Audeze LCD-4

[sahmen]

I have the X and the 4. The X has most of it's treble peak around 10khz and the 4's peak extends well beyond that. Depending on your chain and the recording, that can be air that adds sound stage and creates space between the instruments. If your chain or the recording are not up to par, I find the 4s to be rather unforgiving. With the AGD Master 11 and the Yggy to the amp section of the Master 11 (essentially a Master 9), I found the treble problematic more often than not. The move to the Aries G2, Terminator and Headtrip changed that where unless the recording is very sibilant, I have zero fatigue - even with silver interconnects and headphone cable.

I pretty strongly believe that the people that have issues with the LCD-4 treble are just revealing an issue with their chain. The X revealed this very slightly by not as ruthlessly as the 4. If your experience with the X is zero fatigue, I think you have a very good chance of finding the 4s a worthy upgrade without any downsides. If you're on the edge about the LCD-X treble being bothersome, the 4s may just exacerbate the issue.

I will say though, that the X are more aggressive sounding all else being equal. You may or may not prefer that. There are still plenty of dynamics with the 4 to keep your attention.

I have never been bothered by the treble of the X, on either one of my main rigs, so that must be a good "omen" then

 

[sahmen]

I agree the 4's are VERY revealing. A bright amp would not be my preference. I use a Woo WA5le with mine. But I find I generally prefer tubes over solid state. Usually because of the edge I perceive in the treble with solid state. But this may just be my experience. The Yggy analog 2 is the dac I use with them. I started using the Reveel plugin with Audivana and feel this solved even the occasional issue I had with the treble on the 4's. And this was only with some tracks that tended to be a little harsh in the treble anyways.

The two main DAC/Amp pairings I'm likely to use to drive the LCD-4 will be:

1. Yggdrasil2 + Violectric V281

2. Metrum Onyx + Cavalli Liquid Platinum

I have not heard either pairing associated with excessive "brightness", but Violectric a solid State, and the LP, a tube hybrid. I do not expect there to be a brightness problem, but I am sure someone will correct me if they have had a negative experience with the LCD-4 and any of these components.

 

[sahmen]

As far as similarities between the two: Both are very fast with good detail retrieval. The MX4 is more neutral. I do find the soundstage larger on the 4's. Also more analog sounding. That may sound weird but I'm not sure how else to describe it. They have more body and a sense of weight to the music. Yet it doesn't come at the expense of speed or detail. If you look in my signature you will see the headphones I have, and the 4's are my favorite. And that says something about how high I would rate them.

The description sounds like something I might really like, as long as my components do not surprise me with some unexpected harshness at the top, that is. Thanks for the input.

 

[ajreynol]

Interesting. I also LOVE the LCD4s 200 ohm and run them from the V281. It is a great combo. I would suggest you have more left in the LCD4s. I would recommend you look at some DACs, R2R types. I have been through some DACs since I got my LCD4s and they have scaled very nicely with each upgrade, responded to the source a to more than I imagined possible.

Oh I have no doubt I have plenty left in my LCD-4's. I just had the opportunity to try out the 4z's so I figured I'd take it and not have to wonder "what if". Very happy to have my LCD-4's back and they are home for good barring an Abyss purchase. lol.

 

[ajreynol]

The two main DAC/Amp pairings I'm likely to use to drive the LCD-4 will be:

1. Yggdrasil2 + Violectric V281

2. Metrum Onyx + Cavalli Liquid Platinum

I have not heard either pairing associated with excessive "brightness", but Violectric a solid State, and the LP, a tube hybrid. I do not expect there to be a brightness problem, but I am sure someone will correct me if they have had a negative experience with the LCD-4 and any of these components.

You will not have any sort of brightness issue with the V281. I can't speak for the Yiggy, but the V281 + LCD-4 is perfect for me and I am *very* sensitive to brightness.

 

[astrostar59]

The LCD4 is very resistance to sibilance or treble aggression. My Stax 009 and Carbon amp was a razor blade on some material and that was with a top Audio Note R2R tubed DAC LOL.

Many folk comment on the treble in the LCD4 as disappointing. I disagree. It doesn't have the instant excitement of the Stax 009 and some other more in your face HPs, but reminds me more of real music, not an examination bench / a studio monitor type of presentation.
The LCD4 is much closer to how I hear a top speaker rig, with big dynamics, solid mids and bass and a big soundstage. If I was to project the sound I got off my Stax onto a big speaker rig, most people would be heading out the door after 2 or 3 tracks. The LCD4 has all the detail, it is all there, but in it's place, less plankton and micro detail thrown forward and exaggerated in amplitude. If anyone is coming from the HD800 the LCD4 will be a very different kind of presentation. It may become your new 'normal', or you may hanker after forward detail, it depends what you are after.

 

[biscottino]

the version of stax 009S is much more similar to LCD4 than you might think,
with the mkgss carbon is a perfect match, all in all I prefer it also to Lcd4.

 

[Zurakx]

Hello new member! Thinking about getting my first TOTL headphones and looking for some feedback on the LCD4s. Feel free to skip over the backstory and just look at the question at the end.

I've been eyeing the LCD-4 for a little while now. I've not been able to find anywhere to audition them in my area, closest I'll be able to get is LCD-X it seems. While I know audeze has a generous 30 day return policy, I hate to buy things and then return them because I changed my mind. So call this, me trying to do my research ahead of time.

My first "getting into the audiophile world" headphones was the dt-770 paired with an asus xonar essence one dac. The difference between regular headphones got me hooked. Not knowing much about audio, I think that I, like many others starting out, considered true reference... flat line response? to be the holy grail of headphones. Things like musicality ect ect were just ways of sugar coating flawed headphones. After a couple years I decided that it was time to start working towards a totl setup. Rather than jump head first on the headphones, I decided to go mid range on headphones and picked up 1990 pros. There were noticeably better than the 770s, but not the same earth shattering upgrade as cheap headphones to to 770s. Still I was happy with them.

One area that I was not going to mess around with was my next upgrade which was the DAC. Still on the reference train, I jumped onto the benchmark dac 3 HGC. If you can pass the signal through in a loop 17 times before any noticeable distortion occurs then the unit does a good job in that department IMO. Chord seems to be all the rave, but I really do not like the looks of the devices myself. I'll take that old school engineers front panel over chord personally. Looks being the only real complaint I've read about the DAC 3. So far I love it. Absolute black backgrounds, no hissing, no grain, no popping, no clipping. I'm not experienced enough to try and measure extension ect, but nothing has stuck out to me as being bad sound quality wise.

So now the meat of my post.

I've noticed I've been doing something lately. Turning up the volume to get more bass and mids on my benchmark dac3 and dt 1990 set up. This has, in turn, started to cause my ears to start hurting a little and forcing me to cut short my listening. It's sort of a recent realization, but I think I'm sensitive to highs. Even when carpooling and people crank up the radio, I seem to be the only one who's ears start hurting from the loud highs. Sometimes I even put earplugs in (i work at a powerplant so always on hand) just so I don't have to be that guy that ruins it for everyone else. I dont have that problem in my car, and when I checked the EQ i noticed that when I had bought it I boosted the lows and mids without touching the highs.

From everything that I've read and the response graphs that i've read, what i'm looking for pretty much seems to be the audeze house sound. Would the more experienced of you here agree that (in general) i'm on the right path here? I know there are "other factors to consider".

Has anyone listened to the LCD-4 on a benchmark dac/internal amp? I'm sure it has plenty of power, but i'm curious if for some reason the LCDs just don't pair well with it.

I think I had another question but forgot by the time I typed all this up, feel free to mention anything else you want!

And just to think, three years ago I was at guitar center sweating bullets because I was about to drop 200 whole dollars on a set of headphones.

 

[mlxx]

Never tried it myself but can't see any reason it wouldn't work well.
MacedonianHero's review has some comments about them both.
https://headphone.guru/benchmark-dac3-hgc-new-standard-transparency-resolution/

Although generally the LCD's have easy to listen to treble, the LCD4 will not hide anything, it is very dynamic and transparent.
Any edginess in treble in the system or from RF/EMI or the like, will be heard clearly. Be prepared to tweak things to make it sing.
Never heard any LCD before? Hmm.. starting with a LCD4, you might think you died and went to heaven.

 

[Zurakx]

Never heard any LCD before? Hmm.. starting with a LCD4, you might think you died and went to heaven.

That's the idea at least.

Thank you for the link ill check it out.


-edit- just read the article. seems the benchmark is more than just a good match for the lcd-4. He even went so far as to suggest that it performs better than the dave with the lcd-4. I'm sure dave owners would argue the other way though . On the flip side, he also said it might be the only headphone that could benefit from a more powerful amp as far as music space is concerned, but that the difference would be marginal at best.

glad that I seemed to have picked out the right dac for me on the first shot. spent weeks trying to figure out what to get.

 

[seamon]

If anyone is interested, I am selling my Audeze LCD 4 PurpleHeart here. There are a one of a kind one-off unique LCD 4 made by Audeze

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/audeze-lcd-4-purpleheart.896222/

 

[jlbrach]

what is unique about them ?

 

[ufospls2]

what is unique about them ?

The wood, only pair in purpleheart I think. With that being said...$4500???? oof. Thats more than brand new....at MSRP and I don't know if anyone pays MSRP.

 

[jlbrach]

oh ok

 

[seamon]

The wood, only pair in purpleheart I think. With that being said...$4500???? oof. Thats more than brand new....at MSRP and I don't know if anyone pays MSRP.

Selling a Norne Audio Pure Silver Cable with it too. I think I'll just remove that.