Arysyn
100+ Head-Fier
What is the Audeze House Sound? Are they bass-neutral, vocal-forward, and detailed treble?
Audeze LCD i4 TOTL In-Ear Monitor Discussion
- Thread starter Emerald Core
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What is the Audeze House Sound? Are they bass-neutral, vocal-forward, and detailed treble?
jlbrach
Headphoneus Supremus
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deep impactful bass,a pillow like sound easy to listen...kind of the opposite of the HD800 or even the utopia
Eide
100+ Head-Fier
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I´ve owned Audeze LCD-XC, EL-8c & Sine, and i4 is in a different league. In my opinion they are much, much better than LCD-XC in every way.
ciukas
100+ Head-Fier
We are the enabler support group. It's a fantastic pair up, you wont be disappointed. My LCDi4 scaled up quite considerably.
I love how my LCD i4 sounds out of my Yggdrasil and Liquid Gold but with the Hugo 2, one gets a great deatailed, natural sound that is mobile or can be hooked up to a free standing desktop amp/.amp. Yes this wonderful group is a great enabler of me throttling my wallet to death lol.
jlbrach
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
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yes sadly being a member of this community is akin to being a crack addict....although i think a crack habit would be less expensive
Perhaps but one can not be put into jail for being an audiophile lol
Beatreg
New Head-Fier
How do the LCDi4s compare to the Zeus?
I've been looking for an upgrade from my k3003 and love the punchy, quick bass of them coupled with the massive soundstage. So far the LCDi4s and the Zeus have caught my attention.
Any other iem suggestions are of course also welcome.
That'll be it for my first post !
I've been looking for an upgrade from my k3003 and love the punchy, quick bass of them coupled with the massive soundstage. So far the LCDi4s and the Zeus have caught my attention.
Any other iem suggestions are of course also welcome.
That'll be it for my first post !
They are both at the top of the portable audio heap, but both quite different depending on your needs. If you require noise isolation, then the Zeus are the best I've heard and so very neutral/transparent. If you don't require noise isolation and you want a wide and very open soundstage with that Audeze magic, then the LCDi4 hit the nail on the head! Best solution...both!
Will using the balanced output of the Sony wm1a be enough to bring out some of the beauty of the i4?
normie610
Headphoneus Supremus
Well, I use it directly from my iPod touch 6th gen using NePlayer app (with a bit of EQ-ing), and it sounds amazing. I tried with the Mojo, couldn't hear any significant improvement, in fact the Mojo makes it a bit warmer and losing a bit of sparkle therefore I decided to drive it directly from my lowly iPod touch. So I guess the Sony has more or less enough juice to make the them shine.
Beatreg
New Head-Fier
They are both at the top of the portable audio heap, but both quite different depending on your needs. If you require noise isolation, then the Zeus are the best I've heard and so very neutral/transparent. If you don't require noise isolation and you want a wide and very open soundstage with that Audeze magic, then the LCDi4 hit the nail on the head! Best solution...both!
Ahhh that could be out of my price point at the moment.
How about the Dita Dreams?
I think I might be able to scrounge enough money together to buy them and the Zeus/ldci4.
Appreciate your input, normie.
Sounds like it will be worth getting an extra cable, balanced for my Sony wm1a.
Sounds like it will be worth getting an extra cable, balanced for my Sony wm1a.
Hi everyone,
After 2 months awaiting, my shop finally received the precious! From now on I'm a happy LCDi4 owner!
Couldn't be happier! They are absolutely incredible! The music feels so true and natural, especially thanks to the lifelike soundstage. Sometimes I almost forget the sound is coming straight into my ears! That's almost an experience similar to listening trough speakers. I mean that's a feeling unknown with iems that I've listened to so far. I've never tried Zeus or 64 Audio, but I've listened to Shure KSE 1500 many times. I absolutely love the Shure for the tuning, details and quality of bass, but I clearly prefer the i4 for the musical experience! In silent environment I find the i4 roughly on par with the KSE SQ wise but clearly outperforming the latter on soundstage.
Compared to my AK T8iE II they sound much brighter. The details are clearer and more defined. The staging is already pretty good on the AK, but just doesn't hold a candle against the i4 in positioning, air and size. I do like the bass on the AK though. The i4 bass is really deep, fast and precise, but I sometimes wish it was a tiny bit more present in quantity. I'm just used to gear with stronger bass presence, so I probably need some brain burn in or EQ! The quality of the bass is irreproachable though.
So far I've been most impressed with acoustic instruments, especially violins and guitars. The realism is astounding! When listening to artists like Andy McKee you can clearly hear all the armonics and resonance of the guitar, things I've never really paid attention to before. Beautiful!
Convenience wise they are much better than headphones but not as good as traditional iems.
About confort I find them really good with the hooks (the locks don't work for me), I used then for several hours in a row and had no problem. Just felt little discomfort at the ear canal entrance with the tips but nothing serious. What I like about them is the fact that you don't feel the heat after wearing them for a while, plus it doesn't apply pressure on your tympan due to the fact that they are open design and just seat on the ear canal. The AK are more comfy, but after a while they tend to slip outside the ear with the sweat.
Build quality is good but not amazing either given the price. On my right earpiece the adjustment between the outer magnesium shell and the inner plastic one isn't super precise I found. When looking at the connector area the plastic shell is about 1mm longer than the magnesium one forming a step. Fortunately that doesn't prevent from plugging the connector correctly. No big deal, but it could be improved I think.
I'm driving them from my iBasso DX 200 through the SE output. It works perfectly. I also tried briefly with a balanced cable in the shop through the balanced output and didn't find much difference in SQ. It was a little noisy in the shop so it's hard to say for sure.
I was kind of worried at the beginning when reading the posts stating that they were hard to drive and required very good and powerful amps, but was actually surprised when I tried them straight out of an iPhone. To me they already sounded awesome, and didn't need more than half the volume bar on the iPhone for decently loud listening. While A/Bing between the iPhone and the DX200 I could hear mainly a slightly better soundstage with the DX200, but you really gotta search for it! After I can understand that when you buy a $2500 iem, you want to pull out all its got, right?!
A/Bing DX200 and Oppo HA-2, the oppo gave a tad boomier bass, while DX200 was tighter and better stage.
When buying the i4 I also purchased an iSine 20 for my wife. They are really great to with the Cipher cable, especially given the price. I just had a little issue with the base tuning, but after trying the EQ advice from the Innerfidelity review, they are superb. The i4 are just the step up on every aspect.
I've noticed a small issue with the i4 and DX200. When I'm listening while charging the DX200, if I touch the i4's magnesium shell, it creates a slight buzz sound. It doesn't happen with the iPhone.
That's all for my first impressions.
All I can say is that I clearly advise anyone to try them if you have the opportunity.
After 2 months awaiting, my shop finally received the precious! From now on I'm a happy LCDi4 owner!
Couldn't be happier! They are absolutely incredible! The music feels so true and natural, especially thanks to the lifelike soundstage. Sometimes I almost forget the sound is coming straight into my ears! That's almost an experience similar to listening trough speakers. I mean that's a feeling unknown with iems that I've listened to so far. I've never tried Zeus or 64 Audio, but I've listened to Shure KSE 1500 many times. I absolutely love the Shure for the tuning, details and quality of bass, but I clearly prefer the i4 for the musical experience! In silent environment I find the i4 roughly on par with the KSE SQ wise but clearly outperforming the latter on soundstage.
Compared to my AK T8iE II they sound much brighter. The details are clearer and more defined. The staging is already pretty good on the AK, but just doesn't hold a candle against the i4 in positioning, air and size. I do like the bass on the AK though. The i4 bass is really deep, fast and precise, but I sometimes wish it was a tiny bit more present in quantity. I'm just used to gear with stronger bass presence, so I probably need some brain burn in or EQ!
The quality of the bass is irreproachable though. So far I've been most impressed with acoustic instruments, especially violins and guitars. The realism is astounding! When listening to artists like Andy McKee you can clearly hear all the armonics and resonance of the guitar, things I've never really paid attention to before. Beautiful!
Convenience wise they are much better than headphones but not as good as traditional iems.
About confort I find them really good with the hooks (the locks don't work for me), I used then for several hours in a row and had no problem. Just felt little discomfort at the ear canal entrance with the tips but nothing serious. What I like about them is the fact that you don't feel the heat after wearing them for a while, plus it doesn't apply pressure on your tympan due to the fact that they are open design and just seat on the ear canal. The AK are more comfy, but after a while they tend to slip outside the ear with the sweat.
Build quality is good but not amazing either given the price. On my right earpiece the adjustment between the outer magnesium shell and the inner plastic one isn't super precise I found. When looking at the connector area the plastic shell is about 1mm longer than the magnesium one forming a step. Fortunately that doesn't prevent from plugging the connector correctly. No big deal, but it could be improved I think.
I'm driving them from my iBasso DX 200 through the SE output. It works perfectly. I also tried briefly with a balanced cable in the shop through the balanced output and didn't find much difference in SQ. It was a little noisy in the shop so it's hard to say for sure.
I was kind of worried at the beginning when reading the posts stating that they were hard to drive and required very good and powerful amps, but was actually surprised when I tried them straight out of an iPhone. To me they already sounded awesome, and didn't need more than half the volume bar on the iPhone for decently loud listening. While A/Bing between the iPhone and the DX200 I could hear mainly a slightly better soundstage with the DX200, but you really gotta search for it! After I can understand that when you buy a $2500 iem, you want to pull out all its got, right?!
A/Bing DX200 and Oppo HA-2, the oppo gave a tad boomier bass, while DX200 was tighter and better stage.
When buying the i4 I also purchased an iSine 20 for my wife. They are really great to with the Cipher cable, especially given the price. I just had a little issue with the base tuning, but after trying the EQ advice from the Innerfidelity review, they are superb. The i4 are just the step up on every aspect.
I've noticed a small issue with the i4 and DX200. When I'm listening while charging the DX200, if I touch the i4's magnesium shell, it creates a slight buzz sound. It doesn't happen with the iPhone.
That's all for my first impressions.
All I can say is that I clearly advise anyone to try them if you have the opportunity.
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