Driver change and more information:

 

Several customers have emailed us asking for more details. Here is some more information. We want to be open and transparent with our customers on the changes we are doing. 

 

We have not changed the overall balance or frequency response of the headphones. We love the original LCD-2 sound signature. The new LCD-2s show a similar frequency response curve and it should, because that is the design intent. The new drivers use a thinner raw material. Thinner raw material results in less mass of the diaphragm. Less mass of diaphragm causes greater acceleration and better impulse response. Better response in driver results in higher resolution and extensions in both ends of the spectrum and better imaging. The highs are more pronounced because of greater detail. We are not boosting the high frequencies. Perhaps using the term "Darker" in the previous post conveyed the wrong information. There is a significant difference between boosting high frequencies (peaky response) and pronounced highs. As we mentioned earlier, we love the original LCD-2 sound signature and this is an improvement over it. We are not changing the nature of the headphone, but rather finessing it and this is one of the reasons we decided to stick with the LCD-2 name. 

 

Frequency response charts:

The main reason we provide the frequency response curves for each headphone is to primarily assure our customers that each unit is measured and tested. The variations in graphs when you measure the same headphone (any headphone) twice with slightly different position is quite noticeable. The amount of consistency on these curves on hundreds of LCD-2 headphones is quite astounding and we are very proud of this. But not everything about the headphones can be discerned from just the frequency response graphs. The charts show some changes when we changed over to the new pads.