HanyTheo, or anyone with both LCD4 and i4, could you give us some impressions of the i4 in comparison with the full-size LCD4?
I think both of em have a liquid nature and very resolving with some abmormalities on the FR out of the box which ill explain later,
BUT since both of them have an extreme low distortion with strong n fast dynamics by nature, you will have a alot of freedom correcting it on DSP. Both of them do respond very2 well with correct equalisation.
Lcd4 out of the box is perfect from bass to midrange. Just... perfect. Just that its rather distant on the presence (cymbals and overtones of some female vocals are rather too laidback for my taste). You can correct it by boosting 3.5k-6k by around 3-4db with an analog bell. And itll be nice to lowshelf 2-3db sub 110hz.
The lcd i4 is otherwise like a pitbull, imo it definitely needs the right master for the iem to work as they're intended. To be bland here, the LCDi4 rather have a lot of flaws when uncorrected. Im using them mostly with Chord Hugo 2
Low end is ruler flat but lacks the quantity(very good extension but lacking sub 110hz qty), midrange is uneven, male vocals r fine but female vocals tend to get shouty, pianos r overly forward n too 'percussive'(too forward 1-2k), snare drums r rather distant, presence is really missing 'cymbals are distant n muted'(again like the lcd4 a laidback 4-6k but i4 is even more muted here which made the 1-2k problem worse) and theres a slight 'tizz' on some vocal and instrument overtones(too much 9-10k)
The i4 have great imaging and transparency, definitely is one of the best if not the best on those aspects by default, but when corrected oh boy they're a damn fine listen, not many iems could match it or even coming close to it speaking at a price no object perspective.
How i correct it: (i uploaded a pic of my PMEQ curve) and thanks Kmann for giving me a baseline.
- +3db low shelf sub 110hz(low)
- -3db analog bell 1200hz(mids)
- +5db analog bell 4000hz(uppermid/presence)
- -3db analog bell 10000hz(high)(optional)
(Dont f...n forget to level match it to avoid clipping) you'll need a good powered transparent amp as youll need xtra 5db of gain compensation
I believe everyone, regardless of taste at the summit fi of personal audio listening, will prioritise low noise, low distortion and linear response, the rest is what your transducer/acoustic design got to offer you.
I might change the DSP settings to better ir further as im studying this badboy