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Among the benefits that are claimed for the planar magnetic design are that they present an easy load for headphone amps, and that they have a much lower level of distortion than you’d find in a typical moving-coil headphone. I suspect that these factors, in conjunction with the excellent transient response, are responsible for a quality that I’ve never heard in any other pair of headphones. With almost all monitor systems of any stripe, the more you turn up the volume, the more the artifacts of the monitoring tend to become apparent; to some extent, the subjective impression of loudness is created or enhanced by the increasingly obvious distortion and non-linearity of the speakers or headphones.
It’s worth noting that the somewhat subdued treble can be a deliberate choice by Audeze to provide a smoother and less fatiguing listening experience.I also fed the DAC1 HDR's calibrated line outputs directly to my STAX SRM-T1 vacuum-tube amplifier, from which I fed my STAX SR-009. Thus both systems were working from the same analog signal. Bass – Bass extends pretty well down low with a very minor sub-bass roll-off below 40Hz, which is only perceivable when listening to songs which have deep sub-bass mixed in. Since most mastering engineers introduce a minor sub-bass roll-off below 35Hz in most songs anyway, LCD-X 2021's sub-bass roll-off isn't as perceivable with a vast majority of songs. Besides that, the rest of the bass response is extremely neutral and linear. Neutral bass tuning helps present the songs very cleanly. If the song has slam and rumble mixed in, that is exactly what you will perceive with the LCD-X and if the song doesn't have much bass mixed in, don't expect it to boost any bass from its side. Technically, bass is very well separated in the centre and you can hear the nuances of the bass tone very clearly because of LCD-X's high micro-detail retrieval ability. The reference-level LCD-X is an exciting addition to our LCD planar magnetic headphone collection. The LCD-X features a newly-developed and processed transducer made of a thinner and lighter alternative material with new Fazor technology. The LCD-X is clear, detailed, smooth and present, and even with all the detail, never rough or harsh. This means that you won’t be overwhelmed by piercing “s” and “sh” sounds, making it a comfortable listening experience, especially during extended sessions.
The X is well-known for its exceptional resolution, and this characteristic is one of the standout features that sets it apart from other high-end headphones, especially within the planar magnetic headphone category.foot (75 inch or 1.9 meter) braided cord with one ¼" plug and two 4-pin female mini XLR connectors. There’s very little about the LCD line that I personally don’t enjoy, and the LCD-X is no exception. Another of the reasons for my attendance was an outgrowth of my recent participation in The Absolute Sound’s great new major volume, the Illustrated History of High-End Audio, Volume One: Loudspeakers—an invitation to dinner with friends and colleagues that I hadn’t seen in a number of years. The dinner was to be hosted by Jim Hannon, the vice president/group publisher of The Absolute Sound, and would take place on the Saturday night of the show. Robert Harley and Jonathan Valin and his wife, Kathy, were also to attend. The dinner was a very festive occasion, with great conversation, food, and wine. We discussed everything from our favorite recorded music, to how the harmonics of a violin were so difficult to reproduce by audio systems, and finally, to what we thought were the best-sounding exhibits at the show. Obviously, all of us were having a wonderful time and suddenly near the end of our get together, I was asked by Jonathan Valin, “Why don’t you review for The Absolute Sound?” To say that I was taken by surprise is an understatement. My answer was that I would have to think about that since I’d never written a review of any product in my long years of working in audio. Undeterred, he then asked if I did accept the review challenge, what would be the first thing I’d like to review? Without a second of hesitation my reply was a state-of-the-art headphone. Needless to say he was astonished since everyone at the table knew that in my long career in audio I was mostly involved in designing high- end loudspeakers. Their next question was simply, “Arnie, why headphones?” While Apple's devices and Lightning adapters have great low-source-impedance headphone outputs and sound great with these, I can't vouch for off-brands like Android, Samsung, HTC or other iPhone copies. over time", says their rep on Head-fi. The updated LCD-X 2021 has new ear pads as well as refined and newly optimised magnetic circuits. They modified the ear pad material to get a better seal around the ears on differently shaped heads for a more consistent sonic experience.
To be honest, I'm quite impressed with the Audeze LCD-X 2021 and find it an extremely capable headphone in the high-end headphone market. It has excellent technical performance, especially an impressive soundstage, really good micro-detail retrieval and even better left to right separation. It does wander away from a reference-neutral presentation because of recession in the 1.5-5kHz region of ear gain but still ends up sounding great as it is an exciting and musical headphone with high engagement factor. EQing in a bit of that range does make it sound even better, but it's completely fine without EQ too. The main thing I'd advise you to be wary of is its 612g of weight. Even though the weight is fairly well distributed by the suspension strap and ear pad design, it could still be problematic, especially if you like using headphones for long durations. If Audeze somehow reduces its weight by a couple of 100 grams and fixes the recession in upper-midrange, they'll have quite a nice TOTL for the price. But then, that is exactly what their flagship LCD5 is and is priced more than 3 times LCD-X's asking price too! So, if you're looking for a nice engaging, musical headphone with excellent technical performance to go with in this price range, definitely give LCD-X 2021 a shot! Highly recommended from my side! The answer to that question is the raison d’être of this review. It was generally known by many of my friends in the audio field that I really didn’t really cozy up to headphone listening. However, it had become apparent that a whole lot of other folks did. Because my music listening habits had been so different, I thought maybe I was missing out on something really great, and started to look for an explanation of why, given all of the great loudspeaker-based audio equipment available, so many people opted for headphones. Actually, I’d say that the X 2021 is superior to the LCD3 in many regards. It’s faster, more detailed, crispier, and better tuned.
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Michelle McLaughlin’s “Across The Burren” is another of my favorite highs/sharpness test songs as it can easily sound painful on some headphones. There is basically no sharpness in this song. It gets close to the edge occasionally, but there’s nothing bad enough to complain about here. It’s an overall good representation of the highs in this song.
There are over 100 headphones on the market today, and I’m not going to tell you I have listened to all of them, but I have listened to a fair number of top contenders under ideal conditions. Since I am writing this review for The Absolute Sound, I am using only its criteria, which is adherence to the sound of unamplified music, to judge the winners. I guess it could be called the battle of the flagships. Among the legions of headphones currently on the market I could only find four that I would characterize as flagships. They are: the Sennheiser HD 800, the Stax 009, the Audeze LCD-3, and the Audeze LCD-X. Each of these headphones has some flaws, but none of them has what I would consider fatal flaws, like huge variations in frequency response, or high distortion, or limited bandwidth, or odd colorations—anything that obviously distorts the music. Having listened extensively to these four flagships, the headphone that presented music in the most astonishingly accurate way is the Audeze LCD-X.dB SPL, which means, ignoring any potential power compression, that maximum SPL happens with >3.16V or >+10 dBV or > -3 dBW or >500 mW input into 20 Ω. The LCD-3 has not changed quite as much over time...it's not been around as long, of course. Here we see the early LCD-3 with a plot similar to the LCD-2 Rev. 2 of its time. Subsequent LCD-3s have moved to a similar curve as the Latest LCD-2 in the above plot. The low frequencies are both big and well-controlled, to the point that this is one of the (if not THE) best bass performances I’ve ever heard in this price range. Have in mind though, that it’s not your typical planar magnetic bass, it has a slam and body that is more reminiscent of a good dynamic driver pair of headphones. Another thing worth mentioning is that the bass extension is excellent, easily reaching 20hz. Having all that in mind, I must note that the bass performance on the new LCD-X 2021 is simply brilliant.
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