HiFiMan HE-500 Vs Audeze LCD-2 Rev 2

[Happy Camper]

Gang, I know I'm bumping an old thread but the HE-6 on a quality speaker amp with some power is just amazing. The HE planar gang has reluctantly followed and found what I have. The 6s are amp eaters and theory be damned. I've heard it said they don't need speaker amp power but once heard, they enjoy the discovery and quiet down. A local head fier was skeptical and had some very good headphone amps in the Beta 22, Burson, Bryston. All balanced. When we hooked up the speaker adapter, he hung his head in amazement. Feeling curious with this new found sound, he then pulled his 300 w monoblocks out of his HT mains and we both were grinning.

Now excited to this new discovery, we were given reign to check out some better amps at our leisure at my A/V dealer's shop. They though we were nuts running headphones directly off speaker taps. We first started with a Marantz receiver with 55wpc. They were full and provided a very good sound but got kind of boomy with a lessor defined soundstage. Next was a Sim Moon Integrated 50 w. Oh baby. The quality difference was immediately noticeable. The soundstage opened up with pinpoint placement. The bass firmed up and was amazingly refined for a headphone. All this with an absolute black background. From there we went to a Prima Luna 35w tube amp. Tubes brought it's organic, 3'd presentation but it was just polite. Not really a rocking level the Sim had provided. Since we liked the Sim so much we went to the 125w Integrated. The same openness but with more presence. The amount of detail increased and the ease of dynamics improved. The last visit was with the 175w Integrated. Close the lid and turn out the light. Man. The 3d of the Luna was evident. The level of performance impressed. Even the store manager was floored by what these things sounded like. They sell Maggies, Martin Logan, Wilson, Thiel, etc. and aren't easily impressed.

We have another visit planned to try some MacIntosh, Naim and the new Cambridge amps. I've not heard this kind of sound from any dynamic headphone and stats may have some advantage in retrieval but the orthos beat them in impact and fullness. I have ended my look for a headphone to compliment the stats speaker rig. Hearing the better amps have me scared of true high fidelity. If I could strap these to an all MBL or BAT rig, I think I would be ready to meet the big guy.

Knowing the LCDs are well respected, we again worked the headphone amps. They indeed sound good on the Bryston. I felt it brought the LCDs out of their bass dominant balance and became very smooth across the spectrum, similar to the HEs. The B22 again sounded good with a warmer sound with great detail. Then we hooked them up to the speaker amps, dropped the volume and woah. Better immediately. Same improvements we experienced with the 6s. These things actually had a soundstage outside the head.

I am only a hobbyist and don't understand it but even a $250 speaker amp sounded better than $2000 headphone amps. If you are looking for high end performance in a headphone, you owe it to yourself to give these a run on your main speaker rig. The scale of improvement with better gear has yet to be reached as we continue our journey.