Clipping isn’t an issue unless you listen at very (unsafely) loud levels. Pads are indeed only sporadically available. This biggest issue with the Elex is its sometimes piercing intensity.
3 Likes
I also read that it could occur in songs with lots of low frequency at lower volumes, but it seems to be mixed feedback everywhere.
I would still love to try out the Elex or Clears in the future because they certainly seem fun.
1 Like
The clipping “issue” on Focal headphones has been basically talked up to mythological levels. It wasn’t a great idea for Focal to make that one headphone post as people took it as “clipping is a normal thing, not a defect” when in reality, if your headphones are clipping at regular levels, your headphones are defective and will be repaired or replaced under warranty.
Back to the GX though, that was a wonderful review and pretty much lines up with my thoughts. If they released a version without the mic cable at $799 and just marketed It as a good, lightweight LCD headphone they would sell a bunch.
7 Likes
Again excellent review. It didn’t register when I read your review on Reddit that you were also a member here. Great write though.
3 Likes
They should offer one without the mic cable or the case for $699. Tuning is better than the 2C and the whole thing is lighter. That’s just a no brainer to start offering
9 Likes
on-point. (I think that’s today’s word of the day)
3 Likes
Audeze LCD-GX
I’ll be the first to admit that when I first saw the launch of the Audeze LCD-GX headphone/headset, I was quite skeptical. This was a $899 open-back headphone, made for gamers, with a red and black trim and a giant boom mic. It almost felt like it was a money grab to me, especially after they already had just released the Audeze Mobius at the time, which I was an early adopter for. But time went by and I started hearing some good feedback for it. I was also impressed that they got the weight down to a more manageable and wearable weight, something that I feel is the biggest flaw of the Audeze LCD series lineup. I can’t wear any of them for more than a 30 minutes without physical pain! At least until this one came out….
I’ve used a few lightweight Audeze headphones in the past – mainly the Audeze Mobius, the Audeze Sine and of course, the iSine series, which aren’t really over-ear headphones. For the most part, I’ve tried the LCD series with the most recent being the LCD-X and none of them were anywhere near comfortable for me to use for any period of time, no matter how nice they may have sounded.
Anyway, with this pandemic occurring, I had a strange idea of wondering how using an over-ear headphone would work for conference and video calls. I actually started using my Hifiman Arya and ZMF Verite with Audeze boom mic cable for work. But an opportunity arose, and Headphones.com allowed me to borrow the Audeze LCD-GX to try out and so here I am, writing a short review on this “gaming headset.”
Package/Accessories
The LCD-GX comes with both a normal set of cables as well as the all-new headset cable that is basically a normal detachable headphone cable with a boom-style microphone that comes off of one of the 4-pin XLR connectors that goes into the left cup. This cable turns a normal headphone into a headset that can be used for gaming communication, or in my case, conference calls.
In my quick experience using them for a couple calls, I had mixed opinions from other colleagues on the line. Some said I sounded fine, and others said I sounded a little distant and cutting in and out. It seems like the microphone needs to be pretty close to your mouth to be most effective and doesn’t necessarily pick up your voice if it isn’t in direct line of your voice.
In addition to the cables, the set comes with a large hard-shell carrying case that is similar to a Pelican travel case, and is padded with foam that’s been cut-out to fit the headphone and accessories.
The actual headphone itself sports a more modern look similar to their LCD-4z and LCD-MX4 or the more budget-friendly LCD-1 with a grill style that is more raised and beveled and is integrated directly into the cup structure, unlike the other traditional LCD models with a fastened and flatter plate. Behind the external grill is a popping red colored thick screen that sort of reminds me of drawer liner, at least from how it looks. The red contrasts with the black exterior pretty nicely, and I think it looks a lot better in-person than in the promotional video, which I thought was rather cheesy.
The GX features a single-sided planar magnet array which is 106mm, which is on the larger-side of drivers. The headphone’s impedance is 20 Ohms and sensitivity is at 100 dB/mW at 1KHz. This makes this planar a bit easier to drive than some others in Audeze’s lineup as well as others that I’ve owned myself in the past, including my current Hifiman Arya, which requires a noticeable amount of additional turn on the dial to get to the same listening volumes.
One of the benefits of going with a single-sided array is the weight is kept down to about 460g listed weight. I found that this is one of the few Audeze headphones that I’ve been able to wear comfortable for more than just 20-30 minutes. Most of the LCD series is closer too 600-700 grams so this significant reduction in weight is welcomed, although it still weighs considerably more than my Arya.
Sound
I was taken aback when I first put on the GX and turned on some music. I honestly didn’t know what to expect as I hadn’t read too much about these and only heard some brief impressions from owners. But I was rather surprised at what I heard. I felt like this is what I was expecting the LCD-X to sound like, at least in tonality. It does feel a little less technical than the bright/neutral LCD-X, but this GX has a nice balanced sound that still sounds like an Audeze, but with a more neutral tilt. It still has a warmer sound signature, but no where thick and sometimes dark sounding as some of the others in the LCD series (sans X) that I’ve tried, and this aligns a lot closer to my preferences.
When I first listened to the GX, I was listening to it with Alison Kruss & Union Station’s Lonely Runs Both Ways record, which for those who don’t know, is a bluegrass album that borders pop music. Maybe I was listening to them a little louder than my normal listening, but I found that there was a bit of ringing when listening to this song as it does accentuate the lower treble area with an abundance of harmonic energy from all the various stringed instruments. When listening to this at my normal listening volumes, roughly 65-70dB, this ringing isn’t present, and I actually find that the GX plays this song quite well.
The bass is generally flat, but with the small dip in the lower treble, as is present in many LCD headphones, the general low end does sound a bit warmer, though nowhere as thick and slammy as other LCD iterations.
For example, in Beach House’s Lemon Glow, the basslines in this song can be quite heavy and pounding, however it seems like the GX takes this on with a bit more subtle hit, and while it’s not as tame as say my Hifiman Arya in this aspect, it does lack some of that authority in the other LCD headphones. That’s not to say that bass is light or missing or anything. Subbass reaches low and the bass response is in-line with how I prefer and it’s the slightly above neutral sounding warmth is a benefit.
The mid-range is typical Audeze sounding, though perhaps a little less thickened and more lean, but again, not as lean as your standard Hifiman, and actually probably matches some of that in it’s tonality. I enjoyed the fact that males and female vocals seemed in-line with each other and neither seemed to song tonally inaccurate.
When it comes to treble, I mentioned previously that the GX is still a little darker than neutral, but only a shade bit. I find this may actually be the best tuned LCD that I’ve tried and have enough memory of to really provide a true opinion on. I actually do like the Sine’s signature a lot as well, and I found it fit more in the Hifiman series than it did the Audeze’s but with this GX added to the collection and the recent LCD-1, I am seeing some slight, subtle changes to perhaps the Audeze house sound.
I never did use this headphone for gaming, and I admit that I don’t game as much as I once did in my younger days. I did however find imaging and instrument separation to be good and comparable to other headphones in this price range and what I’d expect from Audeze. The soundstage wasn’t exceptionally wide, but it didn’t sound closed in, or intimate either. I think it’s a good listening width and depth was present and did not sound flat.
Overall Thoughts
Resolution on these were surprisingly good for what I would normally and stereotypically consider a gaming headset to have, which to me have been the Razer, SteelSeries, and Turtle Beach variety. This is a vast improvement over the Mobius with a larger sound, a cleaner sound, and improvements across the board. And despite it being heavier than the Mobius, I find the GX is more comfortable to wear for longer sessions which may be due to the larger cup size and the suspension headband with larger surface area.
All in all, the GX is a really solid headphone at it’s price class. I don’t think it’s better than the more expensive LCDs, but I would take it over the LCDX for both comfort and tonality, with perhaps a small drop-off in technical performance and resolution.
I’ll still take my Arya over the GX though, as I find the Arya signature and soundstage to best the GX for my preferences, as well as resolution that exceeds it. Where the GX wins is the low end performance, which adds a little more emphasis than the Arya does.
I feel like the GX just made the LCD2 obsolete here. For a little bit more money, you get a better sounding headphone, a headset adapter, significantly less weight and comfort, and equal or better performance overall. This is perhaps the biggest surprise in the Audeze lineup.
10 Likes
Cracking review Anthony. These don’t sound like my type of headphone preference but they do look like a solid choice for some.
4 Likes
Exactly how I feel about these!!! Been trying to get more people onboard how good these are!! 
2 Likes
Audeze LCD-GX Review
Written by Chrono
Introduction
The LCD-GX ($899) is probably one of the more interesting headphones I have come across recently. They are Audeze’s high-end “gaming” headset; complete with a red color scheme, and a boom-mic. I definitely did not know what to expect from it going into that first listen, but all I can say for now is that what I got was much, much more than just a gaming headset.
Sources and Music Used in Listening Tests
The Amplifier/DAC used in this review was the ifi Micro Black Label connected via USB to my desktop computer. For the listening tests I used music from a wide variety of genres including Rock, Jazz, Classical, Acoustic, Hip-Hop, and latin. I played tracks from my own FLAC library as well as from Qobuz streaming service played via Roon (exclusive mode).
What’s in the Box?
Included with the LCD-GX you get a lot of accessories. For starters, Audeze includes their Professional travel case, which is not very portable, but it will most certainly keep your headphones safe on-the-go. You also get two cables: Audeze’s amazing standard LCD-series ¼” cable (1.9m), as well as a 3.5mm TRSS connector cable (8ft) with microphone. Also included are a 3.5mm splitter to hook up microphone and headphones to desktop audio, and a OMTP to CTIA audio adapter.
Power Requirements
The LCD-GX has an impedance of only 20ohms, and a sensitivity level of 100dB. From my testing, I had no issue driving these headphones with anything I tried them on; even from my MacBook I felt as though they delivered pretty good sound quality. For this headphone, I will not list an amplifier as required.
Build Quality and Comfort
The LCD-GX uses Audeze’s newer magnesium chassis which, although similar in size to the traditional LCD-headphones, saves a lot of weight. Just about everything on this build is made out of metal, with the only omissions being the pads and suspension strap, which are made of synthetic leather. The magnesium chassis itself feels very strong and durable. Despite being very lightweight, it is not malleable, and it does not feel like it would dent easily. The synthetic leather pads feel very nice and I do not think you will have to swap these out soon. The suspension strap is the only point of concern in the build for me, as it stretches quite easily compared to the lambskin variant; it might need replacing down the line. Overall the LCD-GX feels very premium and well put-together.
Comfort is also–for the most part–very good. The pads on the LCD-GX are deep, and large; allowing ample room for your ears to fit in. Thanks to the magnesium chassis, the weight on the LCD-GX is reduced significantly when compared to Audeze’s traditional design. They are definitely still hefty at 460g, but that is almost 200g lighter on average when compared to other full-size LCD-series headphones. Like with the build, the only real issue is that the synthetic leather headband stretches quite a bit, and it can cause the metal headband to come in contact with the user’s head; applying some pressure. I personally did not experience this issue, but I still wanted to point it out as it seems to be a very common point of concern online.
Sound
As I mentioned earlier, I had no idea what to expect when first trying out the LCD-GX. My past experience with a full-size LCD-series headphone was the LCD-2 (2020), which required some pretty significant EQ before getting it to the point where I thought it sounded great. There is also the fact that this is marketed as a gaming headset, so I thought that it might have a funky game-centric tuning–but it didn’t. Instead, what I found was that, right out of the box, the LCD-GX provided one of the most enjoyable music listening experiences I have had recently. I say this not because it has the greatest technical performance, or a perfect frequency response–it doesn’t. I say it because the LCD-GX’s presentation is a refreshing brew of having a very soothing, lush tonality paired with dynamics that really livened the music I listened to
Bass
Like on other Audeze headphones, the LCD-GX’s bass is really good. For the most part it extends very evenly, although I did feel like it rolled off very slightly at around 30hz. Now, while I definitely felt like the bass had a good sense of depth, I did feel like its overall level bass was a little on the leaner side; I found the bass on both LCD-2 and HiFiMan Ananda to have a bit more presence under 100hz. For resolution, I found the bass to be very well-defined on the LCD-GX, and it easily outperformed headphones like the Sennheiser HD 660S, and Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro. However, I still found the Ananda and LCD-2 to be marginally better-articulated and detailed in the lows. I personally find the bass on the LCD-GX to be both very defined and enjoyable.
Mids
To my surprise, the mids here were generally pretty good, and they did not throw off the headphones tonal balance like they did on the LCD-2. I find the midrange tonality on the LCD-GX to be very “correct-sounding;” they do not come across as unnatural at all, and they’re very easy-listening. Still, I did feel like the upper midrange was a little bit recessed and could use a little more presence at around 4.5k; but it does not need it nowhere near as much as the LCD-2 or other Audeze’s do. Additionally, I personally found 2k to be ever so slightly lacking in energy. This meant that instruments of which body lies in that region of the frequency response could come across as a little quiet, and just generally thinned out the mids a bit. The timbre on the midrange was also very good and natural, it did not have any of the congestion I heard on the LCD-2 (pre-EQ). I also thought the midrange on the LCD-GX had very good resolution, and it improved slightly after adding some EQ at 4.5K. I personally found it to be a bit more detailed in this region of the FR as the Ananda, and almost as detailed as the LCD-2 (post EQ).
Highs
I really enjoy the treble on the LCD-GX, as it is very well-textured and easy-listening. Admittedly, I found the highs to be very slightly dark, but they were incredibly smooth and well-balanced; there were no peaks that I could hear or found fatiguing. The treble on the LCD-GX also extends very well into the frequencies above 10K, and like the LCD-2 has very nice air qualities. I also think that they have very good resolution. They are very clean in their delivery of the highs, and I think that they are on par for treble resolution with the Ananda; only a touch behind the LCD-2 in this regard.
Soundstage, Imaging, and Layering
I would describe the LCD-GX’s soundstage as being fairly wide-sounding, as it was about on par with the LCD-2. For reference, it was wider-sounding to me than the DT 1990 Pro, and much wider than the HD 660S; it just was not on the same level of width as the Ananda. I also thought its Imaging was very good. When playing games and listening to music I had no issues distinguishing where sounds originated from. Instrument separation is where I was little underwhelmed. They do distinguish instruments, vocals, and different layers composing the mix well compared to most headphones, but in my experience it did not do so as cleanly as the LCD-2 or Ananda.
Dynamics
Like on the LCD-2 , dynamics are without a doubt one of my favorite qualities of the LCD-GX. This headphone has a great punch and slam quality that delivers a very satisfying, engaging and immediate impact. The microdynamics on this headphone are also very good and they make instruments feel very lively as you can, in a way, feel the weight with which instruments are played. Listening to the percussive instruments that accompany Carlos Santana’s Outro solo in “Oye Como Va” would honestly give me chills. This dynamic quality adds so much energy to music, and just gives instruments a very realistic presence in the mix.
EQ
I do not think that the LCD-GX really needs EQ, but it does benefit from like all other headphones I have tried. I personally found the bass a little bit lean, so I like to add a bass shelf under 100hz. Aside from that I just add a little bit more energy at 2K and 4.5K to bring the mids a closer to my personal target. If you would like to try out the EQ profile I have made for these, you can input them in your equalization software of choice:
Peak at 30hz, +1dB Q of 1
Low Shelf at 100hz, +2dB Q of 0.7
Peak at 2500hz, +2dB Q of 1.41
Peak at 4500hz, +3dB Q of 2
Conclusion
I wish Audeze made a non-gamer version of this headphone, as I believe the “gamer” tag really undermines what this headphone is capable of for music listening. The LCD-GX delivers a very good, warm tonality (likely the best of any full-size LCD), a solid and comfortable build, as well as technical performance that I personally think is adequate at its $899 MSRP. If Audeze made an LCD-M (M for magnesium) out of the LCD-GX to replace the LCD-2 Classic’s spot in the LCD-series line-up I think it would become one of the best options under $1000.
A Note if you are trying to decide between LCD-2 vs LCD-GX
If you are trying to decide between the LCD-2 (non-classic) and the LCD-GX I think it really comes down to whether or not you EQ. I do think that the LCD-2 has slightly better technical performance, but it really needs EQ before it sounds like a headphone worth $995; whereas the LCD-GX is smooth-sailing from the get-go.
14 Likes
Another deciding factor vs the LCD-2 would be the comfort! It was the biggest selling point for me and why I chose it -GX in the end 
Now if they release a new LCD-2 with the magnesium chassis… that’ll be the dream.
3 Likes
Oh yeah, definitely another big factor. LCD-2 is 135g more and there is definitely a noticeable difference. GX is indeed a bit more comfortable
3 Likes
Nice review/write up!
2 Likes
Thanks for checking it out!
2 Likes
Audeze really needs to make all their headphones in this new chassis. Or maybe offer it at least.
5 Likes
Oh yes, I agree, they should definitely offer a variant. Great comfort upgrade. I know it is not as important, but I prefer the aesthetic of the traditional design haha. And some people really like the wooden rings.
3 Likes
Excellent review review again @Chrono. Really seems like a hard to beat Gaming/listening in one.
5 Likes
I do find this interesting considering the company has had the Mobius out for a while, which is a gaming headset. Does the GX support the head tracking technology of the Mobius? My son bought one in the INDIEGOGO launch and it has been solid, and it sounds great.
4 Likes
No, the LCD-GX is a standard stereo headphone… but you can buy the NX adapter to put on any headphone from that company… but, I think it only works if you are using it with a Computer…
4 Likes
My review of the LCD-GX wis now available on The Headphone Show!
Check it out here:
11 Likes