[mulder01]

Awww shucks.... Here I was thinking that I wouldn't mind being a walking billboard for Audeze for maybe a special cash rebate on the 4s. Guess in spending that somewhere else then ...

Cheers guys

 
If you want to use them more outside of home than inside then any 'open' headphone is a terrible idea - not only will everyone else on the bus or train hate you because it will be almost as obnoxious as those people that listen to music off their phone with it on loudspeaker, but all the noise coming in through your headphones will mask any high fidelity you would get at home.  
 
Obviously Audeze makes the LCD-XC for this purpose.  Otherwise the new Mr Speakers Ether Flow (their new planar flagship) will be released in a closed version (or is it out already?) - I'd definitely look at that as an option if I were you.  The Final Sonorous X is the best closed headphone I've heard personally and it can plug straight into a smartphone/ ipod (comes with a 3.5mm plug standard) and is very easy to drive BUT it's VERY expensive, heavy and clamping force is high, so that put me off.  Also, I've not had a chance to hear the closed offerings from mr speakers... 

 

[Dillan]

Yea might be pretty hard to travel with these lol don't know if you said you take public transportation or not but even driving alone would be really difficult with headphones that require an amp. However I would highly recommend them for home use and like everyone else who are rather strongly voicing their opinion - id look at portable solutions for portable application. Wether that is IEM or lightweight closed cans.

Cheers and good luck

 

[13candles]

Yea might be pretty hard to travel with these lol don't know if you said you take public transportation or not but even driving alone would be really difficult with headphones that require an amp. However I would highly recommend them for home use and like everyone else who are rather strongly voicing their opinion - id look at portable solutions for portable application. Wether that is IEM or lightweight closed cans.

Cheers and good luck

It's all good bruh.... btw , are those connectors on the lcd 4 made of some metal or plastic?

How are you enjoying them anyways ?

Cheers

 

[Dillan]

It's all good bruh.... btw , are those connectors on the lcd 4 made of some metal or plastic?

How are you enjoying them anyways ?

Cheers

It's a mini xlr metal connection that feels extremely robust. I'm LOVING the headphones. I'll be putting a lengthy review together soon but so far - warm, lush, bass presence and quality, laid back sound, amazing instrument separation and just overall a great top of the line headphone that you'd expect from Audeze.

 

[RCBinTN]

It's a mini xlr metal connection that feels extremely robust. I'm LOVING the headphones. I'll be putting a lengthy review together soon but so far - warm, lush, bass presence and quality, laid back sound, amazing instrument separation and just overall a great top of the line headphone that you'd expect from Audeze.

 
Hi Dillan,
Didn't peg you for an LCD-4 buyer when we met at the Nashville meet, so hey congratulations.  Can you post details of your upstream rig? Thanks a lot,
 
Best -
RCB

 

[Dillan]

   
Hi Dillan,
Didn't peg you for an LCD-4 buyer when we met at the Nashville meet, so hey congratulations.  Can you post details of your upstream rig? Thanks a lot,
 
Best -
RCB

Hey RCB!
 
At the Nashville meet I had cleaned out my inventory and had literally no headphones or equipment.. (after previously having an all tube, all analog HD800 setup). Then I traveled to the Atlanta meet where I met Tyll and heard and saw even more equipment. I decided from those two shows to make my new system revolve around the LCD-4s and just got them in about a week and a half ago. Right now I am using a power conditioner (Pyle PS900) as the foundation to have clean consistent power and laptop that serves purely for music purposes as the source with Linux as the OS and Jriver as the player. Kimber silver USB cable plugs into my updated/upgraded Vi Dac Infinity which serves as my DAC and class A amp. Its powered by Nordost power cable. Then from there obviously the LCD-4 which I have 8 wire Plussound balanced XLR with that.
 
I don't have any lossy files such as mp3's, only FLAC WAV & DSF's.
 
You aren't that far from me, you should swing by sometime and listen if you want.

 

[Rico613]

  Yep, I was very surprised when my friend let me know about this. I would consider this offer for myself, but currently I'm so satisfied with my LCD-3. Anyway, currently I don't have any budget for this beautiful hobby 

I've wondered for some time how the LCD-4 fits into peoples various systems.  No doubt it will improve the sound quality of any system, but at what cost ?   If one already has a LCD-3 with an upgraded cable, there maybe weaker links in their sonic chain that need attention.  Power conditioner, power cable, DAC, interconnects, and amplifiers all have a profound affect on the quality of the final sound.  Maybe it's more cost effective to invest in one of those areas before jumping into $4k headphones ?
 
BTW, for you Euro folks, there is an Eddie Current 445 amp for sale on Buy Sell Trade.  This is a superlative amp for any headphones including LCD4's 

 

[mulder01]

I would say the opposite - the headphone is the star of the system - buy the headphone you want and build the system around that. If you say that:
"Power conditioner, power cable, DAC, interconnects, and amplifiers all have a profound affect on the quality of the final sound."
Then headphone upgrades have a staggeringly earth shatteringly mind blowing effect on the quality of the final sound. By comparison.

 

[Dillan]

I would say the opposite - the headphone is the star of the system - buy the headphone you want and build the system around that. If you say that:
"Power conditioner, power cable, DAC, interconnects, and amplifiers all have a profound affect on the quality of the final sound."
Then headphone upgrades have a staggeringly earth shatteringly mind blowing effect on the quality of the final sound. By comparison.

Yep completely and totally agree. People around here might think it would be weird to get an LCD-4 or similarly priced headphone and match it with a really cheap and budget friendly amp/dac, but I bet it sounds (and measures) better than a budget headphone plugged into a $50,000 dac/amp.
 
Without a doubt the headphone (or speaker) makes the largest audible difference.

 

[Rico613]

 

I would say the opposite - the headphone is the star of the system - buy the headphone you want and build the system around that. If you say that:
"Power conditioner, power cable, DAC, interconnects, and amplifiers all have a profound affect on the quality of the final sound."
Then headphone upgrades have a staggeringly earth shatteringly mind blowing effect on the quality of the final sound. By comparison.

  Without a doubt the headphone (or speaker) makes the largest audible difference.

I agree in theory.  My thinking is that if the sound quality isn't carried through each stage in the sound system, how do you get it out at the end ? 

 

[dan.gheorghe]

I would say the opposite - the headphone is the star of the system - buy the headphone you want and build the system around that. If you say that:
"Power conditioner, power cable, DAC, interconnects, and amplifiers all have a profound affect on the quality of the final sound."
Then headphone upgrades have a staggeringly earth shatteringly mind blowing effect on the quality of the final sound. By comparison.

The speakers/headphones are the most noticeable improvements in the system. However, it is staggering how much the sound can scale with a good dac/amp, considering you already have a very capable speaker / headphone. I have heard extremely good speakers and headphones on mediocre / badly matched systems and I wasn't impressed at all. There were some  occasions when hearing the same speakers/headphones on a better matched or just better sound system made my jaw drop on the floor. 

 

[Dillan]

  I agree in theory.  My thinking is that if the sound quality isn't carried through each stage in the sound system, how do you get it out at the end ? 

I know it may seem like that, I get hesitant about things like that too and even though I don't much believe in cable upgrades, I still get them because they help me sleep at night. However it really doesn't work like that from a technical or real world standpoint. I think saying this is banned outside of the sound science section, but I would encourage you to double blind test high priced dacs to reasonably priced dacs. Any decent gear will both power and carry your audio signals to indistinguishable levels so for what its worth my vote would be to shoot for any headphones you think look and sound good and then get whatever gear you can afford to accompany them.. the only problems you'll have at that point would be expectation bias IMO
 
Good luck!

 

[jlbrach]

to me the source is most important because if the source is no good the better speakers or HD's will just show up the poor source that much more...on the other hand,top speakers or HD's with top notch source yields audio bliss......

 

[Dillan]

  to me the source is most important because if the source is no good the better speakers or HD's will just show up the poor source that much more...on the other hand,top speakers or HD's with top notch source yields audio bliss......

Yea when I say headphones/speakers are most important then I am assuming the source is perfect or at the very least "good". But you are totally right in that if a recording sounds awful then a good pair of speakers will make it sound even more awful.

 

[marcan]

With speakers the room acoustic is very important.That's why I prefer headphones