Audeze continues to roll out the surprises this year, this one being one of the biggest yet. The company has announced its latest flagship reference headphones–the Audeze LCD-5 model. I forget what the LCD acronym works out as, but I’m pretty sure it stands for ‘awesome’. This pair of headphones clearly targets the audiophile community, as well as dedicated professionals who know that their ears like to hear when producing/mixing new content.
The new model is a step up from the LCD-4 (previous flagship) and features 90mm planar magnetic drivers, a nano-scale diaphragm, Fluxor magnets, and Parallel Uniforce voice coils. All within an open-back over-ear headphone design that should bring with it a huge sound stage. This, of course, is just our guess since we haven’t listened to them ourselves just yet. We’ll likely run into them in one of the future shows. Until then, we have a list of specs to share to at least develop somewhat of a picture (available at the bottom of this story).
Another thing to point out is the weight falls in at just 420g, compared to the 690g weight of the LCD-4 headphones. Making them nearly 40% lighter.
You will want to drive them with a good amp, like most of the LCD series (or any good pair of audiophile headphones). We’ll have a good example of this coming up shortly with the LCD-2C model that we currently have here running through a series of tests (review coming soon).
The new LCD-5 headphones retail for $4,500 and are available now at select certified dealers, as well as Audeze’s website.
Specifications:
- Style:Over-ear, open-back
- Transducer type: Planar Magnetic
- Magnetic structure: Fluxor magnet array
- Phase management: Fazor
- Magnet type: Neodymium N50
- Diaphragm type: Nano-Scale Parallel Uniforce
- Transducer size: 90 mm
- Maximum power handling: 5W RMS
- Maximum SPL: >130dB
- Frequency response: 5Hz – 50kHz
- THD: <0.1% @ 100dB
- Impedance: 14 ohms
- Sensitivity: 90 dB/1mW (at Drum Reference Point)
- Minimum power requirement: >100mW
- Recommended power level: >250mW
- Weight: 420g
