Planar Headphones - What to Test For

[buildafriend]

Hi,

A friend is asking me to see if I can troubleshoot a failing right side to a planar design pair of headphones. With little experience on planar designs I was curious if anyone might have advice for ways to test them. They aren't cheap, so I'm hoping I can help this person out during these rough times since he uses them for his mixes regularly.

https://www.audeze.com/products/lcd-2

Kindly,
- JP

 

[RuudNL]

I wouldn't dare to work on such a rather expensive pair of headphones without any experience.
Wouldn't it be the best option to send it to the manufacturer for repair?
(Without specific knowledge it is easy to do more harm than good...)

 

[JohnRoberts]

Obvious suspect is broken wires, is it dead or distorted? Dead may be easier to fix than distorted.

JR

 

[buildafriend]

Obvious suspect is broken wires, is it dead or distorted? Dead may be easier to fix than distorted.

JR

It's dead on the R side. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it were that simple, headphone cables do get moved around a lot. Knowing what measurements to look for could also be very revealing.

All the best,
-   

 

[Chris]

I'd first swap the left and right mini XLR cables. If the problem follows the XLR, it's the cable. If it doesn't, the fault's in the headphones themselves.

 

[buildafriend]

Thanks Chris,

That's been done by the person who owns them. As well as all of the typical pressing on connectors and trying different HP amps etc..

All the best,

 

[buildafriend]

The issue seems to be created by the sensitivity of the the diaphragm in conjunction with air pressure changes while placing it on and off of people heads. I could not get it to fail and then come back up by any other logical stress test. I would guess the diaphragm is damaged and might need to be replaced at this point, in which case it would have to be ordered from the manufacturer. I would not attempt to install it without the direction of their technical department guiding me. They are on their third owner so they aren't under warranty. TIL; planar headphone diaphragms can be very delicate. I will add they sounded amazing.

All the best,
- JP