The road to loving my LCD-2Cs has been a rocky one, initially getting a luke-warm reception from me, but eventually I came around and really enjoyed them. Being my first planar dynamic, and having a high price tag, I really expected big things from them out of the gate. Historically, my favorite headphones have been ones I've had to warm up to, so I wasn't too concerned about my initial impressions. But my love of these has hit another bump in the road, this time in the form of the Hifiman HE-500.
I had actually heard the HE-500 years ago. A friend of mine owns these, and one of the higher end Schiit stacks, and I had the opportunity to give them extensive listening time. When they first came out they were getting a lot of praise for their performance relative to their price. I believe they came in cheaper than the HD800 and LCD-2, yet compared favorably to them. I know I certainly enjoyed them, but I was relatively new to the headphone game. I think at the time I was rocking the K601s with a Little Dot 1+, a budget setup for sure, but a damn good one at that. At the time I don't think any particular trait of the HE-500 stood out, I just thought they were consistently good.
About a week ago I had the chance to grab a used pair of HE-500s for $300. I was thinking maybe I could get a headphone that compliments the LCD-2Cs, or have something that doesn't quite match them, but I could use as a daily driver. What I actually got was a headphone that makes most of my other headphones obsolete. It takes the strengths of a good portion of my headphones, and combines them all into one.
Treble: Treble is the big standout to me. It's perfect. In my book it has the most perfectly balanced treble I've heard yet. Not just relative to the other frequency ranges, but relative to itself. Nothing is too bright, there's no noticable bumps or dips, it's just a cohesive whole. It gives the music a true, live sound that is completely unmatched by my other headphones, with the exception on the Z1R in very specific cases. The ESP-950 and LCD-2C have a very similar treble character: they're both down in level, and take the edge off some of my poorer sounding music. The 950s do a little better job of that, but the LCD-2Cs resolve a little more detail. The Z1R would really be something special here if they didn't have that 10k bump. It's not harsh to me, but it gives a lot of my music a little bit extra edge, to the point of sounding a little unnatural.
Ranking the treble with my other high end headphones, I'd say: HE-500 > Koss ESP-950 > LCD-2C > Z1R
Mids: When mids are as perfect as these, it's hard to really comment on it. They do their thing, and they do it well. Tonally, I'd say they have a very slight rise in the upper mids. They're very similar to the ESP-950, actually. I would say maybe because of the treble the HE-500s resolve vocal detail a bit better, though. Generally these contrast nicely with the Z1R in that the Z1R has a rise in the lower mids, giving them a fuller sound. The LCD-2C is flat, with neither a lower or upper rise.
Ranking the mids, I'd say: HE-500 = Z1R > ESP-950 > LCD-2C
Bass: Open headphones generally struggle with bass somewhat, offering merely decent impact and decent extension. I think when planar magnetics re-emerged on the market they shook that expectation up. The original LCD-2 in particular got a lot of praise for it's bass quality and quantity. The LCD-2C left me somewhat disappointed. It's good for an open headphone, no doubt, and it's maybe not fair to compare it to closed favorites like the Z1R and DT1770 Pro. But once again the HE-500 steps in and satisfies my expectations. The HE-500 have greater impact and better extension, coming remarkably close to the Z1R. Just having them sit on my desk with music playing you can tell there's more going on in the bass regions than the LCD-2C. They have far and away the best bass I've heard in an open headphone. Comparing the LCD-2C and the ESP-950, I'd say they're remarkably close. Closer than the LCD-2C and the HE-500. The ESP-950 is down in level a bit, but extension is about the same.
Ranking the bass, I'd say: Z1R > HE-500 > LCD-2C > ESP-950
Soundstage and Imaging: The HE-500 once again sets a new standard for me. As mentioned in the treble section, music takes on a live quality. The soundstage and imaging allow for intruments to really escape the bounds of the earcups themselves. Nothing sounds terribly distant, but you get a very good sense of placement and size in a three-dimensional space. Imaging on the ESP-950's comes close, but the general size of the soundstage is a little smaller, and they lack that sense of "liveness" the HE-500s have. The LCD-2C and Z1R are about tied here. They, by contrast, are a more intimate listen, though sense of size is rather good on both. They sound more like the instruments are right up on you.
Ranking these as absolutes are a bit harder, as sometimes I prefer the more intimate sound. Purely for soundstage size, the ranking is: HE-500 > ESP-950 > Z1R = LCD-2C
Build and comfort are quite good on the HE-500s. While heavy, the weight is distributed well, so there's no issues with discomfort. They feel really nice to hold, not sure if the cup rings are metal or not, but there's certainly a lot of metal in the construction. Power requirements are somewhat steep here, at least in terms of sensitivity. They require far and away more gain than the Z1Rs, a fair amount more than the LCD-2C, and are about equal to my K612s(!). I found that so long as you listen at reasonable levels (75-85dB) most dedicated amps can push them no problem, though. My Marantz HD-DAC1 powers them effortlessly, my Woo Audio WA2 does just fine, and even my Sony PHA-2A in single-ended mode powers them to acceptable levels. Really, there's not much difference in sound quality, aside from the coloration added by the tubes. I've harped on about this before, but I'll go ahead and do it more here as well: the need for huge amounts of power in amps is vastly overstated.
At this point I'm in a very tough spot in my headphone journey. Where the hell do I go from here? The bar has been set so high by these juggernauts of yesteryear. In terms of consistency these have even the Z1Rs beat. Are my options from here on out exclusively summit-fi headphones? Despite the original MSRP of these and the LCD-2Cs being similar, they are in no way in the same league. These have utterly crushed the sense of value I had in the ~$1000 price range, even disregarding the fact that I paid only $300 for them.
