Headphone Reviews

Measurements

Having spent quite a bit of time in the article talking about the frequency response of these cans I'll not repeat myself here except to say that in the uncompensated response the reduction in energy between roughly 3kHz and 10kHz is easily seen. It is this dip that I think needs some filling in to be neutral in the upper mid-range to treble transition.

300 Hz square waves are good in shape, but now just a little more swayback than some of my earlier Audeze measurements. On the other hand, distortion measurements in the bass on all the headphones show excellent performance, and the quality of bass heard continues to be very good. I did hear some softening of low-bass slam on the LCD-3 relative to my earlier experiences with the model however.

300Hz square wave response is very good with a small overshoot (desirable, IMO), and all but the LCD-2 show very little in the way of significant subsequent peaks or noise. This is a very good result, largely due to the Fasor it seems to me.

Impulse responses all show some significant high-frequency ringing. I think this is indicative of what some call the "Ortho Wall"—observable as a knife-edge resonance usually located in the mid-treble and thought not to effect listening much despite its measurable effects. I've not heard it yet.

Impedance and phase response are quite flat as usual with planar-magnetics, though I do see a blip in the LCD-X and LCD-3 at around 5kHz. I asked if this might be a Faser resonance and was told it was not. Don't know what to make of it.

Voltage needed to reach 90dBspl at the ear is a relatively high 114mVrms and 127mVrms for the LCD-2 and LCD-3 respectively. These will both benefit from a good headphone amp. The LCD-2 will need an amp with a low output impedance (say 2 Ohms or less), but the high-impedance of the LCD-3 allow it to play nicely with the higher output impedance of tube amps. The LCD-X clocks in at 69mVrms for 90dBspl at the ear, and are pretty close to having the efficiency of a typical headphone; they'll sound good from just about any headphone jack...but will, of course, benefit from better upstream gear.

Virtually all measurements of Audeze cans—with the exception of some loss of bass extension on the LCD-3—are a marked incremental improvement in performance over previous models.