Hi folks, wanted to give my thoughts and brief comparisons. I’ve had isine lx, 10, and then 20’s going down the line upgrading in search of more excitement with each model available. I was going to shoot for buying a used lcdi4 model but when I saw the release I figured I would give the lcdi3 a try first and see if I could indeed live with it. I’ve used the isine20 out and about in very loud/quiet environments for the last year or so using a silver dragon cable from moon audio. I thought the cipher cable sounded worse than any other dac/amp combo I have, so keep all I say in that context. I have no idea how the cipher on the lcdi3 sounds, but it was marked as “lcdi3, lcdi4”
In general I always thought the isine20 had light bass, thick low midrange, and crunchy sounding upper mids that can really be annoying to listen to loud if its something like heavy metal. Not a ton of high highs, and not a ton of sub lows. It had more of a mid bump, which was fine by me because I listen to Yamaha ns10’s in my studio which are known for being very mid forward and not having much bass. They definitely sounded better to me at low volume, and too honky at high volume.
All made in direct comparison to the lcdX which I use as my main studio headphones.
The lcdi3 I got yesterday, and they were on my head from about 4pm-8pm.
For fit:
I used the ear hooks and fins together, although not a perfect fit. I think the ear fins were designed to fit without the hooks. Either way, I used them together and it provided a very solid fit, and much more accurate bass seal that didn’t move around too much. I could tweak it much more to personally fit my ears. I went for a walk for about 30 minutes and did not have to adjust them once the entire time. The only thing I still can’t do is lay down on a couch or bed with my head all the way back as the tips come out of my ears just enough to lose the bass response. So I still have to wear these sitting up or standing only.
Sound Isolation/leakage:
I’m not sure if it’s a differences in the open back design, the driver, or materials, or the way I had the fitting on my ears but there was much less bleed into the headphones compared to isine20. Theres a noticeable high frequency and low rumble loss from natural outside noise that’s not coming through as well. Rather than hearing everything around me and my music, I feel like I’m able to focus more on the music in my ears and less on the outside world. It could also just be that the general frequency response and sound signature is more captivating to listen to as well.
When turned up somewhat loud and listening from a few feet away the isine 20 is mostly treble and sizzle, while the lcdi3 has a clearly different much more open sound. All this means to me, is that there is a big difference in how the open back venting is affecting the overall sound. The lcdi3 leakage would probably be more annoying to a nearby friend than the isine 20.
Sound, soundstage, imaging.
Generally most people are right in saying there’s more bass, not full size lcdx bass, it doesn’t slam and give you everything even when running through a proper headphone amp. All I can say is that the frequency response sounds very flat, smooth, and even. There’s no giant treble peak either, no bass boosts, no mid boosts or suck out. It’s slightly more warm than sharp in a treble sense. The one thing I am hearing though, is a solid stereo imaging across the frequency range. Poor headphones tend to have bass sounding more mono, and stereo treble being very far left and right. This is a little more accurate to me especially in the bass, being able to hear stereo imaging as being more separated, and mono instruments staying in the middle and not spreading to the sides when loud. This is more noticeable in pop music, and generally electronic bass stuff. I found it much more pleasing to listen to over the long period of time. 2 hours would have been fine, 4 was okay. I sine20’s I normally tire of and need a break after a little over an hour.
The soundstage too to bottom probably doesn’t really reach much higher than the isine20, but definitely reaches lower. From left to right I feel much more stereo bass information, but also somewhat of a well defined edge to the sound. This bothered me somewhat on a Schiit magni3, the dynamics were really hitting me hard, but it just felt very cramped in. I was almost ready to take them off and call it a night. Then, I decided to switch to my Schiit Asgard class A Amp, the soundstage widened just enough to really put a smile on my face, and I immediately listened to them for another hour or so.
The bigger disappointment for me is that I was expecting a bigger difference between loud sounds, and quiet sounds. In the 3D sense, I feel my lcdX’s do this realllly well. The lcdi3 doesn’t have as much of a gap between loud and quiet, but I still noticed a lot of extra clarity being delivered from songs that I hadn’t noticed before. Mp3’s Sounded much less annoying, and vinyl sounded much more detailed. I could simply hear more into fine points of the music than before and I really enjoyed them.
Story time:
While I was cooking some food, I had these hooked up to my mpow Bluetooth I was listening to the song I don’t trust myself, by John Mayer. Right after the horns come in, John comes in with a guitar solo doing a slide in. But the way it was, came from behind me just as I took a step back and I thought I had stepped on my cat. My heart stopped, I turned around to see what I had just heard and there was nothing there. I realized I had just heard the slide in, and I was just amazed that I could hear a song so many time in other earphones and I’ve never heard that slide before.
I realize this post has been very long, but ultimately I will be selling my isine20’s today, but not selling my lcdx’s. I wouldn’t have minded paying $700 for these and not even receiving any cables, because as of now I’m not using any of the stock cables.
Go get yourself some, or try them out. I’m very impressed, but also realize there’s better sound quality out there that’s possible.
