Audeze LCD-1 Review

4. Februar 2020 Slyzza

The portable Audeze LCD-1 is Audeze’s latest LCD headphone, selling for only $399 USD.

Disclaimer: The Audeze LCD-1 was sent to us by Audeze in exchange for our honest review. Audeze is not related to Headfonia in any way.

Audeze

If you’ve been following the personal audio world for the last 10 years, then Audeze will ring many bells. The California, USA based company completely changed and upped the headphone game to new levels. Bio from the Audeze site:

Audeze’s origins go back to 2008 when founders Sankar Thiagasamudram and Alexander Rosson met engineer Pete Uka who developed specialized flexible circuit materials for NASA. They quickly realized the material might be perfect for headphones. That’s when Dragoslav Colich, who has 30+ years’ experience in designing planar drivers, joined the team as CTO to create the LCD-1 headphone.

We’ve reviewed almost all of the Audeze products here on Headfonia, the latest one being the LCD-i4, Mobius, LCD-MX4 and the LCD-2 Classic. Today we’re looking at the first real transportable planar technology Audeze: the LCD-1.

Planar Magnetic Technology

A short summary of the tech for those not familiar with it.

Audeze feature proprietary planar magnetic designs with extremely thin-film driver materials and powerful custom magnets. Planars overcome many limitations inherent in typical cone drivers; our lightweight diaphragms are, for example, faster and more responsive than heavier moving-coil or dome drivers. Planar magnetic diaphragm also have a voice-coil circuit spread across the diaphragm surface. The diaphragm’s voice-coil circuit interacts with the magnetic field to produce an electromagnetic force that moves the diaphragm back and forth creating the sound you hear when energized by an audio signal.

If you want to read more about the technology, you can do this here:

https://www.audeze.com/planar-magnetic-technology

https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/how-planar-magnetic-headphones-work

LCD 1

The new LCD-1 probably is Audeze’s cheapest and most portable headphone up to today. You can find the LCD-1’s dedicated web page right here: https://www.audeze.com/products/lcd-1

According to Audeze, the LCD-1 headphones have been meticulously engineered for comfort, convenience, and premium quality sound. Featuring some of Audeze’s most powerful planar magnetic technology in an open-back, foldable and light-weight design, the LCD-1 delivers masterfully tuned audio in a compact and travel-friendly package perfect for audiophile listening and mixing.

And that actually is an excellent description of the LCD-1 and its performance.

The LCD-1 is an open design headphone and it sport circumaural ear pads. Underneath you’ll find the 90mm planar drivers featuring the Audeze Ultra-thin Uniforce™ Diaphragms, Fluxor™ Magnets and Fazor Waveguides. Of course the LCD-1 is a USA made product.

The Audeze LCD-1 is transportable, light (250g) and well packageable. You can fold the earcups to the inside so they perfectly fit in the transport case which comes provided with the headphone.

Standard the LCD-1 come equipped with a 3.5mm premium cable for tangle-free connection, with reversible headphone connectors for ease of setup. Yes you read that correctly, there are no L/R marks on the Audeze provided cable.

Technical Specs

Style: Over-ear, open-circumaural

Transducer type: Planar Magnetic

Magnetic structure: Single-sided Fluxor™ magnet array

Phase management: Fazor

Magnet type: Neodymium N50

Diaphragm type: Ultra-thin Uniforce™

Transducer size: 90 mm

Maximum power handling: 5W RMS

Maximum SPL: >120dB

Frequency response: 10Hz – 50KHz

THD: <0.1% @ 100dB