Audeze LCD-4
Jan 17, 2017 at 4:01 PM Post #5,326 of 11,957
I don't know what makes you say that, but I sure hope you don't run any business as that's not a professional attitude toward your customer, let alone a customer who just spent $4,000 on headphones.

After I contacted my dealer and sent them the picture of the headphones, I received a call from someone at Audeze name Mark (he sounded like someone with higher authority than the receptionist that I talked earlier). He was much more friendly and empathetic to the situation. He agreed that the color seems odd, and offered to make it right for me. They will replace the wood rings with a uniform, darker color all around the ring (not half dark, half yellow like it is now) when they have them back in stock.

Some people may say I'm cherry-picking. But if you think for me a little bit, I didn't anticipate to spend $4,000 and have this kind of dissatisfactory service/product either.


I run a business, and you are correct, the customer is always right, at least if you want to continue to be in business. Mark did the right thing, when you pay this kind of money, you want it to look and feel as advertised, not just sound. I am in the food business, and I can tell you without a doubt, if a customer feels slighted in any way, the food will taste different to them, meaning they will not enjoy their meal. He may have gotten what Audeze feels he paid for, but if he doesn't feel he got what was advertised, they could be the most incredible pair of headphones he will listen to in his lifetime, but the fact that he feels slighted will not allow him to enjoy them. Just my 2 cents.
 
Jan 17, 2017 at 7:13 PM Post #5,327 of 11,957
On the sonic front for the LCD4, I like to report that I have been getting excellent results with a Toxic Black Widow (OCC 22) headphone cable. It targets perfectly the digital glare on vocals I was hearing while keeping the bass firm and controlled and detailed. If anything, the bass is better, more integrated and less of of a stand alone entity. It's hard to describe, but it just a more balanced speak-with-one-voice sound.
(I actually have heard this kind of glare in several mag-planar headphones from several brands.) This image is from the site. I have a balanced version but it looks similar.

 
Jan 18, 2017 at 4:19 AM Post #5,328 of 11,957
  It can be a bit of a gamble, but I would have thought that sound would be the deciding factor in buying a pair of high end headphones.  Especially in this price range, open, driven from a desktop rig at home only, never to be worn out in public as a fashion statement.

 
Respectfully, I partially disagree. Naturally the main purchase factor is the sound (as it should be), but we are talking about a luxury item here. Especially in this price range, you would think (like any other successful luxury product) there's a correlation between price, quality and aesthetics not unlike watches. 
 
This kind of visual dissonance sort of ruins that. It's also true that I enjoy the sight of a good-looking pair of headphones on my desk (or stand) without needing to show them off or looking for validation from anyone else.
 
Then again, maybe that's just me. 
 
Jan 18, 2017 at 4:31 AM Post #5,329 of 11,957
   
I don't know what makes you say that, but I sure hope you don't run any business as that's not a professional attitude toward your customer, let alone a customer who just spent $4,000 on headphones.
 
After I contacted my dealer and sent them the picture of the headphones, I received a call from someone at Audeze name Mark (he sounded like someone with higher authority than the receptionist that I talked earlier). He was much more friendly and empathetic to the situation. He agreed that the color seems odd, and offered to make it right for me. They will replace the wood rings with a uniform, darker color all around the ring (not half dark, half yellow like it is now) when they have them back in stock.
 
Some people may say I'm cherry-picking. But if you think for me a little bit, I didn't anticipate to spend $4,000 and have this kind of dissatisfactory service/product either.

 
 
I think you were aggressively responded to by a couple of forum posters and I am glad a level of understanding to your situation has finally come of it. You buy a sofa for sitting on, but we all care what colour it is, what material it is made from etc. If headphones were only about the sound then why not just plastic grilles and plain MDF for the shells. Buying headphones at this level are like buying a piece of furniture. We keep them on display and they ARE meant to be admired. Companies like Audeze are what I regard as boutique technology manufacturers. They don't sell LCD-4s by the tens of thousands. The headphone is largely hand made and there will be imperfections or variances aside from the wood. They need to, and do care about each and every customer but they also make mistakes. As long as they are willing to put it right, then all is good. I hope you get a nice looking replacement. Audeze should replace the photos, but they don't take these themselves and probably pay a silly amount of money to have a company do them. I think they under estimated the Big Mac effect that was alluded to earlier (A Big Mac has never looked in reality like the photos), but when you spend 4k, you are less likely to let that go!
 
Incidentally, in a BBC article in 2015, ebony was listed as the 7th most expensive wood in the world. I am actually really pleased with mine. In evening lighting it is dark with yellowish variations. In daylight it is dark with reddish elements. It looks different in different lights which is really appealing to me.
 
I am monitoring a slight flaw with mine though. When used wiith the Yamaha Clavinova digital piano, the left driver sometimes buzzes a little with loud deep decayed notes. It seems to vary depending on temperature and a random factor I have yet to determine. The buzzing doesn't happen with ordinary music listening that I have tried with my desktop and portable set-ups. It is not the driver itself as it would be consistent if it was, so it seems to be a resonance of a piece of wire in the housing or something like that. Interestingly earlier in this thread, there was reference to buzzing with the LCD-4s that could typically only be induced with tone generators. I suspect the digital piano is more in the direction of a tone generator and may be stimulating this, but oddly only for the left cup.
 
Jan 18, 2017 at 6:59 AM Post #5,330 of 11,957
Respectfully, I partially disagree. Naturally the main purchase factor is the sound (as it should be), but we are talking about a luxury item here. Especially in this price range, you would think (like any other successful luxury product) there's a correlation between price, quality and aesthetics not unlike watches. 

This kind of visual dissonance sort of ruins that. It's also true that I enjoy the sight of a good-looking pair of headphones on my desk (or stand) without needing to show them off or looking for validation from anyone else.

Then again, maybe that's just me. 


no, it's not just you :wink:
 
Jan 19, 2017 at 4:28 PM Post #5,331 of 11,957
  Not to beleaguer the wood grain/pattern point, but I was also very slightly disappointed when my LCD-4s (left) came with wood that, to my eye, was less attractive than my LCD-2 Rosewood cans (right):
 

 
 
Of course, you don't see then when you're listening to them, but I was hoping to gasp when I opened my new $4000 headphones.
 
- Dave

 
The LCD-4 (left) looks much much better than the LCD-2 IMHO
 
Jan 19, 2017 at 6:41 PM Post #5,332 of 11,957
   
The LCD-4 (left) looks much much better than the LCD-2 IMHO


Beauty is simply in the eye of the beholder! It is an intuitive judgement of pleasure/displeasure on the part of the individual -- after Kant's Third Critique (of aesthetic judgement).
 
Jan 20, 2017 at 3:15 AM Post #5,336 of 11,957
Not pointing this at anyone in particular, but my god the wood discussion is getting ridiculous. First, it's clear that some of you have never worked with wood at all. Wood varies. That's all there is to it. And, by the way, you really expect a hand-made set of wood pieces to be identical for every single unit? More so, you find that desirable? I sure don't. I like the fact that my pair is slightly different from everyone else's. That's part of the charm of buying a handmade product involving wood. You think every Bentley rolls out of the factory with identical wood grain and color? Of course not, and it's not supposed to either. That would be rather boring and sad.

Also, some of you don't seem to be understanding that Cocobolo is simply not legal to cut down and chop up for commercial use like this anymore. They had a stock of it that they used for the initial run, and that's it. That's all there will be, unless somehow it comes off the endangered list in the future. Demanding that they build you a Cocobolo pair and getting angry that they won't is like demanding that someone paint your house with lead-based paint, and then getting angry when they don't. I agree that they should change the picture they use, but apart form that...please calm down.

Finally, as someone who is often a customer at many places that sell many things, and as someone that interacts with sometimes 50+ customers a day in my own line of work - the customer is rarely right. In fact they are often wrong, and not just by a bit. If you go through life insisting that everything that crosses your mind with regard to whatever product or service you're buying must be right because you thought of it, life will be very unpleasant for you. And rightfully so. Again, not meant for anyone specifically, but some of the comments being made here put me in a mind to make this observation.

Anyway...

I'm rather enjoying my Ebony LCD4s, even driven out of my Mojo for now. The detail, warmth and "fullness" of the sound is just amazing. I can't believe how good they sound even with minimal wattage. I demo'd them out of a Ray Samuels Intruder yesterday, which definitely has a lot more power. Thinking of picking that up to complete the mobile stack for general use with LCD4s when travelilnig, or the HD700s or even my old Triple.Fi 10s. I travel a lot, and like to bring my music with me when I can. I realize some here are incensed by the thought of using LCD4s anywhere but in their own home, but I hope I get to take them at least a few places.

The person who sold my pair to me mentioned that the Pro iCan pairs exceptionally well with these, anyone else have experience with that pairing? Seems like an insanely good value for the money, and the idea of having both tube and SS in one amp seems extremely appealing. In addition, seems to have more than plenty of power for any headphones money can buy.

Other quick question - anyone have a lot of experience with the ALO CDM and the LCD4s? Power output would seem to be barely more than my Mojo, but I have seen one or two comments saying that it's actually an excellent pairing. That's the other mobile amp that is appealing to me, and there seems to be a few of them for sale right now for quite a bit less than new.

Will try to put up some pics of my LCD4s once I have some that look halfway decent.
 
Jan 20, 2017 at 3:31 AM Post #5,337 of 11,957
....

Other quick question - anyone have a lot of experience with the ALO CDM and the LCD4s? Power output would seem to be barely more than my Mojo, but I have seen one or two comments saying that it's actually an excellent pairing. That's the other mobile amp that is appealing to me, and there seems to be a few of them for sale right now for quite a bit less than new.

Will try to put up some pics of my LCD4s once I have some that look halfway decent.


Agree on the expectation about natural products all being the same. That's the whole point of not using manufactured materials.

FYI, the ALO CDM outputs 80mW (single ended) and 125mW (balanced) in to 32 Ohm. The Mojo outputs 600mW in to 32 Ohm. While the ALO CDM is well received and is reported to sound great, when talking about output power the Mojo is much more powerful than the ALO CDM. I haven't heard the LCD-4 or the ALO CDM, just thought I'd share the output specs.
 
Jan 20, 2017 at 2:24 PM Post #5,338 of 11,957
Not pointing this at anyone in particular, but my god the wood discussion is getting ridiculous. First, it's clear that some of you have never worked with wood at all. Wood varies. That's all there is to it. And, by the way, you really expect a hand-made set of wood pieces to be identical for every single unit? More so, you find that desirable? I sure don't. I like the fact that my pair is slightly different from everyone else's. That's part of the charm of buying a handmade product involving wood. You think every Bentley rolls out of the factory with identical wood grain and color? Of course not, and it's not supposed to either. That would be rather boring and sad.

Also, some of you don't seem to be understanding that Cocobolo is simply not legal to cut down and chop up for commercial use like this anymore. They had a stock of it that they used for the initial run, and that's it. That's all there will be, unless somehow it comes off the endangered list in the future. Demanding that they build you a Cocobolo pair and getting angry that they won't is like demanding that someone paint your house with lead-based paint, and then getting angry when they don't. I agree that they should change the picture they use, but apart form that...please calm down.
 

 
+1
 
finally a voice of reason.  if i'm PhiQuanTu and i open up my pair of LCD-4's to see that rare color, i'm HAPPY AS HELL!!!!!!  that is unique and valuable!
 
in baseball cards, it is not the card that looks like every other card that is valuable.  it's the one with a misspelled word, or something that makes it unique. 
 
the unique coloration on PhiQuanTu's LCD-4 doesn't affect the sound quality in the slightest. 
 
let's keep our eyes on the ball, shall we people?  the pettiness and smallness of many of the complaints and criticism in this thread is disheartening.  
 
Jan 20, 2017 at 2:27 PM Post #5,339 of 11,957
It's somewhere between walnut color and my natural Brazilian wood floor.


 
 
(let's try this again):
 
CONGRATS, PhiQuanTu, on your extremely UNIQUE, "one-off" pair of LCD-4's!  you must be so excited.  enjoy the second-to-none sound quality and highly rare and distinctive wood grain!
 
Jan 20, 2017 at 3:51 PM Post #5,340 of 11,957
Respectfully agree and disagree. I agree with you about how the customer is rarely right, but the point of the saying "the customer is always right" means to have a successful business, you have to keep the customer happy. If the customer is unhappy with the wood rings after spending $4000, whats the better option, replacing the wood, costing you maybe 200-400 dollars, making him happy or having that customer return the $4000 and taking his business elsewhere because you told him, "tough luck, you get what you get". Not only do you risk losing the customer's business, but an unhappy customer is more likely to tell anyone that will listen about his bad experience with your company than a happy customer to climb the mountaintop to sing your praises. 
 
Quote:
Finally, as someone who is often a customer at many places that sell many things, and as someone that interacts with sometimes 50+ customers a day in my own line of work - the customer is rarely right. In fact they are often wrong, and not just by a bit. If you go through life insisting that everything that crosses your mind with regard to whatever product or service you're buying must be right because you thought of it, life will be very unpleasant for you. And rightfully so. Again, not meant for anyone specifically, but some of the comments being made here put me in a mind to make this observation.
 

 

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