[potkettleblack]

I just wanted to start out and say thank you to all the vendors that came and the members I met at RMAF. I felt as my first audio show that things were very overwhelming for me (just a ton of stuff to listen to). Anyway onto my review and feel free to flame away. Please keep in mind that I am a complete subjectivist to headphones and I am going to tell it straight. The types of music I listen to are Rock and Roll, Hip Hop, and Electronic. They didn't have too much in the way of that on the player so I chose Michael Jackson's Bad which is a track I feel like I know pretty well. I listened to their other stuff which did make it sound better but my wheelhouse is more of a bassier tone so please keep that in mind as you ready this.

Alright the moment you have been waiting for (or not). I got a chance to listen to the LCD-4. What do you get for $4,000 do you ask? Advisory: Do not buy this product for any reason until you listen to it personally. For my taste it is far too neutral but not only that the HD800s bass on a cruddy amp sounds more noticable than on the LCD-4. It was just a very flat and boring headphone to me. I like rock, I like bass, I like instruments that sound like instruments. I found nothing but a desolate wasteland of bore. In regards to the sound stage I still felt that the HD 800 was superior. The LCD-4 picks up a lot of details but I think it totally misses for me on what good music should sound like. I tried I listened to it for 20 mins trying to understand what they were thinking. I spoke to a guy in a lab coat. He said well this is going to sound completely different than anything you ever heard. He was right and it wasn't good. The highs seemed constricted on the vocals the lows were nowhere to be found. The mids were readily available but it was like the music had no substance. Honestly I don't want to deter anyone away from buying these or not being PC in my statements but this is one of those things where you really had to be there and listen. I don't care about the price subjectively this in my mind was the biggest loser of the whole show as I don't think I heard anything as disappointing as this headphone (this was #1 worst). Again I will advise: do not buy this headphone until you listen to it first hand.

Now after writing this and hopefully reading my kind of disclaimer I didn't come here to troll or be rude that is what I heard. I think maybe someone who enjoys the HD800s unmodded can comment further if they listen to say classical, jazz, or opera but that is not what I listen to. Sorry again if this post upsets you or if you feel like I am completely off base.

 

[Asr]

Advisory: Do not buy this product for any reason until you listen to it personally. ... Again I will advise: do not buy this headphone until you listen to it first hand.

 
No offense intended, but isn't that technically bad advice? How would the vast majority of people on this site hear a headphone before they buy it? The number of Head-Fiers who attend meets or have local opportunities otherwise are vastly outnumbered by those who don't, and the "guests" that read Head-Fi but don't have accounts. And I bet that the majority of people with the cash to spend $4K on a headphone would likely just throw the cash around first and ask questions later.

 

[potkettleblack]

I did listen to the LCD3 at my local Denver meet. We had two local meets besides the CamJam at RMAF this year. I enjoy the local meets and best of all it was quiet. The LCD3 was better than I excepted it to be from the LCD2 and I like the LCDX as well.  Both have far better bass and dynamic range capacity than the LCD4. Hear them again and my opinions on the LCD2 and the LCD3 has not changed with the exactly the same setup I bring to the RMAF.

Oh god.... My little heart can't take comments like this

 

[kapanak]

   
No offense intended, but isn't that technically bad advice? How would the vast majority of people on this site hear a headphone before they buy it? The number of Head-Fiers who attend meets or have local opportunities otherwise are vastly outnumbered by those who don't, and the "guests" that read Head-Fi but don't have accounts. And I bet that the majority of people with the cash to spend $4K on a headphone would likely just throw the cash around first and ask questions later.

His advice is great advice. He is basically saying don't waste your money and make an informed decision. Do you buy a car without test driving it, based on impressions on the internet? And there are Audeze dealers everywhere. I am sure they will have one LCD-4 on hand to try.
 
I also bet a lot of LCD4 buyers will take advantage of the 30 day return policy

 

[goldendarko]

  And there are Audeze dealers everywhere. I am sure they will have one LCD-4 on hand to try.

My nearest dealer is over 8 hours away, long way to drive to hear one headphone. It's probably a lot easier for most people living in big cities though for sure.

 

[potkettleblack]

From the RMAF forum. Sorry if the poster wanted to put it in here, but I consider myself a bit of a Ron Burgundy:

Audeze LCD-4 + Audeze King amp
Game. Over.
- - This might be the best headphone I’ve ever heard.
- - Preferred it over SR-009 and Abyss by a pretty wide margin.
- - Not your typical Audeze. Not super dark and rolled off like most of the others.
- - Wonderful sense of air and gorgeous treble.
- - The mids! The bass! Perfection across every frequency spectrum!
- - An absolute detail monster, yet a supremely musical headphone. Unicorn!
- - Pulls out all the acoustic and ambient detail you get with an HD800.
- - Monster dynamics and impact. Explosive sound!
- - Sounds nearly as impressive with mp3s as it does with FLAC.
- - Really more comparable to a high-end two channel system than a headphone.
- - Tremendous soundstage and imaging.
- - Organic realism to the music and rich timbre.

 

[catspaw]

From the RMAF forum. Sorry if the poster wanted to put it in here, but I consider myself a bit of a Ron Burgundy:

Audeze LCD-4 + Audeze King amp
Game. Over.
- - This might be the best headphone I’ve ever heard.
- - Preferred it over SR-009 and Abyss by a pretty wide margin.
- - Not your typical Audeze. Not super dark and rolled off like most of the others.
- - Wonderful sense of air and gorgeous treble.
- - The mids! The bass! Perfection across every frequency spectrum!
- - An absolute detail monster, yet a supremely musical headphone. Unicorn!
- - Pulls out all the acoustic and ambient detail you get with an HD800.
- - Monster dynamics and impact. Explosive sound!
- - Sounds nearly as impressive with mp3s as it does with FLAC.
- - Really more comparable to a high-end two channel system than a headphone.
- - Tremendous soundstage and imaging.
- - Organic realism to the music and rich timbre.

Perhaps the volume was louder?

 

[Jalo]

That is exactly why Velvetx's advise is wrong because with 30 days return policy, you can have a much better audition than a few minutes at any shows or dealerships. So the best advise to those who are really interested in getting the LCD4 should be buy, listen for three weeks, and then decide to keep or not to keep.

Second, I cannot dispute Velvetx's Impression only because I did not listen to his audition. So I really have no ground to agree or disagree his impressions. However, I am shock at his impression that the LCD has no bass or very little bass, and that the sound is too neutral etc. it is almost like saying the 009 doesn't have enough detail or that the HD800 has a restricted sound stage. It just goes against reason to think that any LCD has no bass. I repect his right to share his opinion and I accept that it is his honest opinion, but since it is so different from most people's experience with Audeze' product, I hope people will reserve their judgement and wait for more impressions (as most of us who did not attend the RMAF are not likely to have the chance to hear the LCD 4 any time soon).

 

[conquerator2]

From the RMAF forum. Sorry if the poster wanted to put it in here, but I consider myself a bit of a Ron Burgundy:

Audeze LCD-4 + Audeze King amp
Game. Over.
- - This might be the best headphone I’ve ever heard.
- - Preferred it over SR-009 and Abyss by a pretty wide margin.
- - Not your typical Audeze. Not super dark and rolled off like most of the others.
- - Wonderful sense of air and gorgeous treble.
- - The mids! The bass! Perfection across every frequency spectrum!
- - An absolute detail monster, yet a supremely musical headphone. Unicorn!
- - Pulls out all the acoustic and ambient detail you get with an HD800.
- - Monster dynamics and impact. Explosive sound!
- - Sounds nearly as impressive with mp3s as it does with FLAC.
- - Really more comparable to a high-end two channel system than a headphone.
- - Tremendous soundstage and imaging.
- - Organic realism to the music and rich timbre.

To put things into perspective, he praised the other things he liked similarly

 

[potkettleblack]

Very possible. I'd also like opinions from people that got to listen in quiet environments.

The biggest concern so far is the lack of bass people are claiming it has.

I consider the x's and 3's the best hip hop and drum and bass cans in the world. When I heard of the 4's I wanted similar signatures but taken to the highest level.

When I first saw Jude's headfi mini review I was surprised and worried he didn't really mention the bass.

 

[reddog]

My nearest dealer is over 8 hours away, long way to drive to hear one headphone. It's probably a lot easier for most people living in big cities though for sure.

I am in the same boat, the closest Audeze dealer, is hours away. I will probably end up saving up for months, then purchase them, without hearing them. If I like them I will keep them, if not I will sadly return them.

 

[goldendarko]

I am in the same boat, the closest Audeze dealer, is hours away. I will probably end up saving up for months, then purchase them, without hearing them. If I like them I will keep them, if not I will sadly return them.

Reddog aren't you broke yet?

 

[Viper2005]

I am in the same boat, the closest Audeze dealer, is hours away. I will probably end up saving up for months, then purchase them, without hearing them. If I like them I will keep them, if not I will sadly return them.

I anticipate Audeze will have a metric tonne of B-stock open box LCD4's for sale in the future!  

 

[reddog]

Reddog aren't you broke yet?

Yes, I need to save up for them, for the next 8 months.

 

[Barra]

To revisit my impressions from RMAF, the lcd4 absolutely had the best and richest bass out of the lcd lineup easily besting the lcd3s slam and extension when paired with the new king amp. That being said, going back and forth with the 4 and x through the Kings dual outs was painful with the x screaming at moderate 4 volume settings so the 4 is harder to drive. Didn't ab the 3 to see the difference there since I had people waiting but the 4 is possibly the hardest lcd to drive that can explain less than optimal bass response on other systems not up to the task.

While it is now definitely my favorite Audeze, the $4k is too much in my opinion. I am more likely to add an x to my 2.2 for much greater bang for the buck. However, if I was to spend that much, I would choose the 4 over the he1000, the abyss, or the 009 based on my personal signature preferences and back to back listening at RMAF.

To me the lcd4 experience was akin to listening to your favorite headphones on a very good lush and liquid tube amp and getting sucked deep into the sound and out of this reality. So who knows, maybe it was the king that was so good.