These Headphones + Roon Have Changed My Life

Few things bring me more soothing and joy at this time in my life than my newfound ritual of listening to music in the dark with headphones for the last 30 minutes before I go to bed. I started doing this recently, and I now eagerly await the event every night.

I’m a routine guy, by nature. If I like something, I regularly work it into my schedule. And as a dad to two small children, my days comprise a series of tasks from dawn to dusk. Making food, cleaning up, shuttling to and fro, focusing attention, and displaying affection will bookend a full day of work. Another evening ritual I enjoy is taking the dog out in the wild open space nearby after the kitchen is spotless.

I’m also a speaker-based listener as an audiophile, predominantly. With my main system and lately my desktop system being both goosebump-inducingly excellent, I have little to ask for when it comes to this HiFi hobby and my enjoyment of music.

But the headphones-listening routine I’ve gotten used to is remarkable, indeed. As a testing technician for The Music Room over the last several years and as a curious audiophile for many before that, I’ve had plenty of chances to hear headphones from all over the industry. Most of them have struck me as delivering the type of sound I’d characterize as a wealth of detail and a leaning toward an exciting presentation. And those that aren’t tipped upward in the sonic spectrum might exhibit a wooly, shrouded character as if one must be traded for the other.

The hyper-detailed headphones I’ve heard often had me wondering if either those who love them haven’t yet heard a well-developed full range speaker presentation before, or if they, possibly new to the hobby, conclude that excess detail is HiFi.

It’s not. Just the right amount of detail along with the right amount of warmth, bloom, and nimble-footed solidity is what I know to be HiFi sound. It’s most commonly achieved in my experience with excellent speakers, one or two subwoofers, a great listening room, and an elaborate equipment rack.

Drivers that sit millimeters from one’s skull offer some benefit from taking the room out of the equation, but this also removes the equalizing nature of a room and casts a magnifying glass over what’s being produced. Earcups and their seal on the listener’s head play a role, as do choices of amplification, cabling, and connectors. Weight and headbands govern the comfort factor and allow for short or long listening sessions, depending on the head, the neck, and the person owning them.

It’s a world I hadn’t focused much effort or attention on in my audio journey, at least before the last year. But for me, a new house and last year’s arrival of a new baby have changed the way I listen, and specifically how often I can sit down in front of my speakers.

In those precious personal hours after dinner, my listening sessions have given way to a quiet house so the kids may sleep peacefully. I'm told the baby doesn’t like to hear trombone jazz while he’s drifting off. Hard to blame him, I suppose.

So this last year, I began looking in earnest for the “personal audio” elements that would fit my fancy as an audiophile. I’ve always been a fan of low-distortion planar magnetic drivers in headphones, so I tried several of these from a range of brands without success. It wasn’t until I saved up enough to try the spendy brand that I was always curious about that I found “my HiFi sound.” I discovered that American headphones maker Audeze actually does make what I consider genuinely balanced HiFi headphones that give this speaker lover everything I desire.

Watchers of TMR’s YouTube channel will soon know about my love affair with the LCD-3 open-backed headphones from Audeze (we’ve got a headphone amplifier/headphones combo review coming shortly). Still, as fond as I am of their full-bodied sound, I realized that their open-back nature was a bit of a deal-breaker, at least for me in my routine-filled life.

I needed to close out the outside world and keep my music from escaping when it was time for headphones. As a tinkerer who’s done some of my own headphones development and modifications, I knew that achieving the same soundstage and “open” sound from a closed-back set of headphones is perhaps the biggest hurdle in headphones design.

Enter the Audeze LCD-XC. Until I heard this headphone, I hadn’t yet found the right combination of the sound I wanted along with an effortless presentation from a closed-back. Well, I should qualify that. Until I heard this headphone with Roon’s “Audeze-specific” DSP EQ settings engaged, along with a slight modification of my own, no such satisfying product had graced these ears.

But I suppose that statement coming from an avowed audiophile requires an explanation, as the notion of equalization has been demonized in HiFi forever. The fact is, analog equalization has been and still is a no-no in this game of ultimate fidelity. Besides requiring the signal to run through sliders, rotary pots, and switches, the way analog EQ is achieved by definition distorts the signal phase.

However, before the analog conversion, EQ in the digital realm is as benign as a baby toy to the delicate low-level signal. HiFi folks have been getting into DSP more recently, thanks to companies like MiniDSP and DEQX producing many digital sound-altering products. But even these are not without their pitfalls, as MiniDSP units often rely on switching power supplies, and products from both brands may require analog-to-digital conversion before eventually returning to analog. These results can be good, but they’re nothing like the purity of implementation possible when DSP equalization is performed by the digital music player itself.

Roon is well known as the “audiophile’s choice” of streaming music software, and their DSP development has been proven helpful to many audiophiles in many situations. Smartly, headphone maker Audeze partnered with the software maker years ago to include specific EQ settings in the DSP menu area for every single headphone they make.

Out of the box, the LCD-XC shows incredible potential for spatial reproduction for a closed headphone, though its presentation - loved by many mixing engineers in the pro audio scene - is a bit on the detailed and informational side. But the great thing about its makeup is that even at high volume levels, there is almost immeasurable distortion, making it a perfect candidate for EQ tuning.

The ears at Audeze know a thing or two about HiFi sound, and as with the LCD-3s that I grew to love but realized I couldn’t keep, the Roon EQ presets took a great headphone to absolutely stellar heights. Being a “bass head” and owner of no fewer than 6 subwoofers throughout my house, I added my own touches to the sound through the separate parametric equalizer available in the program’s DSP section.

Talk about audio heaven. For those out there interested in my additions to the built-in Audeze EQ setting for the LCD-XC, which makes them sound almost exactly like the LCD-3 (no small feat for a closed “can”), I’ve included a screenshot to the right. One thing to remember when boosting digital EQ is to lower the “preamp” volume in the equalizer, so the digital signal never gets clipped by Roon on output.

The sound I’m enjoying from the LCD-XC headphones in the dark every single night is everything I want to hear in that setting. Nothing bright, fatiguing, or hyper-detailed, yet voluminously layered and spacious enough to induce goosebumps with great music. Sound is fleshy, nimble, vibrant, and nuanced.

I host a popular HiFi audio podcast with my friend and engineer Darren Myers. In a recent episode about listening in the dark, Darren compared the practice to sitting in front of a fire. It’s nearly impossible not to stare at the dancing flames, which completely capture your focus and concentration.

The same is true for my nightly Audeze LCD-XC + Roon EQ listening sessions. With the lights off, slightly reclined in the chair, and my feet up, I’m completely transported to the stage or the studio's tracking room, standing among the musicians and watching fingers dance on keys and strings and sticks bounce on skins and cymbals.

Getting my eyes used to the dark and away from the blue light of devices is great for my impending slumber. I find the whole practice helps me drift off swiftly into dreamland. I use “night mode” on my phone and put the brightness all the way down if I want to change the track in Roon. And speaking of which, I find that this ritual makes me look forward to choosing which music I play, getting me closer to my library in this setting than I am during the daylight hours.

I can’t recommend it enough. Try listening in the dark before bed if you’re into routines like I am. And if you’re a HiFi speaker lover without a favorite set of headphones, you must try the LCD-XC with the Roon settings. It’s been a game-changer for me, and I know it will be for many of you, too.