High fidelity headphones tend to come with an on-topic “high” price to match. But the latest pair from Audeze goes the opposite direction.
Everything costs so much these days, and the cost of living certainly doesn’t help, so it can be a little surprising to see brands going for prices under that of everything else.
We won’t look a gift horse in the mouth, though, and the same is true when that horse happens to be wearing headphones, or even if it aims to release new pairs built to be more economical, which appears to be what HiFi headphone maker Audeze is doing.
Known for thousand dollar headphones — and cans that cost a lot more than that — Audeze has been dabbling in more wallet-friendly approaches for its planar magnetic drivers for a while now, no doubt helped by Sony which acquired the headphone maker in 2023.
This year, the latest effort will be a pair of closed-back headphones made for the world of recording and listening alike, and arriving with a patent-pending technology to improve low frequencies for more accurate diaphragm movement and bigger bass.
The technology called “SLAM” stands for Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modulator, and is designed to enhance the lows without shaking the headphones.
A combination of SLAM and Audeze’s 90mm planar magnets can be found in the LCD-S20, a pair of headphones designed to be premium, but still relatively inexpensive, at least in comparison to its other headphones.
In Australia, the $899 price is a little higher than other headphones, but not out of kilter compared to the high-end, what with Apple’s wireless AirPods Max for the same price, and the Focal Bathys for closer to the $1300 mark.
Of course, $899 in Australia is higher than the $499 price the LCD-S20 will cost in the US. However, they’re also much less expensive than the $9999 Australian price of the Audeze CRBN2 headphones, another pair that uses the SLAM technology used in the S20, albeit designed to be even more premium again.
“With the LCD-S20, we’re bringing Audeze’s renowned studio-quality sound to a broader audience without compromising on innovation or performance,” Sankar Thiagasamudram, CEO of Audeze.
“The integration of our SLAM technology is a leap forward in both audio fidelity and user experience,” he said.
One catch worth pointing out that may throw some is the fact that unlike some of the other high-end headphone options, this one is wired-only. There’s no cord-free variation, though it does have a single-sided detachable cable you can use on either the left or right side, as well as a magnetic earpad system to let people quickly replace earpads.
Like other HiFi headphones, these aren’t quite the same as wireless headphones. They’re made for listening to high-resolution files and services, and to record and engineer music with, which explains all the musicians in the imagery.
There are inexpensive options by comparison — Rode’s NT headphones come to mind, as does Sennheiser’s HD 25, both of which are excellent — but Audeze’s take on the tech brings a sizeable driver to a large and usually comfortable ear cup size, now with a slightly lower price point to boot.
