Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[VariousArtists]

P.S. A condition of sending this headphone to me for review was that it would have to be returned to the company. It would be a sad, sad day when that happens!

High integrity move - definitely sad for Amir but I just can't take any reviewer seriously if they accept free sample or perks from the manufacturer due to the inherent conflict of interest.

I applaud Dan and Amir for this professional conduct.

 

[edahl]

then sir, you are a wealthy guy

Not wealthy enough to have both sadly. There's also 15% off if you've purchased a DC product before

 

[ZööZ]

Not wealthy enough to have both sadly. There's also 15% off if you've purchased a DC product before

That if anything is a first world problem, not anything hostile, just making an observation, maybe if I really wanted I could afford this without any vat shenanigans or shippings but I'd have to forego any plans of expanding my 2.2 to an atmos surround system and any upgrades to my gaming pc, as I can barely afford any of this to begin with. Just saying that's a bloody good problem to have

 

[respice finem]

...bloody good problem to have

This. Same here, my brain says no, not my wallet. Too much stuff already, too little time to listen...

 

[edahl]

That if anything is a first world problem, not anything hostile, just making an observation, maybe if I really wanted I could afford this without any vat shenanigans or shippings but I'd have to forego any plans of expanding my 2.2 to an atmos surround system and any upgrades to my gaming pc, as I can barely afford any of this to begin with. Just saying that's a bloody good problem to have

Total agreement and no offense taken

 

[0800 Dub]

vegan

Respect.

 

[amirm]

I've seen some subjective reviews of the RAAL SRa1 headphone where people have a similar reaction - that it's a transformative experience.
Would be interesting to see if Amir could get ahold of a pair and review/compare.

I have reviewed that already: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...requisite-sr1a-ribbon-headphone-review.16355/

 

[woof!]

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?

Please don't. I am not in the market for a new headphones but I have fun reading the reviews. I want to read his reviews on other high ends like Stax 009, Final Audio D8000 pro, Susvara, etc.

 

[SeriousSam70]

Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where both parties are right: the headphones are probably worth the asking price given that they have stellar technical capabilities and are produced in small quantities by a boutique manufacturer, but the average consumer is also right when he says that $ 4,000 it is an exorbitant amount of money, regardless of whether this price is justified or not.
Two more remarks:
- The L and R matching looks good from Amir's chart, but not perfect, as you would expect at such a price (however, maybe this phenomenon is due to the limitations of the measuring rig, I'm not an expert).
- In my humble opinion, and here I am in @ bluefuzz assent, these headphones look more like gaming headphones and not like luxury items, in the way Meze Empyreans, for example, manage to look and feel, for $ 1000 less than these !

 

[Chester]

Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where both parties are right: the headphones are probably worth the asking price given that they have stellar technical capabilities and are produced in small quantities by a boutique manufacturer, but the average consumer is also right when he says that $ 4,000 it is an exorbitant amount of money, regardless of whether this price is justified or not.
Two more remarks:
- The L and R matching looks good from Amir's chart, but not perfect, as you would expect at such a price (however, maybe this phenomenon is due to the limitations of the measuring rig, I'm not an expert).
- In my humble opinion, and here I am in @ bluefuzz assent, these headphones look more like gaming headphones and not like luxury items, in the way Meze Empyreans, for example, manage to look and feel, for $ 1000 less than these !

For me personally, if they sound as good as they measure, they look good enough. On the aesthetics front, DCA have neither knocked it out of the park, nor dropped the ball, in my opinion.

The looks of an item are always going to come down to personal taste. Lots of people like the look of the Meze Empyreans, yet when I tried them at a dealers, I was underwhelmed on all fronts, particularly if scoring aesthetics and premium feel.

There’s not much to be ascertained from debating looks of a product, other than to demonstrate the wide variety of flavours human beings come in.

 

[respice finem]

Once they're on my head I don't see them anyway

 

[Billy Budapest]

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.

At $4000 per headphone, they are not going to sell 15,000 of them. The market for headphones at that price level just isn’t very big. Then again, the manufacturer probably isn’t aiming to sell 15,000 of them anyway. I think more than 100-200 pairs, though.

The Abyss headphones probably sold in that range (or fewer).

 

[woof!]

At $4000 per headphone, they are not going to sell 15,000 of them. The market for headphones at that price level just isn’t very big. Then again, the manufacturer probably isn’t aiming to sell 15,000 of them anyway. I think more than 100-200 pairs, though.

The Abyss headphones probably sold in that range (or fewer).

I don't think that's a correct assumption. I think they sell in the 1000+. I actually had this question too like how much people buy this high ends. Thus, I was following head-fi ie-900 thread. From the serial numbers looks like they at least sold more than 2k during the pre-order phase.

 

[preload]

Quite a bit. If you aren't used to planars, you may find the bass is already pretty close to what you need. The bass in a planar is more powerful than the measurements show.

I have a pair of ether flow open and I used to own the he1000. Both planar headphones needed bass boost eq in my book. Also both have noticeable distortion.
The only headphones I’ve heard that can take lots of bass boost are the denon D9200. Haven’t heard the abyss though.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

I have a pair of ether flow open and I used to own the he1000. Both planar headphones needed bass boost eq in my book. Also both have noticeable distortion.
The only headphones I’ve heard that can take lots of bass boost are the denon D9200. Haven’t heard the abyss though.

i have the efo but with 5dB boost in sub, the roll off in these headphone is not that big, you are crancking a lot the volume in bass for get that noticeable distortion ...

I mean with the boost of 5dB+ i can listen that headphone at very unsafe SPL .. without distortion

Having listened the he1k i think the efo hit harder

you simply cannot ( well you can..) boost unlimited the bass only for feel the bass :/ i think is not the right way for improve that, i like feel the bass instead of only hearing them too but a headphone can let you do a 15dB boost in the sub i don't think it gonna sound good. For this reason i have a tower speaker..

 

[bluefuzz]

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.

Yes, carbon fibre is used quite extensively in modern acoustic guitar building too, and I also have some experience of it. I never said it was easy. And I'm sure much manual prototyping was done during development of these phones. But once a design is finalised I have difficulty believing there is much manual fabrication other than perhaps final assembly and testing. The tolerances are just too fine.

I'm not saying these are not good phones or not worth a premium price. But over ten times the price of otherwise excellent phones? No, that is not reasonable.

 

[Dan Clark]

Yes, carbon fibre is used quite extensively in modern acoustic guitar building too, and I also have some experience of it. I never said it was easy. And I'm sure much manual prototyping was done during development of these phones. But once a design is finalised I have difficulty believing there is much manual fabrication other than perhaps final assembly and testing. The tolerances are just too fine.

I'm not saying these are not good phones or not worth a premium price. But over ten times the price of otherwise excellent phones? No, that is not reasonable.

Planars are incredibly delicate and high-speed manufacturing of diaphragms creates lower tolerances not higher, your core assumption is simply wrong, but I'm not going to explain or defend our process other than to say you having a strong opinion about this is as legit as me telling you how to make a guitar.

 

[rofo]

David Clark is the standard headphone for aviation and industrial environments for many years. Great for those applications any relation?
https://www.davidclarkcompany.com/

 

[Dan Clark]

David Clark is the standard headphone for aviation and industrial environments for many years. Great for those applications any relation?
https://www.davidclarkcompany.com/

Nope... Not even family.

 

[Billy Budapest]

I don't think that's a correct assumption. I think they sell in the 1000+. I actually had this question too like how much people buy this high ends. Thus, I was following head-fi ie-900 thread. From the serial numbers looks like they at least sold more than 2k during the pre-order phase.

For this $4000 headphone? I would think that the preorders would have captured most of that market, then. I am not making any comment on the price, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that the market of people who spend $4000 on headphones is pretty small. My guesstimate would be under 1,000 but more than the 100-200 guessed by another member above. The market would certainly be less than 15,000 as first postulated. But again, the manufacturer knows all this.