[rskbug]

Canali. I kinda agree with you on that. If the improvement is atleast 40 percent of more IMO it's worth the investment. Anything less, is bordering rip off tagline.

 

[Gowry]

I'd be more interested in hearing whether it's as good as the LCD-X or LCD-4. I have both the LCD-X and LCD-XC. I have one for general use and the other for use at work. It'd be great to hear I could consider replacing one with the i4.

 

[sorrick]

I'm not even going to try to quantify how much better the i4's are than the isine 20s other than to say they are very clearly on a different level. The isine 20s bat way above their weight class in terms of price to performance and I prefer them to several more expensive iems and headphones that I have heard (my JH16s in particular, which once upon a time I thought were my endgame iem).

The i4s are a TOTL entry, and they absolutely perform at that level. Whether the improvement they provide is worthy of their increased cost is something that only you can decide. What I can say is that in pretty much every single dimension in which we think about the way headphones sound--bass and treble extension, bass impact and quality, treble shimmer, soundstage, instrument separation, musicality, resolution, transparency, etc.--the i4s provide a clear and immediately noticeable improvement over the isine 20s. These are not marginable differences that require 10 hours of critical listening to hear. They are improvements you notice in the first minutes of listening to one and then the other. As I said in my initial impressions the other day, listening to the isine 20s (with eq) I was thinking they sounded pretty great. But then I put on i4s and it was like unpeeling an entirely new layer of sound quality pretty much across the board.

 

[Mimouille]

the question is still out there, however:
sure the lcd i4 is better than the i20...but is it worth 4-5x the price 'better'?
my gut reaction is dubious from reading these comparative posts.
and i realize that 'worth it' is very relative to each person:
for some it's 20% improvement..others 30-50%. ...and for the die hards even 10% better is paying a huge increase in cash for.0

personally going 400-500% in price increase would have to warrant at least a 50%-75% SQ increase..
but unfortunately as we know in audio, the SQ % jumps often don't match the huge jump in $$$
..esp given how well the isine 20 already allegedly performs.

It is more complicated than that. Because sporting the ilcd4 will get you all the girls, whereas the iSine20 will leave you with the leftovers from the ilcd4 guys. And I won't evenention the 10...ladies will be spitting at you in da club.

 

[canali]

It is more complicated than that. Because sporting the ilcd4 will get you all the girls, whereas the iSine20 will leave you with the leftovers from the ilcd4 guys. And I won't evenention the 10...ladies will be spitting at you in da club.

sorry dude, but none of 'da gals can do for me what shelly can:
she is just sooo baaaaahhhhhd in bed.

 

[Mimouille]

sorry dude, but none of 'da gals can do for me what shelly can:
she is just sooo baaaaahhhhhd in bed.

Then you should indeed stick to the sheeper option.

 

[Junmoe62]

Is there any information about the release date for Chinese market?
Thanks.

 

[Eric Smith]

I'm am very close to saying the hell with it and pulling the trigger on these. I only have an Opus 2 to power them with at this time and the LCD purchase will drain my funds for a bit.

What is the warranty term on these and how is Audeze customer service as far as answering inquiries and turn around time?? Any info would be great.

 

[Cold Train]

the question is still out there, however:
sure the lcd i4 is better than the i20...but is it worth 4-5x the price 'better'?
my gut reaction is dubious from reading these comparative posts.
and i realize that 'worth it' is very relative to each person:
for some it's 20% improvement..others 30-50%. ...and for the die hards even 10% better is paying a huge increase in cash for.0

personally going 400-500% in price increase would have to warrant at least a 50%-75% SQ increase..
but unfortunately as we know in audio, the SQ % jumps often don't match the huge jump in $$$
..esp given how well the isine 20 already allegedly performs.

Those who tested it says 10% of improvements over Isine20

I was going to buy it, but the need of an amp just froze me ! Why the hell would you need an amp for a pair of iem? (Even planar)

 

[x RELIC x]

Those who tested it says 10% of improvements over Isine20

I was going to buy it, but the need of an amp just froze me ! Why the hell would you need an amp for a pair of iem? (Even planar)

Every IEM needs an amp and anything with a headphone port has an amp. I would say that the LCDi4's 35 Ohms and 105dB/1mW SPL sensitivity doesn't need a powerful amp at all. More like the resolving capabilities of good transducers should be fed quality power from a quality amp or it's a waste of money to purchase these kind of headphones/IEMs. Quite often excessive power is automatically substituted for quality and this certainly isn't always true. Just look at the highly regarded ALO CDM. The CDM is really not that powerful (80mW@32 Ohm, SE) but is widely liked by many, even for full sized headphones.

 

[rkw]

I was going to buy it, but the need of an amp just froze me ! Why the hell would you need an amp for a pair of iem? (Even planar)

No "need" for an amp if you only care that it plays loud enough. Absolutely needed if you want to get the most out of any high resolving iem.

 

[sorrick]

Those who tested it says 10% of improvements over Isine20

I was going to buy it, but the need of an amp just froze me ! Why the hell would you need an amp for a pair of iem? (Even planar)

Not sure where you heard the 10% figure, but it wasn't in this thread. Everyone here who has heard both (including me) have said the i4's are on another level from the iSine 20s and provide a significant and very noticeable improvement. I ordered the i4s from audeze direct because of their 30 day return policy and was planning to return them if they were not a significant step up. I knew within the first few minutes of having them on that (unfortunately for my wallet) that the i4s would be staying and my isine 20s will be up for sale soon.

Now if you are planning to use these primarily directly out of the headphone jack of a phone, you are going to be missing out on a significant amount of these headphones capabilities and you would probably be better off with the iSine 20s. While you don't need a super powerful amp (the isines sound great out of my cozoy REI and even my dragonfly red, neither of which have their own internal battery), the average phone's dac and amp, while powerful enough to drive the i4s at a decent listening volume, are not going to be giving you the resolution to really take advantage of them. As others, including audeze have said, sound absolutely fantastic out of a Chord Mojo.

 

[rskbug]

Those who tested it says 10% of improvements over Isine20

Ten percent improvement. It should be in the range of 40% plus atleast. Strange.

 

[Cold Train]

No "need" for an amp if you only care that it plays loud enough. Absolutely needed if you want to get the most out of any high resolving iem.

I have high resolving iems, my smartphones and daps were sufficient till now. (with exception to the Etymotic Er4s and Mee Audio Pinnacle P1)

I don't think that an amp is compulsory for any of them as most have an impedance on par or below 32 ohms with sensitivity above 102db

A pair iem is meant for portability, ease of use OTG, not for desktop use with amps and dacs on a stack

 

[AxelCloris]

Those who tested it says 10% of improvements over Isine20

I was going to buy it, but the need of an amp just froze me ! Why the hell would you need an amp for a pair of iem? (Even planar)

I can't speak for anyone else as we all use different gear, but for me the LCD-i4 has been very reliant on what's driving it. With a great source the LCD-i4 trounces the iSINE 20 to my ears. Out of more modest equipment, like Sony's entry level MW-A35 DAP, the differences aren't as immediately noticeable. To my ears, when I put a good source and amp in front of the LCD-i4 they're a completely different beast.

Also, this is just a personal thing, but applying percentage numbers to a comparison isn't a great indicator for readers. It may be a 10% difference on this DAP at this volume, but a 30% difference on the same DAP at a different volume, or a 33% difference on a different DAP at the same volume, or a 12.3612% difference on a different DAP at a different volume... it'll always be different. It's not 10% better, it just was at that moment to the listener who made the observation. On top of that, my subjective 10% may be vastly different than someone else's 10%. We're not talking hard objective numbers when comparing the LCD-i4 and the iSINEs, we're comparing our personal subjective opinions of the two.