Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[smodtactical]

Does Amir enjoy the Stealth more than abyss tc or diana ?

 

[Thomas_A]

Does Amir enjoy the Stealth more than abyss tc or diana ?

Isn't that obvious?

 

[Daiyama]

This doesn’t mean a thing, other than to demonstrate the extreme unreliability of subjective impressions.

Problem is, if you have this impression when listening to a headphone, it doesn't help you that the "missing details" could not be measured objectively, you just miss them.

One can try meditation: " details are there, this is all my mind missing the details, details are there, this is all my mind missing the details, details are there, this is all my mind missing the details, details are there, this is all my mind missing the details, details are there, this is all my mind missing the details, details are there, this is all my mind missing the details,......
Maybe the missed details will come back.
Darn, beeing sarcastic again, I promised myself not to that anymore here....

Personnlay I would agree to this statement from the forum from the dark side (aka headfi):
PhoenixSong:"...the tuning appears to fit my preferences too, my comment was an attempt to potentially explain why people perceive other TOTL headphones to be more detailed despite this headphone's flawless performance as far as measurements are concerned. Apart from increased bass, its treble is not overly boosted or peaky and its driver doesn't ring excessively, all of which can give false impressions of detail as well."

 

[Daiyama]

Does Amir enjoy the Stealth more than abyss tc or diana ?

Good one, I really laughed.

 

[Zensō]

Does Amir enjoy the Stealth more than abyss tc or diana ?

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ds/abyss-diana-v2-2nd-review-headphone.23639/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../abyss-ab-1266-phi-tc-review-headphone.23411/

 

[Resolve]

But it should be easy recognizable when you directly compare two headphone, for example if you compare the Stealth to the king of all punch (that is how I interpret "Macrodynamics"), the Focal Clear.
Edit: But I think there is also a big prejudice about slam and planars and Dan Clark planars in particular, that one can be easily influenced by psychology.

Well, as others have pointed out, this stuff is all in the 'subjective' category. But one common trait among the DCA planars is that they all have a very high resonance frequency, along with strong driver damping (meaning the bass elevation is nearly nonexistent when you break the seal). I'm currently working on a way to correlate the 'macro contrast' question with FR, or find it in there somehow, but the most we've been able to come up with is that there may be some relationship to driver damping and how low the resonance frequency is. While I can't say it's a sufficient condition for it, because there are counterexamples (Arya comes to mind), a low resonance frequency may be a necessary condition. Because at the very least, the planars that are subjectively well-received for this quality don't have a high resonance frequency and such heavy driver damping, and there isn't a single planar that's subjectively well-received for this quality that does have a high resonance frequency and so on. This is also why I like to do on-head measurements to see if there's something interesting to identify there, although in this case I didn't get any difference in bass response between on-rig results and on-head results.

 

[Daiyama]

Thanks, and great I can ask you here.
Do you mean with Macrodynamics what I would call slam/punch?
Maybe you have a link to your glossary where you explain the meaning of these main categories.
And do you mean by Macrodynamic: none that the Stealth sounds kinda "flat" and "boring" or would this be a misinterpretation?

 

[ExquirentibusVeritatem]

This doesn’t mean a thing, other than to demonstrate the extreme unreliability of subjective impressions.

Sir, does this mean this section is also unreliable?

 

[Resolve]

Do you mean with Macrodynamics what I would call slam/punch?

I certainly know a lot of people who think of it like that. I remember Tyll referred to this quality as 'punchiness'. Most modern planars don't do that well for it, but there are examples that really demonstrate this quality. Specifically, the original HE-6 (not the SE versions), is one of the best for this - so it IS doable. The HE-6 is also one of the prime examples of why this quality doesn't appear to be correlated with measured bass response. We've tested this at length, and... the on-head response doesn't incur the driver resonance with a leak or anything like that. So at the moment it's more correlated with certain attributes than actual measured results.

 

[Dro]

Focal drivers are likely all non-linear. When I tested my Clear, it add about 11 dB in bass for +10 dB SPL.

 

[mjvbl]

As per Thiele/Small the resonance frequency is:

That is, lower compliance (less stiff suspension: lower Cms) and lower mass lead to higher resonance frequency.

In the speaker world, I recall people saying that larger diameter (say 10") PA mid-bass drivers with stiff suspension tend to deliver "great mid-bass slam". As per the above, such drivers have high ish resonance frequency because of their stiff suspension (and often also moving mass on the lighter side), but as I recall it's the stiff suspension what is considered as a factor for good slam in this case. So in this case it's the exact opposite: drivers with good slam having high resonance frequency, in contrast to what you're saying high resonance frequency correlated with the lack of slam.

Obviously big speaker drivers and planar headphones are different worlds. But if I'm not mistaken Thiele/Small still applies to planar drivers?

As per Thiele/Small the mechanical damping is:

A higher resonance frequency can mean lower damping actually (not heavy damping) at Fs, but we would need to know the Rms.

 

[Resolve]

drivers with good slam having high resonance frequency, in contrast to what you're saying high resonance frequency correlated with the lack of slam.

Obviously big speaker drivers and planar headphones are different worlds. But if I'm not mistaken Thiele & Small still applies to planar drivers?

Yeah I'm not sure about that quality in speakers - only reporting what I've found with headphones. But also, there legitimately could be other counter-examples, and maybe Fs is a red herring and it's more to do with something else.

But here's the air gap behavior for those wondering: Green is small air gap, orange is larger air gap.

So we're looking at somewhere around 300hz for the resonance frequency, along with... wide Q it seems.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

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 an XC and Aeon RT. XC is clean as a sunny day and the Aeon RT rocks out the bass.

 

[Daiyama]

Sir, does this mean this section is also unreliable?

View attachment 149279

Thanks for the quote.
What I have overlooked was this statement by amir:
"....
Dan Clark Stealth Listening Tests
...... What an incredibly clean, dynamic sound with absolute correctness in tonality. Naturally there was no need to apply any EQ.
.....
"
Now I am really puzzled?
We really need more impressions of others!

 

[ExquirentibusVeritatem]

We really need more impressions of others!

I believe you're in the wrong place for this. This is a SCIENCE forum, not an IMPRESSIONS forum.

 

[JohnYang1997]

The key here is that good dynamic can easily be explained by good bass level and extension. It also implies good clean sound when driven to high level.
However lack of macrodynamics cannot be explained from the measurements. If it's dynamic then it's dynamic. What the heck is macro and micro dynamics. These words are not the same words that can be correlated to measurements.

 

[ExquirentibusVeritatem]

I usually measure headphones before listening but this time I was first asked how it sounded so I decided to listen. That was a mistake as I could not stop listening to them to do the measurements!

After rereading this section, I believe the conclusions that are made on the Stealth should be disregarded until we have an objective third party review it. Even Amir admits that he made a mistake by listening before measuring which can introduce bias on his interpretations of the measurements. It might be a little misleading for those who are relying on the conclusions of the measurements.

 

[Resolve]

The key here is that good dynamic can easily be explained by good bass level and extension. It also implies good clean sound when driven to high level.
However lack of macrodynamics cannot be explained from the measurements. If it's dynamic then it's dynamic. What the heck is macro and micro dynamics. These words are not the same words that can be correlated to measurements.

Yeah it's a problem. But... you can test this yourself if you can find an original HE-6. There are also other examples - certainly more so from moving coil headphones where measured bass response is lower but it's more 'punchy'.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

We all love headphones, and we all want people to be able to afford headphones.

MEDICINES are being re-patented (which ISN'T EVEN A WORD according to spellcheck!), including daily necessities like insulin and that shot thing kids need sometimes is now hundreds of dollars.

Not to mention how ridiculous a 'golden sample' would be to give to Amir with his fancy-schmancy gear can measure to -150 db. You don't think he'd notice the discrepancy and make a video or two?

On the other hand, for the tin hat crowd, why did Mr Clark fly to Detroit for an interview one could do via Zoom in these dangerous times.

Perhaps a suitcase full of one hundred dollar bills would explane the flight?

 

[smodtactical]

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ds/abyss-diana-v2-2nd-review-headphone.23639/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../abyss-ab-1266-phi-tc-review-headphone.23411/

Well to be fair he said TC becomes a delight with EQ hehe. But ya seems like hes more in love with stealth.