[rthomas]

@AudezeGrover

Hey man, good luck with your new venture with Audeze.

For the love of all that is holy please make them update the wonderful but flawed LCD4. It's been nearly 6 years since launch and I think nearly everyone in the community agrees that the tuning (particularly the upper mids) could use an update.

Also there must be a way to lighten the 735 gram weight without compromising the power of the magnets and introducing resonances/distortions.

I'm a former owner of the LCD4 and I absolutely loved the headphone after EQ but it was so heavy I was concerned about long term neck injury if I used it for many years.....

Your build quality and transferable warranty/ customer support are solid. ''Made in the USA'' is another advantage. If you can update the tuning across the line and update the headphone frames to be lighter you can really dominate the market and win back market share from the likes of Focal and Hifiman both of which have serious lapses in build quality and after sales support.

I'm absolutely ready to hand over another $4K but you need to update the Flagship.

C'mon guys! All the best

 

[listenerwww]

Just wanted to post this for anyone interested.

First is my former EQ for the LCD-X (w/ stock memory foam pads), not showing bass EQ, as I did that in another EQ instance (required too many bands).

Second is my current EQ (done blind, did NOT look at Resolve's measurements.) Regardless, relative to his FR graph, there are differences worth noting: I noticed my 1kHz area being more recessed than Resolve's. Turns out 9.5k started to bug me quite a bit more with music than the sine sweeps initially suggested. Other than that, it's remarkably similar! Super pleased, especially because I previously had to run THREE instances of ProQ3 to get it sounding good (it maxes out at 24 bands); one for channel matching, one for my overly-thought-super-anal bass shelf (which can be seen in the below graph) and one for mids and highs. Being able to bring it all into one instance felt reeeeeally good

 

[iviustang50h]

Overall Conclusions (and one last test)

Okay. I’m gonna be honest... I have no clue why they ever used memory foam pads in the first place. Yes, comfort has gone from maybe a 9 to an 8 for me, but goddamn the sound is *unquestionably* better. I wish I hadn’t seen Resolve’s graph so I had less of a chance of cognitive bias creeping in, but still: I trust my ears (especially on these recordings, which I’ve been listening to since I was literally pre-pubescent).

Which leads me to another somewhat unscientific test:

Sine sweeps!

I did a few tests and the cavernous drop that was once there is massively reduced/evened. Ear gain seems to follow up to about 2800Hz and mellow a little until picking back up for a reeeally even sweep between 4.8kHz and 7kHz, dropping narrowly a fair bit at 7.5kHz, and picking right back up at 8kHz and keeping even until the only real "peak" in amplitude (relative to the rest of the range) around 11kHz, but again evenly extending until around 14kHz where it drops off past where I can hear.
Usual disclaimers, different ears different sound/sensitivities yadda yadda. But... s**t y’all. I’m shocked. Impressed doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Final Thoughts

My overall impression is nevertheless very close to what Resolve’s graph tells me: they lifted amplitude at ear gain, fixed the massive 4kHz drop, and brought the peaks in the lower/mid treble down. It’s literally exactly what I wanted. It actually reminds me of a smoother, planar Focal Elear as far as tuning, but the technicalities are obviously way better (and just so you know, completely unchanged, to my ear).

Also, as a bonus/aside, the process of changing the pads fixed the massive channel imbalance issue I’ve been having literally since I got these. I don’t know if it’s the pads themselves, or me removing the 2 hairs I found on the Fazors, but regardless I’m SO pleased.

TL;DR (anotha one)

If you are one of the many unhappy with the tuning on your Audeze LCD series headphone, I highly suggest swapping pads for the new iteration. Comfort takes a hit, but it’s worth it. Never thought i’d see the day when I advocated for listening to LCD-X without EQ... but here we are.

Thanks so much to all who have read and liked, feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer as best as I can. <3

I’m really happy for you - that’s great news!

 

[listenerwww]

I’m really happy for you - that’s great news!

Thanks so much! If anything I'm just happy people who've been living with subpar sounding LCD-Xs for years now have a DIY option for only $80 to massively improve their headphones stock frequency response (instead of paying $380-580 and waiting who knows how long for a full retrofitting from Audeze).

 

[FYFL]

Thanks so much! If anything I'm just happy people who've been living with subpar sounding LCD-Xs for years now have a DIY option for only $80 to massively improve their headphones stock frequency response (instead of paying $380-580 and waiting who knows how long for a full retrofitting from Audeze).

Yup. And once again..... Pads you used are the “stock” leather pads sold on Audeze site right?

I might be just my speculating but, besides getting more appropriate tuning this year, Audeze is focusing on bringing weight down. If that is so, new flagship could make it to my wish list.

 

[listenerwww]

Yup. And once again..... Pads you used are the “stock” leather pads sold on Audeze site right?

I might be just my speculating but, besides getting more appropriate tuning this year, Audeze is focusing on bringing weight down. If that is so, new flagship could make it to my wish list.

I believe so, but this is one bit I'm not 100% sure about, because I actually got them for free from a rep.

That being said, I don't know why they'd ever be manufacturing two different variations of their already twofold pad-types (totaling 4 types), especially when one sounds *significantly* worse.

I'd email support@audeze.com for a definite answer, though.

 

[FYFL]

I believe so, but this is one bit I'm not 100% sure about, because I actually got them for free from a rep.

That being said, I don't know why they'd ever be manufacturing two different variations of their already twofold pad-types (totaling 4 types), especially when one sounds *significantly* worse.

I'd email support@audeze.com for a definite answer, though.

That’s the only part that needs a bit more clarification. As they might be still selling old stock LCDX pads. However, last time I needed some pads for one of my projects, leather pads were out of stock. So I’m not sure what’s going on in that regard?

 

[listenerwww]

That’s the only part that needs a bit more clarification. As they might be still selling old stock LCDX pads. However, last time I needed some pads for one of my projects, leather pads were out of stock. So I’m not sure what’s going on in that regard?

Interesting, especially because if they did have old stock, I assume that's what I'd have been sent because A) I have an older revision of the headphone and B) I got it for free, so they'd probably prioritize getting rid of old stock instead of shipping out a new pair free, right?

 

[FYFL]

Interesting, especially because if they did have old stock, I assume that's what I'd have been sent because A) I have an older revision of the headphone and B) I got it for free, so they'd probably prioritize getting rid of old stock instead of shipping out a new pair free, right?

Like I’ve said. I don’t know what’s going on with their pads issues. All I know is, when I’ve tried to get some leather pads several weeks back, they didn’t have any in stock. You probably got new, tuned for success pads. Lol
I ordered leather free pads but I am not sure if those make any difference? Bought it for DIY project so they never touched my LCDX frame.

 

[angelus55]

is it true these weigh a bit less now? what was the old weight vs new weight?

is the weight more around the same as the lcd-2 now?

 

[mikecheck95]

They implemented the grill change on all models in early 2020

I ordered my creator package LCD-X with leather pads from Adorama the first week of February. My serial indicates I have the 2021 revised version but it came in the cardboard box (my understanding is the new economy case only started shipping a few weeks ago)

I have no comparison to the previous version but I must say.......I REALLY enjoy the way they sound and don’t hear any of the flaws I’ve heard others express in the past about their FR. I originally had the LCD-2 Classics for a month as they seemingly fit the bill for my needs. I’m treble sensitive and a lot of the music I enjoy (specifically Metal) tends to be poorly recorded with hot treble that gets fatiguing very quickly for me. As much as I enjoyed them I simply found them too dark in the top end and missed a lot of the recorded details because of that. Apprehensively I decided to send them back and spend more than I ever thought I would on headphones ($1900 after tax for us Canucks) and got the X. Why was I apprehensive? Because of concerns I’d seen others raise about their FR shortcomings.....areas that are red flags for me. I assumed I wouldn‘t enjoy how the mids/top end was implemented. But I figured what the heck......if I don’t like them, back they go. In short......2hrs into my first listening session I knew they were keepers for me and my preferences. I listen to them for hours on end, often at elevated levels and never find them fatiguing except on truly bad recordings which is no fault of the X themselves. I simply find them very enjoyable to listen to and early on I often wondered why so many others had the issues that I wasn’t hearing at all. Now I guess we know why with this revision news.

Speaking of the pads. Again.....I don’t have ”in my hands experience” from the previous version but I can compare them to the 2020 LCD-2 Classics I mentioned earlier that I had for a month before I returned them and stepped up to the X

Compared to the non leather, memory foam pads those are fitted with, the revised pads on my LCD-X are not memory foam which surprised me at first when I took them out of the box because my understanding was thats what Audeze used. They’re also slightly shallower in comparison (and seemingly shallower than photos of older LCD-X I’ve seen). Still super comfortable, no issue with the fazor touching my ears (YMMV) and I don’t get that initial vacuum seal I used to get with the LCD-2 Classics when I’d put them on. In short I have no comfort complaints whatsoever and couldn’t be happier with them.

Wondering if you’d be willing to check the weight of your LCD-X

 

[Andii]

My new LCD-X is 608 grams.

 

[metal571]

Wow that's really light. I've weighed a 2020 pre revision unit before at nearly 700g. Big difference here

 

[mikecheck95]

Wow that's really light. I've weighed a 2020 pre revision unit before at nearly 700g. Big difference here

Looks like I’m exchanging my LCD-2! Aha

for reference the LCD-2 I had weighed 599 on my scale.

 

[The Hawk]

Wondering if you’d be willing to check the weight of your LCD-X

612g