Have you seen Resolve Review's video on the LCD-2 Closed? I have experience with two (D8000, Ananda and soon the Arya) of the headphones he's reviewed and found that his findings were pretty close to my experience with them.
I have been an audio enthusiast since 1978 and have owned an pretty unbelievable amount of equipment of all kinds. I have been dealing in high-end headphones for something like 10 years. I have owned, used, or dealt in many flagship headphones.
I do not agree with the Resolve Review review of the LCD-2 closed back (apart from the "they are heavy" part, because yes, they are heavy). The reviewer there repeatedly states that the LCD-2 closed-back are "bizarre" and that the Focal Elegia are "weird." That is hyperbole, and one would expect to see such comments echoed elsewhere if the hyperbole were warranted.
I do not agree that the LCD-2 sound anything less than excellent. I have a new dealer demonstrator pair that I purchased precisely to evaluate (and yes, I'm super lucky to get to deal in these products, except when I shell out good money for misfires-who-shall-not-be-named). I find the LCD-2 closed-backs superior to the 2x more expensive LCD-XC, a headphone which I found to have some in-cup resonances which I did not like. I think Audeze has found a way to fix that. I find the LCD-2 closed-back to be comparable in sound quality to my Senn HD800 and better in some ways. Nothing images like the HD800, to my ears, but the LCD-closed gets close and is far more pleasant and engaging for long-term listening. It has a airy, voluptuous sound, but is somewhat V-shaped, so that the bass is also strong. That is what the Resolve reviewer was getting at, but he spins it out of proportion. If you prefer to EQ to flatten out the response, you can raise the response from about 500hz to 1.5khz, perhaps 3-4 db. However, I listen at fairly low volume levels to protect my hearing as I age, so the V-shape ends up acting like a loudness contour. The vocals are still wonderful, however, and the bass is truly unbelievable for a headphone, just an absolute pleasure in comparison to the HD800, where applying EQ to improve the bass ends up increasing distortion noticeably. The LCD-2 closed-back have essentially no distortion, so doubled vocals, for example, jump out of the mix. It's quite something to experience that -- an inky-black background from a first-rate DAC/amp plus high resolution in the cans. I recommend the LCD-2 closed-back unreservedly IF YOU NEED A CLOSED-BACK. For open-back cans, the LCD-3 are the opening entry in cans that, to me, beat the HD800 overall, with the only exception being the HD800's imaging (again), which for classical music in particular is noticeable. I have a love-hate with the HD800, so I keep an old set on hand for the things they do so well.
At the end of the day, the extremely low distortion of planars, plus their effortless low end, speak loudly to me. My two cents.
But bear in mind, the LCD-2 are heavy. Just lie down and luxuriate in them.
