Two months in and I’ve found these LCDi4’s to be quite the addiction. The collection of audio gear I normally travel with has essentially been whittled down to these baby’s and a Hugo 2. I figured it was new toy syndrome in the beginning, however my carefully cultivated and ruinously expensive hoard of Fitear, JVC, AKG, Stax, JHA, and 64 audio products have sat unloved on the shelf for the last month while I build the will to sit down and attempt a few comparisons. Unfortunately, I don’t see it happening any time soon as I have seemed to have found a happy medium for the time being. I don’t know how much of this audio bliss the Hugo 2 is responsible for, but I can’t really be bothered to find out. This is the first time in the 15 odd years I’ve dabbled in the transportable side of this hobby that I can actually say that I may have found my endgame rig. I honestly don’t feel the urge to sample the latest and greatest that the head-if echo chamber is clambering about, which is a first.
The LCDi4’s seem to excel at just about everything that I’ve thrown at them. While I could complain that they lack the of slam when compared with some of the other iems I own or that they may lack some micro detail here and there, I really don’t care. I find myself just enjoying the airiness, the soundstage, the speed, or simply just the music. Be it a well mastered DSD selection or a crappy iTunes track, these things are a pleasure to listen too. I find it rather silly that it took a $5000 purchase to remember that this hobby is about the enjoyment one gets from the music and not some graph someone posted while screaming about a treble spike. In conclusion this purchase has been the best welcome back to Head-Fi ever; and this time I’m not sorry about my wallet.