I just received my new comfort suspension strap for my Audeze LCD-X as sold by HeadFi member Lohb. I’d like to post some VERY positive opinions:
First off, I didn’t know I had a comfort issue to begin with. I always thought the LCD-X in leather fit me well with no significant hot spots, a tolerable clamping “pressure”, no unusual weight, and generally good stability with a tolerable shifting when I looked down at my keyboard or up towards my desk’s bookshelves. I didn’t understand the comfort complaints I was reading about.
The LCD-X is my first truly audiophile headset. To my eyes, it is beautifully made like a nice Ferrari compared to the Abyss which looks like a medieval headscrew torture device with its big wing of metal and required head strap or some of those Stax that look like garage doors strapped to your head. I went with leather since it looked and felt more expensive- I wouldn’t get that Ferrari with the velour seat package for sure!!!- and have been a happy camper since. Awesome imaging and sound stage as driven by my Schiit Gungnir/Ragnarok combo. As Arnie Nudell implied in TAS a few months ago, I now had my million dollar system for a whole “Schiit-load” less. I was good to go.
But then I read about Lohb’s comfort strap in leather and how people were raving about it, so I said what-the-hell and dropped $35 on it as my first ever “mod,” knowing that if it sucked, I hadn’t blown the farm or done something irreversible to the ‘phones.
I PM’ed Lohb who lives in Thailand, half way around the world from my home in Reading, PA. I figured maybe he’d get back to me in a day or three. BANG! ONE MINUTE later, he’s back to me with the info like he was sitting outside my door the whole time. Within 5 minutes I had the order off to him paid via PayPal. He ships twice a week, and damn, wasn’t it my lucky day that it went out that day with a tracking number hitting my inbox in 5 hours!
It arrived today, 13 days later. Christmas in April…
Quick side note: If you have never disassembled an LCD-X, are impatient and generally don’t read directions and just jump into things and figure them out as you go like I do, you DON’T need to unscrew the little set screws on the black Right/Left yoke bodies in order to pull out the yoke rods. Instead just unscrew the little black plastic screws in the end of the yoke rods and then the rods pull right out. DUH. Those little sucker set screws are Locktite-ed mighty tight!!!
So if you do it right, it will take about a minute to get things rigged up. Now onto the eval:
This thing is REALLY comfortable. It contours perfectly no matter when I put it fore or aft on my cranium. It holds the stock headband about 1/4” to 1/2” off my head, and there is a slight comforting “shock absorber” effect when I bob it up and down with no contact ever by the headband.
The most noticeable effect is that I never realized that when I had the native 'phones on in their most comfortable position, the stock band actually was tilting upwards somewhat with the back edge carrying the weight while the front edge was unweighted and sticking up away from my head by about 1/4". With the Lohb strap on though, there is no hot spotting at all, and the ‘phones feel like they are floating. The weight really does feel diminished.
An added benefit is that the float also allows the ‘phones to ROTATE somewhat forward while SLIDING somewhat backwards which really positions my ears dead in their center. Without the strap, the angled face of the ear cup would allow them to slide forward on my somewhat angular face only to be stopped by my ear “jamming” into the back inside of the cup. I had never noticed this as being uncomfortable, but once I discovered the difference with Lohb’s strap, I can never go back.
I tried looking around, up, and down fairly vigorously to test the security of the new fit. Because the strap now is touching so much more of my head, the frictional fit is greatly improved, and the ‘phones only begin to slide with extreme motions, whereas before the mod, they always would shift a bit even just looking up and down while typing. Since I suck at typing and am constantly staring at the keyboard then looking quickly up at the screen to catch errors, that subtle shifting that I assumed was the price of business has been eliminated.
Below are some pictures showing the significant amount of angulation possible before the stock band hits my head and starts to rotate as well as the comfort gap I experience while wearing them. Notice the perfect contouring of the Lohb strap versus the decagonal shape of the original. Even though the stock band is nicely padded, the ridges ARE palpable and less comfortable than the smooth contour of the Lohb. The side view pic with my hand level shows the normal fit I previously was getting with the stock band digging in along the back edge. Not any more!!!
So in all, I can HIGHLY recommend this very inexpensive mod. I now understand why Abyss, Stax, and others have chosen the suspension systems they did. Now, a thought about those vegan earpads................my next mod?????
DSNORD
