[AudioBomb]

They're the best sounding IEM under 1500€ easily. Enjoy!

 

[Matias]

I received my LCDi3 and have been listening to it the last 4 days.

First I tried the wireless Cipher, works OK, but it is really not the way I am going to listen most of the time. Currently using JRiver with an SMSL Idea until my Hidizs S8 comes to replace it.

I have set the parametric EQ in JRiver according to the official correction curve. It is quite good on correcting the peaks and valleys on the mids and highs, but I found that the bass was too strong for my taste. I increased the high shelf filter on 136Hz from -5.91dB to -1.5dB in order to raise mids and highs. Now the tonality is balanced in my opinion.

So after some 5 hours listening to my reference recordings a few time each I am starting to get the sound signature. Fantastic resolution, awesome dynamics, textures and imaging!

I would say that these are phones that I would not listen without EQ, be it in the Cipher cables, Reveal plugin or manually inputting the EQ parameters. It sounds just too wrong without correction in my opinion. But once corrected it sounds fabulous.

Comfort is also excellent, and I am picky in this regard. Using mid sized points and hooks.

The standard 3.5mm cable is quite generic. I wonder if upgrading to the silver braided LCDi4 cable is worth the upgrade. Opinions anyone?

So overall I am very happy with the LCDi3.

 

[mikejazz]

Ok--absolutely love it! Bluetooth is ok--but convenient. Had a problem with the Cipher. When I first hooked it up with the Ankar into my OnePlus 7 Pro the sound I was getting was The Angry Thunder God. There was a selector box that popped up. I apparently hit the right selection (can't remember what it was) and all was good. Sounded fantastic. Then later after trying the BT cable I re-hooked up the Cipher. Angry Thunder God again. Couldn't find in settings to get it working again. I'm using Uapp. I know it's a simple thing--just don't know how to access it. Any ideas?
I'm a professional jazz bassist and speaker designer. Played at the CanJam in Chicago years ago.It cracks me up the guys whining about about the DSP Cipher. DSP is your friend. Any headphone can benefit from proper eq. Just using the peq with Uapp is a godsend. There are a lot of stupid recording engineers out there. I've worked with many. Intelligent use of PEQ is very valuable. A headphone manufacturer that includes peq to optimize its cans is smart. No can is perfect.
Ok---I want to get a portable DAC to use with this. I listen to music all day while I'm working on speakers. I have no problem with putting my phone and DAC in a fanny pack. A member here likes the new Monoprice THX. What really appeals to me is the EQ and other DSP features. The Dirac is very appealing. I guess it's a type of crossfeed. A lot of what I listen to is early stereo jazz recordings. They are mixed really silly. A sax panned hard right. The trumpet panned hard left. Drives me nuts. It's like watching a tennis match. Crossfeed makes these recordings much more listenable. My biggest concern with the monolith is too much background hiss with the i-3's. Anyone have any experience with this?
The other option is a good dac with the Roon software. Seems like it does a boatload of cool stuff. Anyone have experience with that? BTW---I was a beta tester with the JH 13's ten years ago. Fantastic cans---but I like the i-3's better.
Any recommendations for a good portable DAC under 5 bills? Was reading the Roon thread. Likely not for me. Maybe just a good portable DAC and Uapp might do the trick. Although the THX looks awfully appealing.

 

[omegaorgun]

Can you send one to DBS Tech Talk? @Audeze

 

[m8o]

Ok--absolutely love it! Bluetooth is ok--but convenient. Had a problem with the Cipher. When I first hooked it up with the Ankar into my OnePlus 7 Pro the sound I was getting was The Angry Thunder God. There was a selector box that popped up. I apparently hit the right selection (can't remember what it was) and all was good. Sounded fantastic. Then later after trying the BT cable I re-hooked up the Cipher. Angry Thunder God again. Couldn't find in settings to get it working again. I'm using Uapp. I know it's a simple thing--just don't know how to access it. Any ideas?
I'm a professional jazz bassist and speaker designer. Played at the CanJam in Chicago years ago.It cracks me up the guys whining about about the DSP Cipher. DSP is your friend. Any headphone can benefit from proper eq. Just using the peq with Uapp is a godsend. There are a lot of stupid recording engineers out there. I've worked with many. Intelligent use of PEQ is very valuable. A headphone manufacturer that includes peq to optimize its cans is smart. No can is perfect.
Ok---I want to get a portable DAC to use with this. I listen to music all day while I'm working on speakers. I have no problem with putting my phone and DAC in a fanny pack. A member here likes the new Monoprice THX. What really appeals to me is the EQ and other DSP features. The Dirac is very appealing. I guess it's a type of crossfeed. A lot of what I listen to is early stereo jazz recordings. They are mixed really silly. A sax panned hard right. The trumpet panned hard left. Drives me nuts. It's like watching a tennis match. Crossfeed makes these recordings much more listenable. My biggest concern with the monolith is too much background hiss with the i-3's. Anyone have any experience with this?
The other option is a good dac with the Roon software. Seems like it does a boatload of cool stuff. Anyone have experience with that? BTW---I was a beta tester with the JH 13's ten years ago. Fantastic cans---but I like the i-3's better.
Any recommendations for a good portable DAC under 5 bills? Was reading the Roon thread. Likely not for me. Maybe just a good portable DAC and Uapp might do the trick. Although the THX looks awfully appealing.

Really like hearing from people like you that are musicians with knowledge & interest in recording and post production too. Bug thumbs-up on the knowledge and opinions imparted to us.

A lot to cover! Haha. I'll try. I'm an iSine 20 owner, but my experience with eq / dsp / Reveal plugin / portable / fixed settings, parallels your interest.

For fixed, at home settings -- either outputting analog audio to a soundsystem or headphone amp, thru a Raspberry Pi endpoint running RoonBridge either to a DAC HAT (my favorites are the ApplePi or Katana or Boss) or USB out (only when using a Raspberry Pi 4's USB 3 out) -- I bought into the Roon ecosystem. In that case the 'heavy lifting' of the Audeze Reveal plugin DSP processing is done by the Roon Core server. And I dont need the limitations of the wired or wireless Cipher cable.

But, I do also have the option of using my phone as an endpoint (I use Android) and use the BT cable. I bought the Anker adapter. But dont have a wired Cipher cable yet. So, so many people have felt that is the best sounding option, when I get the i3 (it is a question of when, not if) I will either use the wired Cipher with Anker adapter or -- what I've read many people do -- start using an old outdated iPhone (or iPod) simply as a music streamer without an phone plan. (My wife recently got a new battery replaced on her iPhone 6 by Apple for a very affordable $49, so will probably take that over).

The big negative to me, using a phone either to a cipher option, or to a portable DAC, is battery life and an inability to charge while listening using a portable battery pack. (At least with Android. I have seen an option on the iPhone, but not sure if that plays well with the Audeze Cipher cable)

I wish there was a great portable DAP option that did the same as Roon plus the Reveal plugin, all in the DAP. My Opus #1 EQ did sound very good. And did a pretty convincing job replicating the "Cipher sound". But it's not quite as good.

An interesting solution is a DAP that includes the Viper DSP (is that what its called?). One has to pay a nominal fee to unlock the Convolution engine. But when you do so, you can make use of the DSP convolution filters Audeze supplied that replicates the Cipher DSP, and apply it to all the playback on the DAP. MASSIVE caveat however is, the convolution filter is tied to / specific to the sampling rate of the recording. I have music of every bit depth and sampling rate that exists. Listening to HD music with the 16-bit / 44.1kHz convolutions filter enabled (which doesnt switch automatically to follow the music that is playing) sounds horrible. And switching out the convolution filter used to match the music playing is both cumbersome and a pita. The only way I see using this is if everything is Redbook on the player. ... and now that i just finished making a mirror of my music that is above Redbook nitrates, to Redbook, I may give this a try again.

.... now... here is a freaky wild crazy option for you! Get yourself a DAP-sized micro-PC like the one pictured below, Intel x86 based, run Windows 10 Home on it with Foobar 2000 as the music player with the Audeze Reveal plugin installed. This "PC" then outputs music via USB to a high quality and powerful external DAC (I use a Mojo), with the DSP already applied (no Roon, no Cipher cable; though one could use the RoonBridge like I do too instead of a local player like Foobar which I'll admit I have not tried [yet]). AND there are enough free USB plugs to power it with an external battery pack at the same time; and I power the Mojo with it too). Pictured here is my Kangaroo Plus (tho you can use a Compute Stick too) with a Dragon Fly Red as the DAC. Drop it all in the Fanny Pack and go! This is the best sounding, non Cipher enabled, portable option I have ever found.

P.s. I control any software running on the "PC" using Remote Desktop from my phone or tablet. It (the server software) is disabled by default in Windows Home. But there are many instruction on the web that describe how to enable it.

 

[dizzyraider]

Ok--absolutely love it! Bluetooth is ok--but convenient. Had a problem with the Cipher. When I first hooked it up with the Ankar into my OnePlus 7 Pro the sound I was getting was The Angry Thunder God. There was a selector box that popped up. I apparently hit the right selection (can't remember what it was) and all was good.

Any recommendations for a good portable DAC under 5 bills? Was reading the Roon thread. Likely not for me. Maybe just a good portable DAC and Uapp might do the trick. Although the THX looks awfully appealing.

The Angry Thunder God you are hearing happens when you plug un the Cipher cable and Android asks you if you want to launch UAPP. UAPP's USB driver doesn't seem to work properly with the Cipher, so next time pick now when you plug it in to use Android's native driver, then launch UAPP after to make it work. I do this with my i4 and my S10+ as well whenever I use the Cipher cable.

The good thing bout UAPP for these iSine and i3/4 series is that you can apply PEQ (additional purchase for a few dollars) and have them tuned to sound more like the Cipher if not better.

For the times when I need system wide EQ for streaming services (YouTube, Spotify etc.), I puchased a used LG V30 and rooted it to add Viper4Android, which allows me to apply PEQ through DDC, or Convolver to tune the sound. You can also do this with a any other rootable Android based DAP (I did this with my DP-X1 as well) or phone. Running this setup out to my FiiO Q5s with THX module has been steller.

 

[Pcppps]

The Angry Thunder God you are hearing happens when you plug un the Cipher cable and Android asks you if you want to launch UAPP. UAPP's USB driver doesn't seem to work properly with the Cipher, so next time pick now when you plug it in to use Android's native driver, then launch UAPP after to make it work. I do this with my i4 and my S10+ as well whenever I use the Cipher cable.

The good thing bout UAPP for these iSine and i3/4 series is that you can apply PEQ (additional purchase for a few dollars) and have them tuned to sound more like the Cipher if not better.

For the times when I need system wide EQ for streaming services (YouTube, Spotify etc.), I puchased a used LG V30 and rooted it to add Viper4Android, which allows me to apply PEQ through DDC, or Convolver to tune the sound. You can also do this with a any other rootable Android based DAP (I did this with my DP-X1 as well) or phone. Running this setup out to my FiiO Q5s with THX module has been steller.

I am new to using usb dac. Mind sharing whats the advantage of UAPP over othsr apps ljke hiby music?

 

[dizzyraider]

I am new to using usb dac. Mind sharing whats the advantage of UAPP over othsr apps ljke hiby music?

UAPP (I think Neutron Olayer as well) unlike many other music apps, uses it's own custom audio driver instead of the stock Android audio dirver. This is a benefit because the native Android audio driver resamples everthing to 48000, and for files thats is not natively 48000, this process of conversion can introduce potentially audible artifacts into the music.

And if you use external USB DAC, UAPP allows you to provide the signal to the external DAC without resampling. Otherwise Android will send all signal at 48000hz.

 

[mikejazz]

Also Uapp had other cool features like eq and for a few bucks parametric eq. The Cipher cable is cool and convenient, but I have a feeling that a top quality Dac would be an improvement. I'm way down the rabbit hole now. I have a Monoprice Monolith Dac coming which has extensive eq. Also a Xudoo 05 plus and a Burson opamp on its way. One of the techno guys from Audeze posted the eq curve for the Uapp parametric to match the one in the Cipher. I'll keep y'all posted.

 

[Pcppps]

Thx a lot!!! Just downloaded it but seems not working....hearing noise only through an anker cable.....

 

[NYanakiev]

I received my LCDi3 and have been listening to it the last 4 days.

First I tried the wireless Cipher, works OK, but it is really not the way I am going to listen most of the time. Currently using JRiver with an SMSL Idea until my Hidizs S8 comes to replace it.

I have set the parametric EQ in JRiver according to the official correction curve. It is quite good on correcting the peaks and valleys on the mids and highs, but I found that the bass was too strong for my taste. I increased the high shelf filter on 136Hz from -5.91dB to -1.5dB in order to raise mids and highs. Now the tonality is balanced in my opinion.

So after some 5 hours listening to my reference recordings a few time each I am starting to get the sound signature. Fantastic resolution, awesome dynamics, textures and imaging!

I would say that these are phones that I would not listen without EQ, be it in the Cipher cables, Reveal plugin or manually inputting the EQ parameters. It sounds just too wrong without correction in my opinion. But once corrected it sounds fabulous.

Comfort is also excellent, and I am picky in this regard. Using mid sized points and hooks.

The standard 3.5mm cable is quite generic. I wonder if upgrading to the silver braided LCDi4 cable is worth the upgrade. Opinions anyone?

So overall I am very happy with the LCDi3.

I have owned the lcd-i3 for a while but only recently gave them a proper listen. These sound heavenly with my Hugo 2 and Roon.

I went to Selfridges in London yesterday to check the LCDi4 out and was pleased to find out that the build quality of LCDi3 is very comparable to that of the i4.

I was, personally, not blown away by the i4 (fed by my Mojopoly and in, admittedly, rather poor listening conditions) but my wallet was well pleased.

I really liked the cable though and have started considering an upgrade. Does anyone know if this cable is sold separately?

Cheers,
Nick

 

[Matias]

I have owned the lcd-i3 for a while but only recently gave them a proper listen. These sound heavenly with my Hugo 2 and Roon.

I went to Selfridges in London yesterday to check the LCDi4 out and was pleased to find out that the build quality of LCDi3 is very comparable to that of the i4.

I was, personally, not blown away by the i4 (fed by my Mojopoly and in, admittedly, rather poor listening conditions) but my wallet was well pleased.

I really liked the cable though and have started considering an upgrade. Does anyone know if this cable is sold separately?

Cheers,
Nick

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience.

The Audeze braided cable is sold separately for 400 usd, and there is an used one here on head-fi for sale.
https://www.audeze.com/collections/accessories/products/lcd-i4-premium-braided-3-5mm-cable

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/audeze-lcd-i4-premium-cable-new.921416/

 

[mikejazz]

Has anyone tried other cables with the i3? It looks like it might not be possible because of the rectangular recess

 

[mikejazz]

yeah--it appears that the 2 pin ends need to be made specifically for the Audeze cans. I see that Moon has some.

 

[Xenderos]

I bought LCD i3 yesterday I have one topic to discuss:
I am a little bit worried about the connectors, these look quite fragile. Can I disconnect it frequently? For example for carrying it in the case or for charging?