[IZONE]

I do understand many on this thread were not impressed by the D8K Pro, but it's kind of an awesome headphone. It sounds very different from your typical Audeze/Hifiman planar sound. It sounds like a dynamic driver with like LCD-X speed, which lends to micro-textures/reverb and natural tone that doesn't exist in the hyper-fast LCD-4Z or Susvara which do their own things to bring hyper-realism. It sounds like the best of dynamic/planar tech - kind of hybrid and very enjoyable upon repeated listening. It kind of does things no other headphone in my collection does. Very worthy flagship IMHO. The sense of "detail" in D8K Pro is different from what is called "detail" by many for LCD-4/Susvara which is related to transient speed. The D8K Pro is slower but the circular magnets, tracing and dampening lends it to sound incredibly natural like an HD650 with LCD-X level of speed, bringing a very pleasing tone/reverb/details and in that way the D8K is even more "detailed" than headphones with faster transient response / pure driver piston action IME/IMHO

 

[ajreynol]

Welp, decision day for me. Keep LCD-5's or go back to LCD-4's.

LCD-5 - Why I'd keep it.
This is going to be a hard decision for me. I enjoy the refinements made to the new flagship LCD-5 in resolution and detail. Somehow the highs are airy and crisp without ever being fatiguing, and I am *very* sensitive to sharp/sibilant highs. Where I had to part with the LCD-4z because the sibilance was too much for me, the LCD-5's exceed the crispness and clarity of the 4z's without ever becoming uncomfortable. It's right at that edge, but never goes over that edge. Perfectly executed, in my opinion.

Additionally, it EQ's quite well. I can get the sound mostly how I want it on days when I want more warmth, no problem. It warms up pretty nicely with some love from Peace + EqualizerAPO. As such, it becomes great for movies, games, and similar applications.

The weight is fantastic as well. A great upgrade that started with the 4z's, these being lighter matters. While my neck is very much used to all-day wear for the LCD-4's after years of doing so, less weight will never be a complaint. And similarly, them appearing smaller certainly makes them not look quite as ridiculous on the head during Google Meet team calls. Fit has been good, not too tight on my head. I can wear them for 10 hours without fatigue.

LCD-5 - Why I'd send it back for my LCD-4's
The max potential of the bass's volume and impact is demonstrably less than the LCD-4. This is not news to anyone paying attention, but it bears repeating for the bass-heads in the room: the bass does not and cannot match the LCD-4's.

The gravity of this decision by Audeze is a function of the music genres you listen to. Looking at comments and discussion, it's clear that most of the audience here is not particularly into any heavily electronic genres. There has not been much listening and commentary going on among those of us who prefer genres like Hip-Hop, EDM, or other genres where bass is a primary catalyst for the emotion of the track. And in fact I've more frequently seen their needs and goals dismissed by other posters here which neither helps them nor brings clarity to the issue. (Sidenote: This is a content gap that someone on YouTube could make a lot of money filling, quite frankly. High-quality, professional reviews from a bass-head's perspective would speak to the interests of a lot of people.)

It makes sense from a business perspective to tune your product to the typical persona of the audience you're looking to sell to. The goal of a business is to make money and the money that can drop $4000+ on a pair of headphones probably skews a little older and probably towards certain genres. Maximizing the experience for those genres gives you a clear path to profit in that space. Duh, right? So while the cans sound exceptional with Rock, Alternative, Classical, and can be EQ'd to get a lot out of R&B, hip-hop, EDM and similar...they can only be EQ'd so much before running into real trouble with distortion on my amp (v281). At more than +4db in the <100Hz range, the bass starts to fall apart on the tracks that I use to test bass limits. Maybe my amp just isn't good enough for these cans? I don't know. But I do know that it's been perfect for years with my LCD-4's and I'm not interested in upgrading the amp to accommodate them. They come up short of what the LCD-4's can do here with some EQ. The LCD-5's can sound deep and rich. The LCD-4's can shake the earwax out of your ears.

Just as there are things that the LCD-4 can't do that the LCD-5's can...this is a particular area where the LCD-5's can't do something that the LCD-4's can and it becomes a real drawback for someone who is closer to the "bass head" side of the balance scale and has been enjoying that aspect of their LCD-4's for many years. For tracks in which the slam itself is a critical part of the emotion of the song, the consequence here is that the song itself becomes a less exciting and emotional experience. For the impacted songs, they are losing something in going from LCD-4 to LCD-5. As of this post, I'm still hoping to find the EQ setup that gets me a bit closer to the LCD-4's, but after almost 2 weeks of fiddling (and trying all posted EQ's), I just don't think there is an EQ setting that closes the gap like I want it. Not for my equipment and maybe not for anyone's equipment. It just has a lower limit for and tolerance of powerful bass. I'd say it gets about 80% of the LCD-4's bass response, give or take. How much that 20% matters is a function of how much of your music/movies reaches out and requests access to that kind of bass quantity and impact. It can make a huge difference in the experience.


Who I think the LCD-5's are for and not for
If you enjoy a diverse selection of genres as I believe many of us do, I think the LCD-5's may be the best cans available if your goal is owning one set of cans. For those who played Street Fighter, I'd describe the LCD-5's as the Ken/Ryu of the headphone market. Really good at everything, though not necessarily the best at any one thing. A combination of good things that you can't get anywhere else in the same quantities. As such, you'll have little to complain about with these cans. For those who only want to own one pair of headphones, I find these would be hard to beat. Plus, new engineering hopefully means further improvements to reliability. I think many past LCD owners can attest to driver failure being an issue. I just had my LCD-4 drivers replaced in March, so I'm sensitive to this also being a potential selling point of the upgrade.

...but for those whom find hip-hop, EDM, or R&B or similar genres represent an outsized portion of your listening time with headphones, these might not be the move. While I find the LCD-5's to be excellent for all of those genres as well, a well-EQ'd LCD-4 will give you more of an emotional experience which will translate to a more enjoyable experience with your music. And for considerably less money. LCD-4's are just a richer sound for those richer musical genres. The LCD-5's are well-tuned an improved experience across most genres, but I feel it comes at the expense of the best experience for the aforementioned genres. For the bass-head audience, you will almost certainly find that the LCD-4's or 1266 TC's to be *better tuned* for your genres.


Am I keeping my LCD-5's or are they going back?
Well, I'll be making a decision in the next couple of hours. I'm really not sure what I want to do. My music genre balance is something like 70% electronic genres (EDM, hip-hop, R&B, gaming), 30% everything else (rock, classical, jazz, ambient, gospel) and that 70% really benefits from the sound profile of the LCD-4's. Further, the LCD-5's not being a clear upgrade for 70% of my listening experience is not helping justify the spend. If I use that as my measuring stick, the math becomes pretty simple in favor of the LCD-4's. But the clarity and resolution alone make me wonder if I should keep the 5's and buy back my 4's to have both. The only times I wasn't using my LCD-4's over my other cans over the last few years has been when I'm on a trip or when they've been out for service/repair so they are near and dear to me.

I'm also intending to pick up a pair or 1266 TC's (yolo) before end of year when the prices go up and am unsure if the combination of owning both the LCD-5's and TC's even makes sense. So yea. I'll have made a decision in the next 3 or 4 hours. After waiting so long for the delivery, I wish this had been a clearer upgrade for my typical listening experience. I wish I had both the 4 and 5 together in a room so that I could really do an A/B and decide which is best for me. Perhaps I can talk with the team at Audeze and send them another $2k to hold so that I can spend a week A/B'ing both these 5's and my old 4's and make a decision that I know I'll be comfortable with. It's tough to A/B cans from memory, but I know I miss my LCD-4's.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Back to listening and hoping to get past this paralysis of analysis.

 

[Slim1970]

Welp, decision day for me. Keep LCD-5's or go back to LCD-4's.

LCD-5 - Why I'd keep it.
This is going to be a hard decision for me. I enjoy the refinements made to the new flagship LCD-5 in resolution and detail. Somehow the highs are airy and crisp without ever being fatiguing, and I am *very* sensitive to sharp/sibilant highs. Where I had to part with the LCD-4z because the sibilance was too much for me, the LCD-5's exceed the crispness and clarity of the 4z's without ever becoming uncomfortable. It's right at that edge, but never goes over that edge. Perfectly executed, in my opinion.

Additionally, it EQ's quite well. I can get the sound mostly how I want it on days when I want more warmth, no problem. It warms up pretty nicely with some love from Peace + EqualizerAPO. As such, it becomes great for movies, games, and similar applications.

The weight is fantastic as well. A great upgrade that started with the 4z's, these being lighter matters. While my neck is very much used to all-day wear for the LCD-4's after years of doing so, less weight will never be a complaint. And similarly, them appearing smaller certainly makes them not look quite as ridiculous on the head during Google Meet team calls. Fit has been good, not too tight on my head. I can wear them for 10 hours without fatigue.

LCD-5 - Why I'd send it back for my LCD-4's
The max potential of the bass's volume and impact is demonstrably less than the LCD-4. This is not news to anyone paying attention, but it bears repeating for the bass-heads in the room: the bass does not and cannot match the LCD-4's.

The gravity of this decision by Audeze is a function of the music genres you listen to. Looking at comments and discussion, it's clear that most of the audience here is not particularly into any heavily electronic genres. There has not been much listening and commentary going on among those of us who prefer genres like Hip-Hop, EDM, or other genres where bass is a primary catalyst for the emotion of the track. And in fact I've more frequently seen their needs and goals dismissed by other posters here which neither helps them nor brings clarity to the issue. (Sidenote: This is a content gap that someone on YouTube could make a lot of money filling, quite frankly. High-quality, professional reviews from a bass-head's perspective would speak to the interests of a lot of people.)

It makes sense from a business perspective to tune your product to the typical persona of the audience you're looking to sell to. The goal of a business is to make money and the money that can drop $4000+ on a pair of headphones probably skews a little older and probably towards certain genres. Maximizing the experience for those genres gives you a clear path to profit in that space. Duh, right? So while the cans sound exceptional with Rock, Alternative, Classical, and can be EQ'd to get a lot out of R&B, hip-hop, EDM and similar...they can only be EQ'd so much before running into real trouble with distortion on my amp (v281). At more than +4db in the <100Hz range, the bass starts to fall apart on the tracks that I use to test bass limits. Maybe my amp just isn't good enough for these cans? I don't know. But I do know that it's been perfect for years with my LCD-4's and I'm not interested in upgrading the amp to accommodate them. They come up short of what the LCD-4's can do here with some EQ. The LCD-5's can sound deep and rich. The LCD-4's can shake the earwax out of your ears.

Just as there are things that the LCD-4 can't do that the LCD-5's can...this is a particular area where the LCD-5's can't do something that the LCD-4's can and it becomes a real drawback for someone who is closer to the "bass head" side of the balance scale and has been enjoying that aspect of their LCD-4's for many years. For tracks in which the slam itself is a critical part of the emotion of the song, the consequence here is that the song itself becomes a less exciting and emotional experience. For the impacted songs, they are losing something in going from LCD-4 to LCD-5. As of this post, I'm still hoping to find the EQ setup that gets me a bit closer to the LCD-4's, but after almost 2 weeks of fiddling (and trying all posted EQ's), I just don't think there is an EQ setting that closes the gap like I want it. Not for my equipment and maybe not for anyone's equipment. It just has a lower limit for and tolerance of powerful bass. I'd say it gets about 80% of the LCD-4's bass response, give or take. How much that 20% matters is a function of how much of your music/movies reaches out and requests access to that kind of bass quantity and impact. It can make a huge difference in the experience.


Who I think the LCD-5's are for and not for
If you enjoy a diverse selection of genres as I believe many of us do, I think the LCD-5's may be the best cans available if your goal is owning one set of cans. For those who played Street Fighter, I'd describe the LCD-5's as the Ken/Ryu of the headphone market. Really good at everything, though not necessarily the best at any one thing. A combination of good things that you can't get anywhere else in the same quantities. As such, you'll have little to complain about with these cans. For those who only want to own one pair of headphones, I find these would be hard to beat. Plus, new engineering hopefully means further improvements to reliability. I think many past LCD owners can attest to driver failure being an issue. I just had my LCD-4 drivers replaced in March, so I'm sensitive to this also being a potential selling point of the upgrade.

...but for those whom find hip-hop, EDM, or R&B or similar genres represent an outsized portion of your listening time with headphones, these might not be the move. While I find the LCD-5's to be excellent for all of those genres as well, a well-EQ'd LCD-4 will give you more of an emotional experience which will translate to a more enjoyable experience with your music. And for considerably less money. LCD-4's are just a richer sound for those richer musical genres. The LCD-5's are well-tuned an improved experience across most genres, but I feel it comes at the expense of the best experience for the aforementioned genres. For the bass-head audience, you will almost certainly find that the LCD-4's or 1266 TC's to be *better tuned* for your genres.


Am I keeping my LCD-5's or are they going back?
Well, I'll be making a decision in the next couple of hours. I'm really not sure what I want to do. My music genre balance is something like 70% electronic genres (EDM, hip-hop, R&B, gaming), 30% everything else (rock, classical, jazz, ambient, gospel) and that 70% really benefits from the sound profile of the LCD-4's. Further, the LCD-5's not being a clear upgrade for 70% of my listening experience is not helping justify the spend. If I use that as my measuring stick, the math becomes pretty simple in favor of the LCD-4's. But the clarity and resolution alone make me wonder if I should keep the 5's and buy back my 4's to have both. The only times I wasn't using my LCD-4's over my other cans over the last few years has been when I'm on a trip or when they've been out for service/repair so they are near and dear to me.

I'm also intending to pick up a pair or 1266 TC's (yolo) before end of year when the prices go up and am unsure if the combination of owning both the LCD-5's and TC's even makes sense. So yea. I'll have made a decision in the next 3 or 4 hours. After waiting so long for the delivery, I wish this had been a clearer upgrade for my typical listening experience. I wish I had both the 4 and 5 together in a room so that I could really do an A/B and decide which is best for me. Perhaps I can talk with the team at Audeze and send them another $2k to hold so that I can spend a week A/B'ing both these 5's and my old 4's and make a decision that I know I'll be comfortable with. It's tough to A/B cans from memory, but I know I miss my LCD-4's.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Back to listening and hoping to get past this paralysis of analysis.

You are not alone in this decision. When I got my LCD-5's I knew they were a breakaway from the old Audeze house sound. With that in mine, I hung on to my LCD-4z's. They are the perfect complement to each other with the LCD-4's being more so.

I don't envy your position at all because it is a tough one. The LCD-5's are superb headphones, but for the genres you listen to LCD-4's or TC's could very well be the better choice. Both have a greater low end presence with more midrange body. Good luck!

 

[ajreynol]

You are not alone in this decision. When I got my LCD-5's I knew they were a breakaway from the old Audeze house sound. With that in mine, I hung on to my LCD-4z's. They are the perfect complement to each other with the LCD-4's being more so.

I don't envy your position at all because it is a tough one. The LCD-5's are superb headphones, but for the genres you listen to LCD-4's or TC's could very well be the better choice. Both have a greater low end presence with more midrange body. Good luck!

Thank you.

Yes, I definitely see a path for keeping the 5's AND 4's, as they do quite a few things differently. If the 4's and 1266TC's overlap in signature, then the 5's + TC's are a possible path.

 

[Slim1970]

Thank you.

Yes, I definitely see a path for keeping the 5's AND 4's, as they do quite a few things differently. If the 4's and 1266TC's overlap in signature, then the 5's + TC's are a possible path.

Honestly, they are all great headphones. The LCD-4's have the better midrange in comparison to the TC's, but I give the TC's the edge in the other frequencies and other sonic traits. The LCD-5's move closer to the TC's in technicalities, but are still a bit away.

 

[ajreynol]

Honestly, they are all great headphones. The LCD-4's have the better midrange in comparison to the TC's, but I give the TC's the edge in the other frequencies and other sonic traits. The LCD-5's move closer to the TC's in technicalities, but are still a bit away.

Agreed. I have no complaints about the 5's really; it's just been a question of how they stack up to what I listen to and what makes sense in terms of sacrifices.

In the end, I decided to go with the 4's. Ideally, they may be willing to slide me my 4's back for a brief A/B test. I proposed as such in my email to their support team, as it's hard comparing the 5's to the memory of the 4's. It's possible that in an A/B I may find the clarity is worth the bass trade-off but I can't make that call without being able to hear both back to back on my equipment. What I know for usre is that I miss my 4's and what they're able to do with my favorite genres of music in a way that I can't really describe. If the bass quantity and impact had been 90% of the 4's (I'd describe it as about 75%), the 5's would be a no-brainer to keep without any need for further review or consideration.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

It Maximizing the experience for those genres gives you a clear path to profit in that space. Duh, right? So while the cans sound exceptional with Rock, Alternative, Classical, and can be EQ'd to get a lot out of R&B, hip-hop, EDM and similar...they can only be EQ'd so much before running into real trouble with distortion on my amp (v281). At more than +4db in the <100Hz range, the bass starts to fall apart on the tracks that I use to test bass limits. Maybe my amp just isn't good enough for these cans? I don't know. But I do know that it's been perfect for years with my LCD-4's and I'm not interested in upgrading the amp to accommodate them. They come up short of what the LCD-4's can do here with some EQ. The LCD-5's can sound deep and rich. The LCD-4's can shake the earwax out of your ears.

Technical spec wise, V281 does around 1.5W at 15 ohm, and LCD-5 has 90dB sensitivity, so actually V281 is not that powerful here. Supposed to be enough for normal listening, but the EQ effect (+4dB) may cause clip on strong bass notes.

At the other side, V281 produce bigger power at 200 Ohm LCD-4 (3W or more), combine with the fact that LCD-4 has 97dB sensitivity, this headphone is significantly easier to drive compare LCD-5 for Violectric V281.

 

[chargedcapacitor]

Technical spec wise, V281 does around 1.5W at 15 ohm, and LCD-5 has 90dB sensitivity, so actually V281 is not that powerful here. Supposed to be enough for normal listening, but the EQ effect (+4dB) may cause clip on strong bass notes.

At the other side, V281 produce bigger power at 200 Ohm LCD-4 (3W or more), combine with the fact that LCD-4 has 97dB sensitivity, this headphone is significantly easier to drive compare LCD-5 for Violectric V281.

Unfortunately that is not how amplifiers work. One would need a better understanding of the circuit topology to fully know how well an amp will work with a certain headphone.

Audeze has specified that they designed the LCD-5 to produce better technical performance at a lower power requirement, even though it is less sensitive. So the best test would be to listen to both headphones on the amp in question, and make the decision yourself.

 

[ajreynol]

Unfortunately that is not how amplifiers work. One would need a better understanding of the circuit topology to fully know how well an amp will work with a certain headphone.

Audeze has specified that they designed the LCD-5 to produce better technical performance at a lower power requirement, even though it is less sensitive. So the best test would be to listen to both headphones on the amp in question, and make the decision yourself.

*takes notes*

I'm hoping to be able to do so, if Audeze is game for letting me hold onto both and A/B them.

Technical spec wise, V281 does around 1.5W at 15 ohm, and LCD-5 has 90dB sensitivity, so actually V281 is not that powerful here. Supposed to be enough for normal listening, but the EQ effect (+4dB) may cause clip on strong bass notes.

At the other side, V281 produce bigger power at 200 Ohm LCD-4 (3W or more), combine with the fact that LCD-4 has 97dB sensitivity, this headphone is significantly easier to drive compare LCD-5 for Violectric V281.

Given no poster, YT reviewer, or review article has suggested that the 5's have more or equivalent bass to the LCD-4's, I assume it's just going to give me less on the same equipment regardless of which amp I use.

Moreover, I'm just not interested in getting in the market for a new amp unless I had strong reason to believe that it could help the bass avoid the distortion I'm experiencing on certain tracks at certain volume levels. It's just a little more of a dive into the Diderot Effect that I'm looking to make right now.

 

[miko64]

I am just curious since I listen to operas mostly as well and do not own either d8000 or sr009s, which do you prefer for the genre?

From a sound perspective the SR9s - however a lot of hustle with the amping. Given I am travelling often between Zurich, London and the mountains in Switzerland I am ending up using D8000 or Obravo eamt 1/2 most often, as a matter of trade off. As a side - I could get a second new D8000 for roughly half price - because so I can leave one in London.
On the other hand I love the SR009s really but given I am not treating my gear too well I am a little scarred

 

[sahmen]

If the 4's and 1266TC's overlap in signature, then the 5's + TC's are a possible path.

This! It's an option which has been "winking" at me ever since I started reading about your dilemma... Full disclosure : I also had the LCD-4, which I traded up for the LCD-5, without much regret or "trade-up" remorse. I also got the 1266 TC even before the LCD-5 was announced, and that sort of made giving up "da bass" of the LCD-4 even easier...

Keep in mind that I am not here to diss the LCD-4 either... It actually used to be my favorite "bass-cannon" headphones for a long time, and from a purely cosmetic viewpoint, I preferred its looks to the LCD-5, although the looks of the latter have grown on me after about two months of ownership.

So what am I blabbing on about? Okay for me, giving up the LCD-4, in spite of my attachment to it, was made very easy by the rather unexpected effects of a couple of amp-upgrades, which revealed a relative weakness of the 4 of which I was not aware before : a very noticeable "veil" or "film" at the top end when one listens to it after the Susvara or the TC. That veil was not there when I used to listen to the LCD-4 and Susvara with the Violectric v281, or the Cavalli Liquid Platinum, or even the Flux-Labs FA-10. I had to upgrade the V281 to a Niimbus US4 because the V281 was bottlenecking the Susvara, and I also got a Pathos InPol Ear for the same reason. The film or veil at the top end of the LCD-4 i have referred to appeared as a rather unexpected by-product of these upgrades. From that point on, I could no longer use the LCD-4 without being reminded of the cloudy veil or blurry haze at the top end, especially when listened to in the company of either the Susvara or the TC, or even the Hifiman He6SE v2.

I remained attached to the LCD-4, in spite of that haze, even though I was reaching for it less and less since its appearance . The option to upgrade to the LCD-5 was therefore a welcome treat, especially since the 5 had gotten rid of the "veil" or "cloud," at the top of the 4, and was offering a new Audeze sonic presentation, that was unprecedented, but in a very good way..., and great for all genres of music, as you have well noted...

I thought that if you do get a 1266-TC, it would take care of all your "basshead/bass cannon" needs, perhaps with more "oomph" and swagger than any LCD-4 could, and the LCD-5 would then cover the remaining bases of the sonic spectrum for you with the flair you have yourself become familiar with. I am just offering some data points, that I thought you might be interested in.... You might still want something different, and that would be okay too .

 

[staticosaur]

I'm back home not working tonight lol.

I want to add more first impressions. First I want to say that I'm not a reviewer and this is hard especially when English is not my first language.

I always love the look of the Audeze LCD line, I never had any problems with the weight I owned LCD X in the past and now the LCD 2 that I can use it for hours with out any problems, I always wanted the LCD 4 of course everything change after the LCD 5 announcement.

The headphone looks small and it feel light, not bad, but I'm so use to the others Audeze side and feeling that the LCD 5 feels.... too small? or fragile? to me... I know that all the materials are premium but just doesn't feels like mostly because the side, maybe with the time I will appreciated more the design. It reminds me the 1more triple driver over ear for some reason in terms of the side, that headphone that they claim to be over ear but was more like on ears.

I found the pads on the LCD2 (3,X,4,etc) more comfortable that the one in the LCD5, both inside diameter on the pads look the same side maybe the LCD 5 a bit wide but not deeper that the LCD 2, I didn't experience my ears touching the drivers.





Back to the sound I want to explain when I said that these sound just fine (in a good way): Owned many middle of the line headphones in the past like 800s, Fostex TH900 v2, Arya, Clears, X and many others, it was always something missing for me like bass, sharp treble, built quality, comfort or just a bad edition in 2020 (Audeze X) The sound of the LCD 5 I can explain it like everything is there sounding just right nothing emphasis over other, is a bit confusing at first because I was expecting blow away for the sound... Now that I'm into 2 hours of not stop music with them I reached to the conclusion that maybe is because I don't have the proper amplification for this headphones, and this is painful lol more money to spend, my A90 drive these on high gain at 1 pm comfortable levels, I feels like the LCD 5 can punch way more with a much better set up, but still sounds really good like I explained before is just is missing something and I CAN TELL that these headphones are capable of more.

I feel like I need to try better amps or the LCD 4 for better comfort lol I know weird right? the 5 are supposed be more comfortable, but for me that I love the side and feel of the regular Audeze I prefer the regular style...
Anyway if any one who own the LCD 4 want to have a listen of the 5 and are in the NYC area send me a message for a meet up and compare both should be fun "Mi casa es su casa"

In resume for comfort I prefer the old Audeze for sound I can't tell yet how capable the LCD 5 is what I can tell is that is asking for more and for the little that I have sound really good.

Hi Terco and congrats on the new cans.
It is interesting you refer to LCD-X 2020 as a bad edition. I have tried it against LCD 4z 2020, LCD-3 with 2021 pads, LCD-2C 2020 and Utopia. From most to least preferred to my taste and music preferences I rank them as (no EQ):
1. LCD-3
2. LCD-X
3. LCD-4z
4. Utopia
5. LCD-2C

It will be a few more weeks until LCD-5 is available for demo over here, so I could not try the new beast.

What really surprised me was that after reading thousands of pages on impressions and considering the price tag, I expected that cans like 4z and Utopia will really lead by far. Not only was that not what I heard, but the characteristics on 4z that were better compared to X, were so marginal that it did not matter.

This hobby is so exciting and it is great that our preferences vary, so one does not always have to spend the family fortune in order to reach the “end game”. I will be expecting something more groundbreaking though, in order to replace LCD-X. Super curious about the learnings and next steps in the Ribbon tech…

 

[ajreynol]

This! It's an option which has been "winking" at me ever since I started reading about your dilemma... Full disclosure : I also had the LCD-4, which I traded up for the LCD-5, without much regret or "trade-up" remorse. I also got the 1266 TC even before the LCD-5 was announced, and that sort of made giving up "da bass" of the LCD-4 even easier...

Keep in ming that I am not here to diss the LCD-4 either... It actually used to be my favorite "bass-cannon" headphones for a long time, and from a purely cosmetic viewpoint, I preferred its looks to the LCD-5, although the looks of the latter have grown on me after about two months of ownership.

So what am I blabbing on about? Okay for me, giving up the LCD-4, in spite of my attachment to it, was made very easy by the rather unexpected effects of a couple of amp-upgrades, which revealed a relative weakness of the 4 of which I was not aware before : a very noticeable "veil" or "film" at the top end when one listens to it after the Susvara or the TC. That veil was not there when I used to listen to the LCD-4 and Susvara with the Violectric v281, or the Cavalli Liquid Platinum, or even the Flux-Labs FA-10. I had to upgrade the V281 to a Niimbus US4 because the V281 was bottlenecking the Susvara, and I also got a Pathos InPol Ear for the same reason. The film or veil at the top end of the LCD-4 i have referred to appeared as a rather unexpected by-product of these upgrades. From that point on, I could no longer use the LCD-4 without being reminded of the cloudy veil or blurry haze at the top end, especially when listened to in the company of either the Susvara or the TC, or even the Hifiman He6SE v2.

I remained attached to the LCD-4, in spite of that haze, even though I was reaching for it less and less since its appearance . The option to upgrade to the LCD-5 was therefore a welcome treat, especially since the 5 had gotten rid of the "veil" or "cloud," at the top of the 4, and was offering a new Audeze sonic presentation, that was unprecedented, but in a very good way..., and great for all genres of music, as you have well noted...

I thought that if you do get a 1266-TC, it would take care of all your "basshead/bass cannon" needs, perhaps with more "oomph" and swagger than any LCD-4 could, and the LCD-5 would then cover the remaining bases of the sonic spectrum for you with the flair you have yourself become familiar with. I am just offering some data points, that I thought you might be interested in.... You might still want something different, and that would be okay too .

Thank you for the insights and the time you spent putting together this post! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one walking or that has walked this path. I don't disagree at all. Having all of them would be optimal though my wallet would probably protest.

As such, part of the challenge at the moment is that while I do intend to pick up some TC's, it's not a guarantee since I haven't been able to demo any anywhere. Having never heard them before it makes it a bit perilous of a gambit to let go of the 4's which are the known entity that I've been happy with for years. Plus, I really really don't want to upgrade my amp (though I understand why your amp swap was necessary to better support your Susvara's). I wish I had the TC's (or at least an experience with them) to really know if they will work for me. I ordered some TC's on loan, but they arrived damaged last week so I wasn't able to really even try them out.

Between the two cans, how are you spending your headphone time with them (proportionally)?

 

[EMINENT]

Thank you for the insights and the time you spent putting together this post! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one walking or that has walked this path. I don't disagree at all. Having all of them would be optimal though my wallet would probably protest.

As such, part of the challenge at the moment is that while I do intend to pick up some TC's, it's not a guarantee since I haven't been able to demo any anywhere. Having never heard them before it makes it a bit perilous of a gambit to let go of the 4's which are the known entity that I've been happy with for years. Plus, I really really don't want to upgrade my amp (though I understand why your amp swap was necessary to better support your Susvara's). I wish I had the TC's (or at least an experience with them) to really know if they will work for me. I ordered some TC's on loan, but they arrived damaged last week so I wasn't able to really even try them out.

Between the two cans, how are you spending your headphone time with them (proportionally)?

I'm a basshead and have no problems with the bass, eq'd to my preference. 4-4.5 dB boost. How much boost are you finding you need in relation to your memory of the 4?

 

[cantara256]

I'm a basshead and have no problems with the bass, eq'd to my preference. 4-4.5 dB boost. How much boost are you finding you need in relation to your memory of the 4?

Same here. What frequency/Q? I'm at 80 Hz/1.41, though I have a lower 3 dB boost.

It's tricky setting this because it's easy for the sound to end up becoming artificial and too boomy... Which often varies by track.