REVIEWS
TheLCD-1earcupsfoldso theheadphonefitsin a small,
hard-shelltravelcase.Uniforce’. For those of us who don’t
speak Martian: we use advanced
computing techniques to get the
most uniform distribution of force
possible on the diaphragm.”
Another Audeze innovation is its
Fluxor magnets. The description on
the company’s website gets pretty
technical, which I won’t go into here.
Suffice to say that Fluxor neodymium
magnets increase the magnetic field
strength at the diaphragm without
adding more weight to the assembly.
In the company’s flagship
headphones, each diaphragm is
suspended between two Fluxor magnet
structures, as seen in the image on
page 68. But in the LCD-1, there is onlyone magnet in each earcup, located
between the ear and the diaphragm.
This is less efficient than a double-
sided design, requiring more amp
power, but it allows the headphones
to be lighter. And the Fluxor magnet
is more efficient than a conventional
magnet, focusing more of the
magnetic field toward the diaphragm.
Why place the magnet between
the ear and diaphragm rather than the
other way around? Two reasons – to
protect the diaphragm and to allow
damping material to be placed on
the other side.
In most planar-magnetic
headphones, including those from
Audeze, the magnet is a slotted
structure that allows
sound to pass through
the slots. As you might
recall from basic
physics, when waves
pass through parallel
slots, they cause
interference patterns
(see opposite), which
can degrade the sound
quality. Audeze solves
this problem with
its Fazor waveguide
attached to the magnet
structure. According
to the company, this