Audeze Makes $2,495 Earbuds Only an Audiophile Could Love

Megalith

Megalith

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It wasn’t too long ago that Audeze unveiled the world’s first in-ear headphones utilizing planar magnetic technology (sound produced using a thin diaphragm and magnets rather than cone drivers), but the higher quality and much more expensive follow up is already here. $2,500 seems like an outrageous price for earbuds, but the LCDi4s do share technology with the company’s flagship product: the $4000 LCD-4 headphones. I’ve found that headphones offer better soundstage, so if I wanted to spend that kind of money, I’d opt for the LCD-3s instead.

Audeze says the LCDi4s feature overall distortion (THD) that's less than 0.2 percent, even when you have music cranked all the way up. What's more, each separate unit is matched within +/- 1dB of each other and there's bass response that ranges flat from 900Hz down to 10Hz, helping make that overall soundstage as wide as possible. And yes, you should probably pair these with a capable headphone amp to maximize their potential. If you're already checking your savings account to see if you can afford a pair of the LCDi4s, they're available for pre-order now. However, Audeze says they won't ship until mid-June.
 
Here's a question, if artists aren't using these in a studio or on stage, why are they worth it? Because they're not. Sound engineers know what will accurately produce sound, I'd rather take their advice than have a "warm" sound.
 
I have the Audeze LCD-XC because I love EDM, and hip hop bass music. They sound incredible and even better when paired with a decent DAC/AMP.

This however, is a bit extravagant. More so because they're earbuds. Audiophiles will spend however much they want to eek out the best possible quality audio. Kind of like going the speed of light. You can go 99% of light speed, but to get that extra 1% you'd need to spend an enormous amount of energy.
 
I find it funny to see what audiophiles are willing to spend on stuff like this. Of course the best upgrade anyone can make is your speaker/headphone. With these you are paying for the planar driver. I like Planars but this is obscene, I'd rather spend some money on Be-CD with an AE TD driver and run it in stereo actively and probably be at the same price.
 
Trimlock said:
I find it funny to see what audiophiles are willing to spend on stuff like this. Of course the best upgrade anyone can make is your speaker/headphone. With these you are paying for the planar driver. I like Planars but this is obscene, I'd rather spend some money on Be-CD with an AE TD driver and run it in stereo actively and probably be at the same price.
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I have the Jerry Harvey Audio Layla II, which is $3,000 MSRP (I would not have paid MSRP for those, though, got these at a pretty nice discount from JHA).

Here's the thing. If you travel, and can't always pack a set of speakers or even a set of good cans (which may also need extra mass in the form of a nice portable amp), then the best solution you have are a pair of ultra-high-end in-ears. I use those with an AK300 or the Dacamp L1 hooked up to my laptop, and IMO that's about as high-quality as pocketable audio gets.

One thing I do agree is that past a certain price point, you're mostly paying for the signature and not raw performance. That said, I can say that the Layla II's are easily better than my Westone ES5's, which are older but still among the best IEM designs out there.
 
yyv_146 said:
I have the Jerry Harvey Audio Layla II, which is $3,000 MSRP (I would not have paid MSRP for those, though, got these at a pretty nice discount from JHA).

Here's the thing. If you travel, and can't always pack a set of speakers or even a set of good cans (which may also need extra mass in the form of a nice portable amp), then the best solution you have are a pair of ultra-high-end in-ears. I use those with an AK300 or the Dacamp L1 hooked up to my laptop, and IMO that's about as high-quality as pocketable audio gets.

One thing I do agree is that past a certain price point, you're mostly paying for the signature and not raw performance. That said, I can say that the Layla II's are easily better than my Westone ES5's, which are older but still among the best IEM designs out there.
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I agree with this. Ear buds are easier to travel with but I'd have a hard time justifying this price for the performance. I travel with a modest priced pair of cans that I don't think I'd give up.
 
Trimlock said:
I agree with this. Ear buds are easier to travel with but I'd have a hard time justifying this price for the performance. I travel with a modest priced pair of cans that I don't think I'd give up.
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IMO it depends on how much time you spend away from your main audio rig. I don't pay much for speakers because I only get to use them for something like two weeks each month. My speakers are cheap-ish audioengine's. $3,000 speaker setups are massively better than anything in-ear, but performance you can't access frequently = bad price/performance ratio...at least that's how my logic works.

For me, I also like the harder-edged multi-armature driver sound (almost every other person seems to disagree with me on this, though :D). These will probably sound more "organic" and perhaps not unsimilar to the KSE1500's, which means they'll hit closer to your average high-end cans.
 
So, for the audiophiles - what portable media player do you use? I see a lot of lossless players, but how good are they? I know they can play lossless media, but I can do that with a shitty soundcard on my PC. I want a decent FLAC player and a nice set of headphones. Portable, of course.

Not $2500! And definitely not ear buds!
 
Ur_Mom said:
So, for the audiophiles - what portable media player do you use? I see a lot of lossless players, but how good are they? I know they can play lossless media, but I can do that with a shitty soundcard on my PC. I want a decent FLAC player and a nice set of headphones. Portable, of course.

Not $2500! And definitely not ear buds!
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Like a portable player? Top ones sound quality wise right now are going to be a Questyle qp1r (or just announced qp2r), or one of Astell & Kern's offerings. The Android based Acoustic Research or the Onkyo/Pioneer units are nice as well and more affordable.

They do sound better than my V20 LG phone but.... I'd rather just carry my phone so that's what I use.
 
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Ur_Mom said:
So, for the audiophiles - what portable media player do you use? I see a lot of lossless players, but how good are they? I know they can play lossless media, but I can do that with a shitty soundcard on my PC. I want a decent FLAC player and a nice set of headphones. Portable, of course.

Not $2500! And definitely not ear buds!
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The DAC doesn't usually factor into the equation these days. The D/A converter in an iPhone is more than good enough for the highest quality sources. But the amp does matter, especially if you're driving power-hungry cans. For in-ears I would say the AK300 and ZX2 are both great choices (and the ZX2 will run Spotify). The DP-X1 is a poor man's AK320 - the fit and finish isn't amazing, but you won't miss out on sound quality. I've never had a player break on me so it's probably fine buying used. An interesting alternative choice is an iPod (whichever version you prefer) with a cheap-ish portable amp/dac combo (again, the dac doesn't matter, but if you have a desktop it saves money on a soundcard). I have a lot of respect for the no-nonsense design choices of JDS labs in this regard - their C5 series has a lot of output for the dollar.

Good headphones is largely a matter of taste. On the extreme you have Audio Technica's ESW line which absolutely shines when listening to Japanese Opera and doesn't work well for much else. Some generally good choices:

- Beyerdynamics T51. Nice all rounder, very portable. I don't like on-ears since they aren't as comfortable, though.
- Fostex Th-00. Need to buy through Massdrop. Very good, neutral sound for the price. Beautiful wood. I have a pair in eBony and the fit and finish is amazing. Not the most portable, though.
- Grado PS500. Excellent bass, rock solid build quality, fairly portable. Zero noise isolation, though, so not for flights or train rides.
- Audeze Sine. Probably the best price/performance in this list. Excellent, spacious sound and a taste of planar magnetic implementations that is usually only found in much, much more expensive options. Can't see any major downsides, but I personally prefer a different sound signature.

Finally, I think you should try a few high-end in-ear options before writing things off. A truly high-end solution (KSE1500) will sound more refined than most mid-high-end headphones while also being more portable. I'd even say it's a draw between most $500-800 in-ears versus most $250-500 headphones, depending on what sound signatures you care about. There's a price to portability, but IEM can and do reach very high levels of performance, and you can drive them pretty well with most phones.
 
Kranium said:
Like a portable player? Top ones sound quality wise right now are going to be a Questyle qp1r (or just announced qp2r), or one of Astell & Kern's offerings. The Android based Acoustic Research or the Only/Pioneer units are nice as well and more affordable.

They do sound better than my V20 LG phone but.... I'd rather just carry my phone so that's what I use.
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I really can't get back onboard with the clickwheel despite many years of using iPods. The touchscreen is simply a much better way to operate a portable device.

Having personally demo'd all of the AK 300 series, I've concluded that the 380 and 320 are a waste of money and the Ak300 with the AK amp is heads and shoulders better than the 380 without the amp while only costing half as much. The new KANN looks interesting, though.

Agree on Pioneer and Acoustic Research. Beware that only some of those options run actual Android (and hence are compatible with things like Watch control or Spotify) and others use a custom layer that prevents loading apps.
 
yyv_146 said:
IMO it depends on how much time you spend away from your main audio rig. I don't pay much for speakers because I only get to use them for something like two weeks each month. My speakers are cheap-ish audioengine's. $3,000 speaker setups are massively better than anything in-ear, but performance you can't access frequently = bad price/performance ratio...at least that's how my logic works.

For me, I also like the harder-edged multi-armature driver sound (almost every other person seems to disagree with me on this, though :D). These will probably sound more "organic" and perhaps not unsimilar to the KSE1500's, which means they'll hit closer to your average high-end cans.
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Personally even then I'd probably stick to my dream stereo set up. Nothing beats a treated room with some imposing towers. But I can't say your way of thinking is bad either. I haven't tried these planar headphones, but one of their biggest draw backs is freq range, especially the lower stuff. I've never been a huge critique on stuff that's over 10k but the lower stuff is what I look for, especially some imposing midbass with music.
 
Trimlock said:
Personally even then I'd probably stick to my dream stereo set up. Nothing beats a treated room with some imposing towers. But I can't say your way of thinking is bad either. I haven't tried these planar headphones, but one of their biggest draw backs is freq range, especially the lower stuff. I've never been a huge critique on stuff that's over 10k but the lower stuff is what I look for, especially some imposing midbass with music.
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Definitely to each his own. The further you move down the price chain the more planar magnetic drivers seem to trade resolution (and frequency range) for soundstage. But something's always going to be compromised. Electrostats will give you frequency range in spades along with other goodies, but they require specialized equipment to drive. If money were no object and I didn't travel as much, I see my dream desktop setup as the Stax 009 fed from a Ray Samuels A10 amp.

The Mrspeakers Ether C flow would probably suit your tastes very well, though - IMO they have an airy feel that punches way above their price point and are a little better than even the LCD4, all things considered.
 
yyv_146 said:
Definitely to each his own. The further you move down the price chain the more planar magnetic drivers seem to trade resolution (and frequency range) for soundstage. But something's always going to be compromised. Electrostats will give you frequency range in spades along with other goodies, but they require specialized equipment to drive. If money were no object and I didn't travel as much, I see my dream desktop setup as the Stax 009 fed from a Ray Samuels A10 amp.

The Mrspeakers Ether C flow would probably suit your tastes very well, though - IMO they have an airy feel that punches way above their price point and are a little better than even the LCD4, all things considered.
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I'll give them an honest try when I'm ready to move up.
 
It's quite funny that they speak of the bass range and the sound stage in one sentence because those are completely exclusive. The bass range is not locationally detectable by ear under 100hz and the critical range for sound stage is between 400 and 7000hz.
 
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