Carlton Audio Visual is late to the world of Head Fi … I’ve watched the development of this marketplace with a slight bewilderment and I confess a dose of cynicism. The bright young phabletnicks parading Lygon street with Beats and Bose seemed to be fashion driven aliens to our jaded and possibly tweedy performance driven eyes. Especially when they try to cross the road wearing them looking the wrong way ….

Then I started hearing of this new American headphone brand on the grapevine ... something different … something that could appeal to the most sensitive Hi Fi freak and at the same time making inroads into the studio market but without the bitter fatiguing presentation of the traditional Sennheiser and AKG products. Thus Audeze entered our small sphere of influence.

These Audeze LCD series are beautiful and carefully presented devices. Clearly something to be bought out on a special occasion and not simply bandied about on the morning commute. Unlike our beloved and incredibly good Oppo headphones the LCD series stand out with their wood and bamboo cases. It would be frankly pretentious to wear LCDs on the morning commute, indeed these bamboo and wood LCD 2 and LCD 3 are such good transducers that it seems churlish not to make a special time and a place to listen to them with a good wine to complement the experience.

Where the Oppo PM1 is pure and supremely accurate the LCD 2 is warm and bass full. Where the Oppo is manufactured with fanatic perfection the Audeze feels like a hand hewn product. Both headphones are fantastic and you can come to us and try them in a newly dedicated space at the back of the store in the 164 Lygon St premises. Alcohol, caffeine, and small dogs with hearing to 40Khz are available to complement the experience.