this case, an acoustic guitar tuned
quite a bit lower than normal. The
folky, finger-picked piece sounded
clean, open and well-balanced on the
LCD-1, with a wonderful low end and
no hint of congestion.
For some throwback fun, I listened
to Money For Nothing from Dire Straits’
1985 album Brothers in Arms, which
was recently released in MQA format.
The LCD-1 presented a big, open
soundstage in which the stereo drums
really bounced around. Once again, the
sound was clean, and I could hear each
instrument and voice clearly, including
Sting’s unmistakable guest vocals.
Lately, I’ve been listening to a
lot of The Manhattan Transfer, one
of my favourite vocal groups, so I
cued up Cantaloop (Flip Out!) from
The Junction. The music is based
on the classic Herbie Hancock tune
Cantaloupe Island with lyrics by Us3.
It’s a richly produced track and a
wonderful mix with deep bass and
an infectious groove. As I had come
to expect, the LCD-1 did it full justice
with a clean, open sound. The deep
bass was perfectly balanced with
the rest of the ensemble without
becoming overbearing.
I always include some classical
music in my review listening. This
time, I started with the first movement
of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for String
Orchestra in C Major, Op. 48, from
the album Serenades by the Zürcher
Kammerorchester under the direction
of Daniel Hope. Once again, the sound
of the LCD-1 was clean, open, and well-
balanced. The strings sounded vibrant,
and I could clearly delineate each
section within a cohesive whole.
Finally, I listened to the fourth
movement of Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, as recorded by
the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
under the direction of Lahav Shani. The
LCD-1 had a nice, open, wide sound
with excellent balance.VERDICT
As I was listening to the LCD-1, the
words that kept coming to mind were
‘transparent’ and ‘precise’. The sound
was very open, allowing me to listen
deep into the mix. And the balance
between frequency ranges was
exceptionally flat, with just the right
amount of bass – extending well into
the subterranean depths – that never
overpowered the mids or highs.
Clearly, the LCD-1 does not follow
the ‘smiley’ EQ curve that boosts the
bass and treble in many consumer
headphones for the sake of impact and
razzle-dazzle. Some might complain
about deficient bass, but I found the