Audeze LCD-4

A few words before i start with the review itsself:
I owned the LCD-2f years ago and regretted selling it, it was my third hifi headphone and the second one that i truly loved (Sundara, 6XX, LCD-2f, disliked the 6XX).
I am also a guy that prefers to have a collection of a few different coloured sounding headphones instead of one neutral allrounder.

I always had the LCD-3 and LCD-4 in mind after that, but i tried a lot of other headphones and no perfect deal for any of those two did come up. After reducing my headphone collection significantly, i tried to get one of those two, and always preferred to get the chance for a LCD-4, because a) the LCD-3 has that treble spike at 6k and b) because the LCD-4 seemed to be the pinnacle of the old Audeze house sound (warm, dark, punchy, relaxed) that i liked. I never chased the LCD-4z since it seemed to have less of that typical old Audeze house sound. I also heard the LCD-5 and the MM-500 at Highend Munich and disliked them because of their shouty sound signature, they sounded completely different.

Well, look what i have here now:


Isn't that thing gorgeous?
The headphone itsself is heavy, but comfortable.

Let's hear some music!
AMP / DAC: It's somewhat dependant (i haven't tried it on a cheap dongle).

RME ADI2 DAC FS: Sounds very nice as a reference, but leaves a bit to be desired.

Spring 3 KTE -> Rebel Amp: Bigger soundstage & more accurate imaging (that's the DAC i guess), it does not sound muddy at all (which i thought it would, because the Rebel is already warm), all in all way more organic and inviting, also better dynamics, it's a big step up! A pure class A seems to be a very good choice for the LCD-4!

Spring 3 KTE -> Envy with upgraded tubes: Honestly a smaller upgrade, a small step in soundstage and then details, also a small step up in dynamics, but it seems the scaling stops somewhere in between the Rebelamp and the Envy, the difference between them is just too small with the LCD-4. Voices are a bit further away on the Envy than on the Rebelamp.

Imaging is crazy stupidly good (to the point where i thought i had a channel imbalance, turns out it was the song)
Soundstage is average (smaller on a worse amp), but because of the relaxed nature, the soundstage depth is nice.

Random thought: Zeos must have severely underpowered his unit in his review (it's also some time ago), on a decent DAC/AMP (which i think the RME is) it's good, on a R2R DAC + class A / tube amp (with transparent sounding tubes) the LCD-4 really shines. He did describe it as extremely aggressive, i think the opposite is the case when it's properly powered.

Here's a frequency response graph, but keep in mind that the LCD-4 seems to suffer a lot from unit variation, for me the treble is dark, but not "extremely over the top" dark.
We see a solid flat bass extension, a slight bump at around 1k, a very relaxed pina gain, and a somewhat dark treble without any spikes (i don't hear any aswell).

My main driver is the Hifiman Susvara, i also listen a lot to my Verite Open (VO) and the Abyss 1266 TC.

Let's start with voices, they do sound so sweet and rich on the Audeze, it's magnificent.
Both with the LCD-4 and Susvara voices sound godly, Susvara covers them from above, LCD-4 from below. It's impossible to tell on which headphone i prefer them between the LCD-4 / Susvara, the VO is slightly behind because it gets to aggressive in comparison.
The Susvara is so so so much brighter, the VO is still very noticable brighter.
The LCD-4 is very easy to listen to, the VO sounds aggressive in comparison.
Susvara is noticable more detailed (also because of the ton of more treble), the VO may be more detailed in the treble (it has "normal" treble, but it often "forces" the details into your brain), the LCD-4 never sounds forced or fatiguing in comparison.
For anything classical with violins etc, the Sus is just far better because of the enhanced treble which sounds way airier (which also makes the soundstage larger).
Susvara gets fatiguing with bad recorded music or with too much electric guitars - LCD-4 is perfect here.

The bass of the LCD-4 is really good and gets only bested by the 1266. The Abyss has an even better bass than the Audeze, but nowhere near the voice / midrange quality, it's also very aggressive, the Sus has worse bass (still on an extremely high level).
It also has very nice dynamics, not quite Abyss though, for electronic music the 1266 is still the king, its bass is unbelievable.
The VO is more agressive / worse with bad recorded music.
A few examples:
"White Stripes - Seven Nation Army" 0:26 "TTTaking their TTTime" has way too much energy on the VO, the LCD-4 is perfect.
"Saliva - Click Click Boom" The LCD-4 is fantastic at the start of the song and my favourite, when the song opens up at the one minute mark, the Susvara takes the lead.
"Tina Turner - Goldeneye" 0:24 "SSSee reflections in the water", the VO sounds too sharp, the LCD-4 sounds perfect, the Susvara does sound slightly below that sharpness edge, nowhere near as sharp as the VO but also nowhere near the LCD4, here Tina Turner's voice sounds even better on the LCD-4 than on the Susvara.
On well recorded classical tracks it's no contest, Susvara wins by a mile (The Night Unfurls Ryan Amon Bloodborne OST) because of the details, treble and soundstage.
"Iron Maiden - The Evil That Men Do" on the Sus is very busy, it's fatiguing (the brightness gets to you), it also lacks that last punch of dynamics;
- The VO sounds fantastic, also a bit busy, but the guitars have a nice sparkle, but not overly so like with the Susvara.
- The LCD-4 sounds sooo relaxed and fun and still engaging enough to rock out.
- The 1266 has the best dynamics but falls short with its voices in comparison, it's also extremely aggressive.

The peak (more like a small bump) at around 1000Hz bothers me on very few occasions, best example: "A Demon's Fate - Within Temptation" at 0:16-0:20, weirdly only at the beginning of the song, then never again in the whole song.
Best genres for the LCD-4: Rock, Hardrock, Metal, anything not perfectly mastered, for Symphonic Metal (that is well recorded) i prefer the VO or the Susvara, i need that treble energy!
So, in the end the Audeze gets bested by the Susvara in classical and by the 1266 in eletronic music.
The relaxed nature is also sometimes a drawback. For genres like rap, this thing sounds too easygoing. Eminem sounds too relaxed when he's spitting his rhymes. I actually prefer my SJY Starry Night in comparison for his tracks, since this headphone has a slightly forward midrange.

I have a lot of music in my library that fits perfectly for the LCD-4. For stuff like Breaking Benjamin, Avenged Sevenfold, Emil Bulls, Iron Maiden, Airbourne, etc, which is a lot of my library, i had the following issues with my cans:
- The 1266 suffers in the voice department and is very aggressive (which is sometimes nice, but not all the time).
- The Susvara sometimes lacks the punch and gets easily fatiguing with its emphasized treble.
- The Verite Open is my normal choice here, but sometimes even that one is too aggressive sounding.
I don't want overemphasized cymbil hits or electric guitars in every track for a longer time / depending on my mood -> The LCD-4 is my new toy for that.
Will it stay forever? I don't know, but i truly enjoy it for now. I'm now at 5 headphones again (i don't count the Maxwell which i also love for its utility) and i don't want to make my collection as big as it was at one time (more than ten - urgh!). Every can i own has to bring something truly special to the table, which thankfully the LCD-4 does.

Conclusion: It's a shame that you cannot buy this thing anymore, i think it still holds a tremendous spot even in the current market (if you can get your hands on one).
If you like a coloured presentation and have a similiar rock & metal heavy library and want a relaxed headphone i can truly recommend it.

::SMALL UPDATE::
You need to get new fresh pads! You SIGNIFICANTLY reduce that 1kHz bump! It's so much better now.
I consider this thing now the best allrounder i have with the only negative point being the weight. It's SO GOOD on an Envy with PSVane Globe tubes, they reduce the darkness (enhance the treble), are generally U-shaped in their signature and make the LCD-4 truly fantastic.

Thanks for reading!

I've been auditioning the LCD-4 for the past few days, as a possible upgrade replacement of my LCD-3. The results surprised me, so I thought I'd write a review.

I expected the LCD-4 to best the LCD-3 in all categories, and the question would be whether it's superior enough to justify the much higher price. Turns out that I liked the LCD-3 more overall, hence my surprise.

Don't get me wrong, I do think the LCD-4 is an excellent headphone, at times amazingly good. There's definitely a bit more detail and resolution than the LCD-3, as one might expect, given the technology involved. But I want to emphasize that it's only a bit more, not a lot more. Other strengths are the typical Audeze LCD strengths: excellent controlled bass and smooth mids.

The main problem with the LCD-4, as Tyll Hertsens and other reviewers here in head-fi have noted, is in the shape of high mids and beyond. There's a pronounced dip from the upper mids to the lower highs, which results in a recessed and distant sound. And then the highs beyond that are somewhat boosted, which gives the LCD-4 an unwanted edge. More problematic, when all of this is combined, to my ears there's a very noticeably unnatural sound to cymbals and snare drums, and for me that's a dealbreaker, especially for a $4K TOTL headphone. By comparison, the LCD-3 has these problems to a much lesser degree, to the extent that it's not really an issue, and meanwhile it retains the positive qualities of the tonality from the bass to the mids. The net result is that, overall, I find the LCD-3 to sound more natural and engaging, and on 9 out of 10 tracks I prefer it over the LCD-4.

Given this surprising finding, I also compared the LCD-4 with my HD800S. To my ears, the HD800S has a more accurate and natural tonal balance than the LCD-4, and also brings out a touch more detail than the LCD-4 (probably partly because of the better tonal balance). Yes, the LCD-4 has better bass, and the HD800S bass initially sounds weak when immediately switching from the LCD-4, but after giving my ears some time to adjust to the HD800S, I don't find the bass of the HD800S to be lacking at all, and I don't really find myself missing the bass of the LCD-4. So overall, I prefer the HD800S over the LCD-4, and of course the HD800S costs even less than the LCD-3.

Considering that the LCD-4 is bested by its own younger sibling, the LCD-3, at half the price, and also bested on detail by the HD800S at an even lower price, I can't recommend the LCD-4. But of course, this is all for my ears, and Other Ears May Differ (OEMD).

Or so I would appear. This is my honest review of the Audeze LCD-4. Let's get straight to the point, since that's probably what most of you would want after seeing only 3 stars for this flagship headphone.

About me: I'm 24 years old, I attend audio shows every year to listen to gear, and I live in NYC and have access to many Hi-Fi shops and more private auditions. So I've listened to all sorts of top of the line headphone systems. Other headphones I have owned or own presently: Stax SR-007A, Stax SR-30, HiFiMan HE-560, ZMF Ori, ZMF Blackwood, Fostex T50RP MKIII, Sennheiser HD 6XX, AKG K7xx, Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro 250 Ohm, Audio Technica ATH-W1000Z, Audio Technica ATH-A900X, Audio Technica ATH-M40X.

I mostly listen to metal (various kinds), rock (newest being Rage Against the Machine, oldest dating back to the 60s), and some late 90s and early 2000s rap. Occasionally various kinds of soundtrack music and some classical too. So my primary genres are supposed to be Audeze's strength, according to the community.

My gear:

• Breeze DU-U8 level 3 Digital Interface (also tried this setup without this)
• Chord Hugo 2 DAC, no filters used, line level output used, used with 0.5m Kimber Kable Hero interconnects with Ultraplate connectors + Neutrik RCA to XLR adapters
• Mjolnir Audio Pure BiPolar (aka Dynalo Mk2 or Super Symmetry Dynalo)
• Norne Audio Solvine balanced 4' cable terminated with Eidolic Rhodium plated 4-pin XLR (2017 model)

The Case
Best headphone case I've ever seen. Perfect seal, seems incredibly weather resistant and robust.

Inside is a pair of gloves (seriously), a super long hybrid cable terminated in 1/4" that seems very high quality, an owner's certificate, and a flash drive containing the manual in PDF format.


No complaints here. 10/10 packaging.

Build Quality and Comfort
Carbon fiber top headband, leather headstrap, extremely solid metal yokes and other parts, mine has ebony wood trimmed cups. Super thick lambskin leather pads (very soft). My favorite cable connectors in the business, the usual Audeze ones, and as usual for them they are angled which is very nice. Exceptional craftsmanship on display. I read that the pads are glued on which would be a negative, but I didn't attempt to verify. Size adjustment range is very wide, should fit almost any adult well.


It's not very flexible as in it doesn't fold and the cups don't rotate much, as expected for such a big headphone. This is the heaviest headphone I've ever encountered. This would not be a problem with the combination of super thick soft pads and a suspension headband, only the suspension headband design is a failure. It doesn't really suspend, not on my head and not on any size. Only very partial suspension, most of the carbon fiber band still presses against my head so I bare the weight. Most LCD-4 owners (not LCD-4z owners it seems, but I'm not sure) encounter this too.


So the weight becomes a problem for me after an hour of use I'd say, or a bit more. Then I feel it on the top of my head.

Sound Signature
As Tyll's measurements show and review in general explains, incredibly linear response throughout the entirety of the bass and mids. Planars are typically sort of like this, but the LCD-4 may be the most linear from bass to mids of any headphone.

Treble is inconsistent, a bit of sibilance (most notable in the form of exaggerated cymbals, can be heard in 'T-' sounds) caused by excess energy in the upper treble region, but lower treble has very notable dips that cause an odd veil. More on this below.

The overall sound presentation of the LCD-4 is forward, more on the intimate side, not at all distant like the Sennheiser HD 800/HD 800S or HiFiMan HE1000v2/HE1000. At the same time, it is not nearly as closed in as the Sennheiser HD 650/HD 600/HD 6XX, it is more expansive than those.

The LCD-4, like its siblings, sounds bassier and more full bodied than 99% of high end headphones. But it is no basshead can, this is what I consider neutral bass and mids because it's essentially a razor straight frequency response from 10 Hz to a little over 1000 Hz. But you will notice far more bass presence than even HiFiMan planars, and any non-planar magnetic headphone. The bass is NOT more forward than the mids though. ZMF Headphones planars (Blackwood and Ori, both are modded Fostex T50s) has the closest sound to Audeze from my experience.

The LCD-4 does much better with detail retrieval than its younger siblings, though isn't the final word on the subject. The treble dips prevent it from being extremely resolving.

Something particularly impressive about the LCD-4 is its transparency. It has some of the thinnest diaphragms and strongest magnets of any planar magnetic headphone, and comes closer to the transparency of elite electrostatic headphones (Stax SR-007 and SR-009 and SR-009S) on relatively mid tier amps (e.g. KGSS) than any other headphone I've heard, although it does not come close to a really high end Stax system here.

The HiFiMan HE1000 is super close to the LCD-4 in this regard though, and I've never heard the SUSVARA. Also, while it is close, it is not quite there.

I use the following site for sweep tests: https://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php

Bass
Incredible. Nothing else is quite like it. I can hear the bass extend down to around 10 Hz, the limit of the test listed above. Bass slam isn't the most since the LCD-4 makes sure to not have bass bleed over the mids at all, but boy is there sub-bass presence like no other headphone. Breathtaking texture, transparency, detail, very punchy. No issues whatsoever, although not nearly as transparent or detailed as Stax SR-009 bass which makes LCD-4 bass sound two dimensional in comparison. But that 20 Hz (or maybe 30 Hz) and below sub-bass is probably the best of any headphone.

Mids
Linear mids that will sound thicker to those who are used to dynamic headphones. Thicker in a good way, one of the reasons is appropriate heft from the bass region. Bass to mids transition is flawless. The LCD-4 is meant to be slightly mid-centric I suppose, and I can find no flaws in the mids themselves. Extremely even, clear, transparent, pleasant tonality. Full bodied, again unlike so many dynamic headphones.

I don't think there is any issue with the upper mids, unlike how people feel about other Audeze headphones. The real issues lies in the treble.

Treble
Very few non-electrostatic headphones have impressive treble to me. Maybe even none. But even then, very few have treble for which I don't have any major problems with.

The LCD-4 has two real treble problems. Tyll explained them perfectly in his review, I hear the same exact things he mentioned. The first and least offender is some excess energy above 10 KHz that causes some sibilance ('T-') and exaggerated cymbals. I actually seem to have greatly remediated this with parametric EQ (EqualizerAPO with PeaceGUI) just by dropping 12 KHz and 16 KHz by 0.5dB.

But the deal breaker for me is the recession in the 4-8 KHz range. This causes a distinct veil, that affects vocals the most. It causes vocals to sound unnatural, as if there is some kind of void or black hole immediately following the voice that sucks up all sounds that should be there. As if there is distinctively no "air" for these vocals, and as if their sound doesn't really travel but gets sucked into some void. I don't know how else to describe it. This is also notable with pianos, and can affect plenty of other sounds. But vocals being affected most is a HUGE problem.

If only the LCD-4 didn't have these treble problems. It would be phenomenal then. This alone is the reason I deducted two stars from my review, that 4-8 KHz recession is a real deal breaker. Makes it sound worse to me than several sub $1,000 headphones (specifically the ZMF Ori, ZMF Blackwood, HiFiMan HE-500, HiFiMan Sundara) since I prefer realistic and natural sound, which this treble dip makes impossible.

I'm surprised more people don't take issue with Audeze's treble dip, and no it's not just there to make it non-fatiguing. There are headphones with a higher response there but are actually less fatiguing due to lower > 10 KHz response.

Sound Stage/Imaging
The LCD-4's sound stage presentation is on the closer and more intimate side. I can describe the sound stage as being centralized. It sounds three dimensional but not stretched out or huge in any direction. Instrument separation is outstanding as is mandatory for any great open back headphone. Imaging is satisfactory but not elite.

Compared to an extremely open sounding headphone like the Stax SR-009, the LCD-4's sound stage and imaging rate rather poorly. Severely lacking in depth next to the SR-009, and imaging is nowhere near as precise.

Conclusion
At $3,995, it costs more than most other flagships. What does it offer for the price? Incredible bass performance (but I find the Stax SR-009's far better when the rest of the system is up for it), stellar mid range performance (bested by both the Stax SR-007 and SR-009 to my ears), inconsistent flawed treble performance that to me ruins it all (but it obviously doesn't ruin it for everyone), comfort issues, and great build quality so that you don't have to worry about replacing pads or the cable connectors breaking (cough HiFiMan).

But I cannot recommend the LCD-4. One might find its bass to be the best or 2nd best of any headphone, but that's not enough to justify a $4k headphone. For anyone after this sound, I'd suggest the Stax SR-007 first, especially with the bass port mod.

I have the ZMF Blackwood and Ori on hand along with the LCD-4, and the Blackwood and Ori bass are still impeccable even next to the LCD-4. Overall, I rank both of those ZMF headphones higher than the LCD-4 because they sound more natural and less flawed. That's right, I consider both a $700 and $900 modded Fostex T50RP MKIII to be better than the Audeze LCD-4.

Sure, the LCD-4 has even better bass (not a huge difference), slightly more detail, better sound staging, and slightly more transparency, but the 4-8 KHz treble dip makes all of that irrelevant since it makes it sound so fake and unsatisfying at the end of the day. Music isn't nearly as engaging with the LCD-4.

As for driving the LCD-4, it is 200 ohms and not very efficient, so you need a good and powerful amplifier. It gets plenty loud out of a Schiit Lyr 3, but scales with top of the line gear. I've used the LCD-4 with the aforementioned Lyr 3, HeadAmp GS-X MkII, and Mjolnir Audio Pure BiPolar (which Bob Katz used with the LCD-4). The latter two definitely elevate the LCD-4 compared to a mid-fi amp like the Lyr 3. I'm guessing though that the absolute best amp for the LCD-4 would be a balanced/super symmetry Dynahi (aka Dynamite), but the Pure BiPolar, GS-X MkII, and GS-X Mini are end game worthy.

At the end of the day, the LCD-4 is not a headphone I will keep. Too flawed, for this price you better have it all and the LCD-4 does not. Stax still reigns supreme in the top of the line open back headphone category in my opinion (even the SR-007) and it's not even close.