Audeze LCD-5 Review, Measurements, Interview

[senseitedj]

Audeze LCD-5 vs Abyss Diana Phi:

Similarities:
- Both headphone focus on neutral character, with balance to mid centric presentation.
- Excel at speed, tight and neat decay through all spectrum. Give them a complex and fast classical song, from deep rumble low bass notes, busy midrange area, and plenty detail on treble, they will play it effortlessly.

- Front row / On stage presentation, we sit very close to the performance. The extreme left and right actually still wide, but the singer is always close to us.
- Soundstage is more about being wide rather depth, but overall still "balance" in soundstage shape.

- None of them give super airy feeling like Hifiman
- All notes feel very dense, packed, and solid. Good impact and bite.

- They are intense. Better to use these headphones for pure music listening rather while doing something else.
- Lightweight on my head, definitely nice achievement from Audeze

- Love both of them for vocal jazz, rock, pop, acoustic (basically my day to day playlist)

Differences:
- Diana Phi seems more solid in build quality due to metal housing. Magnet pad on Diana is simply better than glued pad on Audeze.
- Audeze LCD-5 clamp harder on my head. A bit annoyed me for the first 5 minutes, but after that everything seems fine, until I took the headphone from my head, suddenly the pressure release feels nice. So Diana Phi wins in term of comfort for me.

- Diana Phi is closer to neutral for me even though the differences actually not that much. Audeze has one extra thin layer of warmness through all spectrum.
- Audeze produce bigger bass body (even compared to Diana V2), although I won't either of them suit basshead. Definitely less bass quantity compare something like LCD-4Z.

- Lower midrange has more presence with LCD-5, nice touch here. Audeze remove "the veil" on LCD-4Z, but overall tonality still full, nowhere lack of body.
- LCD-5 actually a little more relax here, perhaps the extra thin of warmness create this effect.

- Diana Phi seems cleaner in black background quality. If Diana Phi is pure black, then LCD-5 has a tint of dark grey.
- What surprise me the most, LCD-5 produce even better micro detail than Diana Phi!

- Diana Phi is more airy between the two, combine with cleaner black background, make overall sound more transparent and "fresh" (imagine fresh water).
- I don't think LCD-5 has deeper bass, but I do agree low sub bass notes has bigger presence.

- LCD5 is more forgiving towards bad recording, or lesser set up.
- I'd slight prefer Diana Phi with good audiophile recording, vocal jazz, acoustic and instrument. Will prefer LCD5 for pop, rock, metal, blues, and surfing random songs on tidal/spotify.

- LCD5 create a little wider imaging, but Diana Phi has a little better depth presentation. It always feels snare drum located closer to the back of singer with LCD5.
- LCD-5 has even more forward midrange presentation.

Tested using Chord TT2 direct from front output.

That is all! Now let me get back to listen LCD5 more

Excellent analysis, I did not expect them to be that close together.

Is it true that in terms of sound signature the LCD-5 creeps towards more the LCD-X series rather than the OG series (ie. 2,3 and 4)?

 

[mat.1]

How long is the break in ? I find less bass in my unit, with the TT2.

 

[All Day Breakfast]

I know EQ is a controversial subject, please use the scroll wheel on your browser rather than complaining to me if you feel offended.
I‘m new to EQing and the info I’m posting below is based off an EQ setting from someone named Essential at headphones.com in the LCD 5 thread. His has a big bass boost because he likes EDM, I’m listening to a lot of orchestral music and live jazz with some rock. To me the EQ below sounds more open with more instrutment definition than stock LCD 5. It’s a bit hard to compare because Roon stops the music for a brief few seconds between switching and because of the lowering of the pre-amp to keep the EQ from clipping the volumes between EQ and stock are very different. I’m posting partly to get feedback from more experienced EQ’rs and partly to give a starting point for those new to EQ. If you’re using SoundSource on a Mac simply copy the info into a text file and upload to the headphone EQ

 

[boxster233]

How long is the break in ? I find less bass in my unit, with the TT2.

Don't think any amount of break in will bring this on par with LCD-4 in terms of bass.

 

[chargedcapacitor]

Don't think any amount of break in will bring this on par with LCD-4 in terms of bass.

Maybe try lowering the mids on the LCD-5 with EQ, that would put the average frequency loudness in the same range as the LCD-4. Both headphones have very flat bass, so I blame the lack in quantity of bass on the 5 to it's elevated 3khz. With a bass shelf, the bass response is excellent to my taste.

 

[phthora]

Unbelievably good with my Benchmark stack (DAC3 + HPA4)...

Good to know! Where do you have the volume set and how loud do you listen?

 

[TheMiddleSky]

Picture time! Even though I prefer build of Abyss Diana Phi, LCD-5 is more beautiful to look at.

 

[cantara256]

FYI for EQ fans using an Android phone as your music source... I just found a great app that allows you to set system-wide EQ (parametric or graphic) for almost any music player, WITHOUT ROOT! It's called Poweramp Equalizer:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxmpz.equalizer&hl=en_US&gl=US

It works out of the box with Spotify, though you need to do a couple of tweaks to support other apps (e.g. SoundCloud):

https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic...iser-permissions-for-more-audio-applications/

I am now greatly enjoying parametric EQ from my Galaxy S21 Ultra -> AK380 -> LCDi4, but this will obviously work for any EQ with any headphone or external DAC/amp.

 

[EMINENT]

I know EQ is a controversial subject, please use the scroll wheel on your browser rather than complaining to me if you feel offended.
I‘m new to EQing and the info I’m posting below is based off an EQ setting from someone named Essential at headphones.com in the LCD 5 thread. His has a big bass boost because he likes EDM, I’m listening to a lot of orchestral music and live jazz with some rock. To me the EQ below sounds more open with more instrutment definition than stock LCD 5. It’s a bit hard to compare because Roon stops the music for a brief few seconds between switching and because of the lowering of the pre-amp to keep the EQ from clipping the volumes between EQ and stock are very different. I’m posting partly to get feedback from more experienced EQ’rs and partly to give a starting point for those new to EQ. If you’re using SoundSource on a Mac simply copy the info into a text file and upload to the headphone EQ

I did some a/bing last night on the new setup and also came up with my own modification. The possibilities are really endless, but I am loving my result without knowing what i'm doing too. Kind of a mix of Resolve and Essentials and keeping in mind KMann's comments. While a/bing, I found Essentials darker in comparison. I started with Resolve's profile and added Essentials bass and a 10hz boost for less roll off in the sub base and took Resolve's latest comments about his recent changes about dialing treble back a few db and less narrow on the Q. Left the mids alone.

End result is some sweet sub bass while retaining sparkle up top for me. Best to make what you want with gear and in EQ IMO.

 

[cantara256]

For those who traded in their LCD-4, which cable came with your new LCD-5, balanced XLR or single ended?

 

[Terco]

Is coming with SE but you can request XLR.

 

[Barone Birra]

Good to know! Where do you have the volume set and how loud do you listen?

There is plenty of power. Depending on the situation, I listen from medium to loud, in many case -23 / -25 is enough; above -20 is REALLY loud.
I think the great frequency extension of the HPA4 is of nice synergy with the LCD-5, it gives body at the bottom and clarity at the top, without the need for any EQs.
I tried with the Shiit Loki, and I much prefer the "basic treble" of the headphone. They avoid any sibilance but are still pretty clear.
In the low end it depends on preferences, but imho is by no means lacking.

 

[cantara256]

There is plenty of power. Depending on the situation, I listen from medium to loud, in many case -23 / -25 is enough; above -20 is REALLY loud.
I think the great frequency extension of the HPA4 is of nice synergy with the LCD-5, it gives body at the bottom and clarity at the top, without the need for any EQs.
I tried with the Shiit Loki, and I much prefer the "basic treble" of the headphone. They avoid any sibilance but are still pretty clear.
In the low end it depends on preferences, but imho is by no means lacking.

How about the Euforia? I wonder how they'll do with tubes compared to solid state amps.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

Excellent analysis, I did not expect them to be that close together.

Is it true that in terms of sound signature the LCD-5 creeps towards more the LCD-X series rather than the OG series (ie. 2,3 and 4)?

Yes, sound signature wise closer to LCD-X rather LCD-2 or LCD-3. However, the closest character to LCD-5 would be LCD-1. Side by side comparison still reveal well different tuning though.

 

[nwavesailor]

I am only a couple of hours into the 5 and I like what I am hearing so far!
Initially I did feel the clamping but after I adjusted the cups a bit lower it was minimal and I forgot about it. I don't plan to on doing A/B comparisons for a few days with the susvara or P. I have a Norne S3 that I may try in place of the OEM cable and see how it pairs with the 5.