Company & Product Overview
Many audio companies have sprung to life from a single, simple idea. Audeze is no different. When two friends met up with an engineer who had been working on designing some super-thin, yet flexible circuit materials for NASA, a light bulb went off. This material might be great for a headphone! In 2008, they sought out Dragoslav Colich, who held 10 patents and had years of experience with planar drivers, to help them develop what has become Audeze’s signature driver. Colich joined up and soon after, Audeze was born with the release of the LCD-2.
Today, Audeze is a thriving company with more than 50 employees. All products are handcrafted and designed at their home office in Santa Barbara, CA. In a world of offshore manufacturing, they buck the trend. They have grown from a single headphone to 17 models and have even ventured into the world of pro audio with some serious microphones for the recording industry. Speak to anyone on their team and you will immediately understand that they have a real passion for producing the best possible sound.
Today we’ll be reviewing the Audeze LCD-X, which sits in the middle of their top-end LCD range of headphones. It is an open-back, planar magnetic design, but is designed in a way that does not require as much power to drive as many of their other headphones. It can easily be run with a modest headphone amplifier or even a smartphone.
Packaging, Design & Build Quality
The Audeze LCD-X comes supplied with a solid carrying case made of a tough plastic material. The case is almost as much a tackle box as it is a headphone case, and looks very similar to the Pelican brand cases that people use to transport delicate electronics. You’ll never have to worry about your headphones getting damaged while they are in this case. However, you will also need a pretty large bag for it. The LCD-X itself is pretty big, and the case is bulky at 14” wide by 12” deep by 6” tall.
Included with the headphones is a detachable multi-conductor headphone cable. The business end that connects to your headphone jack is one of the most solid headphone plugs we have ever seen. It has a great strain relief that ends in a hard rubber connection with a massive, solid metal sheath that houses the gold-plated full-sized headphone plug. The box also includes a mini-plug adaptor — similar to a Grado adaptor, it has a solid female end for the ¼” standard plug that is gold plated, a short length of cable, and a gold-plated mini plug. We like this idea because if you added a standard solid adaptor, you would have a lot of stress on your mini jack since the standard plug is so massive.
The cables that connect to each ear cup are detachable and provide a solid connection, with a tiny button on the side to unlock them from the headphones. Our only gripe is that determining which is the right or left cable almost requires a magnifying glass! The part of the connector where the R or L is located is solid black, as is the letter, which is tiny and barely raised. We understand that they are trying to keep a clean look, but perhaps a better way would have been to have the inner connector color-coded.
The Audeze LCD-X itself does pass our earcup left/right identifying test as the sides of the headband are clearly marked. Plus, once you get to know them, you won’t even need to look because the earpads are tapered in a way so that they are much larger towards the rear.
Like all of the LCD headphones, the X uses a single planar magnetic driver. The material that creates the sound is less than the thickness of human hair! This single driver does need to be pretty large to move enough air to create sound, so the LCD-X is a pretty large headphone. The active part of the driver itself is about 2” by 3” in diameter.
Build quality on all Audeze products is exactly what you would expect to see from a luxury product. All of the materials used are top-notch, with a fit and finish that should provide years of enjoyment.
