[CarlosUnchained]

Reading all this while waiting for my pair of X's to arrive makes me worry 

 

[SuperU]

 
I think it is because they are a small company being rushed in the tech dev dept (most likely driven by mgmt, and perhaps rightly so) to produce mass market products that they can sell on their audiophile-made name.  They make great sounding headphones no doubt but they also take the 'profitable shortcuts' they probably shouldn't be taking, not for the price or in the best interest of their brand name.

Makes sense to me.
 
Still it is and has been a problem.
 
The other problem is they can't seem to get it together for people to order who don't have your "average" situation. For example, the country I live in doesn't have reverse look up on credit cards. I've been able to order small things through paypal. But doubt I could order directly through them for a headphone.
 

   
I agree with all of this post except the last point. We should not lower our expectations or standards, nor be expected to pay to compensate for a lack of them. For heapdhones priced as premium as these, a guaranteed usage of 5 years should be the bare minimum, not an additional cost. You have golden oldies that have literally lasted decades (to varying degrees lol). My T1.1's are 5+ years old now, and besides some minor cosmetic logo smudging, they too work, look and feel as good as new, despite hundreds, maybe thousands of hours worth of use. Likewise with the HD800's I've had for a few years now.
 
On that point, Audeze do include a 3 year warranty for defects, the issue, however, is the annoyance of actually having to use it, and as you touched upon the irritation facing foreign buyers who might have to ship their items overseas and endure long wait times. I'm based in the UK, and whilst I no longer have my LCD2, and did not end up keeping the LCDXC, the fear of failure was always of concern to me. I just did not have the same confidence in the longevity and reliability of the product as I did or do with other brands, which is doubly frustrating because Audeze do actually make decent sounding products.

I definitely understand and largely agree with your point.
 
Most companies try to sell a warranty of some kind. They should indeed have a 5 year warranty. However even a good 3 year warranty with an optional purchase to add 2 more years and cover costs of shipping overseas would be something I would have bought in a heartbeat. 
 
It was kind of funny in a sad way, they tried to tell me if ever I needed service, they would put the bill for the price of the service only and if covered by warranty there would be no cost to send it back as the bill would reflect zero. They didn't seem to understand that little 3rd world countries, at least the one where I live, won't accept either type of bill. They charge for the item itself as if it were new. Nothing I can do about that.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Though Hifiman has recently gotten worse than Audeze, for years they were much more aggressively priced than Audeze. It was the LCD-2 that began the thousand-dollar-minimum for "serious headphones," so even though HFM is currently the more flagrant abuser of excessive prices, and even though Fang is comically bad at PR, Audeze is unequivocally guilty of price gouging, and that price gouging is contemptible.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I'm an LCD owner and have been for two years, and I agree with Naim F.C.  If Audeze is going to charge $4000+ for a pair of headphones with the LCD Design which basically has had all its tooling done and amortized 5 years ago, then it should have changed the materials in the driver housing.  The housing could and should have been redesigned and made from a lighter weight material like carbon fiber or titanium--certainly could have afforded that given the pricing structure.
 
Moreover, they should have adopted something like a 6 sigma manufacturing process to guarantee quality.
 
$4 thousand,  or for that matter even $1 thousand is a lot to pay for a headphone.  I would be hard pressed to believe that even the $4k phones have much more than $100-200 tied up in their BOMs.
 
To charge that sort of premium entailed in a $4k headphone, therefore, requires something truly groundbreaking, rather than a mere refinement of an admittedly excellent line of performers.

 

[odevans]

Reading all this while waiting for my pair of X's to arrive makes me worry :confused_face:

Don't worry. Though I've had to send my X back for repair, there were no quibbles at all from Audeze. I simply sent them an email saying that my driver had failed, they said not to worry and to send them over with proof of purchase. The proof of purchase in this instance was actually a PayPal invoice from another head-fi'er, not the official one, which was fine. Very easy going.

My X has recently been signed for, and are apparently due back in a week or so, which isn't a bad turn around at all (if it holds true).

The headband does get a little meh after a long spell of listening, but in my case, this has been after a matter of hours. When it does become slightly uncomfortable, I just move the headband slightly. Sorted.

I can't argue against the X being a bit heavy for headphone, but come on, it's not THAT heavy. My 55kg girlfriend has no issues with the weight, so how is it that men are having an issue? I don't know.

Either way, the X is a bloody delicious headphone and can be driver with great success by a flimsy little phone - you've made a good purchase.

 

[Gamergtx260]

  Reading all this while waiting for my pair of X's to arrive makes me worry 

The X and XC are quite stable as far as I read.
 
The LCD 3's had a lot of failures like mine. Though Audeze quality control is terrible and improving, the tech support is amazing, I only had to tell them my serial number and I didn't even send them my purchase invoice. The replacement was covered in the warranty ( From the Date of manufacture if I don't have the purchase receipt ) and I receive it tomorrow. It took only a day for them to fix and a week to ship to me.
 
I will know tomorrow if they are still worth keeping, if they have not lost the musicality.

 

[Gamergtx260]

Don't worry. Though I've had to send my X back for repair, there were no quibbles at all from Audeze. I simply sent them an email saying that my driver had failed, they said not to worry and to send them over with proof of purchase. The proof of purchase in this instance was actually a PayPal invoice from another head-fi'er, not the official one, which was fine. Very easy going.

My X has recently been signed for, and are apparently due back in a week or so, which isn't a bad turn around at all (if it holds true).

The headband does get a little meh after a long spell of listening, but in my case, this has been after a matter of hours. When it does become slightly uncomfortable, I just move the headband slightly. Sorted.

I can't argue against the X being a bit heavy for headphone, but come on, it's not THAT heavy. My 55kg girlfriend has no issues with the weight, so how is it that men are having an issue? I don't know.

Either way, the X is a bloody delicious headphone and can be driver with great success by a flimsy little phone - you've made a good purchase.

I agree. The X is maybe at the maximum limit that a headphone should weigh. Just 10 gms more would fall into the heavier category like the XC. 
I also noticed that the X had a very snug fit than every other Audeze's I have owned.

 

[Naim.F.C]

Don't worry. Though I've had to send my X back for repair, there were no quibbles at all from Audeze. I simply sent them an email saying that my driver had failed, they said not to worry and to send them over with proof of purchase. The proof of purchase in this instance was actually a PayPal invoice from another head-fi'er, not the official one, which was fine. Very easy going.

My X has recently been signed for, and are apparently due back in a week or so, which isn't a bad turn around at all (if it holds true).

The headband does get a little meh after a long spell of listening, but in my case, this has been after a matter of hours. When it does become slightly uncomfortable, I just move the headband slightly. Sorted.

I can't argue against the X being a bit heavy for headphone, but come on, it's not THAT heavy. My 55kg girlfriend has no issues with the weight, so how is it that men are having an issue? I don't know.

Either way, the X is a bloody delicious headphone and can be driver with great success by a flimsy little phone - you've made a good purchase.

 
It's not really a question of how much you weigh, nor how strong you are or are not, it's more about comfort levels for prolonged use, general ergonomics and overall accessibility. Really well-engineered headphones should metaphorically just disappear from your head, eg be so comfortable that you quickly forget they're even on your head. That way there is even less between you and the music. If you have a heavy, cumbersome thing on your head that reminds you every now and again that you're wearing something alien, it detracts from the overall experience and level of enjoyment. 
 
Going over the weight of different popular headphones, you can see Audeze come in at the heavier scale. In fact, it seems to be an American engineering trend to manufacture incredibly expensive headphones that are on the less ergonomic, physically inefficient and heavier end of the scale.
 
Sort of reminds me of what American vehicle engineering has gone through over the last two decades, where in past decades the trend seemed to commonly be bigger is always better, in terms of vehicle weight, size, engine litre capacity, horsepower etc, when in actual fact this attitude often ended up in inefficient designs compared to the competition. This seems to have slowly changed over the last decade or so though, with American cars now being more and more efficient. Hopefully American made headphones go through a similar renaissance, because right now in that respect they're way behind.
 
Cable weight not included in the following figures.
 
Kennerton Audio Odin - 670g
Audeze LCD-XC - 650g
Grado PS1000e - 630g
Abyss - 620g
Audeze LCD-X - 612g
Focal Utopia - 490g
Pioneer SE Master 1 - 460g
STAX SR-009 - 454g
Hifiman HE1000 V2 - 420g
MrSpeakers Ether Flow - 400g
Sony MDR-R10 - 400g
AKG K812 - 390g
Sony MDR-Z1R - 385g
Sennheiser Orpheus HE90 - 365g
Beyerdynamic T1 - 346g
Audio-Technica ATH-W5000 - 340g
Sennheiser HD800 - 330g

 

[Gamergtx260]

   
It's not really a question of how much you weigh, nor how strong you are or are not, it's more about comfort levels for prolonged use, general ergonomics and overall accessibility. Really well-engineered headphones should metaphorically just disappear from your head, eg be so comfortable that you quickly forget they're even on your head. That way there is even less between you and the music. If you have a heavy, cumbersome thing on your head that reminds you every now and again that you're wearing something alien, it detracts from the overall experience and level of enjoyment. 
 
Going over the weight of different popular headphones, you can see Audeze come in at the heavier scale. In fact, it seems to be an American engineering trend to manufacture incredibly expensive headphones that are on the less ergonomic, physically inefficient and heavier end of the scale. Sort of reminds me of what American vehicle engineering went through over the last two decades, where before the trend was bigger is better, in terms of vehicle weight, size, engine litre capacity etc. Only in recent years have American cars been competing with other brands more effectively in terms of efficiency. Hopefully American made headphones eventually go through a similar renaissance, because right now in that respect they're way behind.
 
Kennerton Audio Odin - 670g
Grado PS1000e - 630g
Abyss - 620g
Audeze LCDX - 612g
Focal Utopia - 490g
Pioneer SE Master 1 - 460g
STAX SR-009 - 454g
Hifiman HE1000 V2 - 420g
MrSpeakers Ether Flow - 400g
Sony MDR-R10 - 400g
AKG K812 - 390g
Sony MDR-Z1R - 385g
Sennheiser Orpheus HE90 - 365g
Beyerdynamic T1 - 346g
Audio-Technica ATH-W5000 - 340g
Sennheiser HD800 - 330g

Nice list, include also the XC
 
I would also add that they should focus also on ergonomics, maybe a wider padding or using a suspension strap distributes the weight more evenly without creating a hotspot on the head. 
Audeze's carbon fibre headband tries to achieve exactly that but fails miserably since the leather strap touches the carbon fibre and makes no sense buying it, unless you plan to mod it.

 

[mogulmaster]

Are those Lohb straps still up for sale somewhere? They look better/more comfortable than the seatbelt cover solution.

 

[RCBinTN]

From my side, I understand the weight of the LCD line-up.  That's how you get the uber-impressive bass.  Just consider the EL-8.
 
To me, the carbon-fiber headband as standard equipment should be a no-brainer for Audez'e.  Are you folks listening?
 
I also agree with @phoenixdogfan that Audez'e should be developing new, lighter weight, materials to upgrade the build quality.  IMO, that would make a lot of Audez'e customers happy and maybe propel them to #1 in the planar market.
 
As always, IMHO.
RCB

 

[Naim.F.C]

From my side, I understand the weight of the LCD line-up.  That's how you get the uber-impressive bass.  Just consider the EL-8.

I doubt the weight of the headphones really has much, if anything to do with the bass. There are much lighter headphones that offer more bass quantity, and even the MDR-Z1R, which is one of the lightest headphones on the list above, has bass that not only offers more detail retrieval (notably from the lowest frequencies), but better overall body and texture too.

On a side note, how much lighter is the carbon fibre headband to the regular one? I've noticed that cheekily Audeze only list the weight of the carbon fibre model. I wonder how much weight you're actually saving, and whether or not it might just be better to redesign the standard headband to be more comfortable, but remaining a $100 cheaper.

 

[Gamergtx260]

On a side note, how much lighter is the carbon fibre headband to the regular one?

http://www.head-fi.org/t/588429/audeze-lcd-3-impressions-thread/4470

Please scroll to the end of the page.

 

[Focker]

Hey guys...my first post in a long, long time...decided to buy a house, so I exiled myself from Head-fi so as to avoid any distractions lol. 
 
Glad to see so many still loving their X, and also so many NEW X owners...truly an amazing headphone. I've had mine over two years now and still just smitten. Just like Magnepans are my speaker soul mate, Audeze is my headphone soul mate lol. 
 
Anyway, saw Groovy, Robin, and a few other friendly faces...hope everyone is doing well!
 
FockerOut

 

[Naim.F.C]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/588429/audeze-lcd-3-impressions-thread/4470

Please scroll to the end of the page.

So a saving of 27 grams. Not huge, but certainly something.