Audeze LCD-5 Impressions

This is likely inconsequential, but IIRC, Audeze has been contracting their industrial design to BMW DesignWorks in CA since they came out with the EL- series. It could be that the LCD-5 is the first of the LCD series to get expensive big-boi design consultancy added to the COGs.

But I still can't square myself with this price point of headphones so take this for what its worth: comments from the peanut gallery.

 

This alone makes me want to wait for a v2 if I ever audition the LCD5... Luckily, based on the pictures showing assembly and construction, this shouldn't be too hard to change for future production. Guess it's going to be a matter of if they want to jump through the hoops to fix it.

 

BTW the lines on my head in the pictures of me wearing Audeze’s are from a Zipka headlamp. I wear one whenever working on orthos. I just noticed them ha

 

There's another rabbithole, high CRI flashlights/headlamps... going for colour accuracy and clarity, ramping brightness levels, beam patterns for up close work, etc.

 

Rabbit hole is right. I was proud of myself for not having bought any new speakers or headphones for the past couple of years, then I realized how many damn flashlights I've purchased.

Back on topic – I really hope Audeze is able to bring the mid-forward sound signature to lower end models down the line. I enjoy so many things about their headphones (in spite of the weight) but the midrange suckout has been the one dealbreaker for me.

 

Heard them today on WA33 at TSAV for first time since Canjam. They're stellar. The exaggerated, furious presentation I disliked inititally was clearly more about the BHA-1 at the Audeze table rather than the LCD-5.

Mid-forward for sure. No upper mid dip and makes LCD-4's sound boomy and "off". Superb detail, not quite estat level, but very fast with lots of plankton. Excellent mids. Treble quality is great, seems like everything is there with minimal fuckery, bass extends but doesn't bloom artificially. Entire situation still very Audeze house but without weirdness. GOOD.

 

I share my impressions of the Flagship Planar Magnetic Audeze LCD-5. This video will focus on the build quality, design, and some of my sound impressions about the LCD-5. I purchased the LCD-5 last year when it was first released after hearing it at Can Jam, so I have had plenty of time to formulate my long-term impressions about the LCD-5 paired up with several amplifiers, as well as I have already made some sound and build quality comparisons to a couple of other flagship planar magnetic headphones in the same price range such as the DCA Stealth and most recently the Meze Elite.

 

Did you listen to them on any other Woo Amps? Just curious, been thinking about possibly getting one.

 

Did not

 

like, good as in good value proposition compared to other mid-4 figure headphones? or good like worth-a-budget-stretch from something around $1-2k? I don't mean to put you on the spot, but there's so much bullshit in the $2k+ range headphone space that "good" isn't good enough.

 

I'll paraphrase Marv that all high end audio is a terrible value.

I think the LCD-5 is worth consideration if you're looking at Susvara, Utopia or other $4k headphones but a value? No.

 

I've been living with the LCD-5 for the past week courtesy of a loaner tour graciously setup by Todd of ttvjaudio.com, and I found its stock tuning to be too mid-forward and in your face for my tastes on a Liquid Gold X and Liquid Platinum. I don't even consider my countertop HD600 to be shouty (new old stock Sennheiser pads), while the LCD-5 definitely fits that descriptor to my ears. I have to give credit to the LCD-5 for its great detail retrieval and a surprising amount of slam for a single-sided magnet array planar (I haven't heard the 1266 yet). Its focused slam is more similar to that of my HE-6 4-screw than the blunter slam of my LCD-2's and LCD-3 prefazors. Still, I find that the slam of the aforementioned cans have greater impact than the LCD-5 and more body.

A good track that showcases my complaints about the LCD-5 is Siouxsie & The Banshees' "Dazzle" off of their second singles compilation "Twice Upon a Time: The Singles" (GEFD-24492) during the transition from the soft intro to the swirling sounds of the main verse at around 1:15. On the Liquid Gold X, this transition sounded so smooth and natural on my HD600, whereas the transition sounded jarring and jagged on the LCD-5. Additionally, on this track, the rest of the treble on the LCD-5 sounded flat compared to the HD600.

Some reviewers mentioned how great the LCD-5 is with drums. They sounded fine with Jeremy Soule's pounding "March of the Legions" from the Guild Wars 2 soundtrack. A lot of detail and texture. However, when listening to Nirvana's "Breed" off of Nevermind (DGCD-24425), David Grohl's frenetic drumming on the track sounded a bit restrained on the LCD-5, while his drumming sounded absolutely feral on my HE-6 (different amps driving the two cans: Liquid Gold X and Bryston 3B-ST respectively).

I'm generally not an EQ guy, but Resolve's EQ v2 (set with Peace) greatly helped the LCD-5's out-of-the-box tonality issues (to my ears), but still the sound was a bit thin.

Over the past week, I asked myself repeatedly whether I would reach for the LCD-5 over my current daily drivers (HE-6, HEKv1, and LCD-3), and my answer remains no. I am a bit disappointed because I really wanted to like Audeze's new flagship planar.

Just my 2c.

 

I figured it out in thirty seconds. You can too. They just don't want to fix it because it's an extra part. But too bad. Charge this much, people require removeable pads.

 

Defiant, arrogant, negative and completely uninformative. My favorite.

 

I put away my LCD XC in the closet and stopped using them over two years ago because of this.

 

Good impression. I find that the Diana TC are the headphone that the LCD-5 was designed to be: same forward, intimate, neutral nature but the Abyss sounds a lot more balanced from top to bottom. The mid and treble details especially are quite exceptional. I'll probably get one to replace my HE-6 once the economic situation is a bit better...

Shame that the company is a bit stuck up but I have to admit they do make great headphones...

 

Even after getting the new "less clamp" headband, the LCD-5 has too much clamp pressure and gives me a mild headache. I think the problem isn't necessarily the clamp, but how straight the headband is. Previous LCD's had a more curved headband that came down along the sides of the head more. If you look at a picture of the LCD-5 headband, it's much more straight, which gives it little ability to flex horizontally,

Really, a lot of the physical design of this headphone just wasn't designed with use in mind, but seemingly by looking at pictures on a computer.

Is there any way to bend carbon fiber to loosen the clamp? If I heat it up with a blow drier maybe? I went Till Hertsens on it a few times but it always goes back.

 

Not sure what you might attempt but just noting carbon fiber particles are horrendously toxic.

 

Sadly I could say the same for too many other modern products...

 

I wanted to post some brief listening impressions of the LCD 5.

Prefs: I am sensitive to a hot treble.
Amps used: Burson soloist 3XGT (xlr) with 994 SIL in input buffer, Sparkos 2590 in volume buffer, v6 vivid in voltage gain stage with Super Charger for power or Enleum 23-r (se)
Rest of chain (highlights): Sonore signature rendu se to denafrips gaia ddc and terminator 2 DAC (hdmi input)
Comparison Hp: zmf auteur (bocote with Eikon Lambskin pads)

Observations:
- Linear frequency response but somewhat rolled off, slightly n shaped or eyebrow shaped, rolloff is more apparent in the treble than in the deep bass. Though rolled off it is not dark like a meze empyrean.
- Cymbals, drums, piano, and strings are slightly blunted. A little bit on the leading edge but a lot on the harmonics and the overtones. Often feels restrained.
- can get a bit shouty at times depending on song
- Head stage sounded wider than it was deep it’s perhaps 6 inches outside of your head to the sides.
- The clamping force is too high for me I found it to get uncomfortable after several songs
- It is quite transparent to the source, it doesn’t feel like it’s imparting much of its own character.
- Good placement within its soundstage, also the sound stage is continuous and not blobby
- you are basically in the middle of the soundstage, meaning perspective it quite forward
- sounds great with simpler songs like Dos gardenias on Buena Vista social club, busier songs like Candela it feels like some of it’s shortcomings are evident, it can get shouty on songs like Mermalo.
- it’s generally very realistic sounding however with the sense noted above that you were missing something

pairings
- it sounded pretty awful on the Enleum (too thin) it sounded much better on the Burson soloist 3XGT
- I didn’t like the stock audeze cable either it sounded dramatically better with the Forza Claire HPC, everything was better with the Forza layering, width, depth, far less Shouty, etc.

Pros:
- Of the Planar magnetics that I have heard these are quite good, this is certainly better than some of the original audeze’s, or the meze empyrean. it’s also better than some of the lower end hifiman headphones that I’ve heard.
Cons:
- It has a number of issues that make it a nonstarter for me eg clamping force, issues with curtailed harmonics and overtones, certain instruments are muted, cost.

overall:
for me it was an interesting listen but certainly not something that I would want to use on a regular basis, for now I prefer prefer my dynamic headphones though they are not perfect either they suit my preferences more than these do.