4 Guitar Comparison- Can you tell them apart?

[E-OM]

1. Eastman E2D

2. Larrivee

3. Lowden

4. Eastman E8OM

[Sadie-f]

I'm coming back to motivate how hard it is to have an audio chain that can hear the differences between instruments.

Last night, at home, I listened to the samples with my reference headphones, I came back to the recording today at work where I have my Audio Technica ath-m40x and with those it was much harder to distinguish the differences. In both cases I was using a high resolution A-D headphone amp (Khadas Tone-2 pro). The headphone amp is also far better than my laptop sound output (which is no slouch, it's a high-end laptop).

So as listeners, I think we're not all hearing the same recording, as we can't control for sound quality on the receiving end(s).

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by Sadie-f

I'm coming back to motivate how hard it is to have an audio chain that can hear the differences between instruments.

Last night, at home, I listened to the samples with my reference headphones, I came back to the recording today at work where I have my Audio Technica ath-m40x and with those it was much harder to distinguish the differences. In both cases I was using a high resolution A-D headphone amp (Khadas Tone-2 pro). The headphone amp is also far better than my laptop sound output (which is no slouch, it's a high-end laptop).

So as listeners, I think we're not all hearing the same recording, as we can't control for sound quality on the receiving end(s).

Agreed....but any guesses?

[Sadie-f]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

Agreed....but any guesses?

I posted my thoughts yesterday, actually *just* after your note that you'd be posting the facts today :-)

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by Sadie-f

I posted my thoughts yesterday, actually *just* after your note that you'd be posting the facts today :-)

I'm looking for the "facepalm" emoji....

Sorry! And thanks for listening/playing along!

[birdsong]

1. ED2
2. An OM
3. Lowden
4. The other OM

[Sadie-f]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

I'm looking for the "facepalm" emoji....

Sorry! And thanks for listening/playing along!

YW, and thanks for putting forward a fun blind test!

I'm not too invested in being right on the IDs. All the voices I respect most say the top is the primary driver of tone, with the body lending nuances. The thing is, I've heard a lot of spruce topped guitars, and can hear the differences between those between different builders, and different b&s woods (at least I can hear the differences between mahogany, rosewood & maple). I've not spent enough time listening to cedar topped guitars, so the mix you offered is well outside my experience.

[Treenewt]

Thanks for playing along everyone! Without further ado, the order is:

Lowden
Eastman E2D-CD
Larrivee OM-03
Eastman E8OM-TC

Congrats to Sinistral who got all four right!!!

I was really surprised as I worked through all four guitars, one after the other. I heard more similarities than I expected, ESPECIALLY between the Eastman E2CD and the Lowden. And yes, that surprised me. But from all I’ve read and heard, top wood is the main source of tone, so it makes sense that two large bodied cedar top guitars would sound similar. In person, the Lowden has more bass presence, but honestly, the similarities on the recording are just as present in “real life” in the room. I was pleasantly surprised. I fully expected the Lowden to dominate, and it didn’t.

The Larrivee just continues to impress me, too. Is such a great guitar for just about everything! Its the little engine that could and fooled quite a few folks into thinking it was a guitar nearly twice it’s size, AND rosewood!

The big takeaways for me are we do really have a tendency to listen with our eyes. I’m just as guilty. A well made guitar is a well made guitar, regardless of brand. Yes, if we were all blindfolded in a room we MIGHT pick out some of the right ones, but I still think we’re fooled by our expectations often. Also, I’d wager if I strummed these in the test it would make it easier to discern the smaller bodies vs the larger, but I’d say that has more to do with size than anything else.

It also made me very thankful for the guitars I have. I’ve gone through a lot in the last decade, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been as happy with my stable as now. I’m really fortunate to have such great guitars to enjoy.

Thanks again everyone!

[brencat]

Wow I went 0 for 4. Man, I suck!

Tell your friend he can keep the Lowden, because your Larrivee blows it out of the water!

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by brencat

Wow I went 0 for 4. Man, I suck!

Tell your friend he can keep the Lowden, because your Larrivee blows it out of the water!

Hahahaha! Thanks Brendan! I am very happy with my guitars, that’s for sure!

[GoPappy]

I intentionally jumped to the end of the thread without reading which guitar is which, so I could rank them without any brand name bias. Here is my ranking of the tone/voicing of them:

I thought both #1 and #2 were wonderful. I wouldn't pay 15 cents more for one over the other just based on those recordings. Both are simply great.

#4 comes in next. Very, very nice, and not far behind, but just not quite the richness of 1 and 2.

#3 is a somewhat distant last place for me. It's a nice sounding guitar that I'm sure I'd be thrilled to own and play. But it just didn't have the clarity or tone of the others, and in a head-to-head comparison with the other three, this one just didn't match up that well (to MY ears).

Great playing, BTW.

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by GoPappy

I intentionally jumped to the end of the thread without reading which guitar is which, so I could rank them without any brand name bias. Here is my ranking of the tone/voicing of them:

I thought both #1 and #2 were wonderful. I wouldn't pay 15 cents more for one over the other just based on those recordings. Both are simply great.

#4 comes in next. Very, very nice, and not far behind, but just not quite the richness of 1 and 2.

#3 is a somewhat distant last place for me. It's a nice sounding guitar that I'm sure I'd be thrilled to own and play. But it just didn't have the clarity or tone of the others, and in a head-to-head comparison with the other three, this one just didn't match up that well (to MY ears).

Great playing, BTW.

Thanks for listening Pappy! I really appreciate the response, and it just illustrates how we all hear things so differently. There is about a $3500 gap between the price of Guitar one (Lowden) and guitar two (Eastman E2D-CD)! I love it!

Also interesting is that #3, the Larrivee, fooled some of us into thinking its was the Lowden (#1)! To each his own, right?

Thanks again for taking time to listen and post your thoughts!

[Terry_D]

Well first off, I wish I could play like you. Second, since your guitars are two Eastmans and a Larrive I'm not surprised at all by how well they compare to the "the big boy!"

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by Terry_D

Well first off, I wish I could play like you. Second, since your guitars are two Eastmans and a Larrive I'm not surprised at all by how well they compare to the "the big boy!"

Thanks for the compliment Terry! I appreciate it!

[E-OM]

Well, I did not fare very well... I got # 4 right... thought the rosewood was discernible ...

my picks:
1. E-2
2, Larrivee
3. Lowden
4. E 8

I am biased toward rosewood guitars... perhaps that helped with picking #4.

Thks for doing this comparison.