Audeze LCD-5 - Official Thread

If you’re interested in an LCD-X vs LCD-5 comparison, you might find my MX4 vs 5 bass and dynamics comparison on head-fi useful. I didn’t compare any other part of the sound spectrum, but if you are interested I can add to it.

Personally, I found the LCD-5 to be much more resolving than the MX4, with better vocals and better midrange clarity.

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I agree with this.

Of course the LCD-5 is going to be better than the X. 4 times better, though? Maybe not.

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I think any comparisons like that are welcome here on this forum. :slight_smile:

Please do share (including which revisions of the 4 and X you have). Thanks!

Your point about psychoacoustics is a very interesting one, and important to consider. But I wouldn’t say it’s entirely subjective, mainly because we all generally have ears and there are certain facts about human hearing that need to be taken into consideration (ear gain of some sort is essential for example). But with that said, the fact that most people prefer a certain type of sound says very little about how individual people want their music to sound. That’s where there’s absolutely room for the subjective aspects of the hobby.

A long time ago I came up with The Law of Individuals And Aggregates as a result of my frustration with psychological and sociological research which later applies equally well I think to quantum mechanics (Schroedinger’s equaition and the collapsing of the waveform). The law states that you can make informed statements about aggregate behaviour but you can never predict individual behaviour with certainty. This especially applies to the Harmon Curve and the research of Sean Olive. I’m somewhat more skeptical of that research than you and had a smug laugh to myself when Olive answered your question about how to apply his research to a newcomer to headphone listening in your recent interview. To paraphrase his answer he said to use the curve as a starting point to narrow down a list of potential headphones and then go out and listen to them to see which they preferred which to my mind and the limits of listening opportunities in any geographical area equates to go to the dealers in your area, pick a price point and see what you like.

Edited to add original quote and clarity

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Whats interesting is the source in front of the Chord DAVE being the Smyth Research A16 Realiser he is using with the LCD-5 and CRBN … I’m sure both the LCD-5 and CRBN headphones are very good on their own but with the A16 feeding the DAVE it has to be a game changer… it doesn’t get any better than that… you get to emulate a perfect listening room with 24 channels into those Audeze Phones…

My comment regarding the X and 5 being similar was regarding the ear gain region and broadly flat mid/low end. The 5 to my ears is significantly more resolving and dynamic. Hope that helps clarify.

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For anyone who has an LCD-5, give this EQ profile a shot and see what you think. Once again, these Audeze headphones take so exceptionally well to EQ that I feel one would be missing out without at least trying it:

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While not a criticism necessarily, I do think the default tonality could come across a bit congested as a result of the subdued treble, so this serves to lift that a bit, and I added a bass shelf for fun because the bass on this headphone is excellent.

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I went with a bit more upper mid and treble energy to compensate for my wonky ears:

lcd-5EQ

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Jesus the bass hahah good lord.

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Haha I thought ya’ll would get a “kick” outa that!

TBH the frequency response graph has much left to be desired in the bass and sub-bass for my tastes. I understand it can be eq’d out but I’d prefer a stock tuning option be closer to my preferences. Not a bass head per-say but do like it in increments along with punch and slam.

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Audeze has mentioned several times why they didn’t alter the mechanics of the headphone to increase the bass shelf. Doing so would create trade offs in sound quality that you wouldn’t get if you just used EQ.

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Additionally, there are certain acoustic limitations to adding a bass shelf to open-back planars (there are potentially ways to do it but… it’s not common for a reason). So it’s not at all surprising that it’s just flat all the way down generally.

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I know you’re not a bass head but for someone say perhaps that wants punch and slam of at least the focal clear can the LCD5 deliver that when eq’d?

Not in exactly the same way, but yeah… the bass with EQ on this is truly amazing.

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If they are bringing out a medium and large size it will require some kind of guide, similar to clothing, to inform which one you should buy based on head measurements. I have a medium large head so would need a bit more help deciding. Hopefully they will provide this on the website.

For anyone who seem intimidated by tweaking all of these EQ parameters, but are still interested in testing it out, I would suggest to start with adding a simple bass shelf at ~100hz (increase to taste), and a 3-5db addition to 7khz. I personally feel like these two changes will get the LCD-5 90% of the way to what I consider perfect.

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Ha! So you’re the one that jacked my order!

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Think it’s really interesting that they went for a dark tuning given planars, in any price range, tend to be bright leaning above 5kHz. Very excited to hear one at CanJam NYC, as I’m treble sensitive.

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