Audeze’s been making high-end headphones in California since 2008. Over the years, thanks to their phenomenal sound, they’ve built a following among audio engineers and serious music listeners. The LCD series has always been their flagship line, starting with the LCD-2 back in 2009. Now there’s a new pair of headphones called the Audeze LCD-5s. The naming scheme suggests that this is a variant of the original LCD-5 , and so the question is, should you upgrade? The answer depends, but one key feature of the LCD-5s is the introduction of SLAM technology.
Audeze LCD-5s headphones come with SLAM tech
For those unfamiliar, SLAM stands for Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modulator. It sounds like a mouthful, but basically it means that you can expect better bass. Headphones like the Audeze LCD-5s are planar magnetic headphones. These types of headphones are great and are known for their detail and clarity.
Unfortunately, bass has always been something of a weak spot. SLAM fixes this by using tiny channels carved around the driver that control air pressure. So, if you thought that the original LCD-5 sounded great but could do with a bit of improvement in the bass department, the LCD-5s with its SLAM tech should help with that.
In addition to SLAM, Audeze has outfitted the headphones with 90mm planar magnetic drivers with a frequency response from 5Hz to 50kHz. For context, most people can’t hear below 20Hz or above 20kHz, so these go way beyond human hearing range. It’s unnecessary but basically Audeze is showing you how wide its range gets.
The company is also introducing other tech features like Parallel Uniforce diaphragms, Fluxor magnet arrays, and Fazor phase management. All of this is supposed to create clearer, more accurate sound with better bass punch than the original LCD-5. We haven’t tested it out ourselves so we’ll have to take their word for it.
The LCD-5s are also open-back headphones. This means that it won’t be as effective as close-back headphones when it comes to passive noise isolation. However, if you’re primarily listening to them at home or in a dedicated space, it shouldn’t matter as much. Plus, the open-back design means you can expect a better/wider soundstage.
Pricing & availability
We should note that the Audeze LCD-5s won’t be cheap . The headphones are priced at $4,500, which puts them in competition with other flagship planar headphones and high-end offerings from Focal and Sennheiser. However, it is the same price as the LCD-5. If you didn’t pull the trigger on the LCD-5, then maybe the LCD-5s with SLAM tech could be a better option.
