Article: Audeze LCD-4z Review

[Blake]

I recently bought my LCD-4z, with full warranty from an authorized online dealer, without hearing them first.  This review made me a bit hesitant, but then I read the review threads on other fora, with lots of praise from very experienced members owning all of the usual suspects of what are considered the very best headphones on the planet (Susvara, Abyss, etc.).   Some of the LCD-4z threads have been running for years and I wasn't reading any similar complaints to the reviews here and to the contrary, there is a lot of praise.  Sure, some of the posters on the other threads had sonic preferences for other TOTL cans, but I didn't come across anything extremely negative.

 

The Audeze 30-day return policy sealed the deal for me.  

 

Swapping back and forth between my LCD-4z, and my Hifiman HE-1000se and Arya Stealth over the last week and I am really impressed with the LCD-4z.  It has all of the technicalities covered while being very musical.  From a sound quality perspective, the LCD-4z is very much competitive with both of my Hifiman cans and in the TOTL/Summit-Fi category for me. 

 

I had Empyrean, HD-800s and HD-800 at the same time as the HE-1000se and I sold off all these and kept the HE-1000se.  By extrapolation, the LCD-4z for me would also be sonically superior to all these cans (and also superior to the TH-900, W3000ANV, EnigmAcoustic Dharma, T-1 and other headphones I've owned that were beaten by the HD-800 and HD-800s).  

 

I can't square my findings with Sonis' and Chris' reviews.  I am 100% sure they are both being transparent and honest.  My only possible thought is their review pair was somehow defective?  Audeze is known to have driver issues and that is why I bought mine with the full warranty.  

 

Bottom line, I am glad I decided to pull the trigger on the LCD-4z.  I absolutely love them.  I have no plans to return them under the Audeze 30-day guaranty.

 

 

[Blake]

21 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Happy to read you’re pleased with the headphones. If we all liked the same thing, there may be only a single headphone on the market :~)

 

For sure.  Headphones as a category of audio equipment in my view are by far the most likely to elicit different perceptions from user to user as compared to other types of audio gear.  There is no right or wrong answer, no universal solution.  Buy, try, sell, rinse, recycle, repeat until you find a combination that works for you. 

 

My comments here are simply one additional data point.