That's certainly a valid stance. What are you gonna do, have you decided yet?
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Audeze LCD-X Review (2021 Edition Headphone)
- Thread starter amirm
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It's understandable that you're annoyed. You have a right to return them for a full refund if they're faulty within 30 days... Unless you damaged them when trying to repair them. I presume that when you stuck the pads back on it was with the existing adhesive.
Where did you buy them? A number of headphone sellers in the UK refuse to accept returns, citing health concerns, which is against the law.
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Fair point. Bit dodgy of audeze still selling if you say they knew and didn't recall.
ishmeister
Active Member
I'm returning them for the repair they offered. A replacement didn't seem to be on the table, which I don't mind as long as the headphones return in the same (i.e. new) condition. I'll check them carefully when they get back and if I'm not happy then I'll have to talk to the retailer again about remaining options, which might be a return for refund.
About replacement vs repair - I'm speculating that there might have been concern that a replacement unit may also have QC issues. Mine was factory sealed in the box, so the retailer isn't able to inspect them.
So I'd suggest anyone buying a new unit should check how well the pads are attached. Mine was an extreme case but maybe not all are. I found another case here, but that was after a year.
Do you know if the 30 days is from order or delivery? They are a dedicated headphone retailer selling online in the UK. I want to give them a chance to resolve the issue and I'll come back with the full story and the name of the retailer (if you hadn't guessed).
30 days is from delivery. Why was a replacement not on the table? Why not request a refund and purchase elsewhere if they don't offer a replacement?
ishmeister
Active Member
I asked for an exchange but didn't insist and they offered a repair. But thinking about it, if I ask for a refund or exchange they would have to not only refurbish the returned unit, but also sell it at a discount. So I guess repairing it then sending it back to me saves them money. They seem to be an Audeze servicing partner as well, so have the ability to do it in-house.
I'm quite conflicted really that's why I'm asking what you all think is reasonable for me to do. What would you do?
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ishmeister
Active Member
correct
I'd get them to repair it & send it back to you - that's if you're concerned that a replacement could well have the same issue, so a repair is a more reliable option it seems. I'd probably also see if they can give you a discount of some sort considering your troubles, although if they decline a discount then it might be hard to then accept to still send it in, unless you word it in a way that you're not demanding a discount, saying something like "Ok, I'll send them in for a repair, but this has been a whole lot of trouble/hassle for me, and not what I expected of a high value purchase, do you think you can offer me somekind of a discount for my troubles?"
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ishmeister
Active Member
Yes I think this is best and I'll try asking for a discount. Let's see what happens.
Thanks to all for the much appreciated advice.
Good, well let us know what happens & the final outcome once you've received them back, along with the retailer you used (if you want to).
ishmeister
Active Member
So my LCD-X came back a while ago. The retailer is hifiheadphones.co.uk
The repair itself was quick (same day) but the return postage label they provided was quite slow. It was a 2-3 business day service but ended up taking over a week due to extra delays. £1000 headphones sitting in a warehouse for several days without moving and no updates from the carrier was quite stressful to be honest.
So anyway, the headphones are back and I'm happy with the repair and the product but not really with the approach of the retailer.
The headphone itself though is phenominal. I very quickly landed on an EQ that sounds great (tweaked from Oratory1990). I love the presentation of sound with these. I struggle to describe soundstage so I'll just say that it is for me in the goldilocks zone (not too big, not too small). Imaging is also fantastic. The star of the show though is the bass - though it really needs EQ to shine.
That's good, did they give you a discount for your troubles in the end?
ishmeister
Active Member
No unfortunately. My request to speak to a manager was brushed off. I emailed them some feedback afterwards including that they should use priority return shipping in such cases so hopefully they'll take that on board.
Oh well, at least you got your headphone back & fixed!
Just got in a new set of Audeze LCD-X 2021 leather cup today and about puked when I first listened to them. Horrible. My Austrian K701 with custom amp with bass compensation is way better. Then I found this thread and did the EQ curve on page one and now they sound better than the 701 with custom amp. Like people are saying, these take EQ brilliantly.
A word about the Audeze virtual studio software for anyone interested. It is made by Waves (a large plugin maker for audio production). Waves also sells virtual studio plugins under their own brand, and they include curves for many headphones including the LCD-X 2021. The purpose of these plugins is to provide a virtual binaural perspective of studio monitors in a room playing a stereo source, as if you are in the room. So it is much, much more than just an EQ curve. Grammy winning mastering engineer Glenn Schick uses high end cans and virtual studios these days instead of traditional speaker monitors in a treated room, and he says its on par with the best rooms and speakers, and is completely portable. In one video interview I watched, he's wearing Audeze open backs of some sort...
All that said, the EQ curve in this article is much better than the one provided by Waves imo, and presumably better than the one in the Audeze virtual studio since it is a Waves product. I find that placing the correction EQ from this article *after* the virtual studio (and using no correction curve inside of the product) is superior to using the included EQ curve inside the product. It still affords a quick and painless way to swap from the virtual binaural perspective of speakers, complete with crosstalk and room acoustics of the treated studio (Abby Road One, Ocean Way Nashville, etc. whichever product you purchase from Waves) and an EQ corrected stereo perspective of just the cans (both are needed to do a proper mix). FWIW I am using the Tokyo Dawn Nova GE EQ for this, a fantastic piece of DSP.
Since I just got these today, the acid test is going to be doing a couple of remixes with these. With my 701 setup I was getting the same small issues on every mix, despite trying to do EQ corrections on the cans to get them to reveal those issues. Fortunately the initial listen to those mixes thru the corrected LCD-X revealed those issues the same as my traditional monitors do. Which is encouraging, since the goal is to drop using them (the way Schick did) except as a double check.
So unless the remix tests are a fail and they don't translate, these LCD-X won't be going back. Given how close I was getting with the 701 setup, I'll be surprised if these don't work out, but well see.... I will say I was initially turned off by the amount of EQ needed for the correction, but it does in fact sound great even cranked to dangerous levels. The fact these completely suck without EQ is a bit of a bummer, but for me they are a work tool, so not going to sweat having to add an EQ plugin. And I'll use my 701 setup for recreational listening.
A word about the Audeze virtual studio software for anyone interested. It is made by Waves (a large plugin maker for audio production). Waves also sells virtual studio plugins under their own brand, and they include curves for many headphones including the LCD-X 2021. The purpose of these plugins is to provide a virtual binaural perspective of studio monitors in a room playing a stereo source, as if you are in the room. So it is much, much more than just an EQ curve. Grammy winning mastering engineer Glenn Schick uses high end cans and virtual studios these days instead of traditional speaker monitors in a treated room, and he says its on par with the best rooms and speakers, and is completely portable. In one video interview I watched, he's wearing Audeze open backs of some sort...
All that said, the EQ curve in this article is much better than the one provided by Waves imo, and presumably better than the one in the Audeze virtual studio since it is a Waves product. I find that placing the correction EQ from this article *after* the virtual studio (and using no correction curve inside of the product) is superior to using the included EQ curve inside the product. It still affords a quick and painless way to swap from the virtual binaural perspective of speakers, complete with crosstalk and room acoustics of the treated studio (Abby Road One, Ocean Way Nashville, etc. whichever product you purchase from Waves) and an EQ corrected stereo perspective of just the cans (both are needed to do a proper mix). FWIW I am using the Tokyo Dawn Nova GE EQ for this, a fantastic piece of DSP.
Since I just got these today, the acid test is going to be doing a couple of remixes with these. With my 701 setup I was getting the same small issues on every mix, despite trying to do EQ corrections on the cans to get them to reveal those issues. Fortunately the initial listen to those mixes thru the corrected LCD-X revealed those issues the same as my traditional monitors do. Which is encouraging, since the goal is to drop using them (the way Schick did) except as a double check.
So unless the remix tests are a fail and they don't translate, these LCD-X won't be going back. Given how close I was getting with the 701 setup, I'll be surprised if these don't work out, but well see.... I will say I was initially turned off by the amount of EQ needed for the correction, but it does in fact sound great even cranked to dangerous levels. The fact these completely suck without EQ is a bit of a bummer, but for me they are a work tool, so not going to sweat having to add an EQ plugin. And I'll use my 701 setup for recreational listening.
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I use Fabfilter Pro-Q 3 as a monitor FX in Reaper. Pro-Q is not free but I think it's worth the price with all the features it got, like EQ match and such.
The issue with Pro-Q 3 is that the Q-values need be "translated", otherwise they are different.
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