Audeze LCD-3 2019 Measurements and Review

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by purr1n, Jul 12, 2019.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
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    I had a lot of trouble measuring these to get consistent result for distortion. Saying this for full disclosure. I was eventually able to get consistent and repeatable distortion figures toward the last few days I had this unit. It was on loan from @ChaChaRealSmooth. I do think the measurements reflect certain things that I heard. I'll get into that a bit later.

    Audeze LCD-3 2019 Frequency Response
    SBAF compensation. Vertical line across approximates perceptual neutral.
    upload_2019-8-16_10-22-54.png

    Audeze LCD-3 2019 Traditional Harmonic Distortion Plots
    upload_2019-7-13_21-3-24.png
    upload_2019-7-13_21-3-33.png


    Audeze LCD-3 2019 Alternative Harmonic Distortion Plots
    upload_2019-7-13_21-3-41.png
    upload_2019-7-13_21-3-47.png

    In regards to how they the sound, compared the LCD-2C that was purchased a while back: more resolving, but lower quality lows. There has been talk for years about the consistency of Audeze headphones. I'm not sure Audeze as totally ironed out the issues.
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2019
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
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    Let's grab a set of distortion measurements from one of three pairs of the LCD-2C to compare. Here I am using set #3, which I identified as a grade A- unit, in between the best and the worst. Note that the LCD-2Cs were fairly consistent A,A-,B+). The LCD3 I listened to above I would grade as a C.

    Audeze LCD-2C Traditional Harmonic Distortion Plots
    upload_2019-7-13_21-10-28.png
    upload_2019-7-13_21-10-38.png
    Audeze LCD-2C Alternative Harmonic Distortion Plots
    upload_2019-7-13_21-9-52.png
    upload_2019-7-13_21-10-4.png

    When compared to the LCD3, the LCD2C has very similar overall THD. However, the LCD3 has higher third order (blue line) distortion up to 200Hz. This third order "infects" the signal up to 300Hz. Note how much cleaner D3 is on the LCD2C compared to the LCD3.

    This particular LCD3 sample is one step forward (more subjectively resolving), and one step backward, compared to the LCD2C.
     
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2019
  3. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

    Pyrate BWC
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    Does the lower treble peak/null in THD indicate the resonant frequency of the diaphragm and how they tensioned it? Total measurement artifact or objectionable? Slight grit or sand in lower treble (the playnar effect)?
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    LOL, calculation / plotting error. All fixed now. Best way I think is probably ortho way to determine something that is indicative of tension. Note that this doesn't show up in all plots and that some orthos exhibit this more than others.

    FPC LCD3 L.jpg FPC LCD3 R.jpg
     
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Here is a simpler distortion visualization for comparison between the LCD-2C and LCD3.

    upload_2019-7-13_21-43-25.png

    upload_2019-7-13_21-52-45.png
     

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