[John Aiello]

I just bought a new Audeze LCD-3 and was surprised by the cables it came with. According to Audeze the flat cable has been changed to a twisted pair cable (see picture). Anyone else purchase a new LCD headphone recently and have seen this? Anyone compare the two? Audeze says the new cables are of a higher quality however they feel cheaper to me. Just looking to see if anyone else has seen this? Thanks.

 

[LestatMK]

The pic please???

 

[John Aiello]

 

[John Aiello]

Sorry about that. I keep thinking I am posting it but it did not seem to appear. Now it's there twice (I think).

 

[IlluminatiTri]

I will say that it does look cheap, but I assume Audeze has a better method for shielding on the twisted cable than the flat one. There's not much you can do to test that without some oscilloscopes and stuff, though, so I'd just take Audeze's word for it. Plus, unless you're having issues with noise, it's probably not going to make a huge difference. Also, if you're really concerned about cable quality, Charleston Cable Company makes some reasonably priced, really high quality replacement cables for the LCD series, so you can check them out.

 

[John Aiello]

Thanks. I am hoping to hear from someone that has purchased the LCD series lately as to what they received int he box. This they get this cable or the flat?

 

[Bad Username]

Got mine today. Brand new. Has the braided cable you posted.

Looks like they changed their cables. I personally like the new cables the braided designs tend to be more durable and less stiff.

 

[John Aiello]

Thanks for the confirmation. Did you only get the one cable? Audeze says that they no longer ship both the XLR and the single ended cable anymore. They told me no one cares about the XLR. Hard to believe. I prefer balanced.

 

[Bad Username]

Yea... I thought it was a packaging error!
Booo that's horrible I use only balanced on all my gear and was expecting a balanced cable. I also find it hard to believe no one cares for xlr.

 

[John Aiello]

Well at least it's confirmed. I guess I just never believe what I am told until I confirm it. Trust but verify?

 

[gto88]

I also email Audeze about the cable.
The answer was, their research showed only 10% users use xlr, so
They decided to eliminated it, and provide a better cable single ended instead.

 

[John Aiello]

10%? I bet on this forum the number is significantly higher. Plus the single ended cable feels cheaper to me. I guess time will tell. Maybe someone will do a comparison between the twisted and flat cables. The new stock cable makes me want to buy an after market upgrade cable. Axios?

 

[Bad Username]

They should have provided a 4 pin XLR cable. And just given us an XLR to SE adapter. Atleast then it would be compatible with all. But yes, time for an upgrade cable ! The axios looks nice, too bad they dont ship internationally.

 

[gto88]

It looks gorgeous but the price is too steep. (To me)

 

[Audeze]

The new cable is much higher quality than the older one. OCC Copper. Initially we introduced a similar braided cable with the LCD4. This is a variation of the same cable. We changed the cable based on user feedback and we tested with users for months before introducing it. The requests for balanced cables has been quite small and there are a lot of aftermarket cables at various price points. If many people request it, it is not very difficult to reintroduce it as an option.