Audeze LCD-4
Jan 20, 2017 at 4:44 PM Post #5,341 of 11,957
The rings could be made from Carbon Fiber and that would solve the...........wait.......McLaren Cars runs color through their Fiber don't they.......wait a minute!!
 
Jan 21, 2017 at 4:08 AM Post #5,342 of 11,957
Just saw the last few pages. I don't think holes in gasket, uncertainty with wood and, from other Audeze threads, dying drivers... None of this excusable.

Could excuse that when they started out, but their brand is mentioned frequently, in response to top headphone questions these days.

For a 4k headphone, this is rubbish. Apprenticeships should have been served by now, they are supposed to now head towards being master of their craft.
 
Jan 21, 2017 at 1:28 PM Post #5,343 of 11,957
I am getting a ifi pro ican next week and will compare it with the mztl2s which is pretty amazing with the planars including the LCD4. There is a deal now until the end of the month on the ifi amp with $400 discount, check the amp thread or my posts as I posted the link.
I have the CDM too and it is a bit light for the LCD4...
 
Jan 22, 2017 at 3:04 AM Post #5,344 of 11,957
@x relic x - Thanks for the reminder - had forgotten how little power the CDM has. A shame, as it seems like such a work of art. Although in my research it seems as if CDM and Mojo output about the same power into 200 ohms. Either way, not enough.
 
Jan 22, 2017 at 3:07 AM Post #5,345 of 11,957
I am getting a ifi pro ican next week and will compare it with the mztl2s which is pretty amazing with the planars including the LCD4. There is a deal now until the end of the month on the ifi amp with $400 discount, check the amp thread or my posts as I posted the link.
I have the CDM too and it is a bit light for the LCD4...


Thanks for the info. Excited to hear your impressions of the pro iCan as well.
 
Jan 23, 2017 at 6:37 AM Post #5,347 of 11,957
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.
 

 
I dithered whether to respond to this, but as your comments imply a level of over dramatization of the concerns that were raised by another poster with their LCD-4, I felt compelled to comment. As a repeat of my previous statement. I am very pleased with my beautiful ebony LCD-4 headphones. The way it looks different in different lights, I half fancy I would prefer it if I saw it side by side to the Cocobolo anyway.
 
From the posts I have seen, nobody is demanding a Cocobolo headset. Furthermore nobody seems to lack an understanding that it is endangered. The concern was ONLY that Audeze use photos on their website of Cocobolo LCD-4s which are no longer available. As some see their headphones as a piece of furniture, they would understandably be upset when what they bought did not match what is shown as "for sale". To be clear, all that is being asked is that the pictures represent the product as sold today. Personally, I don't think that is unreasonable.
 
Secondly, ebony is the 7th most expensive wood according to the BBC in 2015 (I reported this earlier). It IS a luxury wood. But the part of the trunk that is typically used is the dark part. The outer part of the trunk is lighter. I would never suggest that any wood is discarded, but luxury items are usually made using the dark parts. While, personally, I wouldn't have been very upset to receive a lighter wood LCD-4, I would have certainly preferred and been wowed more after the pair I did receive which is a beautiful dark ebony set. If you see headphones as having a "furniture" component, then I can totally understand that even if Audeze updated the photos with a dark ebony photo, and a customer received the blonde part of the wood, they would wonder if they received the wrong product.
 
Sure all wood varies. Some woods are much more consistent from tree to tree. Ebony is a bit of an extreme example if you don't always use the middle part of the trunk, or select only the dark parts (which is traditionally how people expect ebony to look such as the expression Ebony and Ivory piano keys although of course nobody uses Ivory anymore for a piano).
 
In conclusion I feel it was unfair for the poster raising his disappointment with what he received to be criticized as some kind of unreasonable cry baby. 
 
Jan 23, 2017 at 10:13 PM Post #5,348 of 11,957
At the risk of burdening this thread with Too Much Information, I’d like to mention a few points regarding this customer’s complaint about his LCD4 rings not matching the photo on our website. At first, I thought “What is he complaining about? These ebony rings have very rare color – the customer should be excited.” But then I checked out our website photo of the LCD4, and it turns out our webmaster never updated the LCD4 photo – it still had the old (now illegal to sell) Cocobolo wood rings. After we stopped beating up our webmaster in the parking lot :wink:,  I figured this customer had a reasonable complaint in buying them sight unseen from the dealer and not meeting his expectations. Therefore, I offered to get him some ebony rings more suited to his expectation. However, the ebony we use does vary greatly in color and “flow.” We don’t use standard ebony like you see on guitar fingerboards – and we don’t “fake it up” by dying it black like 99% of the fingerboard ebony you see. We even buy the wood logs and have them milled for us. Every LCD4 we build is truly unique. Additionally, it’s getting harder for us to find great, useable hardwoods for our needs. For example, we had decided to use Cocobolo originally, but one month before production, it became “listed.” So we had to move to ebony, and even some ebony species are prohibited as well. We were just notified that ALL the important (at least to us and the musical instrument makers) members of the Dalbergia genus will be restricted/illegal effective Jan 2, 2017.
 
Besides the various Rosewoods, this includes Tulipwood, African Blackwood, and Kingwood. And what about our LCD-XC with the beautiful Bubinga wood cups? They’ll probably have to go before the end of this year. Maybe we should just give up and make our rings out of Legos! Complicating this even further for Audeze is that we need to make certain the end grain has the right figured look and not the typical “plank side grain” you would normally see on guitars and fancy hotel lobbies. Then the particular hardwood we use must be capable of being dimensionally stable and to hold threads for the machine screws we use for assembly. Whereas many other companies use wood for decorative purposes only, Audeze uses the wood as an integral part of the structure. It is because of shortages of appropriate woods and our attention to detail that still makes our LCD series headphones typically backordered.
 
We want our customers to be happy, so we will do whatever it takes to make it right. With wood grain, the taste and opinions vary greatly.  - Mark from Audeze.
 
Audeze Stay updated on Audeze at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/AudezeLLC https://twitter.com/audeze https://www.audeze.com/
Jan 23, 2017 at 11:23 PM Post #5,349 of 11,957
Thank you for reaching out to me last week, Mark. I do appreciate your attention to customer's concern, and that had even made me feel somehow apologetic if this had caused any problem to you or your company. Honestly, I had never even known what cocobolo or elbony wood are or all the regulation/politics behind them. I simply went to your website, read the technical spec., love the look of the LCD-4 and placed the order. When I received the headphones, I was disappointed of the wood grain/color because it was not even close to what I had expected from the pictures - and 50% of my decision was based on the look of it on the advertisement pictures (LCD-4 is not easily found in Michigan where I can test-listen to confidently say I made the decision purely based on SQ first). Anyhow, I tried to forget about the wood color or look of it for two weeks. But after spending $4,000 and having to force myself to like something that I didn't pick or expect at the first place, it's really hard to swallow. I was on the border of contacting Audeze until I posted a picture up here and received some comments that agreed with my opinion on the color tone of the wood rings. At that time, I realized that if I didn't like it the first time, I'm not gonna like it two weeks or a year from now. So I contacted my dealer about it. Luckily, I still have record of me asking and confirming with my dealer before placing my order.
Again, I'm glad that you reached out to me and promised to replace the headphones with a darker color wood all around the rings. Although it won't be the luxurious cocobolo (or whatever wood that was) red color, I can settle with the darker ebony color. Just NO cheap yellow wood ring please.

Once again, let this case closed because the issue has been resolved by Audeze. However, to prevent future confusion, I suggest Audeze update the advertisement pictures because not everyone reads through the entire "LCD-4" thread to know the history and evolution of the the LCD-4 wood rings prior to making the purchase.
 
Jan 23, 2017 at 11:53 PM Post #5,351 of 11,957
I dithered whether to respond to this, but as your comments imply a level of over dramatization of the concerns that were raised by another poster with their LCD-4, I felt compelled to comment. As a repeat of my previous statement. I am very pleased with my beautiful ebony LCD-4 headphones. The way it looks different in different lights, I half fancy I would prefer it if I saw it side by side to the Cocobolo anyway.

From the posts I have seen, nobody is demanding a Cocobolo headset. Furthermore nobody seems to lack an understanding that it is endangered. The concern was ONLY that Audeze use photos on their website of Cocobolo LCD-4s which are no longer available. As some see their headphones as a piece of furniture, they would understandably be upset when what they bought did not match what is shown as "for sale". To be clear, all that is being asked is that the pictures represent the product as sold today. Personally, I don't think that is unreasonable.

Secondly, ebony is the 7th most expensive wood according to the BBC in 2015 (I reported this earlier). It IS a luxury wood. But the part of the trunk that is typically used is the dark part. The outer part of the trunk is lighter. I would never suggest that any wood is discarded, but luxury items are usually made using the dark parts. While, personally, I wouldn't have been very upset to receive a lighter wood LCD-4, I would have certainly preferred and been wowed more after the pair I did receive which is a beautiful dark ebony set. If you see headphones as having a "furniture" component, then I can totally understand that even if Audeze updated the photos with a dark ebony photo, and a customer received the blonde part of the wood, they would wonder if they received the wrong product.

Sure all wood varies. Some woods are much more consistent from tree to tree. Ebony is a bit of an extreme example if you don't always use the middle part of the trunk, or select only the dark parts (which is traditionally how people expect ebony to look such as the expression Ebony and Ivory piano keys although of course nobody uses Ivory anymore for a piano).

In conclusion I feel it was unfair for the poster raising his disappointment with what he received to be criticized as some kind of unreasonable cry baby. 


I don't think we really disagree at all, and some of the posts made have been well-measured and reasonable. However a few have been downright childish and ridiculous, and I am especially irked by anyone that suggests the customer is always right. No one is always right. There is usually a right answer that is arrived upon given enough reasonable communication between two parties, when it comes to things like this. That's all I'm asking for. Reasonable discussion and appreciation for the process in question here.

Still don't have a good picture of my ebony pair, the lighting in the room where I use them is not good for photographs. Will try to grab a few good ones tomorrow. I will say that given the choice, I prefer Cocobolo wood to ebony. But that's not possible, and I have seen some truly gorgeous ebony pairs, better looking than many pairs made with Cocobolo. Also, have seen my ebony pair look absolutely stunning when catching natural sunlight just the right way. Without a doubt they are still absolutely stunning.



Also still looking forward to anyone else who has impressions of the Pro iCan with these, I am pretty much set on that as my next desktop amp, although it might have to wait a bit as my car's gearbox has just cost me a larger-than-expected amount of money and I just prefer to spread out my large expenses....German cars are a more painful habit than headphones even.
 
Jan 24, 2017 at 5:11 AM Post #5,352 of 11,957
I don't think we really disagree at all, and some of the posts made have been well-measured and reasonable. However a few have been downright childish and ridiculous, and I am especially irked by anyone that suggests the customer is always right. No one is always right. There is usually a right answer that is arrived upon given enough reasonable communication between two parties, when it comes to things like this. That's all I'm asking for. Reasonable discussion and appreciation for the process in question here.

Still don't have a good picture of my ebony pair, the lighting in the room where I use them is not good for photographs. Will try to grab a few good ones tomorrow. I will say that given the choice, I prefer Cocobolo wood to ebony. But that's not possible, and I have seen some truly gorgeous ebony pairs, better looking than many pairs made with Cocobolo. Also, have seen my ebony pair look absolutely stunning when catching natural sunlight just the right way. Without a doubt they are still absolutely stunning.



Also still looking forward to anyone else who has impressions of the Pro iCan with these, I am pretty much set on that as my next desktop amp, although it might have to wait a bit as my car's gearbox has just cost me a larger-than-expected amount of money and I just prefer to spread out my large expenses....German cars are a more painful habit than headphones even.

 
Thank you for this reply. We are on the same page then :)
 
It's funny. I can see how beautiful my ebony LCD-4s are , particularly as you say, with sunlight. But I am also having difficulty photographing them in a way that shows them how I  am seeing them :)  I like how they have a bit of a chameleon quality depending on the light.
 
Jan 24, 2017 at 1:47 PM Post #5,353 of 11,957
as pretty as the wood cups are on the LCD-4, it boggles my mind how much energy and attention this topic gets. can we please get back to talking about how these things SOUND!?! like... music and stuff?

wow.
 
Jan 24, 2017 at 3:14 PM Post #5,354 of 11,957
as pretty as the wood cups are on the LCD-4, it boggles my mind how much energy and attention this topic gets. can we please get back to talking about how these things SOUND!?! like... music and stuff?

wow.

I agree!!!!
 

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