[Sarnia]

When I get mine I'll be comparing them to my Hifiman He1000v2 and Mr Speakers Aeon.

I see the use case for them as being:

1. For home use from my desktop dac/amp. They are lighter, cooler and more comfortable than full-sized headphones. An added bonus is they drown out ambient noise better than open headphones as the sound goes directly into the ear canal. However I can still hear my Wife and Daughter when I need to.

2. For portable use from my DAP. Very light and comfortable, amazing sound on a par with full sized headphones, but I can still hear the world around me. Hopefully less likely to get hit by a car or miss an important call when in audio Nirvana. If I need isolation I can keep a pair of sealed IEMs on me, and the total weight is still tiny.

 

[Rotten Apple]

Very sad to hear this my friend. Keep your head up and hopefully everything is sorted so nobody else gets a faulty pair. I like what I've read so far about the sound and i am curious how they sound out of the Tera Player next week at CanJam.

I am lost for words. You are batting two for two for duds. With respect to others claiming to be your friends, just remember what was said to me:

It will be nice to be serious sometimes and stay on topic and describe the sound of i4.
After all that's what we want to read.

It would be nice to know who the Royal "we" are but it matters not. Hopefully you will get your new headphones ASAP.

Your true friend,

The Pope

 

[musicday]

I am lost for words. You are batting two for two for duds. With respect to others claiming to be your friends, just remember what was said to me:

It will be nice to be serious sometimes and stay on topic and describe the sound of i4.
After all that's what we want to read.

It would be nice to know who the Royal "we" are but it matters not. Hopefully you will get your new headphones ASAP.

Your true friend,

The Pope

Nice people are always my friends.

 

[musicday]

There is a nice YouTube video unboxing the i4 but i don't understand the language. However i enjoyed seeing the premium package they come in.

 

[Rotten Apple]

Nice people are always my friends.

I can see by some peoples ratio of posts to likes how many "friends" and how well liked a person is. Is a person helpful or selfish? Quick to judge or patient? I wish you all the best with whatever you do with your life musicday but hopefully you find your calling...

 

[Audeze]

The good news is that I received my replacement LCD-i4 today after the first pair didn't work on the left side.

The bad news is that once again the left side is DOA.

Deflated is the word...

Audeze is very distressed to learn that any customer received a flawed LCDi4 headphone. Our team immediately researched the matter and discovered that due to the packaging’s air-tight seal and the pressurization and de-pressurization during shipping, there is a possibility of damage to the headphones in the initial units sent out. Fortunately, the solution is simple: A slight modification to the headphone holder / insert takes care of the issue.

Unfortunately, the dealer, who were among the first to get inventory, was unaware of the potential problem before replacing the customer LCDi4’s.

We are dedicated to our customer’s satisfaction, and take these matters very seriously. We are directly replacing the customer’s unit; and we are working with our dealers to resolve any issue in their inventory. Any units found to be affected with this problem will be immediately overnighted to their dealers or to the customer directly, as desired. The same applies to anyone who had purchased an LCDi4 directly from Audeze. For customers who already have working units, we will replace their packaging free of cost if desired. Our customers deserve the most expedient response to such unforeseen problems. Our sincere apologies - Sankar

 

[musicday]

I can see by some peoples ratio of posts to likes how many "friends" and how well liked a person is. Is a person helpful or selfish? Quick to judge or patient? I wish you all the best with whatever you do with your life musicday but hopefully you find your calling...

If you are becoming more serious, then you can become my friend too.

 

[Sarnia]

Audeze is very distressed to learn that any customer received a flawed LCDi4 headphone. Our team immediately researched the matter and discovered that due to the packaging’s air-tight seal and the pressurization and de-pressurization during shipping, there is a possibility of damage to the headphones in the initial units sent out. Fortunately, the solution is simple: A slight modification to the headphone holder / insert takes care of the issue.

Unfortunately, the dealer, who were among the first to get inventory, was unaware of the potential problem before replacing the customer LCDi4’s.

We are dedicated to our customer’s satisfaction, and take these matters very seriously. We are directly replacing the customer’s unit; and we are working with our dealers to resolve any issue in their inventory. Any units found to be affected with this problem will be immediately overnighted to their dealers or to the customer directly, as desired. The same applies to anyone who had purchased an LCDi4 directly from Audeze. For customers who already have working units, we will replace their packaging free of cost if desired. Our customers deserve the most expedient response to such unforeseen problems. Our sincere apologies - Sankar

Sankar,

The response from both Karthick and Chris was immediate and excellent. From my perspective I'm very happy that the issue has been found and resolved and that I can move forward and get my hands on these. It must have been very frustrating from Audeze's perspective too.

Every company will encounter issues from time to time, how they respond and resolve them is what counts.

 

[Trogdor]

@edwardsean I would suspect so. I think their main disadvantage compared to full size headphones is the fact that a full size can creates an artificial chamber which imbues it with a certain soundstage. IEMs unfortunately are constrained in this regard.

 

[Rotten Apple]

If you are becoming more serious, then you can become my friend too.

An offer of friendship is never to be turned down. Now dollars to bagels knows that when it comes to being a serious dude - well I lack in that category. There are times and places for everything of course. Music, in my warped view in life is one of fun and laughter. Perhaps I do too much of the latter, but that's ok. However, when addressing some topics I know deep down that there is a serious side to me. And SOMETIMES, I let that side slip out. Maybe the 80/20 rule for me should come into being. 80% of the time I'm my jovial self and 20% of the time I'm serious. It's a start. Any friendship begins with an effort. Heck for a site to put up with me, some of its members can either ignore me, which is easy to do, or garner another friend.

Let's work it out.

Still gotta be,

Pope of Friendship

 

[musicday]

An offer of friendship is never to be turned down. Now dollars to bagels knows that when it comes to being a serious dude - well I lack in that category. There are times and places for everything of course. Music, in my warped view in life is one of fun and laughter. Perhaps I do too much of the latter, but that's ok. However, when addressing some topics I know deep down that there is a serious side to me. And SOMETIMES, I let that side slip out. Maybe the 80/20 rule for me should come into being. 80% of the time I'm my jovial self and 20% of the time I'm serious. It's a start. Any friendship begins with an effort. Heck for a site to put up with me, some of its members can either ignore me, which is easy to do, or garner another friend.

Let's work it out.

Still gotta be,

Pope of Friendship

You can always PM to discuss about music players and headphones and start our friendship

 

[x RELIC x]

And is it better sounding, or easier to drive, than say an Audeze LCDX?

Ironically, the LCD-X (20 Ohms, 103dB/mW SPL) is slightly easier to drive than the LCDi4 (35 Ohms, 105dB/mW SPL). The difference between the sensitivities is minimal and the impedance outweighs the sensitivity here. It's almost moot as both are relatively easy to drive.

 

[Rotten Apple]

Audeze is very distressed to learn that any customer received a flawed LCDi4 headphone. Our team immediately researched the matter and discovered that due to the packaging’s air-tight seal and the pressurization and de-pressurization during shipping, there is a possibility of damage to the headphones in the initial units sent out. Fortunately, the solution is simple: A slight modification to the headphone holder / insert takes care of the issue.

Unfortunately, the dealer, who were among the first to get inventory, was unaware of the potential problem before replacing the customer LCDi4’s.

We are dedicated to our customer’s satisfaction, and take these matters very seriously. We are directly replacing the customer’s unit; and we are working with our dealers to resolve any issue in their inventory. Any units found to be affected with this problem will be immediately overnighted to their dealers or to the customer directly, as desired. The same applies to anyone who had purchased an LCDi4 directly from Audeze. For customers who already have working units, we will replace their packaging free of cost if desired. Our customers deserve the most expedient response to such unforeseen problems. Our sincere apologies - Sankar

It appears that all is well in Audeze world. Sarnia is happy with the solution provided by Audeze. The company has found out what the problem was that affected the original batches of i4s that were sent out. Moreover customers are being taken care of quickly. Heaphones are being replaced at Audeze's cost, as it should be. Well done Audeze. Head-fiers working together with manufacturers, by putting pressure on all manufacturers is what we do - and Audeze passed with flying colours.

As Canada's Pope designated to be responsible for DOAs the following graphic has been deemed the final word on the matter, until next time...

 

[DonChuy]

Audeze is very distressed to learn that any customer received a flawed LCDi4 headphone. Our team immediately researched the matter and discovered that due to the packaging’s air-tight seal and the pressurization and de-pressurization during shipping, there is a possibility of damage to the headphones in the initial units sent out. Fortunately, the solution is simple: A slight modification to the headphone holder / insert takes care of the issue.

Unfortunately, the dealer, who were among the first to get inventory, was unaware of the potential problem before replacing the customer LCDi4’s.

We are dedicated to our customer’s satisfaction, and take these matters very seriously. We are directly replacing the customer’s unit; and we are working with our dealers to resolve any issue in their inventory. Any units found to be affected with this problem will be immediately overnighted to their dealers or to the customer directly, as desired. The same applies to anyone who had purchased an LCDi4 directly from Audeze. For customers who already have working units, we will replace their packaging free of cost if desired. Our customers deserve the most expedient response to such unforeseen problems. Our sincere apologies - Sankar

Unfortunately the way @Audeze is describing the procedure to deal with these issues didn't apply to me. Nobody overnighted anything to me. The same day I received my i4's (Thursday, June 22) I sent a message to the Audeze Customer Support. The next day I was contacted by the technician and he sent me a FedEx ground service return label (I shipped the defective units the same day I received the label). The technician also told me that they needed the unit back before they were able to process a replacement unit order, so why didn't I get an overnight return label then?. The ground label was scheduled to arrive on Wednesday (June 28) but fortunately they arrived on Tuesday (June 27). I called them the same day they arrived asking for an estimated shipping date for the new unit and no answer. Apparently that week nobody was in the office due to business trips or something. I replied to the Audeze Customer Support email on June 27 to ask about my new pair and they replied to me that there was going to be a delay and they even told me "Feel free to reach out for an update in a couple of weeks if you still have not heard back" so now they made me responsible to follow up with them about my issue and they also suggested that this was going to take a couple of weeks!. At this point I was really close to just cancel my order but I didn't. Finally on July 5th, I got a notification from the FedEx app, not from Audeze, that something was getting shipped to my address from Audeze, and the service was FedEx 2day, not overnighted. So I will finally get my new pair tomorrow (15 days after the issue was reported). Here is an idea: A customer reports an issue, Audeze overnights a brand new pair to the customer the same day the issue was reported (don't wait until you get the defective unit), parallel to this Audeze sends a return shipping label to the customer to ship the defective unit at the customer's earliest convenience (it can be ground service because the assumption is that the new pair is already on its way) and finally the customer receives the new pair either the next day the issue was reported or maximum in the next 2 days. That's the kind of service I expect when buying a $2500 pair of IEH. I apologize for all the complain, but I'm still pretty upset, and when I read that Audeze is saying that they take these issues very seriously and that they overnight to the customers, I just couldn't help it but to tell my experience and keep them honest.

 

[sorrick]

@edwardsean I would suspect so. I think their main disadvantage compared to full size headphones is the fact that a full size can creates an artificial chamber which imbues it with a certain soundstage. IEMs unfortunately are constrained in this regard.

I don’t have any $1k+ TOTL full size headphones, but I do have nighthawks, Aeons, TH-X100s, and several grados (RS-2, HF2s), and while none of these are known for massive sound stages, the soundstage on the i4s is larger, more lifelike, and more accurate in terms of instrument placement than any of them. They also sound better. The Aeons and the nighthawks are probably my two favorite full sized cans I own across all genres, and while the aeons are wonderful, the i4s have a bit deeper, and more textured bass. Cymbal decays on the i4s are as lifelike as I have heard from any headphones.

One of the standout features for me with the i4s is their transparency and the ethereal qualities they have, especially with softer or more subtle music such as with classical or jazz pieces that start softly. The sound truely seems to be coming from out of head and elswhere in the room. At least once every time I listen to my i4s, I hear something that I at first think is an external music, but is actually from the i4. At work today, I was listening to instrumental jazz on tidal from my iPhone through my Mojo and at the beginning of a piece that began with a strings, I actually turned and looked around my office because I could swear the strings were coming from elswhere in the room. It’s an amazing experience. With the i4s, music just seems to be conjured effortlessly out of the air in the room–from well outside of the headphones. I’ve listened to many high end headphones (including high end audeze though not lcd-4s, Hifiman, focals, etc) and the headphones which gave me the most similar feeling in this area were electrostats...the baby Orpheus in particular. Now, I didn’t listen to those under ideal conditions (it was at a meet so lots of background noise), but what immediately struck me about them was the effortlessness of their sound production. The ethereal quality of the i4s reminds of that (not making a comparative statement here between the two, just trying to be descriptive).

All this is to say that at least compared to full sized headphones I have heard, I really don't see the i4s as having very many real compromises in terms of sound quality--including sounstage.