[gazzington]

I had a problem with my lcdi4 long out of warranty and contacted Audeze and volunteered to pay to have them repaired. I was told they wouldn’t and the best they would do is offer me a small rebate on purchasing a different pair of Audeze headphones. Fortunately, though the service chap didn’t know about it, they had a service bulletin which allowed me to repair them my self. So no they’re no longer a supported product

Thanks for letting me know. I’m not going to spend near 2.5 k for an item near end of life

 

[arijitroy2]

I doubt it's even available at full retail price anymore.

 

[gazzington]

Oh, I’ve had this back from audeze:

Hi Gaz,

Thanks for your interest in our LCDi4's. Unfortunately, due to a delay in parts shipment from a vendor, we expect them to be back in stock within 4-6 weeks. Once the parts are in-house, production will complete assembly and we'll get them back for purchase.

Hope this helps!
Andrew

 

[arijitroy2]

Nice! Might snag one more foe backup provided the new one comes with a cipher cable.

 

[stacey]

With the choices in dongle DAC I’m not even sure that the wired Cipher is even that great of an option , even if you’re an iOS user.

And I got these IEMs on B-stock as a replacement for my old ISine 20s. For the B-stock price they are criminally good….and now I’m spoiled because the only obvious upgrades are stuff like Traillii and Odin. I’ll keep my eye out for the next EE flagship release but I’m pretty happy with the i4, limitations aside.

 

[arijitroy2]

Yep after this you only can upgrade to very expensive ones. I am just hoping Phönix sounds as good as this in areas it's strong.

But im quite tempted to snag one more pair of this if I can find one! So worth it.

 

[edwardsean]

I really the appreciate the recommendations for closed IEMs. It's also been interesting. I'm familiar with the older models. I've either owned them or tried them. When I first heard the i4s, they weren't just better than those models they were a different species of phones: something in between an IEM and a circumaural. Truly, other phones can rival the i4s in certain aspects, but nothing has come along that offers that full-size experience (staging, tactility).

I kept track of the steady stream of new IEM models, but eventually lost interest. New transducers, driver configurations, pneumatics, etc. were all improvements on IEMs, there were no real new entrants into the category that iSines created (not even the oBravo Ra).

I wondered if in the last few years, someone had cracked the code and been able to engineer an i4 kind of sound In a closed design. From what I'm getting, it doesn't seem so. I think I'm going to give the Traillii a try for when I absolutely need isolation. Otherwise, for me, it's still the i4s... until, you know, i5.

There have been murmurings on the thread that the i4 has been discontinued, perhaps that Audeze have stopped developing the line altogether.

Please, no.

If that's the case my next purchase is not audio gear but a hyperbaric chamber. The i4s then become this unicorn I've got to preserve and protect, when actually, I've found them quite robust in normal use.

If @KMann is not able to confirm or disconfirm here (understandable), I'll see what I can find out at this year's Axpona from the Audeze rep.

 

[All Day Breakfast]

If @KMann is not able to confirm or disconfirm here (understandable), I'll see what I can find out at this year's Axpona from the Audeze rep.

I said earlier with perhaps too much certainty that they were discontinued, they certainly aren’t listed at Audeze or all their dealers as anything but “sold out” and what the Audeze service rep told me in regards to repairing mine as stated above.

 

[mRaaghava]

With the choices in dongle DAC I’m not even sure that the wired Cipher is even that great of an option , even if you’re an iOS user.

And I got these IEMs on B-stock as a replacement for my old ISine 20s. For the B-stock price they are criminally good….and now I’m spoiled because the only obvious upgrades are stuff like Traillii and Odin. I’ll keep my eye out for the next EE flagship release but I’m pretty happy with the i4, limitations aside.

There may be choices in dongle DAC, but when coming to i4, there are quite limited to a few, that have good synergy with i4. From all my sources for it I prefer to use it in this order: Roon i4 Preset->iFi iDSD Signature->i4, Cipher and Qudelix 5000(again with i4 preset).

 

[arijitroy2]

How do you store your i4s?

 

[gazzington]

I said earlier with perhaps too much certainty that they were discontinued, they certainly aren’t listed at Audeze or all their dealers as anything but “sold out” and what the Audeze service rep told me in regards to repairing mine as stated above.

It’s really strange as I had that email from audeze stating that they are waiting for more parts to continue making them. I’m not sure now!

 

[arijitroy2]

My local dealer's site still shows as available, strange!

 

[gazzington]

My local dealer's site still shows as available, strange!

Mine too

 

[arijitroy2]

Mine too

In my opinion it's wrong for a dealer to sell an item to a customer when the manufacturing company has mentioned it's out of support, unless the dealer mentions this in their website as a disclaimer, and mine doesn't.

You could email your dealer and mention that and see what they say.

 

[arijitroy2]

I really the appreciate the recommendations for closed IEMs. It's also been interesting. I'm familiar with the older models. I've either owned them or tried them. When I first heard the i4s, they weren't just better than those models they were a different species of phones: something in between an IEM and a circumaural. Truly, other phones can rival the i4s in certain aspects, but nothing has come along that offers that full-size experience (staging, tactility).

I kept track of the steady stream of new IEM models, but eventually lost interest. New transducers, driver configurations, pneumatics, etc. were all improvements on IEMs, there were no real new entrants into the category that iSines created (not even the oBravo Ra).

I wondered if in the last few years, someone had cracked the code and been able to engineer an i4 kind of sound In a closed design. From what I'm getting, it doesn't seem so. I think I'm going to give the Traillii a try for when I absolutely need isolation. Otherwise, for me, it's still the i4s... until, you know, i5.

I read an impression of someone in the Traillii thread that has both i4 and traillii, so do check it out!

TLDR : he said obviously loved the i4 over traillii, but traillii was what i4 is in closed back iem to him, so a very apt complementary iem if you will.

Also tried to register my i4s today for fun, and they did not even list the product there, same with iSines, although you cam put it manually, point being it looks to be out of support now. So do keep your i4 safe, I know I am.