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The LCD-X are far superior to any conventional headphones, meaning anything from Sennheiser, beyerdynamic or Audio-Techinca because the LCD-X use a totally different, better-sounding and newer technology than traditional dynamic cone-style drivers. The Audeze LCD-X never wowed us with its sound quality... but in this case that's a good thing. Its tonal balance is exceptionally neutral and we can see why it's marketed as a headphone for music producers. Bass is extremely tight and fast, and there’s a nice sub bass rumble. Mids are incredibly detailed and vocals sound incredible through the LCD-X. Highs have great extension and are never sibilant. We do wish there was a tiny bit more treble sparkle but treble-sensitive listeners will find the LCD-X’s frequency response just about perfect.
It is great to see Audeze respond to clear flaw shown in measurements and fix the egregious rough/cancellation that existed in the older design. What is there now is improved in that regard from tonality point of view but is still far from ideal response. A lot of goodness is left on the table with deficient lower treble and deep bass. Once those are fixed the sound becomes wonderful given the exceptionally low level of distortion. 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. In case I haven’t been clear, then, Audeze have set the bar very high indeed with the LCD-Xs. What, then, of the somewhat more affordable EL8 models?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! They offer only a little bit of high-frequency muffling. It's a slight muffling of the outside world rather than any significant isolation. The treble is probably where the biggest difference starts to show. While the LCD-X 2021 sounds soft and very pleasing in the upper frequencies, the HEDDphone is shinier, more forward, and crispier sounding. It’s not harsh or unpleasant sounding though, as the resolution of the entire HEDDphone is better than the LCD-X 2021, thanks to that wonderful AMT driver. Having in mind the price difference, I must admit that both the LCD-X and the HEDDphone are very, very impressive, and you can’t go wrong with either. The Audeze LCD-X is remarkably neutral, making it the perfect candidate for music mixing and mastering.
Unlike traditional dynamic driver headphones, planar magnetic drivers offer several advantages, one of which is their ability to provide outstanding resolution.I decided to dig into the many headphone measurement spreadsheets I've acquired over the last three years since starting InnerFidelity and compare the numerous models tested. A couple of things to note: Some of the traces for early models of the LCD-3 are an average of three or four headphones; the FR traces of these models will be somewhat less noisy in the treble due to the averaging of multiple cans response. Also, please remember that headphone measurements are notoriously difficult, and while I try to be very careful the data is not 100% reliable. So please, don't try to read too much into these data, especially above 5kHz where many factors come into play. The LCD-1 are about as sensitive as the LCD-X when fed from the Apple Lightning to Headphone adapter.
The LCD-X also offers a spacious and immersive Soundstage, though you’ll find conflicting points of view here as well. 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 swivels have stops to limit their angles of motion so the cords don't tangle. Likewise, you can't rotate the cups that much if you want to listen with only one ear, or share with someone else at the same time. There’s very little about the LCD line that I personally don’t enjoy, and the LCD-X is no exception. Lastly, in the treble region above 3kHz, the LCD-2 has a distinct dip at 5kHz and a peak at 10Khz while the LCD-3 and LCD-X have a lot more up-and-down motion. These rapid peaks and valleys seem to me more likely to originate in various resonances in the ear-cup and my guess is that the actual energy emitted from the headphones is quite a bit flatter. My point is that while these two seem more hurky-jerky in this area, they may actually be flatter than the larger excursions of the LCD-2. Lotta guessing going on here, though.Nowadays, it’s the Audeze LCD-2C (Classic) that hovers close to the same price as what the Ananda goes for. Still, the Ananda is probably the best money can buy as a step-up from mid-fi and will be more accessible to a wider variety of people. The LCD-X transducer is specifically designed to work with a wide variety of driving sources. From portable players to studio use, the LCD-X provides high volume without a headphone amplifier even though all LCD-series products benefit from a high-quality amp. I’m not going to say that all Audeze headphones sound the same (because they don’t), but… they do all share very similar tuning and graphs of all generally follow the same trajectory: flat bottomless bass, a rise at 1kHz, a gentle to somewhat not-so-gentle slope (LCD-3) down into 2/3kHz, and then a relatively darker sounding treble.
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