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:
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.
I went with a bit more upper mid and treble energy to compensate for my wonky ears:
Jesus the bass hahah good lord.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ha! So you’re the one that jacked my order!
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.
I got to spend some time with the LCD-5 before @Resolve slithered off like a slithery snake with them depriving myself and @andrew of listening to them (we we’re listening off the Ferum Oor stack).
Quick impressions based on memory of last Thursday’s listening.
.Once Resolve is done stealing our gear I’ll be able to get some more headtime with the LCD-5 for more thorough impressions but I think a lot of people (including Audeze) can breathe a sigh of relief that the LCD-5 and I would rate it at my favourite release of 2021 so far (with the iFi Audio GO Blu coming after that).
I concur with Taron’s thoughts. Particularly around @Resolve slithering off with our only pair. I did get to spend some time with the Susvara and LCD-5 back to back off the Ferum Oor. Not enough time for conclusions but my initial impression is that the LCD-5 held its own which is saying a lot.
Just updated my EQ profile a bit. Here’s the new one:
And for those who watched the recent live stream we did, here’s the @metal571 approach (I was mostly joking, but… try it and see haha):
When your EQ graph starts looking like the FR of other headphones…
Oh god, which other headphones? Hopefully not raw graphs hahaha
Just in general, that first EQ graph.
Hows the Susvara comparison coming along?
