I've been auditioning the LCD-4 for the past few days, as a possible upgrade replacement of my LCD-3. The results surprised me, so I thought I'd write a review.

I expected the LCD-4 to best the LCD-3 in all categories, and the question would be whether it's superior enough to justify the much higher price. Turns out that I liked the LCD-3 more overall, hence my surprise.

Don't get me wrong, I do think the LCD-4 is an excellent headphone, at times amazingly good. There's definitely a bit more detail and resolution than the LCD-3, as one might expect, given the technology involved. But I want to emphasize that it's only a bit more, not a lot more. Other strengths are the typical Audeze LCD strengths: excellent controlled bass and smooth mids.

The main problem with the LCD-4, as Tyll Hertsens and other reviewers here in head-fi have noted, is in the shape of high mids and beyond. There's a pronounced dip from the upper mids to the lower highs, which results in a recessed and distant sound. And then the highs beyond that are somewhat boosted, which gives the LCD-4 an unwanted edge. More problematic, when all of this is combined, to my ears there's a very noticeably unnatural sound to cymbals and snare drums, and for me that's a dealbreaker, especially for a $4K TOTL headphone. By comparison, the LCD-3 has these problems to a much lesser degree, to the extent that it's not really an issue, and meanwhile it retains the positive qualities of the tonality from the bass to the mids. The net result is that, overall, I find the LCD-3 to sound more natural and engaging, and on 9 out of 10 tracks I prefer it over the LCD-4.

Given this surprising finding, I also compared the LCD-4 with my HD800S. To my ears, the HD800S has a more accurate and natural tonal balance than the LCD-4, and also brings out a touch more detail than the LCD-4 (probably partly because of the better tonal balance). Yes, the LCD-4 has better bass, and the HD800S bass initially sounds weak when immediately switching from the LCD-4, but after giving my ears some time to adjust to the HD800S, I don't find the bass of the HD800S to be lacking at all, and I don't really find myself missing the bass of the LCD-4. So overall, I prefer the HD800S over the LCD-4, and of course the HD800S costs even less than the LCD-3.

Considering that the LCD-4 is bested by its own younger sibling, the LCD-3, at half the price, and also bested on detail by the HD800S at an even lower price, I can't recommend the LCD-4. But of course, this is all for my ears, and Other Ears May Differ (OEMD).

I see that the reviews so far are positive, so I thought I should post a short review, since I personally and subjectively was very disappointed with the sound of the Z1R.

My local dealer provided me a set for audition, and I had planned to audition it for more than a week.

Opening up the box, I found that the case is nice and the build quality of the headphone is good - nothing fancy, but good quality. The stock cable seems a bit cheap, but I assume it does its job, and I don't expect cables to sound different.

Putting it on my head, it was comfortable and provided a good noise-isolating seal, and it remained comfortable after hours of listening.

My first impression during listening was that I wasn't wowed and the music wasn't grabbing me. I wondered if I'm just not in a mood to listen to music? I listened for hours more, and found myself liking the sound even less. The bass seemed too strong, and the highs seemed to simultaneously lack energy and be a bit piercing. Weird …

So I broke my own rule of not comparing a new headphone with other headphones until I had listened to it by itself for a few days. I compared with my Sennheiser HD800S, Focal Clear, LCD-3, and Meze 99 Classics, and all four of these sounded a lot better to me than the Z1R. I then went and grabbed my relatively inexpensive M40X and M50X, and they too sounded better to me than the Z1R. What's going on here?

Recalling that Tyll Hertsens had written a negative review of the Z1R, I went back to read his review again. To my ears/brain, his review of the Z1R and his analysis of why he doesn't like its sound describes my experience perfectly:

- The bass extends too far into the mids, resulting in a somewhat bloated and boomy bass, and reduced overall clarity.

- The treble response is very uneven. The presence region is weak, which sucks the energy out of horns and cymbals, and renders their sound quite unrealistic. It also gives the music a more distant sound, which probably is part of the reason why the Z1R seems to have a decent stage size. And beyond the presence region, the highs around 10 kHz are quite boosted, which gives the Z1R a subtle piercing edge and probably explains why some listeners perceive the Z1R as having good detail and air.

I boxed up the Z1R after three days and returned it. I didn't expect that listening to it for more days would help much, nor should it be necessary.

Overall, at least for my ears/brain, the Z1R is poorly designed, and is outperformed by plenty of closed-back headphones costing less than $500. I can't recommend it.