[just-a-test]

The warranty period is very short and $800 to replace one driver is pretty ridiculous, however I'm not sure what you were expecting.
 

  All LCD-3 and LCD-2 headphones purchased from Audeze directly or through any of our dealers will retroactively have a 3-year warranty from the date of purchase.  Normal wear and tear of the product are not covered. All other natural materials and parts including accessories are covered under a 1-year warranty.
This warranty covers all manufacturing defects in material or workmanship for a period of 3 years from the date of original purchase. Audeze will (1) replace or repair the product at no charge or (2) exchange the product with a product that is new.
Audeze reserves the right to determine if the warranty is valid or void due to the abuse or neglect of the product or modifications.

Interesting side note, I couldn't find this information anywhere on their website.

 

[VoodooSamurai]

Exact same thing happened to me, was overseas on a trip for six months, came back to a dead driver, Audeze wants $800 to fix their faulty product, and the customer service was rude on top of it. I registered here to see if anyone else had the same problem so I'm glad to see others are standing up to these practices. 

 

[TokenGesture]

I bought my LCD X second hand and discovered a phase issue with the drivers (bad). Audeze honoured the warranty and replaced the drivers (good) but I was out of pocket for shipping to them.  But they refused to warrant the new drivers for 3 years when I asked them to (bad) which leaves me with the original soon to expire warranty period.
 
I think if you are selling a premium product you should warrant for at least 5 years.

 

[analog'd]

  I bought my LCD X second hand and discovered a phase issue with the drivers (bad). Audeze honoured the warranty and replaced the drivers (good) but I was out of pocket for shipping to them.  But they refused to warrant the new drivers for 3 years when I asked them to (bad) which leaves me with the original soon to expire warranty period.
 
I think if you are selling a premium product you should warrant for at least 5 years.

so things are worse than I had thought. they install new drivers but don't stand behind them even for the three years.
Dismal.

 

[analog'd]

  The warranty period is very short and $800 to replace one driver is pretty ridiculous, however I'm not sure what you were expecting.
 

  All LCD-3 and LCD-2 headphones purchased from Audeze directly or through any of our dealers will retroactively have a 3-year warranty from the date of purchase.  Normal wear and tear of the product are not covered. All other natural materials and parts including accessories are covered under a 1-year warranty.
This warranty covers all manufacturing defects in material or workmanship for a period of 3 years from the date of original purchase. Audeze will (1) replace or repair the product at no charge or (2) exchange the product with a product that is new.
Audeze reserves the right to determine if the warranty is valid or void due to the abuse or neglect of the product or modifications.

Interesting side note, I couldn't find this information anywhere on their website.

I expected Audeze to man up to the fact that they sold people drivers with a built in failure rate incredibly high, and stand behind their product and their company's reputation by not adhering to a warrantee that was intended to cover normal failures occurring at normal rates. The driver failures go WAY beyond the norm expected by consumers.

It is much like an auto company with a defect issue past warrantee: when it is proven that it's happening at a very high rate a recall is issued and the parts are corrected, because it is outside the realm of normal wear, tear, or warrantee application.

I can't imagine that if brought to court a judge would think otherwise. You cannot get away with this kind of crap in this country unless people are willing to lay down and take it. Should my drivers fail I WILL see them in court at any cost. I'd rather spend $1800 fighting this bull than hand them another $800.

   

Also very sorry to hear they are no longer being consistently pleasant to deal with.

 

 

[TheDreamthinker]

Not an owner of any Audeze product, but have been interested in a used LCD 2.2 or LCD X.
This just killed the mood...
 
To be honest, this is quite suprising to hear that from such a 'reputable' company.

 

[OnlyBadMusic]

So glad I went with HifiMan instead (HE-560 instead of EL-8 or LCD-2). Dr. Fang seems to really care about his customers.
 
Audeze will have to change the way they do things if they ever want my business in the future.

 

[groovyd]

I always assumed a ultra thin light flexible driver that has the conductive traces actually printed in it would eventually crack the traces and go bad.  What I didn't expect was it to happen after 3 years and for them to profit on the replacement of them.  I would be ok with them simply repairing them at cost, maybe $100? No idea here what cost is but yeah I agree you pay $2k for a pair of headphones they should stand behind them for life or at least not grossly profit off the repair.  If I had to pay $200 every 3 years including shipping that might be ok but certainly nothing more.

 

[TheDreamthinker]

  So glad I went with HifiMan instead (HE-560 instead of EL-8 or LCD-2). Dr. Fang seems to really care about his customers.
 
Audeze will have to change the way they do things if they ever want my business in the future.

 
Well I won't be buying from HiFiman in the future, as my RE-262 at the time, broke 3x in not even 2 years of normal use.
Everytime I would write, there would be a different person replying, who didn't know what was going on. The discussion lasted more than 6 month in total.
Had to fly to ShangHai to get them replaced and even then it took 3 weeks....+ I had to call them in chinese to remind them (they seem to have forgotten) and to get my earphone back.
 
Sorry Hifiman...no 4th chance.
But Hifiman is a 'small' PRC company, so this is to be expected (- NOT racist, but personal experience and insight into the industry and mindset).
 
This makes me curious to why such a reputable US company can commit similar crimes. The business climat is different in the US.

 

[Mr Rick]

All this bad press certainly isn't doing their rep any good. I won't be buying anything from Audeze anytime soon.

 

[Mr.Sneis]

Am I missing something?  Lots of satisfied Audeze owners out there...
 
That said OP's situation sounds crappy indeed.  Back in the day Audeze warranty seemed much more lenient and interactions with customer service were great.  Maybe they got too big?
 
I hope the least they can do is lower the replacement parts cost...
 
Sennheiser warranty is only 2 years but replacements parts cost AFAIK are at least somewhat reasonable.
 
Grado warranty is only 1 year but the past experiences I've had with out of warranty repair are also reasonable in cost.

 

[joeq70]

Very interesting. $800 for a new driver is oppressive even if the old one had been a decade old, let alone a few years.

 

[Radio_head]

As I remember it there were a lot of DOA LCD-3's upon release, possibly due to driver tensioning issues. Part of Audeze's response was extending warranty from 12 months to 36 months, to show how they stood behind the products and allay any concerns of being stuck with $2000 paperweights.  Very fair (as has generally been their policy about replacing drivers on warranty'd second hand units.)
 
However, charging $800 after that point seems quite excessive.  If they stick by this policy the used market will shrivel up overnight on older LCD-2's/3's (possibly part of their thought process?) and I could see a lot of potential new buyers at the very least not buying any models that have been described as having driver issues.  

 

[amham]

Given that the market is small for these expensive HP and this forum must represent a large percentage of their customer base, you would think that Audeze is listening.  I have purchased 3 models, two of which I have sold due to their too dark SQ.  Hey Audeze are you out there and listening?  I will remember this in the future!.

 

[analog'd]

"Am I missing something?  Lots of satisfied Audeze owners out there..."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm a satisfied Audeze owner too, until now.   And I certainly still love my LCD-3s.  


What you're missing is something that was stated briefly. There are many, many satisfied owners who are so only because Audeze was standing behind these fk'd up drivers. Now they have declared that these imperfections are to be held up to the stated warranty times. I, and I'm sure many others, couldn't imagine that they would do so over defects that everyone knows exist and which continue to impact buyers regardless of the number of months past purchase at which they raise their ugly heads. I am sure I am not the only one who now lives in fear of the drivers failing on their Audeze product. Many people scramble to put together that kind of money, and $800 is beyond an easily absorbed sum for a lot of us. But again, that's besides the point to a large degree. Reread my posts above.