Audeze LCD-5 Impressions

No more speculation



I feel I shouldn't really say much because I'm modding Audeze headphones. But I will say a few positive things.

Best stock Audeze I've heard as far as clarity and resolution
No midrange recession
More open sounding than previous Audeze's

Smaller than other Audeze headphones as far as cup size. I'm guessing these are 105mm (edit: they are 100mm) vs 113mm of the older LCD’s
No more thick dust cover, they've figured out that this kills resolution. There's one or hopefully for my sake two fine metal mesh pieces, one over the front Fazor and I am hoping one behind the Fazor. So there's way less between you and the diaphragm than with previous Audeze's

Headband clamp is no issue for me.

 

That is surely one good looking headphone.

Does the smaller driver lessen the macrodynamic and slam? Compared to LCD-X.

 

Did some more listening, and not at all. They've got tons of slam, they're very musical and engaging.

 

The Audeze "Heft" or weight is gone as well. They feel smaller than my OG Focal Clears.
The clamp is there for 5 mins, but goes away.

Having trouble with the headband, the yolk keeps slipping a few notches when I pick up the headphones. Then have to re-adjust each time I put them on.

 

LCD-5 Initial Impressions

• They fixed the uneven mids!
• The most mid-forward planar I've heard yet.
• The hefty thump of the LCD-4 has been replaced by a softer presentation similar to modern Hifiman. Susvara punches harder.
• They're tiny. Much lighter than their other models. Very comfortable, and they don't look ridiculous.
• Thirsty for current.

In this price bracket, there's some extremely tough competition from Abyss and Hifiman.



Listening done with Pi2AES / Holo Audio Spring 2 / McIntosh MHA150

 

Great. concise but very easily understandable statements!

Btw with your rig and preference, what do you think LCD-5's (sonic) advantages over Sus? And how would you compare lcd5 vs sus in terms of comfort? (I'm assuming yours have 'less clampy' headband applied but please correct me if I'm wrong)

 

LCD-5 has less intensity in the treble, which some might prefer. For my sonic tastes, Susvara, Diana Phi, and AB-1266 Phi TC are superior on all fronts. LCD-5 is more cohesive than HE1000se. They're all very comfortable.

 

I got to compare the LCD-5 and Susvara for a number of days and generally agree. The LCD-5 was a bit too mid-forward for my taste but took EQ very well. I did find the LCD-5 to punch harder, especially in bass - but found the Susvara much better in both tonality and technicals everywhere else.

 

Differences in the chain could account for the different impressions! LCD-5 is growing on me though, especially after a boost in the bass.

 

Inside the LCD-5

notes:

• No fazors on front or rear of driver
• One sided magnet confirmed
• Light driver damping (on the back of the driver)
• Same foam ear cup damping as used in the LCD-4z and LCD-MX4
• Interesting circular venting instead of metal bars lining up with the front magnets and metal protective mesh over that like I was expecting.

 

Audeze build quality is really good by the way. Opening up an LCD headphone is such a different experience from opening up a Hifiman HE-6SE. Audeze uses quality parts, and nice thick internal wiring with good solder joints. Compared to Hifiman's cheap plastic clip on parts and super thin wires that come unsoldered or break very easily.

 

Earpads

They actually cover the edges of the driver a bit but lots of vintage ortho earpads do the same but much more extreme, it’s not a big deal. I couldn’t get them off cleanly without tearing the adhesive tape. I don’t know why - I can remove the og LCD earpads unharmed. But I’m changing the earpads anyways.

 

It is a shame they went with adhesive attached earpads again. It seams that swappable pads in the LCD-5 class is common.

 

They have to use adhesive attached pads because they use a layer of felt between the baffle and the earpads to break the seal and create a vent, which wouldn't' be possible with a pad lip.

 

My favorite thing about the LCD-5 (my now modded pair)

What sets it apart the most is it's sub bass quality. It has incredible texture, detail and control in the sub bass frequencies, and pulls out real textured information where other headphones just create bass tones. The bass quality in general is really good and has a lot of dynamics, slam and detail.

My least favorite thing about the LCD-5

The cable comes out of the cups basically at a downward angle from the back off the cups. I don't know what they were thinking doing this, all previous LCD's have the cable angling forward so it stays off your shoulders. The LCD-5 cable is all over my shoulders and even when I lay down on a pillow, I can feel the cable pushing against the pillow because it's coming out the back of the cups angling straight down. It's super annoying and makes their small size and weight a bit irrelevant when they're constantly annoying to wear. Here's some picture comparing vs the LCD-X.

 

Wow. That's not just a mistake, that's an official ergonomic disaster in my book.

 

Sankar, CEO of Audeze, stated in the interview below that the LCD-5 headphone was their first (@yotacowboy (cr)edit) LCD series headphone to undergo industrial design, with an external company. As good as it looks in every other way they clearly failed on both form and function with the connector position and angle. It looks a bit odd.

I had a cable made with LEMO connectors for the Utopia, which are fairly long themselves, using heat shrink tubing as strain relief. But the tubing was too long and would dig into my shoulders when sitting back, getting knocked by them when moving around. The solder joint eventually failed on one even after shortening them. It was not a good experience.

It's hard to imagine how an oversight like this can happen at an experienced headphone maker let alone on such a highly priced product.

 

While I'm still eager to get my hands on them myself (as a potential sus buyer lcd5 should be checked out anyway), I am happily enjoying RD's LCD5 reports. Agreed that they placed jacks in the wrong place..

A little surprised lcd5 didn't disappoint in bass despite reduced sizes in drivers/cups (and single side magnets)!

Unfortunately they're 3 pin mini xlr on the headphone end. Some right-angled mini xlr plugs are being sold so maybe those can help a bit.

 

4 pin mini XLR actually.

I would say more about the LCD-5, there's a lot to say, but since I'm modding them I don't think I should.

But the connector angle is ridiculous, especially when the whole selling point is comfort. I would really prefer a 105mm diameter cup instead of 100mm and their normalr sized double sided driver with a tiny bit more weight.

I don't know about the bass in stock form, I can't remember, I was distracted by....other things...but it's sure got the potential. It doesn't have as much bass quantity as the LCD-4z or LCD-4 but the quality is the best I've heard.

 

Glad to see admins finally filtered out speculation (+ some noise). Hope to see more impressions incoming later.