[gazzington]

I'm reading a few pages of the thread and came across your answer. Here in my country there was an opportunity for me to buy an LCD-i4. But I'm also very interested in Mest MK2, as you have both products, could you tell me more about them, what do you think of both?

They are completely different products due to the lcd i4 being open back. If you can cope with them being open back then I would take them over the MEST 2. Ice sold off all my mests

 

[Endymion Joshi Godrez]

Hi. I just got my i4's. I am using a third party cable, but I am worried about the phase issue. The cable i am using like 99% of cable has "normal" polarity between the two pins. That mean the i4s are indeed in reverse phase. But does that actually matter so long as both iems have the same phase? I need a definitive answer on this.

 

[TsKen]

Not sure if what I'm about to say will change your mind or get more folks interesting in buying your LCDi4 but here goes....

i've owned a lot of Headfi gear over the years and traded/sold most of it (look at my trader feedback to get an idea LOL). Only two purchases have firmly placed in my "never give it up" category - my Focal Utopia and Audeze LCDi4. The former sounds great on every source I tried. The later has been a royal PITA because of the mandatory EQ. Oh, but the LCDi4 is such an amazing and perfect headphone once you get the EQ dialed in. There really is nothing compared to an open back headphone with how natural the bass sounds. Of course the LCDi4 is a PITA because there is no easy way to get the right EQ without the Reveal plugin that only works on desktop or Roon. I didn't lose faith and now we have DAPs that run on Android 10 and system wide EQ apps like Wavelet that give the precision needed to get the EQ to where it needs to be. In my case it's a Fiio M11 Plus LTD and it is just an amazing combo with LCDi4 properly EQ'd. To me LCDi4 is a perfect headphone - performance of an open back, but doesn't bleed nearly as much as a full size open back. If I want sound isolation, I'm on a plane so I will go with wireless with active noise cancellation. For my Utopias, I plan of repurposing my dollars to a really nice desktop and tube amp setup. You bet I'm going to try my LCDi4 in the same setup!

Wavelet saved the LCD i4 for me. I'm able to finally use them properly with my DX 300.


Also I'd like to echo I picked up a Utopia recently so we have the same setup and I share the same sentiment. The last item I traded was over 2 years ago and my most recent purchases were the LCD i4 and Utopias which have kept me interested in this hobby.

The LCD i4 took a lot of effort to get there ngl with issues with comfort and figuring out how to get it to sound right. But definitely worth the effort in the end.

 

[Tex Irie]

Here's one good reason, this pairing with the cayin R01 is sublime.

@emdeevee Which eartips and cable is this in the picture?

 

[stacey]

@emdeevee Which eartips and cable is this in the picture?

It's actually a spare UM Indigo cable. Sounds beautiful and beefy.

There you go

 

[emdeevee]

There you go

I wish I could remember which tip this was that eventually became my favorite after trying everything else! It has a slight bell shape and it's one of the popular tips mentioned here. Also, those are ear hooks which were meant for bose I cut to fit on the stem.

 

[Tex Irie]

I wish I could remember which tip this was that eventually became my favorite after trying everything else! It has a slight bell shape and it's one of the popular tips mentioned here. Also, those are ear hooks which were meant for bose I cut to fit on the stem.

Alright, I thought that was some new kind of eartip. I noticed it was more spherical shaped than the Bose Stayhear eartips. That's a clever solution @emdeevee !

 

[emdeevee]

Alright, I thought that was some new kind of eartip. I noticed it was more spherical shaped than the Bose Stayhear eartips. That's a clever solution @emdeevee !

The hooks are so easy and you forget they're there. And these tips give perfect insertion. Going to try out some other cables with it...

 

[Tex Irie]

The hooks are so easy and you forget they're there. And these tips give perfect insertion. Going to try out some other cables with it...

Wonder if anyone has these paired with the Code 23?

 

[emdeevee]

Wonder if anyone has these paired with the Code 23?

Well, I'm using the Indigo cable which I believe is all copper. I am thinking to try a mix cable with some silver, Graphene, and gold to see how it affects the sound.

 

[gazzington]

I wish I could remember which tip this was that eventually became my favorite after trying everything else! It has a slight bell shape and it's one of the popular tips mentioned here. Also, those are ear hooks which were meant for bose I cut to fit on the stem.

these tips have been amazing. I've been using them since one of the lcd i4 plastic arms broke and I was ultra careful with them. I'll be sticking to these bose tips now

 

[PatrickB]

I'm trying down to whittle down my headphone and IEM collection and I just decided to let go of my MX4's and listed them on eBay. I was about to do the same with the i4's, but then I gave them a listen with the Cipher cable and remembered how amazing these are with EQ dialed in. Just flabbergasted by the amazing low end and 3D spaciousness. Now I think I gotta keep 'em haha.

It boggles my mind that Audeze discontinued the Cipher cable. IMO it makes the i4's almost a whole different IEM/headphone.

 

[Devodonaldson]

I'm trying down to whittle down my headphone and IEM collection and I just decided to let go of my MX4's and listed them on eBay. I was about to do the same with the i4's, but then I gave them a listen with the Cipher cable and remembered how amazing these are with EQ dialed in. Just flabbergasted by the amazing low end and 3D spaciousness. Now I think I gotta keep 'em haha.

It boggles my mind that Audeze discontinued the Cipher cable. IMO it makes the i4's almost a whole different IEM/headphone.

I guess it just depends. I can't really listen wirh cipher cable anymore. For me personally, cipher just doesn't bring enough when compared to either my Shanling m8 or my Sony wm1z when either is combined with my Oriolus 5-band eq. Not saying the sound would work for everyone, but I personally fell in love with a 5 band. Every time I compare, for me, the 5 band just wins, so I'm happy with what is my FAVORITE headphone.

 

[PatrickB]

I guess it just depends. I can't really listen wirh cipher cable anymore. For me personally, cipher just doesn't bring enough when compared to either my Shanling m8 or my Sony wm1z when either is combined with my Oriolus 5-band eq. Not saying the sound would work for everyone, but I personally fell in love with a 5 band. Every time I compare, for me, the 5 band just wins, so I'm happy with what is my FAVORITE headphone.

Good to know. To be fair, I haven't tried it with manual EQ yet, only Cipher and Reveal. I did try my MX4 and LCD-1 with Oratory's EQ settings. I may experiment with the i4 eventually.

 

[emdeevee]

Good to know. To be fair, I haven't tried it with manual EQ yet, only Cipher and Reveal. I did try my MX4 and LCD-1 with Oratory's EQ settings. I may experiment with the i4 eventually.

Despite reports otherwise, it's pretty easy to dial in great EQ for the i4 with most devices or playback which allow for it. You can completely emulate the cipher cable sound with a competent eq (ex, I use UAPP for playback on cayin or other Android devices and it has an excellent eq, tho it costs a few bucks).