Наушники — Audeze LCD-5s

The LCD-5s is an open-back, circumaural planar magnetic headphone from Audeze, listed by the maker at USD 4,500. It was announced at the NAMM show in 2026 as a new version of the LCD-5, pairing a 90 mm planar transducer with a revised frame of carbon fibre, magnesium, leather, polished polymer acetate and copper accents. The headphone ships with a balanced cable and an aluminium travel case.

Key specs that matter

Audeze rates the frequency response at 5 Hz to 50 kHz. Impedance is 35 ohm and sensitivity is 90 dB for 1 mW, measured at the drum reference point. Maximum output exceeds 130 dB SPL, and distortion stays below 0.1 percent at 100 dB SPL. The maker lists a minimum power requirement above 100 mW, a recommended level above 500 mW and maximum power handling of 5 W RMS. The headphone weighs 475 g without its cable.

Engineering and use context

Where the original LCD-5 used Uniforce traces, the diaphragm here is Audeze's Nano-Scale Parallel Uniforce design, driven by a Fluxor magnet array built from N50 neodymium magnets. Fazor elements handle phase management at the driver, while SLAM (the Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modulator) is a patent-pending airflow and acoustic control system integrated into the driver housing that works as a mechanical pressure optimiser and lifts the region down to 10 Hz by 6 dB. The acetate rings around the ear cups have a tortoiseshell finish. The ear pads have been reshaped with a curved profile and new geometry, which Audeze describes as a change aimed at long-term comfort, a better seal and lower reflections inside the cup. The supplied cable uses ultra high-purity OCC copper with directional strands and terminates in a 4-pin XLR plug, and a 4-pin XLR to 6.3 mm TRS adapter is included for single-ended outputs.

Pairing

The power requirements call for a separate headphone amplifier, and a model with a 4-pin XLR balanced jack can take the stock cable directly. Amplifiers with only a single-ended socket connect through the bundled adapter, and the power handling rating leaves room for high-power desktop designs.

Alternatives

The Audeze Maxwell 2 is a closed-back wireless planar magnetic headphone from the same maker.