All
Audeze
Website:https://www.audeze.com/
Est. year: 2010
Audeze is an American headphone maker founded in 2008 by Sankar Thiagasamudram and Alexander Rosson in a Southern California garage, where a poster for the film 2001 - A Space Odyssey gave the company its name. It adapted flexible-circuit technology developed for NASA into planar-magnetic headphone drivers, released its first LCD model in 2009 and has grown into a dedicated planar-magnetic specialist, with its factory and showroom in Santa Ana, California, and eleven US patents to its name.
Range & what it's known for
The catalog splits into four families. The LCD series, from the LCD-2 through the LCD-X to the LCD-5 flagship with its 90 mm driver and 420 g weight, is the audiophile line. The MM series, developed with producer Manny Marroquin, serves studio and mastering work. The Maxwell series brings the same 90 mm US-made planar drivers to wireless gaming headsets for PlayStation and Xbox with 80-plus hours of battery life, and the CRBN series uses an electrostatic driver. Planar magnetism runs through everything except CRBN, and the company's Fluxor magnet arrays and flexible printed-circuit diaphragms are the recurring engineering thread.
Who owns it and where it's made
Audeze was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in August 2023 and continues to operate independently under co-founder and CEO Sankar Thiagasamudram with CTO Dr. Dragoslav Colich, while developing multi-platform products that are built around the PlayStation platform. Every planar-magnetic and electrostatic driver is made at its own Orange County, California facility, which has become the largest flexible printed-circuit-board manufacturer in the United States, and every headphone priced above USD 399 is hand-assembled there.
The lineup in this catalog
Headphones (5). About USD 400 buys the least expensive Audeze planar model, and the LCD-5 flagship costs USD 4,500.
Who it's for
Audeze suits buyers who have decided on planar-magnetic drivers and want them from a maker that builds the drivers itself rather than buying them in. The LCD-2 and LCD-X are the usual entry point for home listening, the LCD-5 is the top of the same line, the MM models fit engineers who need to hear a mix the way a mastering room does, and the Maxwell headsets bring the same driver technology to gamers who want a wireless unit built on the PlayStation and Xbox platforms.
Range & what it's known for
The catalog splits into four families. The LCD series, from the LCD-2 through the LCD-X to the LCD-5 flagship with its 90 mm driver and 420 g weight, is the audiophile line. The MM series, developed with producer Manny Marroquin, serves studio and mastering work. The Maxwell series brings the same 90 mm US-made planar drivers to wireless gaming headsets for PlayStation and Xbox with 80-plus hours of battery life, and the CRBN series uses an electrostatic driver. Planar magnetism runs through everything except CRBN, and the company's Fluxor magnet arrays and flexible printed-circuit diaphragms are the recurring engineering thread.
Who owns it and where it's made
Audeze was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in August 2023 and continues to operate independently under co-founder and CEO Sankar Thiagasamudram with CTO Dr. Dragoslav Colich, while developing multi-platform products that are built around the PlayStation platform. Every planar-magnetic and electrostatic driver is made at its own Orange County, California facility, which has become the largest flexible printed-circuit-board manufacturer in the United States, and every headphone priced above USD 399 is hand-assembled there.
The lineup in this catalog
Headphones (5). About USD 400 buys the least expensive Audeze planar model, and the LCD-5 flagship costs USD 4,500.
Who it's for
Audeze suits buyers who have decided on planar-magnetic drivers and want them from a maker that builds the drivers itself rather than buying them in. The LCD-2 and LCD-X are the usual entry point for home listening, the LCD-5 is the top of the same line, the MM models fit engineers who need to hear a mix the way a mastering room does, and the Maxwell headsets bring the same driver technology to gamers who want a wireless unit built on the PlayStation and Xbox platforms.
