sure I'll keep these. I'm still comparing the bass between the two so we'll see.

I had the Edition XS before the Arya and it felt cheap to me and also was so easy to fall off the head. Sound was great though.

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johnwall47 t1_j9lc19v wrote

Yea idk what they mean the LCD-X stock tuning is absolutely muffled as fuck. But since they respond so well to EQ I don’t rlly hold that flaw against them. If ur spending that much ur already working on improving the margins of sound quality and EQ is just another part of that, not a major inconvenience at all

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