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Continued listening with the LCD3 still had me under impression that the Chinese competitor had been more impressive on speed, transparency and spacing with its amazingly deep powerful controlled bass and lots of details portrayed in a very direct distinct way. Even though the Audeze with the Burson as head amp performed better than any earlier setup, the LCD3 still sounded somewhat dark. That meant less distinct details. The sound wasn't as airy and open. Although powerful and well extended, bass wasn't as defined and tau either. But when I stopped comparing my present experience to something I thought I remembered from half a year ago, I was truly impressed. The Audeze presented music differently. The sound was most of all very very dense, rich, saturated and smooth. It was also powerful with tons of dynamics. More or less at the same time I reviewed the Bastanis and later the Ardento speakers both with 15” paper cone woofers. They too offered this amazingly natural powerful extended bass with truly visceral impact.

Listening to the Audeze I had a very similar impression – lots of power, nicely controlled bass defined down to the very limits with that same visceral impact. Importantly I could achieve all that at reasonable listening levels whilst the HE-6 required lots of power and listening at higher than reasonable levels. The midrange too was very good – well differentiated, colorful and creamy. I particularly enjoyed vocals which were rendered very natural with full details, textures and the emotion the singers wanted conveyed. While I would gladly have seen a bit more openness and crispness in the treble, I already found this performance amazingly good and involving. I listened to various types of music for hours truly enjoying it. I took breaks only now and then when my ears and head needed a short rest from the LCD3's pressure and weight.


Still this little annoying voice in my head said that the LCD3 could likely perform better still. Undeniably there was some logic to it. These were supposedly the best headphones manufactured. I really could expect even more. There was just one problem. If you check the American headphone amplifier market you see a large selection. Even if you focus on the very top, there are many with prices reaching 2, 3 or 4 thousand dollars. I would have loved to listen to the Audeze with a Liquid Fire or one of Ray Samuels’ amps yet these aren't available in Poland. I would have to commit before audition. For a few 1000 quid on a review amp that was too much. Then synchronicity rang when my editor Wojtek announced that I was to review AURALiC's MX+ converter, a completely new brand to me. When I contacted the distributor I learnt there was also a high-quality headphone amplifier from the same maker called Taurus and that he wanted to send it over. I did a quick search to see that it was a balanced amp and that the manufacturer considered it their top achievement.


A few days later I received both MX+ and Taurus. The latter is capable of delivering 4.5wpc into 32Ω. There are two outputs, one 6.3mm, one XLR. I gave the still unused Audeze XLR cable a chance to break in for several hours and then started to listen. Wow! Now I was truly impressed. It seemed that I finally had an amp which made the LCD3 sing. Now I started to think that these cans might actually be the best of the best which are presently made.

While still very rich, even dense and organic, the sound finally became truly transparent and detailed. The finest nuances ceased to blend into the background to become clear, distinct and easy to follow instead. The whole presentation moved a bit closer to my ears compared to what I remembered from my HE-6 sessions but the soundstage was still very precise with impressive depth. The entire presentation was driven by this amazing mighty deep very well-controlled defined bass which interestingly is also the case for most good floorstanders. It's the bass or bass line that lays the foundation which a really good performance can't do without. The differentiation of bass notes now reached a level I flatly didn't believe was even possible for headphones. Finally the sound from a great orchestral bass drum caused involuntary shivers with its immediate attack, slow decay, overwhelming power and huge amount of expanding energy. All phases of each strike were clearly marked, with attack, sustain and decay all in proper proportion.


When it came to electric bass guitar in the hands of Marcus Miller, the LCD3/Taurus combo could play it all better than most cans I ever listened to. To reproduce such music well, bass must be perfectly grippy to show the light-speed attacks and immediate decay. The bass guitar also needs proper weight and power and has to reach really low to deliver that visceral impact. With the LCD3 it simply did and it seemed to come so easy too. The midrange and treble were all about smoothness, saturation and richness. This made it still darker than what I remembered from the HE-6 but now I could no longer complain about any lack of detail or transparency. It seemed to be a complete sound now that was even richer, denser, mightier, more palpable and organic than the HE-6. Alas all that was based on my faint memory of the latter from six months prior. Could I really trust my little grey cells?

Another coincidence came to assist. I was to receive the HE-500 for review. I dared ask the importer for a repeat short-term loan of the HE-6 to help me decide which one was for me. I must now formally thank Rafko for going this extra mile. I spent one week directly A/Bing the world’s two best planarmagnetic headphones. The HE-6 seemed to offer a brighter sound with tons of detail, amazing transparency and brilliant bass with great grip and definition but they also lacked this unbelievable richness of the American competitor. The LCD3 offered a darker sound which some still could find too dark! But that was just the first impression. I needed to get used to that presentation to realize that while it was darker, it offered at least the same degree of transparency and detail as the HiFiMan. This darker sound came from the extraordinary level of richness and density which in the long run was a bloody marvelous thing indeed.