Audeze - LCD-X (Music Creator Special)

Simply the best piece of gear I have bought in the last 3 years. Really reveals all the flaws in your productions! Dealing with SO much detail can move your mixing focus from macro to micro, but once you spend time with these headphones and pair it with something like Reference 4 from Sonarworks - your mixes will translate like never before! Essentially a near perfect mix room in your backpack!

If you happen to be on this page reading reviews then i imagine you are either just curious or like i was two weeks ago wondering how much better could these be over my AKG K712 pro and if it's worth the price. I ended up buying these after reading good reviews online (check out Arnie Nudell's review on Absolute Sound). I didn't want a headphone with a bright sound or treble peaks such as the Sennheiser hd800. I had my eyes on the Focal Clear but it isn't available yet in India.

Headphones $300-400 is the sweet spot where will get you can get really good sounding cans like akg k712, hd 600/650, oppo pm3. LCD X is a hi end headphones meant for audiophiles who listen to their music with attention and are willing to pay a price for improved sound. These are better then my k712 in every way: the bass is something else, there's more detail, clarity and realism in the sound of instruments and vocals. But the difference is more like 10% (no where near the 350% increase in price). Although these are easy to drive you will still need a good DAC/AMP for them to sound good, something like Modi/Magni would be a good starting point. Personally i have a Fiio X7 mark2 with the high power AM5 amp module set to high gain and this combination seems to work well. Sound-wise I must point out that these have a distinct back of the hall sound that took me a while to get used to. And while the dynamics are good and the sound excellent, they are fairly neutral and don't particularly sound... err... exciting. BTW, these headphones are _heavy_, but i find them comfortable for long listening sessions (i have fairly strong neck muscles from motorcycle sport-riding). The cable gets crinkled and tangled fairly easily. These are an end game headphone for me and overall i am happy with the purchase!

I have this and the LCD-3, as well as the HD800. All are very different. Although I enjoy the LCD-3's sound a lot and it's in some respects (eg handling complex passages with clarity) better than the LCD-X, the LCD-X presents music in quite a different way and can be a more exciting listen. Bass often has more impact, treble more sparkle and the sound is a touch airier than the LCD-3. The LCD-X is still nowhere near the HD800 in terms of imaging, soundstage and sense of detail, but it's a nice half-way point between a relaxed sounding headphone (LCD-3) and a brighter more obviously detailed one (HD800). And they are leagues ahead of the EL-8 (open back) that they replaced.

Though I have been tripping on & discovering new music almost all my life, I entered the world of “hi-end Headphone Audio” via the Audeze Sine 3+ years ago. Pairied with the Chord Mojo it was a new dimension of music experience for me. I had tasted blood and kept looking for the next “audio high”.
Because I was back into rediscovering Modern Jazz (especially ECM) combined with the Aha of MQA (Tidal Masters) with my first Open Back headphones - the Sennheiser HD650 2 years ago. I loved this new high. Then things changed again. Basically went deep into a genre I had never explored before. Techno. Not EDM. Not House. I was hooked. (It’s been 18 months since ) and I realized I needed a new Audio equipment partner on this fascinating journey. My gear didn’t seem to cut it and kept looking out. Finally I managed to head to HPZ for a product demo of the LCD-X which was recommended by Salim. I had gone to choose between some iEMS basis my online research but on listening to the Xs everything changed. It “introduced” me to Techno in ways I could not imagine. Deep Sharp clear Bass. Everything well arranged giving me the opportunity to enjoy tracks I had heard many times in whole new ways. I am glad I bit the bullet and ordered them. The biggest bonus : ALL other fav genres came to life. Jazz, Avant Garde Jazz, DeutscheRap, Dancehall, Roots Rock Reggae, Grime, Hip Hop, AfroHouse. Classic Rock, Rock. Wow. I normally am not into music with vocals but I started loving them with these (eg Jazz). Reality check :
Just to test out the online reviews which said it’s Achille’s heel was Heavy Metal - especially the attacking Guitar sections. I too noticed that this was not the strength of these cans. But I was more than happy that it transformed my Metallica, GNR. So I got far far more than I asked for. As I “burn” through these (it’s been a week ) I am convinced that I have found my new partner & even my initial apprehension of their size and weight are non issues !

To start with, the cans are huge and comfortably clasped my ears without causing any discomfort for the half an hour listening I subjected them to. A look at the cans and you know where they belong to...a sound studio!

The company has surely made them for indoor use and this is reiterated by the sheer quality of cables, jacks and oh boy, the size of each. The jacks are especially made of metal and give a heavy feel to the headphone, something you wouldn't want to lug around. In my opinion, they are meant to showcase that they are for professional use and nothing less. The cans are planar which means they move the air around your ears and are open back. A person sitting beside you will definitely enjoy the passive music experience, though they are experiencing only some 100 notches down perhaps.

The quality of segment they belong to is an uncharted territory to most of us Indians due to lack of availability of high end audio recording, use of pirated music encoded in MP3s, etc. These headphones are meant to be used with avant grade lossless music and gear and they do their job brilliantly. I would describe my bass experience as a woofer placed near my ear that was displacing real air to produce lowest of base the moment I bumped it up on the E17K. Needless to say, versatility is a virtue you would expect by default from a professional grade headphone and they deliver. For the mids and highs, they reproduced music well from the limited listening experience I had with them.

If you love to hear all details and want to enjoy wide sound-stage then the LCD-X is best choice. I have only one issue i.e. WEIGHT!! otherwise this is one of the best open back planer magnetic Headphone. Go for it.