Here's my own take on the list so far. Just so this buying guide can have more than one voice. Feel free to copy/paste or use me for a box quote. Or ignore me completely.
HD800:It's effin' bright, no way around it. For reference, I find stock HD800 unacceptable on many rigs. Like Marv said, it seems to need mods and speshal toobs and speshal DACs and all sorts of voodoo to sound good. But once you're there, there's nothing quite like it. Incredibly articulate and incredibly immediate. Great imaging and sense of space. Take the prerequisites for what you will.
Fostex TH-900Too bassy for me.
LCD-XIf the TH900 gets 3 pirates, the LCDX should too (IMO). It's way more accurate and more complete. Still a poor value in the scope of things.
JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 I think this one should be conditional on mods and speshal matching too. When I heard a stock Abyss I thought it was mediocre, which in turn makes it an absolute sh1t value in the scope of things. This is driven by the Woo Audio monoblock thingy, so if that thing is shitty and was twisting my impressions let me know. I don't have a reference on how the Woo performs. But in earnest, I can say I preferred the HD650 that was sitting next to the Abyss. Yes, I'm someone who takes neutral tone over technicalities any and every day of the week. Bite me.
With regard to Marv's Abyss on Marv's system, it's excellent. The Abyss is the only headphones that literally
moves bass toward you like a good speaker system. Most headphones couple the bass to your head and it doesn't sound right. Tonal balance is great but maybe not quite there in terms of absolute accuracy (I felt HD600 or even modded HD800 were more tonally accurate on Marv's system). Another thing that wasn't mentioned was that the Abyss has great air. Fairly close to the HD800 even
. Ok, well maybe not quite there, but when you listen side-by-side you don't feel like you're missing much. It's still going to have a lot of space and resolve differences upstream incredibly well. So yeah, it's good.
STAX SR-009Agree 1000% on condition
LCD-2 I'm probably in the minority here but I think the LCD-2 is an excellent headphone. Perhaps even worthy of 4 stars if we consider value. It's the cheapest headphone that'll get you the "technicalities" that high-end headphones can offer. Bass can deliver big time, high SPL with low distortion! Mids are lush but very detailed and very well placed. Treble has a smooth presentation even if it is still shelved in an absolute sense. It's not sucked out and wonky like other laid-back headphones can be.
Yes it is laid back and yes I realize that makes me a hypocrite for what I just said about the Abyss. But for a lot of overcooked recordings it's perfect. Lets you crank it up without having your ears offended. Some will be offended by the Audeze tonal balance I guess, but I think anyone who wants to get into the high-end should consider it. It's better than being stuck with a face-tweeter.
ALO Studio Six I don't think it deserves only one pirate really. Unless we're looking at it purely from a value perspective. In which case any 5k amp is a poor value
.
At least it's not an overly warm tube amp. I heard it as having an expansive stage while maintaining solid bass. Kind of a wet/ reverby tube sound I guess. I agree that stuff like the 445 or Stratus is more worthy of co
nsideration.