Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[Vini darko]

Not sure if this has been said already but I have a feeling that it would be good for the reviews if Amir took a little break from reviewing headphones after this one, this one may have messed up the scheme a little bit, not that I don't trust Amir's professionalism but something to cleanse the palate after a homerun like this can't be a bad thing, or the next headphones could seem quite underwhelming?

Nah I'm still intrested to see how the hifiman 400se does. It's atcually affordable.

 

[ZööZ]

Nah I'm still intrested to see how the hifiman 400se does. It's atcually affordable.

sure, but maybe not right away? (as a proud owner of the 4xx)

 

[buz]

Very impressive.

But I still think I will stick with my barely 6 month old HD800s and put the money towards speakers - if I ever get around to buy a suitable house...

 

[bluefuzz]

I don't really get the complaints about the price. This is the first release of a small production, handmade item with legitimately innovative research and development.

I make acoustic guitars. I can maybe make a guitar in 200 hours – and that's pushing it. I could perhaps sell such a guitar for ~$4000 (luckily I don't do this commercially). That is handmade.

The parts for DCA's headphones are obviously fabricated using high precision machinery. Once that sort of tooling is in place you can make a hundred parts pretty much as fast (and as accurately) as you can make one. They may be assembled by humans using machine fabricated parts. But that is not the same as hand made. If they truly are hand made then Amir has undoubtedly received a golden sample as I do not believe it is possible for a human to make a headphone with that kind of response reliably by hand ...

 

[respice finem]

It's a mistake IMHO to think, the retail price (for any technical item) must be directly related to the cost of R&D / production. While it has to pay for these, and the taxes, there are other factors, such as paying your employees, financing the development of future products etc. And, last but not least, using the potential of the market. There's nothing wrong or "immoral" about it. A headphone like this is not a drug people need to survive, it's a luxury item for hobbyists, not less, not more. Why sell it under its market value?

 

[spartaman64]

I make acoustic guitars. I can maybe make a guitar in 200 hours – and that's pushing it. I could perhaps sell such a guitar for ~$4000 (luckily I don't do this commercially). That is handmade.

The parts for DCA's headphones are obviously fabricated using high precision machinery. Once that sort of tooling is in place you can make a hundred parts pretty much as fast (and as accurately) as you can make one. They may be assembled by humans using machine fabricated parts. But that is not the same as hand made. If they truly are hand made then Amir has undoubtedly received a golden sample as I do not believe it is possible for a human to make a headphone with that kind of response reliably by hand ...

but are you inventing new technology to revolutionize the guitar industry as you are building that guitar? im sure there will be later headphones using that technology that will be cheaper but the first of something is commonly expensive.

 

[gonzoucab]

You COULD feel something in your belly if you used one of these:

https://www.woojer.com/pages/strap

Cant wait to see ammir trying one of there lol

 

[gonzoucab]

Bring the neumann !

i bet they do 10% as good as this ones lol

 

[respice finem]

Cant wait to see ammir trying one of there lol

ASR doesn't test vibrators

 

[Galke6]

Nice review Amirm!
When will you review the Aeon Noire 2?

 

[Koeitje]

DCA:"The contact surface and inner wall are an airtight microfiber that's more durable and comfortable than our Italian leather pads, they don't get damp or sticky. The outer wall is our standard Japanese synthetic. The synthetics also give us better dimensional consistent for tighter tolerances."

Ok, I hope the microfiber lasts for decades then.

 

[ZööZ]

It's a mistake IMHO to think, the retail price (for any technical item) must be directly related to the cost of R&D / production. While it has to pay for these, and the taxes, there are other factors, such as paying your employees, financing the development of future products etc. And, last but not least, using the potential of the market. There's nothing wrong or "immoral" about it. A headphone like this is not a drug people need to survive, it's a luxury item for hobbyists, not less, not more. Why sell it under its market value?

My first thought on these things is always that yeah you can make alot of money if you sell 15 000 of them... but if you sold 150 000 of them for quarter the price you'd make alot more... but both of them come with inherent risks... but when you're selling something in the price range of these you're not expecting them to sell tens of thousands, you're trying to play safe and make your money back with maybe 1 to 2 hundred pairs sold. Maybe even few dozen. People alot wiser than me are welcome to correct me.

 

[respice finem]

My first thought on these things is always that yeah you can make alot of money if you sell 15 000 of them... but if you sold 150 000 of them for quarter the price you'd make alot more... but both of them come with inherent risks... but when you're selling something in the price range of these you're not expecting them to sell tens of thousands, you're trying to play safe and make your money back with maybe 1 to 2 hundred pairs sold. Maybe even few dozen. People alot wiser than me are welcome to correct me.

I can only speculate: DCA can only make so many - maybe even not enough to meet the demand at its current price. So, it would be probably unwise to aim "for the masses". Too many too big players catering to these masses. In a few years time, this might change, but even the biggest ones started small.

 

[Coin3]

ASR doesn't test vibrators

Hey it does have a built in headphone amp, though. Maybe he could test that and try out the vibration feature as a bonus.

 

[Dan Clark]

Ok, I hope the microfiber lasts for decades then.

It's made for cars, it's tough. The foam will probably fail before the suede. The headphones come with a pad spacer to protect the foam when stored.

 

[Tachyon88]

I think grey stitching would look more "stealth". My biggest disappointment is taped ear pads. Is there documentation on how to take them on and off ?

 

[gonzoucab]

ASR doesn't test vibrators

IT WILL BE FUN!!!

 

[edahl]

Part of me is considering selling my HEKse for a pair of these :$

 

[gonzoucab]

Part of me is considering selling my HEKse for a pair of these :$

then sir, you are a wealthy guy

 

[PeteL]

I make acoustic guitars. I can maybe make a guitar in 200 hours – and that's pushing it. I could perhaps sell such a guitar for ~$4000 (luckily I don't do this commercially). That is handmade.

The parts for DCA's headphones are obviously fabricated using high precision machinery. Once that sort of tooling is in place you can make a hundred parts pretty much as fast (and as accurately) as you can make one. They may be assembled by humans using machine fabricated parts. But that is not the same as hand made. If they truly are hand made then Amir has undoubtedly received a golden sample as I do not believe it is possible for a human to make a headphone with that kind of response reliably by hand ...

I believe that carbon fiber molding is a process a bit more involved than plastic injection molding, of course you use molds, not a chisel, but still. Also we know that drivers are measured and match one by one, etc. It still look like a quite manual process in the grand scheme of things. And in all case even if it was the case that you can spit outs hundreds a minutes, tooling is the big cost driver, high fixed cost and low unit cost, but it's not a product that do large volume so in the end the tooling has to be distributed trough a sale volume that make sense. You can have all the machines in the world, if you sell fifty a year all units become expensive.