[normie610]

Hello
I have not tried z1r.
But, I am concerned about recessed midrange (lower) on z1r.

Btw, lcdi4 scales up with a desktop amp like crazy.

I recently got benchmark hpa4 to pair with Metrum Pavane and lcdi4 and i simply cannot believe what i am hearing.
It's like listening to new version of lcdi4.

In the past 2yrs I have tried i4 with TOTL SS amps (gsmk2,v281 etc.) DAC/AMPS(including ,hugo2, mDave) but never heard such refinement, tonal balance, richness and naturalness.

The treble clarity, articulation & extension is superb. Sounds more natural to me.There is a near perfect balance between the attack, decay and body of transients. They are never thin.

The mids are more bodied without congestion or loss of transparency.
Vocal density on both male and female is so damn natural and gives a life like presentation. Best mids I have ever heard on lcdi4.

Special mention about bass.
I am listening to "extra" bass.lol. The tracks have more bass definition, outstanding layering, extension right till the very end. Strikes an excellent balance b/w quality and quantity. Imagine the speed of BA and decay of dynamics but refined to another level. I am listening to more bass notes in b/w notes. Resolution is breathtaking.

The background is devoid of any kind of noise. The blackness extracts so much more information from the track..it's like listening to heavily mixed track.

This is why I am still hunting for a closed iem which comes close to the level of performance and scalability that lcdi4 delivers.

Due credit should be given to Metrum NOS DACs and the super transparent Benchmark HPA4 which never sounds like a SS amp as it lacks signature of its own. It will amplify without any coloration.i.e. true to source.

YMMV

Cheers

Wow that’s a killer setup!

 

[lithiumnk]

I really want the HP4. Seeing how you have it paired with your i4's is something I would like to try with my i4's.

Benchmark has 30 day trial on hpa4/ahb2 in US.
Just see that final sound will depend on your DAC/source.

 

[Slim1970]

Benchmark has 30 day trial on hpa4/ahb2 in US.
Just see that final sound will depend on your DAC/source.

I might have to look into this. I have the Hugo 2 right now and I'll use it as my DAC. The i4's sound great out the Hugo 2 alone. But reading how the HP4 makes them sound like full-sized headphones really has my attention.

 

[EagleWings]

Here’s something that might come in handy for Audeze Earphone owners, who like to use the earphones with EQ, but unable to take advantage of the Cipher Cable or the Reveal Plugin:

https://www.minidsp.com/products/plate-amplifiers/il-dsp-headphone-amp

 

[Devodonaldson]

Here’s something that might come in handy for Audeze Earphone owners, who like to use the earphones with EQ, but unable to take advantage of the Cipher Cable or the Reveal Plugin:

https://www.minidsp.com/products/plate-amplifiers/il-dsp-headphone-amp

Interesting, but I wonder if the DAC in this will be better than the one in the cipher cable. Using DSP in this device you still get limited to 48khz output like the cipher. On the positive you get to still use the beautiful SPC cable with the LCDi4 instead of the go him looking cipher cable

 

[utdeep]

If we bought this minidsp product, is there a way to determine the EQ settings to match up with the Cypher Cable? Definitely interested

 

[EagleWings]

Interesting, but I wonder if the DAC in this will be better than the one in the cipher cable. Using DSP in this device you still get limited to 48khz output like the cipher. On the positive you get to still use the beautiful SPC cable with the LCDi4 instead of the go him looking cipher cable

My guess is that the quality of the DAC would be on the same ball park given the similar price point. The best part about this DAC is that, now the left-out Android users now have a next-best-thing that doesn't break the bank.

If we bought this minidsp product, is there a way to determine the EQ settings to match up with the Cypher Cable? Definitely interested

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/aud...nitor-discussion.850292/page-44#post-13632464

 

[Devodonaldson]

My guess is that the quality of the DAC would be on the same ball park given the similar price point. The best part about this DAC is that, now the left-out Android users now have a next-best-thing that doesn't break the bank.



https://www.head-fi.org/threads/aud...nitor-discussion.850292/page-44#post-13632464

Thing is, technically there should be no Android users left out after picking up the right extension. I own the Anker lightning to USB c cable. It works perfectly on my USB c phone. I also have a USB c female to USB a male tip. That allows me to use the cipher cable on my computer. Just for kicks, I decided to plug that into my micro USB phone using a micro USB OTG cable like I have with other external DACs, and it works perfectly, even allowing play/pause and volume adjustment. So I now effectively can use cipher cable on my iphone 7 turned dap, my Razer phone 2 using USB c, my computer for music or movies or games, and my older Android phones

 

[Grayven]

Just got the new accessory set with the ear fins. absolutely love them, much better than the hooks.

 

[EagleWings]

Anker’s Lightning to USB-C adapter is currently unavailable on amazon and I can’t find the product on Anker’s website either. I wonder if it has been discontinued.

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-USB-C-Lightning-Audio-Adapter/dp/B07R6MKJZH?tag=3340693-headfi-20

 

[cj3209]

I upgraded my xlr cables from my DAC to my amp and boy oh boy was there a difference. I4s sound like a different headphone, in a great way; more of everything-depth, detail, etc. I'm using the Silver Dragon v2 XLR inerconnects. I thought cables made a subtle difference but not like this.

Very pleasantly surprised.

 

[bneiderman]

Anker’s Lightning to USB-C adapter is currently unavailable on amazon and I can’t find the product on Anker’s website either. I wonder if it has been discontinued.

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-USB-C-Lightning-Audio-Adapter/dp/B07R6MKJZH?tag=3340693-headfi-20

I have an idea why. I have had one awhile and it worked great with my IPad Pro with IOS 12. But then I upgraded to the beta version of IOS 13 and it stopped working. I called Anker and they sent me another one so now I have 2 of these. Neither worked and so we realized this was something with IOS 13. Anyhow, I can confirm that with the most recent developer betas IOS 13.1 beta 1 and beta 2 it started working again. So maybe they halted sale to ensure these were going to be functional again???? I love the thing for my IPad though.

 

[Devodonaldson]

Anker’s Lightning to USB-C adapter is currently unavailable on amazon and I can’t find the product on Anker’s website either. I wonder if it has been discontinued.

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-USB-C-Lightning-Audio-Adapter/dp/B07R6MKJZH?tag=3340693-headfi-20

This has happened twice before. I think they been selling out of this thing pretty frequently. Hopefully it will be back. On a somewhat positive note for analog, I've learned that I prefer the LCDi4 eq'd out of my DAC amp to Android vs cipher, so that's gives me options. Just ordered monolith portable amp and DAC to stack with my iphone 7 as dap due to its shelf eq and 3 band parametric eq. AK 4493 DAC chip. This will certainly sound better than the cipher after ew, with it's DSD capability, instead of max 24/48. Yeah I dropped another $300 on another DAC, but these are $2500 headphones, so it's worth it.

 

[EagleWings]

Dev,

Ah I see, thank you. That’s reassuring. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[cj3209]

For anyone interested, here is a little kludge I came up with. I got these soft silicone earpieces off Amazon (LQGK Replacement Ear hooks for bluetooth earbuds M165 M180 bluetooth Headset earhooks) that came with different size pieces that slip in to the earpieces (you can see them lying on the bag). All of these were a lot smaller than the i4 ones, so I cut the ones off that I wasn't using, and they fit perfectly. Very comfortable, definitely an improvement over the hard plastic ones. I do have some ear fins coming to try out, but this came out really well.

Just got these. They clamp on my ears tight and comfortable and keep the i4s secure on my ears. I did have to cut out the ear clamp from the Audeze version and pop it into these; they fit well.

Really like these.