As the diaphragm vibrates, it sends sound waves through the slots of the magnet
structure, causing interference patterns as they emerge. Audeze’s Fazor waveguides
eliminate this interference. In this generic diagram, there are magnets and Fazors on both
sides of the diaphragm, but in the LCD-1, they are on only one side of the diaphragm.
eliminates the interference patterns,
corrects the phase response, and
improves the acoustic impedance.
Without the Fazor waveguides,
sound waves emerge from the
slots and interfere with each other,
degrading the sound quality. The
Fazor waveguides eliminate this
interference. In this diagram, there are
magnets and Fazors on both sides of
the diaphragm, but in the LCD-1, they
are only on one side.
PERFORMANCE
The LCD-1 is quite lightweight, and
the earpads are very comfortable;
my ears fit nicely in them, and they
are super-soft. The earcups provide a
surprising sense of isolation, despite
being their open-back design. My only
complaint here is that the headphone
feels a bit flimsy.
As usual, I played high-res audio
files from the Tidal Master library on
my iPhone XS, using the iFi hip-dac
as the DAC/amplifier. First up was In
Too Deep by Jacob Collier from his
most recent album Djesse Vol. 3. The
vocals are accompanied mostly by
synths with some super-low bass, all of
which was rendered beautifully by the
LCD-1 – clean and clear with an open
soundstage and natural, present vocals.
The deep bass was exceptionally
well represented without bloat or
congestion, and it balanced the rest of
the spectrum perfectly.
I haven’t seen Pixar’s latest movie
Soul yet, but the soundtrack album is
now streaming from the Tidal Master