Introduction

At this point, the Audeze audio brand has been extensively covered on TechPowerUp, beginning with the LCD-2 Classic that came to market a few years ago. Soon after that, the company got into the gaming headset market with the Mobius and Penrose, and continued the budget showcase with the divisive-at-best LCD-1. Some fans of the company were speculating that Audeze was perhaps moving away from the higher-end market, but then 2021 was a revelation to everyone. First came the high-end Euclid IEMs employing a large planar magnetic driver and selling for $1300, and Audeze then decided it was time to update the LCD-X and LCD-XC headphones with new drivers and ear pads for $1200 and $1300. Flexing its engineering skills further, the company then had a limited edition collaboration result in ribbon drivers used in the LCD-R that went for $2,500 with the matching amplifier. If that was not enough, Audeze then entered the exotic electrostatic capacitive headphone field with the aptly named CRBN at an eye-watering $4,500! At this point, all complaints stopped and folks were busy saving cash for their preferred set from among all these new entries, but Audeze was not done just yet.


Audeze's LCD-4 flagship set of open-back, over-ear planar magnetic headphones were announced in late 2015 for $3,995. That is a lot of money, yet it quickly became one of the most popular and aspirational audio products. Those who heard it were enamored by the bass response in particular, and it seemingly holds up even today if you were to take the word of most owners who finally got their so-called end game. But one complaint that kept coming up was the massive 690 g weight, which is the primary reason behind the various "Audeze neck" memes I still chuckle at. Then came competition galore from the likes of the HIFIMAN Susvara and HE1000se, as well as the dynamic driver side with the Focal Utopia, all of which aimed to normalize the $4,000–$6,000 mark for headphones! Soon after the LCD-R and CRBN were announced, rumors started growing about there being a mystical LCD-5 in the making, and some inadvertent leaks from the design partner's side didn't help. One month after the $4,500 CRBN was announced, we saw the LCD-5 come in at the same price. This is a set of headphones that shares next to no commonalities with the rest of the Audeze product line aside from being open-back and over-ear planar magnetic, too. There is so much to discuss here that I spent nearly three months on this review to do justice to everything covered in our review which begins with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications