If you start to become interested in the world of personal sound, the amount of information required to assimilate can drive you crazy. Because there are a lot of types of these same headphones. At the same time, there are headphones that can be called modern without a second thought, and there are those, looking at which you involuntarily ask the question: does time even exist?
The heroes of today's review are exactly like that. And several points are connected with this very timelessness. It all started with the company itself.
Audeze has an interesting history: the first pair of headphones was released in 2009. It was the LCD-2 model. The company developed the LCD-1, but something went wrong and they never went on sale. Ten years later, a model with the same name finally appeared. The founders do not directly say whether they are related to the LCD-1. It is likely that this is just a name to fill the gap and answer the question: if there is a second model, then where is the first?
Another point is the type of headphones itself. They are magnetic-planar. This technology was invented more than forty years ago, but never found the opportunity to become widespread. As a result, stores were filled with dynamic headphones with light inclusions of compact “fittings”. The first ones are inexpensive to produce, but at the same time they are not very reliable in terms of sound transmission - the reproduced frequencies can “lag” when playing. This often applies to the grassroots. The latter produce sound much faster, but it’s quite difficult to pump up the bass in them. Because of this, many ]come[/anchor] to a combination of “armatures” and “dynamics”.
I won’t talk about electrostatic ones at all - this is a very specific, narrow and incredibly expensive topic.
This is my take for critical music listening. Photo: Ilya Kichaev / Wylsacom Media
But let's return to the “planars”. They are considered to sound better than conventional dynamic headphones: the sound is more balanced and detailed. But there is a problem with such models: the price, justified by the cost and time spent on developing these headphones.
The technology, in fact, began to be revived more than ten years ago. And responsibility for this lies primarily with Audeze. The company is persistently promoting its headphones, making them more and more accessible. And LCD-1 is just such a model. But first things first.
Design and equipment
Everything is stylish here. Box:
Case:
The headphones themselves:
The main material is plastic. But it doesn’t feel like something cheap. And this is good, because such headphones are quite expensive.
The ear pads and headband are made of memory foam. It is covered with lamb skin. On the official website it says exactly that: “genuine lamb leather.”
The headphones are not very heavy - 250 grams. At the same time, they are relatively compact and fold easily. True, they won’t fit into your pocket, but when traveling they will definitely take up less space in your suitcase or backpack.
They also have a detachable fabric-braided wire.
“Wait, what? Are they wired? - you ask. Yes, wired. There are no Bluetooth, noise reduction, FM radio, they don’t know how to make calls, send faxes, there aren’t all these newfangled youth things. These are just headphones with a 3.5 mm jack. By the way, it detaches, clinging to each cup with exactly the same “jack”. You can connect it however you like, but the right side of the mix will always be on the right, and the left side on the left. Actually, this is one of the facts of timelessness.
The wire is nice, it somehow miraculously manages not to get tangled. But there is a small problem with it: the length. It is very large for portable headphones - two meters. Yes, I didn’t misspell: for portable ones, which I’ll talk about below.
The grille on the body of the ear cups is a signature family feature of open Audeze, with which these headphones are easily recognizable regardless of the price category.
Convenience
The headphones fit nicely, but after a while a feeling of increased pressure in the head is created - a slightly noticeable ringing appears in the ears. And then it dawned on me that I don’t really understand why these headphones are called open, because the tightness of the fit to the ears, the feeling of pressure, the materials of the ear pads are all from closed ones.
It would probably help me to replace the supplied ear pads with third-party velor ones, if there were any. My personal Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro have similar ear pads. Fortunately, these “Odizi” have them easily replaced:
There's just one problem: I couldn't find any spare pairs in other stores. Hope they go on sale soon.
In general, the headphones turned out to be very comfortable - the lambskin leather ears do not sweat, they fit easily into the ear pads, and during active and vigorous playing of instruments they do not fall off, confidently remaining on the head.
I specifically say that I play with these headphones. Because music, from the point of view of its creators, is very demanding on sound. And, unfortunately, no modern wireless technologies can help here. First of all, I'm talking about delays: you pluck the string, and the sound is delayed. At the initial level of a musician, minimal delays are still tolerable, but for professionals this is crazy.
Secondly, sound quality and detail are important - you need to hear every movement of your fingers on the strings in order to improve your playing and find new, more accurate ways to produce sound.
Device
LCD-1, despite its compactness, received large planar emitters with a diagonal of 90 mm. When creating them, the company's own developments were used, such as a diaphragm called Uniforce. Very thin aluminum lines are applied to it. On both sides of the diaphragm there is a Fluxor magnetic system.
The illustration concerns the design of another Audeze headphone model, but it follows the structure of the LCD-1. Source: Audeze
Also, the design of the headphones uses Fazor stator grids, which are necessary for the controlled magnetic field created by Fluxor. As a result, depending on the incoming current, this entire system attracts or has no effect on the metal lines applied to the diaphragm, which causes it to vibrate. And this already leads to the fact that the headphones sound.
All this clever design is necessary for detail, maximum reduction of unnecessary harmonics, as well as a relatively flat frequency response.
Passing by again?
How long will this last?! Gamers first received the chic active Mobius, and then the quite high-end passive LCD-GX. Now recording professionals have been blessed with the LCD-1. And note - the model is not even with the index X, but a numbered one, from the list that originally belongs to the Hi-Fi category!
It seems like Audeze is deliberately teasing audiophiles without specifically doing anything for them. And the conciliatory note about the fact that the LCD-1 headphones are also suitable for audiophiles is just a so-so excuse.
Well, lovers of high-quality sound are no strangers to trying professional and any other third-party solutions into their systems. The main thing is that the sound becomes better and the music makes you more happy. Let’s write down our grievances against the manufacturer in a book and leave them for later, but for now let’s figure out what the new LCD-1s are and why they were developed for studio work.
Sound
It’s not for nothing that I called the LCD-1 portable headphones. The fact is that such a label can be hung on them because of the low impedance, which according to the passport is 16 Ohms with a sensitivity of 99 dB/1 mW. That is, such headphones will rock your smartphone without any problems, regardless of its model.
Here are other technical information:
| Maximum power input | 5 W RMS |
| Sound pressure level | >120 dB |
| Range | 10 Hz – 50 kHz |
| Harmonic distortion factor | <0.1% @ 100 dB |
I listened to the headphones by simply plugging them into the computer, then connected them to my iPhone through the Schiit amplifier, and after that I turned to my Motu M2 sound card.
These headphones will not be suitable for bass lovers. It is not even in a modern way, so some may find it insufficient. Because of this, the idea about “planars” was that they were weak at the low end. I don’t think so, and over the days with the Audeze LCD-1 I came to the conclusion that more bass is not needed - it is transmitted very accurately.
The sound on the computer and amplifier did not suit me very well. But with an iPhone and a sound card - top. The computer had a clear lack of low end, the amplifier added unnecessary harmonics and mixed the sound into something mushy if there were too many instruments playing at the same time, or, conversely, there was too much free space like some fast jazz.
With my Motu M2, the headphones sound neutral, with enough bass, and with the iPhone they sound just great, and without using any equalizers. I listened to different sources: mp3, streaming services, FLAC, and also tested it on my own mixes.
The groove that appeared with the iPhone is primarily associated with more bass. Moreover, all equalizers are disabled. An interesting case, however. But this fact played into Therr Maitz's hands, because they sounded very cool:
Remembering my year in 1993, I decided to listen to TOOL on the map.
Bottom struck with its modernity, as if it had no shortage of songs from the early nineties, the mix of which was rather empty. There was volume and also very cool bass.
The Moments in Between showed the main disadvantage of these headphones - insufficient stage.
The song The Reign of Kindo is mixed with a fairly wide panorama, but the headphones avoid this fact.
And my constant test piece also exposed this flaw, which is why playing on the harp, which should reek of magic, does not.
But the headphones sound great on things like this:
The stage here is initially not very wide, but at the same time there is a very lively bass, which is either delayed or hits along with the kick drum. Top.
With headphones you can hear many features of the mixes. For example, with Mixer this is modulation applied to the bass, which makes it sound wider than usual. Somewhere you will hear the movement of fingers along the strings. Often songs are built on such great nuances that only a select few can hear them. And, I dare say, it is very pleasant to belong to this circle.
Measurements
The overall picture based on the measurement results has the main features by which the headphones can be identified as Audeze products, but there are nuances that do not allow this model to be put on a par with the rest of the LCD family.
The main advantage of Audeze planars is their virtually linear horizontal frequency response at up to 1 kHz. In LCD-1 this feature is fully present. Moreover, the characteristic first dip around 2 kHz is minimal, and it is only at 10 kHz that the first and only significant attenuation occurs.
Older models cannot boast of such effective behavior in the upper middle area. The weakened sound of the bass is due to the slope of the frequency response, which gradually increases to 600 Hz and the not very stable behavior of the emitter to the level of 60–70 Hz.
The distortion graph shows the main problem areas of the headphones: the bass region and the treble. In both cases, there is a pronounced tendency for distortion to go beyond the general level, balancing around the 1% mark. The level of distortion in general turned out to be noticeably higher than stated. Perhaps this is due to the headphones belonging to the first production batch.
Bottom line
These headphones fascinated me. I've been listening to them and my personal Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro for several days now, not understanding which one I like better. And I wanted to keep both pairs - the LCD-1s are too cool.
It just so happens that these are the cheapest full-size Audeze headphones. LCD-1 in Russia is officially sold for 39 thousand rubles. And at the very least, this suggests that these headphones are far from entry-level.
They will appeal to people who are sensitive to music, who, for example, want to hear the clicking of Matthew Bellamy's teeth in the album Black Holes and Revelations by Muse, or the subtle movements of his fingers along the strings. They will appeal to those listeners who want to understand how each of the played notes of the same pitch differs. They will be appreciated by musicians for their precise sound reproduction depending on their articulation.
These Audezes are definitely not suitable for lovers of that bass that covers all other frequencies. Well, simply because there is no such excessive bass here. Fans of the wide stage will not appreciate these headphones either - they sound rather narrow.
At the same time, LCD-1 is not very pretentious about the sound source - its low impedance allows you to listen to music on your smartphone while taking headphones with you. And it turns out that these Audezes are suitable for music lovers who want to listen to music on the road without disturbing others. True, they, like me, will be discouraged by the excessive cable length, which somehow wants to be reduced from two meters to an acceptable 1.2.
PS From Sergei Kuzmin as an Audeze fan.
I first became closely acquainted with Audeze three years ago - there is a review of Audeze iSine 10 on the website.
At that moment, it seemed as if the headphones had been brought to Earth by space aliens: they were incredibly designed, looked incredible, and sounded great. It's just strange to carry them around every day. Those who have tried “aisigns” will understand me perfectly - it’s like you’re wearing some kind of healthy clips on your ears. On the street this really attracts attention, and not everyone is okay with it. Sitting and listening at home or at work is great, there are no questions about it. In general, I returned the iSine 10 to my colleagues from SoundProLab.ru and wasn’t too worried about it - yes, they are cool headphones, yes, the creation story is like the plot of a science fiction novel, but it’s quite possible to live without them, they are too incredible.
The second number was the Audeze Mobius headset:
Main advantages
Why are the new LCD-1s so good that they leave most of their competitors behind? The answer to this question is completely banal: firstly, these are planar headphones, and secondly, these are Audeze headphones, which have that well-recognized signature sound, albeit in a slightly miniaturized format.
They combine smooth tonal balance, high detail and excellent dynamic characteristics. Moreover, the LCD-1 has no problems with dynamics, even if you listen to music from a smartphone. In this regard, they are superior to absolutely all models of the LCD series, including even special low-impedance versions.
The slightly weakened bass compared to large LCDs is compensated by confident performance in the mid-frequency range. The smooth mid/bass range provides excellent intelligibility, clarity and precision required for studio work, and also makes the headphones genre-neutral.
These headphones reproduce fast metal and rhythmically complex free jazz no less expressively and accurately than classics and jazz standards. It is also worth noting the exceptionally comfortable sound, which allows you to spend a lot of time listening to completely different musical material.
In their price range, LCD-1s demonstrate excellent detail. More information can be squeezed out of records only with a significantly larger budget. Although for current work with sound - not only at field sessions or rehearsal facilities, but also in a home studio - these headphones may well become the main and only solution. And for the rest, as you know, there are LCD-X and studio monitors.
