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A cymbal hit by a stick sounded as though its plate were a bit thicker than usual, delivering even deeper more vibrant sound. Trumpet also gained weight without losing its natural ability for high-pitched shrillness. Human voices were nothing short of natural – deep, palpable, sensual and delivered with finesse and complete textures. My favorite acoustic and classical guitars gained a small but significant degree of woodiness to have them sound very realistic, full and complete. When listening to some classical music with the HE-6 I was amazed by their ability to convey the mighty power of an orchestra, to present a beautifully well-defined soundstage that allowed a closer look at particular instrumental sections. Now the LCD3 proved that it could be done even better and more convincing. All these advantages of Audeze over HiFiMan were not huge but noticeable, making them—for those on a cost-no-object hunt—worth spending more on even though the extra cash won’t produce proportionally better performance. The HE-6 is an excellent choice. If you can spare a few hundred more for slightly but noticeably better performance however, you should really go with the LCD3 as they will take you a small step closer to your private musical heaven. Obviously personal preferences will be decisive too. Not everyone will love a sound so rich and dense as to come across slightly dark.


I did not have a chance to listen to the Sennheiser HD800 to determine whether they would or not be a serious competitor as some claim. I did have a chance to listen to the HD700 however and those couldn't even compete with the HE-500 (never mind the HE-6 and LCD3) on any terms. By comparison they delivered a less complete not as fluid or smooth and thus clearly brighter grainier sound. That confirmed my previous experiences with regular dynamic headphones. Those simply aren’t for me. Considering how our domestic Polish market isn’t yet mature enough on top-quality headphones, I figured I’d squeezed everything possible from the LCD3. But then I remembered one of Wojtek’s review which led him to purchase cables for the HE-6 and HD800 from Swedish company Entreq. I’d read many times that Audeze users would replace the stock cabling with for example ALO leashes. Those weren’t available in Poland nor was Entreq. Even so I sent an email to the latter’s Per-Olof who a few days later rewarded me with a small elegant wooden box loaner with the proper cable inside. I also received advice that the cable would need around 250 hours to fully break in. I gave it about a week while the LCD3 was plugged into the headphone output of my ModWright LS100 preamplifier while I was reviewing loudspeakers. After that I was most anxious to check whether the Entreq leash really improved the sound of the Audeze further yet.


Never say never. I’d thought  that the performance of these amazing cans couldn't get any better. There were no obvious downsides. How to improve upon that?  With the Entreq cable they did improve a bit more though. The background became really black (I thought it had been already but now it got even blacker). This made music even more spacious, with better placement and sizing of all performers in space. Everything became more distinct, clearer, more transparent and colorful. None of these improvements were huge so some might say that it wasn't much considering the €400 asked for the new harness. But after spending $2000 on cans and another $2-3K on a proper amp, wouldn’t you consider spending another $500 to step yet closer to that ‘perfect’ sound? The closer one gets to this hypothetical destination, the more it costs to climb another step. The Entreq step is comparatively harmless in cost and worth taking as I confirmed time and again whenever I switched back to the stock cable. Not once did I have any doubts that each time I did it, I'd lost something important. The Swedish cable brought some sense of calm to the presentation, not the calm of deficiencies in dynamics and energy but the calm which made me believe that everything was exactly where it belonged. There was the natural organic beautiful presentation which took my mind off the review and filled it with pure music.


The Audeze LCD3 are the best headphones I've listened too, period. At first they seemed darker than most people will be used to from other cans. But in fact this darkness comes from an unusual level of richness and sonic density that is extremely smooth. These planarmagnetic designs deliver powerful energetic very well-defined controlled bass that’s a notch warmer than the HE-6. The midrange is even richer and more palpable. Finally there's this amazing vibrant crisp strong airy treble that completes this outstanding performance. When properly fed these headphones will deliver impressive resolution and selectivity and prove just how revealing they can be. Their performance of course remains different from loudspeakers but is very very good to give a fresh very interesting view on recordings we love and know by heart. The HiFiMan HE-6 are serious competitors with a better price/value ratio and in my opinion are the more comfortable. Yet their performance is a step behind the Audeze LCD3. It is not a large step but if money is no issue and you're looking for top performance, I recommend trying the Audeze. Some might see the huge power requirement of the HE-6 as a downside but many users drive them directly from the binding posts of their regular power amplifiers. The Audeze look better and are the more elegant. They are made in the USA and not China if that matters to you. They are easier to drive and in my opinion take you that one step closer to the theoretical absolute sound.

Design. The LCD3 are the top model of American manufacturer Audeze. They look very solid and elegant with their ear cups made of precision-crafted hand-selected Zebrano wood and their ear pads and headband are made of lambskin. The customer selects delivery by travel case or nicely finished shiny black wooden box. Two sets of cables are included to terminate as either 6.3mm or XLR plug. On the ear side are small locking 4-pin plugs. The headphone connectors are angled on both ear cups to make moving your head around that much easier. Another smart detail are the sloped ear pads with specially molded foam that offers just the right amount of firmness. The LCD3 are quite heavy at 550g which regardless of the excellent lambskin finish of pads and headband makes them not too comfortable. The Lotus diaphragm with special alloy traces is said to be unique. This large 6.17 square-inch round and flat transducer sandwiches between rows of neodymium bar magnets. According to the manufacturer the large size and super-low mass generate significantly lower distortion than conventional headphone designs which subjective listening bears out. The LCD3 are relatively easy to drive with their 93dB sensitivity and nominal impedance of 50Ω.


Technical specs according to the manufacturer:
Planarmagnetic transducers
Custom designed Zebrano wood ear cups
Premium lambskin leather ear pads
Left and right transducers have matched sensitivity and frequency response within +/- 0.5dB
Specially designed self-closing acoustically transparent magnet structure with highest-grade Neodymium magnets
Frequency Response: 5Hz – 20kHz, usable extension to 50kHz
Distortion: less than 1% at full output
Impedance: 50Ω nominal
Maximum diaphragm excursion: 2.5mm p-p
Efficiency: 93dB/1mW
Maximum output: 133dB, 15W
Transducer active diaphragm area: 6.17 square inches
Input cable: custom cable with mini XLR connectors
Weight: 550g without cable
Audeze website