Heavyweight Champ - Audeze LCD-2 Fazor Review
I've owned a lot of headphones in my time, but I'd can't say I've ever owned a pair that was "heirloom worthy". No, no - the Dyson Zone is not that, and certainly not anything with some celebrity's name festooned upon it. Think sitting room with a big leather armchair, a glass of wine, and a hi-fi stack that costs more than a new car. What headphones would fit right into that picture? These ones, probably.
I can't say I've ever really been too enthralled by the idea of open back headphones. Reason being? I'm a bit of a bass head, so a pair of cans that willingly sacrifices low end punch for a supposedly wider and more airy soundscape just didn't resonate with me. That, and the lack of isolation makes them all but hopeless for anything outside of home listening.
But still, open-backs are rather popular among my friends and while we were discussing their Sennheiser HD660S and the like, one of them mentioned planar magnetic drivers along with a company Audeze - and how their planar magnetic open-backs are basically the ones to get for someone who hates the idea of open backed headphones. Needless to say, I was intrigued.
And yeah, I know exactly how you pronounced that. It's not "aud-ease" - it's literally "odyssey". Get it? Audio, odyssey, Audeze... oh who the hell cares.
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| Exploded view of a dynamic driver versus a planar magnetic driver. (Source: RTINGS.com) |
For the uninitiated; planar magnetic is a wildly different technology than the dynamic drivers typically found in most headphones. Dynamic drivers function no differently than your typical speaker. You have a fixed magnet and an electrically charged voice coil that moves within the magnetic field based on the current going through it. This voice coil is connected to a diaphragm which amplifies these vibrations, producing sound waves.
With planar magnetic, this principal is effectively the same except the conducting "voice coil" is spread out in a 2D pattern across a thin, flat membrane surrounded by fixed magnets on both sides. This design has several benefits: it can substantially reduce roll-off and distortion - especially on the low-end, while also enhancing clarity across the entire soundstage. Plus the nearly flat impedance curve means the sound is less impacted by high amplifier output impedance, so long as it can supply enough power to effectively drive the headphones to begin with.
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| (Source: Audeze) |
I will point out the LCD-2 are my first open-backed headphones so I didn't really have anything in their same category to properly base them against. For the most part, I'll be comparing them against my comparatively plebian closed backs which should hopefully give somebody who's never tried open-backs before an idea of what to expect out of these. I also did not pay full price for mine - I spent $555 used after tax and shipping and replaced both the pads and headband.
That said, it's important to get the MSRP out of the way while I still have your attention. The LCD-2 retails at a whopping $995 - for a wired set of headphones with zero noise isolation. That's expensive to the point where it absolutely does not matter if they sound like a symphony of angels strumming harps strung with the tail hairs of a unicorn. If these headphones don't have a listening environment and equipment that suits them? They are worse than overkill - they are nearly pointless.
But if you do think you're ready for them - I will say this: once you get them out of the shipping box - any doubts you might've had about them not being even just a little worth it immediately start to fade away.
Unlike most headphones, the Audeze LCD-2 doesn't come with a rinky dink travel pouch or a half-exposed leather case that looks like a bra. Nope. This thing comes in a fucking pelican case that looks like it's meant for transporting grenades. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Pop that sucker open and your eyes are blessed with the cans themselves. Two massive hunks of leather and steel trimmed out in glossy wood. Yeah, real wood. On a pair of headphones.
The LCD-2 looks positively amazing in a raw, functional kind of way. It doesn't really shy away from the fact these things were built by hand, with exposed screw heads all across the exterior with swivels and adjustment detents in full view. The cable plugs into each separate channel using beefy aircraft like connectors and the actual wire is braided in a fairly unique fashion. These are about as far from minimalist as you can get - which is fine because you're absolutely not going to be wearing them out of the house.
The LCD-2 are also massive, which kind of makes the pelican case more of a necessity than just a ridiculous extra. The outer ear cups measure out to 4.38 inches in diameter and 2.38 inches at their thickest point - versus something like the Dyson OnTrac at 3.75 inches diameter and 1.63 inches thick. Unlike the Dyson however, the LCD-2 isn't going to spend half it's life getting tumbled around in a backpack so the size is a bit irrelevant unless you absolutely need to take these things with you somewhere.
So apart from the fact these headphones now qualify as their own separate carry-on by themselves, there is remarkably very little to complain about in terms of overall presentation and build. How do they actually feel on the head though?
On paper, there is a lot going against the LCD-2 in the comfort department. The headset weighs a hot spot inducing 632 grams (1.4 pounds) and are historically notorious for their high clamping force. To help combat this, the LCD-2 is fitted with massive sheepskin covered ear pads and newer production headsets like mine are fitted with a wide perforated suspension headband.
These two components in conjunction aim to evenly spread the massive load on your head in order to reduce long term fatigue and hot spots - and I'd say they do a pretty darn good job at it. For such a massive and clamp heavy design, the LCD-2 feels surprisingly comfortable and even with my large-ish noggin, I can handle wearing them for hours on end without issue.
One other upside to the way these headphones are designed is they are fairly easy to service. You can easily change out the headband components with those of your preference or replace the pads if they wear out. Audeze sells most of these parts on their website and publishes guides on how to install them - but you can also opt for third-party replacements if the OEM feel isn't your cup of tea.
I think the most immediate sensation people will get when strapping these monster cans on - and this is true about any quality open-backed headphones - is how un-claustrophobic they feel. By nature, open backed headphones keep your ears open to your surroundings and the LCD-2 hardly muffles anything from the outside world when on your head. That of course means they are completely useless for listening outside of the house and they leak sound like absolute hell but by this point, you're probably well past wanting to do that anyways.
But sit down in a quiet room and what these open-backed 106 mm planar drivers can do is nothing short of magical sounding. The sensation is an incredibly airy feeling, wide dispersion of sound with none of the reverberation closed backs have - something that admittedly kind of wears my ears down after a while. The best word I can use to describe how the factory sound profile is? Unfatiguing. These are very warm sounding headphones, which in normal person speak means they're not very treble biased. That's not to say these aren't lacking for imaging capability though as the open back design really lets the highs sing where those details might otherwise be overwhelmed by the lows and mids in a closed back.
That said, the tradeoff with open backs is usually a low end that is lacking in sheer punch, which is usually the case with dynamic drivers. But with Audeze's planars - it's something else entirely. Instead of low-end slam like you'd expect out of dynamic closed backs, you get deeply extended and rich sounding bass that doesn't overpower the rest of the soundstage. The relatively large surface area of the drivers do still allow the LCD-2 to generate some thump, but the sub-bass reach they have is almost abnormal sounding coming from dynamic closed backs - and I mean that in the most positive sense.
My LCD-2 is also the Fazor revision which adds triangular prism shaped waveguides which apparently helped brighten up the sound compared to the pre-Fazor models. If you want an LCD-2 that sounds even more dark than these, I'd suggest looking there - but the only reliable way to tell them apart is by sending Audeze the serial number.
Truthfully, I actually was not a huge fan of the factory soundstage. I tend to prefer a brighter high end with slightly more emphasized, but not overwhelming lows - so I quickly put the LCD-2 under the EQ knife as I do with nearly all my headphones. This is where I find the LCD-2 really starts to come into their own. Once dialed into your tastes, they go from being "wow that's pretty nice" to "holy shit I can literally hear everything the way I imagined it".
I typically run the LCD-2 with a moderately raised low end and slightly bumped treble. The latter brightens the high end to something where my perceived level detail feels right at home, and the bass is just enough to feel the drivers push a little air. Still, even after the EQ tweaking, they still don't really have much physical slam in same way as closed backs do, but the low end extension on these is so rich and smooth that I honestly couldn't care less. The utter lack of distortion is unlike anything I've ever heard out of a pair of headphones.
The best part is arguably how my ears hardly feel fatigued after listening to these for even long durations since I'm not constantly concussing myself with closed back reverb. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but the open-air design really does makes it feel like you're listening to the music from the space around you, rather than pumping it directly into your ears within a small cavity. I can keep trying to describe it, but you'd really need to try it for yourself.
There's an oft floated claim that planar magnetic headphones require a lot of power to properly drive and for a while, this was largely true - especially if you're familiar with the likes of the HiFiMan HE-6 and it's deliciously inefficient 83 dB/mW sensitivity. That hasn't been the case for quite some time and the LCD-2 proves that with its 101 dB/mW sensitivity rating at 70 ohms impedance.
Just to satisfy my own curiosity though, I did try a Monolith Liquid Spark with the LCD-2 to see if a sub-0.1 ohm output impedance amp made any audible difference. Apart from having substantially more gain to blow my eardrums out with compared to the Scarlett, I didn't discern a substantial enough difference to make me think it was an option worth pursuing. Point being; you don't have to think too hard about what you plug these things into. Invest in some better sounding music, if anything.
So, there you have it. The Audeze LCD-2 certainly lives up to that first impression I had when I first took them out of that pelican case. They're built extremely well, look phenomenal and sound quite unlike any other pair of headphones I've ever used. Subjective opinions on the factory soundstage aside, the sheer presence, airiness and extension of the sound from these headphones is pretty otherworldly, and they are very friendly to EQ tinkering to boot. It's rather easy to get these things to sound right to your ears, nor do you need gobs of power and a whole ass audio stack to pull it off. It's truly an endgame worthy set of cans.
That being said, versus a good pair of closed-backs I don't think it's right saying the LCD-2 is definitively better or worse in any way. Do they sound better than most closed-backed headphones? Depending on who you ask, sure - but they're also far more limited in use case by nature of their design, nor will it fully satisfy bass heads looking for skull rattling thump. You're not going to be taking these on the train, to the gym or DJ'ing in them and the LCD-2 likely will not be the only pair of headphones you own for at least one of those reasons.
Audeze did make a closed-back variant of the LCD-2 though, so if this planar magnetic monster still sounds intriguing but you want closed-back isolation and low-end slam, I'd track one of those down.
I suppose then, the real question is if the LCD-2 is worth the whopping $995 entry fee. Honestly, for the right person; I think they are. The listening experience is no joke, plus the sheer absurdity of the LCD-2's build quality and presentation really helps swing it as well. Also, within Audeze's own lineup, the LCD-2 sits in a weird spot. The headphones share most of it's bones with its bigger siblings, but undercuts the next rung up by around a grand. At that point you really have to ask yourself what, exactly, you’re buying with something like an LCD-3/4/5 that the 2 isn’t already doing for you - aside from bragging rights and marginal gains. In that regard, they almost feel like a steal.
But a grand is still a grand. If you have even the slightest doubt that you're going to get regular enjoyment out of these headphones - I would pass and look into something less expensive that checks off similar boxes if you just want to scratch the planar open-back itch. There's no shortage of affordable well regarded options on the market such as the HiFiMan Sundara or the FiiO JT7.
Whether or not you should buy the LCD-2 rests entirely on what your personal tastes are then. If you want uncompromising sound quality that's actually legitimately fun to listen to instead of just chasing numbers and clout, there's a good chance these might just ruin every other pair of headphones for you.
What's Good
- Stellar, unfatiguing sound quality and impressive low-end extension.
- Build quality that makes everything else feel like a Happy Meal toy.
- Actually pretty damn comfortable despite their size and weight.
- Doesn't require ridiculous amounts of power to be fully driven.
- Still heavier and bulkier than most other open-back offerings.
- You aren't taking these with you anywhere but from one listening cave to another.
- Price makes them hard to justify
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