High End 2018: Audeze

Headphone manufacturer Audeze, from California, USA, demonstrated its product range at CanJam Munich.  Among the products on display were the LCDi4 and a prototype of the Mobius.

The LCDi4 is a planar magnetic in-ear headphone.  Despite its unusual shape it's quite comfortable to wear.  Its sound is wonderfully dynamic and seamless, from the deep, tight base through the midrange to the sparking treble.  It also provides a much larger soundstage than you would expect with a headphone, with very precise and stable imaging.  Excellent!

The Mobius is a closed back planar magnetic headphone with a host of sophisticated features, including head tracking, 3D sound localisation, and wireless and wired operation.  The Mobius targets the gaming and movie markets.

I experienced a demo with the "Echo Game" scene from the movie "House of Flying Daggers". The head tracking worked extremely well.  With regular headphones the acoustic image moves as your head moves.  However, with the Mobius the acoustic image accurately tracked the action on the screen, independent of my head movements.  This created a very immersive movie-watching experience.  This is a very impressive product.

© Wayne Butcher

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