To my ears, side by side, the SC1 and 404 are very different headphones. The 404 is peaky and edgy while the SR-404 is more like the SR-Lambda and the Lambda Spirit/Pro Classic, very smooth though ultimately not impressive in the long run. They are both Lambdas so they fall within those parameters but the difference is clearly there even thought the phones are nearly identical. The LNS are also identical but sound nothing like either of those. The devil is in the details my friend...