[Nitreb]

My XC went in twice for driver replacement in past 1.5 years. Everyday i ask myself what should i do. I'm holding a lemon product and i have no clue when the drivers will act up.

Odd, my XC are 4 years old and still run fine.

 

[lenkiatleong]

Odd, my XC are 4 years old and still run fine.

I'm still crossing my fingers and don't know when my XC will stop working again. It has been 10 months since last repair in Dec 2017. What headphone amp are you using to drive your XC? 4 years without failure is amazing.

 

[attmci]

I'm still crossing my fingers and don't know when my XC will stop working again. It has been 10 months since last repair in Dec 2017. What headphone amp are you using to drive your XC? 4 years without failure is amazing.

What?

 

[Nitreb]

Odd, my XC are 4 years old and still run fine.

I'm still crossing my fingers and don't know when my XC will stop working again. It has been 10 months since last repair in Dec 2017. What headphone amp are you using to drive your XC? 4 years without failure is amazing.

Either an O2 amp or the headphone amp of my Integrated amplifier.

 

[BeyerMonster]

FWIW.
I purchased XC and 3 in 03/2014.
XCs have had no issues. 3 had left driver failure twice, in 05/2015 and 07/2016. While more reliable, I don't think my 3 sounds as good as it originally did and the earpads they replaced it with are very similar ot the ones on my XC and clearly not as nice as the originals.

 

[HBen]

Sad to report that it I also joined the club of people having a driver failure on their LCD3. Came out of nowhere. Just stopped working.

Timing was really bad ... just one month after the 3 year warranty is over...

Now the official audeze importer charges me 430$ for the repair of the driver which takes 4-6 weeks (including shipping to and from Europe). The dealer offered me a new one for 1500, "so that I can listen to music again quicker" ...

Cannot really say that I'm happy ... especially after hearing all those positive stories about audeze's accommodating customer service and driver failures being looked at on a "case by case-basis".
For whatever reason obviously not in my case ...

 

[SonicTrance]

Now they charge me 430$ for the repair of the driver which takes 4-6 weeks (including shipping to and from Europe).

I wonder if they have a policy on who pays for return shipping. My LCD-XC's recently broke and I payed $500 for driver replacements + an extra $50 for shipping from Sweden. I believe that Audeze pays for return shipping but not sure (they are not done yet). When my LCD-3's broke they paid for everything as they were under warranty.

Also find it strange that the LCD-3 drivers are less expensive than the LCD-XC drivers, yet the LCD-3's are the more expensive headphone.

 

[lenkiatleong]

I wonder if they have a policy on who pays for return shipping. My LCD-XC's recently broke and I payed $500 for driver replacements + an extra $50 for shipping from Sweden. I believe that Audeze pays for return shipping but not sure (they are not done yet). When my LCD-3's broke they paid for everything as they were under warranty.

Also find it strange that the LCD-3 drivers are less expensive than the LCD-XC drivers, yet the LCD-3's are the more expensive headphone.

Sounds like XC buyers are losers. I will not buy Audeze product again once my XC is out of warranty. It went in for drivers replacement twice already in less than 1.5 years.

 

[HBen]

I wonder if they have a policy on who pays for return shipping. My LCD-XC's recently broke and I payed $500 for driver replacements + an extra $50 for shipping from Sweden. I believe that Audeze pays for return shipping but not sure (they are not done yet). When my LCD-3's broke they paid for everything as they were under warranty.

Also find it strange that the LCD-3 drivers are less expensive than the LCD-XC drivers, yet the LCD-3's are the more expensive headphone.

I don't think that's the case actually. It seems to me that it's not Audeze who makes the final prices for the repairs, but their distributors in the respective countries. Unless you bought and repair directly from/at Audeze.

Official Audeze prices for driver repairs are obviously as follows: "The LCD-3 is $375, the LCD-X/XC is $325, and the LCD-2 is now $250" ...
Seems like the distributors take the difference of these prices and what we actually pay for shipping, handling, currency fluctuations, administrative costs (or profit). In my case, the difference is not that big.

The price or the price differences are not what is see as a problem though.
What I don't understand is the fact that when reading through this thread it's quite obvious that there seems to be a design flaw and I still obviously need to pay for the repair.

Who expects a 2000$+ headphone to simply break down after 3 years or very light and careful usage? If you're confident about your product, why not make a 5 or 10 year warranty?

The problem is that because these headphones are so expensive you basically have no choice but to repair them. If you don't you loose even more, because nobody will pay much for a broken headphone.

 

[SonicTrance]

Official Audeze prices for driver repairs are obviously as follows: "The LCD-3 is $375, the LCD-X/XC is $325, and the LCD-2 is now $250"

Interesting. Where did you find that info?

They're also replacing the earpads on my XC's btw. They did not replace those on my LCD-3's.

Also, my XC's have nothing to do with Swedish retailers. I bought mine used from a forum member here from the US.

Anyway, they should have lifetime warranty on their drivers!

 

[HBen]

it's in this thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/no-shame-on-audeze-buyer-neednt-beware.753171/page-12
Post 180

 

[SonicTrance]

it's in this thread: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/no-shame-on-audeze-buyer-neednt-beware.753171/page-12
Post 180

That post is over 3.5 years old though. They did update their drivers in 2016. I guess that came with price increases as well.

 

[attmci]

Very quiet here which is a good indication for Audeze owners like myself.

However, I still believe the Audeze should provide lifetime warranty on their drivers, like the others (i.e. ZMFHeadphone). Otherwise, it might hurt their high-end headphone business in the future. Otherwise, they have to compete with the Beats by Dr. Dre for revenue growth..............

_________________________________________________________

• Revenue in the Headphones segment amounts to US$2,216m in 2019. The market is expected to grow annually by 1.8% (CAGR 2019-2023).
• In global comparison, most revenue is generated in China (US$3,404m in 2019).
• In relation to total population figures, per person revenues of US$6.73 are generated in 2019.

Audeze is a designer, developer, manufacturer and supplier of audio products such as headphone, microphone, amplifiers and accessories.

Audeze's headquarters is in Costa Mesa, California. Audeze has a revenue of $10M, and 32 employees. Audeze's main competitors are Audio-Technica, Sennheiser and Grado Labs. As of March 2019, Audeze has 34.0K fans on Facebook and 6.5K followers on Twitter.
_________________________________________________________________________

HiFiMAN is a designer and manufacturer of high-performance headphones and portable audio products.

HIFIMAN's headquarters is located in Tianjin, Tianjin Municipality. Fang Bian is the Founder & CEO of HIFIMAN and has an approval rating of 73 from Owler members. HIFIMAN's top competitor is Muzik, led by Jason Hardi, who is their Founder & CEO. HIFIMAN has 38 followers on Owler. HIFIMAN has an estimated revenue of <$1M and an estimate of less <10 employees
_________________________________________________
Sennheiser manufactures microphones, headphones, telephony accessories and avionics headsets for consumer, professional and business applications.

Sennheiser's headquarters is in Wedemark, Other. Sennheiser has a revenue of $718.9M, and 3,280 employees. Sennheiser's main competitors are Shure, Plantronics and Beats Electronics. As of March 2019, Sennheiser has 1.9M fans on Facebook and 1 followers on Twitter

 

[DougTheSnail]

Yeah they just quoted me almost $500 to replace my LCD 2 drivers...

 

[Chikolad]

Yeah they just quoted me almost $500 to replace my LCD 2 drivers...

Sucks. Which revision?