You're right. Marketing and lack of experience will have people just recommend stuff blindly. Not saying that it's wrong or anything, but something like the AKG K371 + a microphone will wipe the floor with any of those gaming headsets in the same price range.

There is nothing inherently "gaming" about a gaming headphone (Maybe weird RGB or poorly implemented surround sound). It's essentially a regular headphone with a microphone attached to it. It's not worth to pay the premium for the gamer aesthetic (for me at least), unless you are into that kind of thing.

That's exactly what I meant... I know Oratory's EQ has some suggested bands that you can adjust if it's too bassy, has too much presence, too little treble, etc. How would you know if the EQ has personally too much bass or too little treble? You listen with YOUR ears! Not Oratory's ears, yours. Please read my comment again. I said "I highly recommend anyone WHO USE THE EQ to also ADJUST BY EAR." I am not saying to start using your ears to EQ from scratch, although that would be the endgoal. Oratory's EQ is a good base, but everyone should listen and adjust as necessary.

Yeah I thought my take was reasonable lol. Yes, oratory most likely tweaks some stuff, such as making sure the algorithm doesn't try to compensate for the dip at 10khz, not going overboard with weird treble peaks, or trying to correct resonances. Again, correct me if am wrong, but I am pretty sure Oratory's EQ is generated by some algorithm that tries its best to match 2018 Harman, with his own tweaks. However, I have never seen anyone with an HD650 who boosted the subbass by nearly 10 decibel and thought, yeah this sounds appropriate and not distorted. My bad I guess.

I'm sure he spends a lot of time on them, but some of the EQ are just questionable, such as a massive subbass shelf on the hd600/6x0. It sounded noticeably distorted and I highly recommend anyone who use the EQ to also adjust by ears.

Oratory's EQ is computer-generated. I suggest using the EQ as a rough base and adjust by ear.

I bought it on AVExchange.

Your review definitely pushed me over the edge to buy a pair! It's a keeper (for as long as it will last me)

I've seen rthythmdevils on SBAF from just lurking, but those mods seem really interesting. I will need to look into them.

I'm not entirely sure what wood it is, but I agree. Impeccable imaging and the bass is sublime!

Preface: This pair of LCD-4 is made in 2016 but is equipped with 2021 pads. I am using the Flux FA-22 and Schiit Modius as the source.

Audeze was a brand that I was exposed to when I first joined this hobby, but I never got around to buy any of their headphones because I knew that I would not like the tuning. However, as I have gotten more entrenched in the hobby, I learned to use my own ears for equalization and now I EQ pretty much every headphone I get my hands on. Thus, I gave Audeze a shot.

Without EQ, I finally got to experience what Audeze's "house sound" is like. To my ears, it is quite wonky. It's overly rich and warm with pretty annoying upper treble/air. However, I do equalize everything, so this wasn't much of a problem.

The bass on the LCD-4 is impressive. The extension is insane and the sense of detail/tactility is awesome. I do think that the original Hifiman HE6 (as well as the Focal offerings) have better punch, but the LCD-4 beats both in tightness and detail, while not being too behind in the slam department. These headphones can also take EQ without any problems. Just for fun, I equalized the subbbass up +12db and the LCD-4 did not break a sweat.

The midrange is great, but these took me a bit of time to EQ them to the way I wanted it to be. The SR-009 blew me away with its midrange resolution, and to my ears, the LCD-4 easily competes with it. The midrange is a bit on the drier side however, so it's not perfect.

The treble was also great after EQ. It was a bit dark so I boosted the lower treble a bit while toning down the air frequencies. The treble, like the midrange, is insanely detailed. I still think the SR-009 has a slight edge in the treble (in terms of technical prowess) compared to the LCD-4, but it is very, very close.

Overall, the LCD-4 is a an extremely capable headphone, but it requires a bit of love to shine :)

The Apple dongle is extremely capable. The Airpods Pro and Airpods Pro 2 are best-in-class soundwise and as an overall package (for a TWS). Both are given a lot of praise here.