Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[Hifihedgehog]

You can't compare that to the augmented sub-bass

Just so this isn't understood as a stereotypical sealed headphones, this isn't augmented. I would say reinforced. It is neutral in the subbass. Most sealed headphones have too much subbass, and just too much bass period. Not here. Recalling @amirm's plot:

Gone also are the obnoxious resonances of sealed headphones. These are so clean and distortion-free!

Subtract 5dB from the 100Hz-and-below region and that is going to sound anemic. Likewise subtract 5dB at 2KHz and (as your chart overlay shows) 8KHz, and it will begin to sound muffled. That already makes the Audeze a clear class below the Stealth's record-setting performance.

Make no mistake, this is the 2020's HD 800 except without the flaws in frequency response and, therefore, without the overrated hype. It marks the beginning of a new era of sonic transparency in headphones.

This is the new bar for world-class headphone audio performance.

You can bet key competitors (e.g. Sennheiser, Audeze, HiFiMAN) probably will all eventually have one secretly in their labs which they will examining to see how they can replicate its breakthroughs.

All good things come with time, naturally. I can patiently wait five or ten years for this to be realized in the sub-$1000 price region. But it will happen. There is the demand and the research and development pushing to fulfill it. It is only a matter of time before the trickle down is complete.

 

[woof!]

Nice! I guess that's different the HE6se then which was reviewed here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hifiman-he6se-review-headphone.23576/
https://www.dropbox.com/s/638c1dgypzw7eit/Hifiman HE6se.pdf?dl=0
Certainly the HE6se is a fantastic headphone, but I don't know about the v2, haven't seen any measurements for it.

Yeah no distortion graph for the v2 so it may actually be bad for eq. The fr is closed enough to he6se for me and that was what I was looking for. I was planning to eq only the 1k+ range. So far it works good enough for me.

 

[Robbo99999]

Due to people trying to game the Club DCA system we have changed the policy so that your first discount is available 30 days after the first purchase.

Ha, yes, someone posted a number of pages back on how you could game the system, naughty boy!

 

[Coin3]

My partner is vegan and doesn’t like to buy leather shoes. A couple of years ago I bought her some vegan doc martens - they actually wear incredibly well. They’re also more expensive than the leather versions! I personally hate to see leather used where a more environmentally friendly and more ethical material could be used and don’t understand why headphone manufacturers still use it - it seems outdated to me. Of course, the pleather on these is likely loads with plastics so also not environmentally friendly.

I'm not sure about the Stealth, but I bought the Aeon 2 Noire and found that while the earpads are vegan, the leather portion of the headband is actually genuine leather, not vegan. This isn't stated anywhere on the product page, so I let DCA know in a review on their site and hopefully they can make this more clear in the future.

 

[PeteL]

How I get there:

• Take the loudest section of a rock track (modern mastering, but not exactly a loudness war victim) with a punchy bass drum
• Measure its RMS (vs a 0 dBFS sine wave, but that is standard). Result is -8 dB.
• Apply EQ that is roughly equivalent to A weighting and measure the RMS again. Result is -11 dB, 3 dB lower.
• Under the assumption that this section of the track is played back at 80 dBA (weighted), I can deduct that 83 dB SPL (unweighted) corresponds to -8 dB RMS in the audio file.
• Now I look at the spectrum and see that bass frequencies max out at about -2 dB during a bass drum transient, 6 dB higher than the -8 dB unweighted for the longer section.
• Based on this, I assume 89 dB SPL would be the max resulting SPL in bass frequencies when played back with a perfectly linear (in sound pressure, not perception) headphone. With the Stealth, add 6 dB for 95 dB SPL due to its frequency response.

I think where your method goes wrong is that you assume we want to listen to a pure 50 Hz note at 80 dBA, which indeed would require 110 dB SPL. but we listen to wideband music at 80 dB, and the SPL for the whole is larger than its individual components. My -8 dB RMS section has no single frequency above -20 dB RMS, but the sum comes out to -8 dB.

Thank you, I guess it sort of make sense, but seams a little anecdotal, Electronic music may very well have tone like passage at 30HZ, I'm not sure Rock music is the reference if the goal is to find out if we want to find the max spl at sub frequencies we will get. as you say, mastering play a role. But also, In all cases SPL, can only be measured, not calculated, altough its a RMS "metric" the thing is the RMS value of a recording, includes the peaks in it's calculation. in fact It's DBFS RMS if that make sense. Relative to full scale. It makes it hard to make rigorous relations because when we use a meter to know how loud we really are listen to music, Yes it's a rms measurment, we can say that when we have the measurment microphone listen to a sine, but in essence, the peaks are not computed, it have a reaction time, the meter just don't catch short transients, when it listen to music, it don't know where the peaks are and it's normally what we refer to when we say "I listen to 80 dB SPL" It's I listen to 80 dB SPL as measured by a spl meter", and it's not that loud. If on top of that we listen to very dynamic music and we assume it to be the loudest part of the song, it's less loud. Your example may be valid, within a certain scope, I'd need more reading but at the end of the day, whether we "want" to listen to deep bass at 80 dBA as an "asumption", at the end of the day it is not very loud and it doesn't hurt my ears, and I should be able to without audible impact on fidelity.

 

[PeteL]

Oppo PM-2, PM-3,
All Bluetooth headphones with fake leather.

OK, so it depends on the material used. We'll have to trust mr. Clark that his one is of good quality.

 

[edahl]

Goddamn I want a pair! Pretty sure my partner will attempt to bury me in the garden with it if I pull the trigger though lol

 

[John B]

Curiosity got the better of me. It’s actually not bad!! ; )

 

[Georgrig]

Curiosity got the better of me. It’s actually not bad!! ; ) View attachment 149163View attachment 149164

That's not it. You must create cavities of different volumes, not just holes..

 

[John B]

That's not it. You must create cavities of different volumes, not just holes..

Of course.. this was done half in jest but I was expecting some serious muffling or volume loss. If anything its smoother and just as clear.

 

[F1308]

Curiosity got the better of me. It’s actually not bad!! ; ) View attachment 149163View attachment 149164

Are you sending them any soon to be checked and compared, please...?

Also, have a try placing some paper (a napkin, the thinner the better) over your ears before placing the headset (as if you were horrified with the idea of using them after someone else had) and enjoy the natural and smooth sound.

 

[John B]

I'll A/B them with the Stealth and then we'll know for sure if it was a success. : ) It changed the sound in a pleasant way which was a surprise. Improving anything though, highly doubtful!

It is an Ikea hot pad and I pressed out he holes with a tube with a 3/16ths opening - a retracted olive grabber actually. What is no joke is I'm leaving them in.

 

[F1308]

I'll A/B them with the Stealth and then we'll know for sure if it was a success. : ) It changed the sound in a pleasant way which was a surprise. Improving anything though, highly doubtful!

What else could we possibly put inside...?
Does the different diameter of your holes pattern affect mid, high, low, very low frequencies or all of them...?
Is the lower part not holed on purpose, you got tired or simply forgot...?
Red is just for heavy rock at extremely quick tempo or can behave for other music making ?
Are you showing the design so kindly on a copyleft basis...?
A hole is a hole, up to you, but perhaps some little balls of natural material (wood, linen, hemp...) in them could be a game changer or even a true bulls eye...

 

[John B]

Is the lower part not holed on purpose, you got tired or simply forgot...?

Yes

I found a honeycomb shaped trivet on amazon. Will report back if this is a superior approach.

 

[F1308]

Yes

I knew !!!!
You are so kind...
Greetings from Spain...

 

[Zim]

Ha, yes, someone posted a number of pages back on how you could game the system, naughty boy!

Did it to point out the loophole rather than for people to take advantage of. Glad to see it fixed.

 

[Cary2060]

I need this in my life.....

 

[amirm]

FYI we made an exchange of hardware for one of the headphones. So I get to keep my review sample!!! Life is good....

 

[DawgSlaya]

FYI we made an exchange of hardware for one of the headphones. So I get to keep my review sample!!! Life is good....

Is this gonna become one of the staples in your headphone listening tests?

 

[Thomas_A]

FYI we made an exchange of hardware for one of the headphones. So I get to keep my review sample!!! Life is good....

Nice. Would be nice if you could AB against those few HPs that have a reasonable Harman curve.