OLLO S4X or S5X vs Audeze LCD-2 or LCD-C

Lkdog

Power User
Am thinking about trying different headphones. Longtime Sennheiser HD600 user.

Not unhappy, and likely don't know what I don't know, but read so much about OLLO and Audeze here.
Would probably buy used.

I use headphones mostly for playing through AXE FX 3, some DAW mixing, and some music listening.

Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks.
 
I had my HD600 for a year before purchasing the S5X. I wasn't unhappy with the HD600's, just wanted to hear what the hype was about, knowing they could be returned. Over one year later I'll not part with the S5X's, they're really nice, (accurate/flat). Now I'll still listen to the HD600 through a DAC and they do well, and since they're lighter than the S5X I use them for that purpose, but the clear winner for accuracy is the Ollo's.

I use the S5X for mixing and for creating tones, before listening through other sources.
 
Years ago I tried one of audeze’s $1000 offerings. They were good but once I experienced the S4X (the current Ollo offering at the time), I couldn’t go back. I’m now on the S5X which somehow added even more clarity than the S4X (not just a hyped high end like beyerdynamic), actual clarity in the highs, mids, and lows. Hearing the separation between the kick, synth bass, and bass guitar, with very fast transient response in the bass frequencies in a headphone of this price is unbelievable. Frequency response is very flat and neutral, extremely low distortion, best headphones I’ve ever used especially for this purpose.

Been using this company’s headphones daily for years now. One time I dropped the S4X pretty hard, damaged one of the drivers, and they repaired it for free including shipping to and from Slovenia. One time I had an issue with a cable and they set me a new cable for free. I’m an Ollo customer for life. Already preordered the new X1, they’re in the mail right now.
 
Thanks for replies!

Quick questions.

1) Is the S5X model geared more to multichannel mixing/playing versus the S4X?
2) Is the USC plugin useful?

The X1 looks pretty interesting.
 
1) Is the S5X model geared more to multichannel mixing/playing versus the S4X?
I'm not doing any multichannel stuff, they both work perfectly well for standard stereo. The S5X is slightly more open back than the S4X, though nowhere near as open as the HD600 for example. This results in a nice balance between closed and open back (i.e. semi-open back).

2) Is the USC plugin useful?
Haven't used it, I have the S5X 1.0 which isn't supported, apparently they started storing all the calibration data for each individual serial number with the S5X 1.1 and beyond. Will definitely try it with the X1 once it arrives. They give you the calibration data in a text format so you can import it into the plugin or manually input it into your interface's output EQ if your interface supports that.

If you're going to use the plugin you'd need to disable direct monitoring on your interface and monitor the Fractal through your DAW using input monitoring.
 
How's the headphone bleed with these Ollo phones? Could you monitor with them while recording a vocal track for instance?
Definitely not. They are semi open back so there is significant bleed. The S4R is a better choice for that (or any closed back headphone, accuracy isn’t hugely important when just monitoring vs. making critical tone / mixing decisions).
 
I have the LCD-2. While there are things I like about it, it is nowhere near accurately calibrated and I struggled a lot with getting tones I made on those to sound good in the PA. If the Ollo’s are even halfway successful at what they claim to do, they are a better choice.
 
I had my HD600 for a year before purchasing the S5X. I wasn't unhappy with the HD600's, just wanted to hear what the hype was about, knowing they could be returned. Over one year later I'll not part with the S5X's, they're really nice, (accurate/flat). Now I'll still listen to the HD600 through a DAC and they do well, and since they're lighter than the S5X I use them for that purpose, but the clear winner for accuracy is the Ollo's.

I use the S5X for mixing and for creating tones, before listening through other sources.

I like flat but mostly I want it to sound good. I have Drop 58x (Senn) and they sound good but maybe not as good as it could be. I’m looking for my Christmas present to myself and thinking about the S5X. The 58X with correction are fairly flat as far as I can tell. My main goal is to improve my listening experience. I’m not recording just playing. I’ve read a lot of positive comments on these phones on this forum.
 
I like flat but mostly I want it to sound good. I have Drop 58x (Senn) and they sound good but maybe not as good as it could be. I’m looking for my Christmas present to myself and thinking about the S5X. The 58X with correction are fairly flat as far as I can tell. My main goal is to improve my listening experience. I’m not recording just playing. I’ve read a lot of positive comments on these phones on this forum.
That series from sennheiser is good but S5X will be a noticeable upgrade.

People are always so concerned with flat frequency response but it’s worth mentioning that flat frequency response isn’t the only audible variable in a headphone. If it were then a $10 pair of skull candy headphones with correction enabled would sound identical to top tier headphones with correction enabled. Distortion, imaging, transient response, clarity/separation, etc all matter and set apart the high end from the consumer level.

For example the flubby wall of mud below 100hz on AirPods Max or Beats Studio pro can’t be fixed with EQ. Flattening the bass response would just make it a quieter flubby wall of mud.
 
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Years ago I tried one of audeze’s $1000 offerings. They were good but once I experienced the S4X (the current Ollo offering at the time), I couldn’t go back. I’m now on the S5X which somehow added even more clarity than the S4X (not just a hyped high end like beyerdynamic), actual clarity in the highs, mids, and lows. Hearing the separation between the kick, synth bass, and bass guitar, with very fast transient response in the bass frequencies in a headphone of this price is unbelievable. Frequency response is very flat and neutral, extremely low distortion, best headphones I’ve ever used especially for this purpose.

Been using this company’s headphones daily for years now. One time I dropped the S4X pretty hard, damaged one of the drivers, and they repaired it for free including shipping to and from Slovenia. One time I had an issue with a cable and they set me a new cable for free. I’m an Ollo customer for life. Already preordered the new X1, they’re in the mail right now.
Great, now I have to get new cans! :oops::D

Are you just loading the USC file into the Axe 3 via an EQ, or loading it in your DAW?
 
I have four different brands of headphones, including the Sennheiser HD650, the beyerdynamic DT770 Pro, and the Ollo SX5.

Since getting the Ollo, the other two 'phones usually sit unused, for 'most anything I'm listening to with headphones, from the Fractals to music or movies. I'll grab the others when I'm trying to triangulate the sound of presets as a final step before listening to it and tweaking on stage were I can turn it way up.
 
I have been considering a good set of phones for checking mixes, and I pulled the trigger on a set of Ollo SX5. Should be here Friday and can't wait to hear them in action. Looks like a lot of good feedback from several of you.
 
Great, now I have to get new cans! :oops::D

Are you just loading the USC file into the Axe 3 via an EQ, or loading it in your DAW?
My S5X are version 1.0 so they don’t have calibration data available. That started with 1.1. But mine are so flat that I’m not too worried about it. Every pair is individually measured and comes with a frequency response graph and mine just sound fantastic with no correction.

Once the X1 arrives I’ll definitely try the calibration plugin in my daw but it wouldn’t be systemwide so it wouldn’t apply to YouTube, planning center, Spotify, etc so it might be more trouble than it’s worth. I also don’t work on headphones very often any more since I got my monitors and acoustic treatment pretty dialed to where things translate pretty well.
 
My S5X are version 1.0 so they don’t have calibration data available. That started with 1.1. But mine are so flat that I’m not too worried about it. Every pair is individually measured and comes with a frequency response graph and mine just sound fantastic with no correction.

Once the X1 arrives I’ll definitely try the calibration plugin in my daw but it wouldn’t be systemwide so it wouldn’t apply to YouTube, planning center, Spotify, etc so it might be more trouble than it’s worth. I also don’t work on headphones very often any more since I got my monitors and acoustic treatment pretty dialed to where things translate pretty well.
I'm actually glad to hear that they sound great without the calibration. I was thinking the calibration file might be some trouble to use system-wide.
 
I'm actually glad to hear that they sound great without the calibration. I was thinking the calibration file might be some trouble to use system-wide.
Yes.

Mine are the v.1 also, and they’re flat to within ~2dB according to their frequency response chart. I made a compensation curve in my Fractals based on the print-out but couldn’t hear the difference so I don’t bother using it. The S5X are much less colored than the others I have.

I found software for macOS that’ll let me insert a compensation curve system-wide, but again, with the headphones being that flat, it didn’t make sense to me to go down that particular hole.
 
Yes.

Mine are the v.1 also, and they’re flat to within ~2dB according to their frequency response chart. I made a compensation curve in my Fractals based on the print-out but couldn’t hear the difference so I don’t bother using it. The S5X are much less colored than the others I have.

I found software for macOS that’ll let me insert a compensation curve system-wide, but again, with the headphones being that flat, it didn’t make sense to me to go down that particular hole.
Is the software eqMac? I recently switched from a windows machine to a Mac and I lost the system wide EQ software I was using.
 
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