Audeze LCD-2 Classic Open-Back Over-Ear Headphones with Economy Case

VERY good for mixing once EQ'd. I can now hear loudness.

I've mixed with EQ'd Beyerdynamic DT880's, Barefoot Footprint01's, & a custom pair of B&W 805 Nautilus w/ DSP & a sub. For years i have had to really strain to adjust my ears between headphones & mains. These are weird headphones. It's my first serious pair of planar drivers. I'm using sonarworks to correct the wild hazy-warm bloom in the midrange. In a world without EQ- I don't think I would have spent 5 minutes before returning them. The midrange warmth/haze is just odd. It's almost like if someone asked Audeze to make a lofi sound signature, where the vocals are recessed & the uninspiring low-mid frequencies overtake the modern tonality of sharp highs & bold lows. It's like an inverse curve of what your ear wants to hear- or at least that is what they sound like flat to me. But add the sonarworks profile, maybe adjust the mix % and the treble/bass tilt, and bam- you're faced with this bitingly accurate, crisp, transient INTENSE image of what your mix actually sounds like. It's taken me a few days to get used to it, but I think i would describe it as hearing the overall soundstage, and then subsequently hearing your mix, even out to the edges, in both dynamic range & frequency, within the larger image you're actually hearing. I can see how people would describe this headphone as having average or uninspiring imaging- but for mixing it is like having a visualizer for where everything is. The imaging is crazy accurate- It's just not all-enveloping. It's like you hear the empty document space you aren't using, if that makes sense. I am finding it really easy and pleasing to hear how loud things are getting. Oh, and bass, sub-bass, chorus/phase effect low end, all of it. i can hear ALL OF IT. It's as clear as the Footprint01's in terms of low transient & phase coherence. I can now make quick changes that just FIX things down there. Overall i'm pretty happy i'm getting this much functional detail & monitoring from an $800 audio equipment purchase. I'm notreally in tune or interested in the larger headphone/sound signature/ this vs that conversation. I'd spend another $5k on montors if they got me closer to what I wanted & needed out of them. Overal, I think [$800 + sonarworks + basically any amp due to 80ohm load] is a functionally great deal for the sound quality of these bad boys. I'd give them 5 stars if they were as flat as studio monitors out of the box, and probably pay a few hundred more for them. I'd love to know the reason why these sound so hazy & warm out of the box. 4/5 stars.