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Dan Clark E3 Headphone Review

Rate this headphone:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 4 1.6%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 11 4.3%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 38 15.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 200 79.1%

  • Total voters
    253
While I'm not Amir, I have the Mojo 2 and the E3 (this is the only headphone setup I use) and the Mojo 2 drives it with ease. There's headroom to spare for anyone with this combo.
Sounds like the E1DA 9038SG3 should be powerful enough then? I was considering that as a portable DAC/amp. I'm not sure if there could be some current overload protection at the highest gain but I don't listen particularly loud.
 
Sounds like the E1DA 9038SG3 should be powerful enough then? I was considering that as a portable DAC/amp. I'm not sure if there could be some current overload protection at the highest gain but I don't listen particularly loud.
The 9038SG3 has neither different gains nor OCP. It'll drive the E3 to about 110dB SPL Peak.
 
The 9038SG3 has neither different gains nor OCP. It'll drive the E3 to about 110dB SPL Peak.
Thanks, it should be more than enough for me. By gain I meant volume.

I might instead decide to buy the T+A Solitaire T for portable use and then I don't have to worry about wires or a dongle DAC/amp and also benefit from ANC and lighter weight.

If I did that, the E3 is still compelling for home use though that opens up comparisons to open-back alternatives.
 
Question for @Dan Clark :

Based on the below EQ profile that I use for my Stealth, would you say that the E3 is the better match for my taste?

image.png


Of course I’m not holding you accountable for anything
 
Question for @Dan Clark :

Based on the below EQ profile that I use for my Stealth, would you say that the E3 is the better match for my taste?

View attachment 340489

Of course I’m not holding you accountable for anything
The Stealth's frequency response on your head varies wildly from person to person:
stealt seal fixed (3).png

That makes your question impossible to answer in good faith.

We'd have to have in-situ frequency response measurements of both the Stealth and the E3 on your head to judge if that EQ gets the Stealth closer to the E3.

For this particular headphone, GRAS or B&K measurements are not enough to answer this type of question.
 
That's a good point. I figured that maybe a comparison could be made based on their respective frequency responses, but of course that doesn't take into account the potentionally different behaviour of the E3 on the head compared to Stealh.
 
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That's a good point. I figured that maybe a comparison could be made based on their respective frequency responses, but of course that doesn't take into account the potentionally different behaviour of the E3 on the head compared to Stealh.
I think Dan Clark said they worked on improving the on head reliability with the E3, so potentially it could be a better headphone than the Stealth for more people, potentially.
 
Question for @Dan Clark :

Based on the below EQ profile that I use for my Stealth, would you say that the E3 is the better match for my taste?

View attachment 340489

Of course I’m not holding you accountable for anything
It's possible but I'd suggest you find a shop or show to attend to listen and judge for yourself...

The Stealth's frequency response on your head varies wildly from person to person:
View attachment 340493

That makes your question impossible to answer in good faith.

We'd have to have in-situ frequency response measurements of both the Stealth and the E3 on your head to judge if that EQ gets the Stealth closer to the E3.

For this particular headphone, GRAS or B&K measurements are not enough to answer this type of question.
I'm having a conversation with Sean about those measurements. So far I confirmed they weren't using our guidance on how to seat the headphones, the only thing they advised users was to not wear glasses... Certainly we do not get any feedback from customers indicating this huge range of experience. I would expect more variation at the top but relatively little toward the bottom if seating is done with a little care. It will never be as "tight" as AEON because the AEON ear hole is much smaller, forcing the ear into a very specific position = more consistency.

To recap our position guidance: ear centered in the ear pad is Harman target for average user, moving phones back on the head is brighter, moving phones down and forward reduces lower treble/upper mids. The fact that position effects are pretty predictable is due to the AMTS.

Bass shouldn't vary like this unless there's a poor seal, which can happen with thick hair or glasses, but otherwise it's pretty easy to get a seal; the point of the ear pad optimized fit on your jawline, the hardest place for headphones to seal. You may set the point of the headphone to rest on the jaw, or alternately you can rotate the headphone so the point is behind the jaw, this allows for accommodation of very different jaw geometries, something Sean wasn't aware of when testing.

We also have a simple test people can use to validate seal: put the headphone on without music and rub your fingertips together close to the pad/head interface and circle the pad. If you hear the fingers rub you don't have a seal; then adjust accordingly.

TBD if Sean will have time to check this out or not, but that's the manufacturer's POV.

If there are updates I'll post them.
 
I've never noticed change in sound when moving my stealth around. Even when removing my glasses while listening to bass, it stays the same, so glasses are a none issue more me. Only way I can break seal is moving my head far left or right.
 
Looking forward to checking out the E3, the stealth did not end up being a great option for me for unclear reasons. Expanse have been great and probably my second most often used pair
 
Has anyone had the opportunity to compare the LCD-XC 2021 to the E3?
 
Hey :)
first post !
Music producer and mixer here.
I'm changing room and won't be able to work on studio monitors the way I did for the last few years. I'm looking for the best headphone from a production and mix stand point. Ideally it should be Harman tuned (a balanced middle-ground tuning that helps universal translation of one's work), detailed & resolving, fast & dynamic, distortion-free, L-R drivers closely matched, true to the source.... With these criterias, the DCA TOTL really stand out in an obvious manner to me. Incredible headphones...
I don't quite know which DCA headphone to chose between the Stealth, the Expanse and the E3.
I wanted to ask Amir or Dan Clark if they have an impulse response graph to share for the E3 ? :)
Comparing the three headphones, the E3 impulse response is the one graph that I find is dearly missing.
Cheers !

PS : my favorite headphone are the DT770. I have not tried many models. I realized how close the DT770 is to the Harman curve two days ago on Rtings. I really like its tuning, it makes work easier for me. It's been 7 years since I last purchased a headphone. I know I'm in for a treat with the new generation of headphones...
 
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Hey :)
first post !
Music producer and mixer here.
I'm changing room and won't be able to work on studio monitors the way I did for the last few years. I'm looking for the best headphone from a production and mix stand point. Ideally it should be Harman tuned (a balanced middle-ground tuning that helps universal translation of one's work), detailed & resolving, fast & dynamic, distortion-free, L-R drivers closely matched, true to the source.... With these criterias, the DCA TOTL really stand out in an obvious manner to me. Incredible headphones...
I don't quite know which DCA headphone to chose between the Stealth, the Expanse and the E3.
I wanted to ask Amir or Dan Clark if they have an impulse response graph to share for the E3 ? :)
Comparing the three headphones, the E3 impulse response is the one graph that I find is dearly missing.
Cheers !

PS : my favorite headphone are the DT770. I have not tried many models. I realized how close the DT770 is to the Harman curve two days ago on Rtings. I really like its tuning, it makes work easier for me. It's been 7 years since I last purchased a headphone. I know I'm in for a treat with the new generation of headphones...
I would take the Expanse of your list, way too colored in the bass/mid-bass region to be used for any mixing work, unless you compensate with EQ. The Stealth is really good for what you're looking for. I have used it for mixing plenty. I can't speak to the E3, but it should be a little more energetic from what I hear. The distortion levels of the Stealth are unmatched, even by the E3, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Stealth also outperforms the E3 on impulse response. However, given the price difference between the Stealth and the E3, combined with the universal praise the E3 is getting (versus the Stealth on release), I think you couldn't possibly go wrong with it. Any minor technical edge the Stealth might have surely won't be audible. If I didn't already have the Stealth, the E3 would be a no-brainer buy for me.

If you're looking for an open back, you can consider the Audeze MM-500.
 
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I would take the Expanse of your list, way too colored in the bass/mid-bass region to be used for any mixing work, unless you compensate with EQ. The Stealth is really good for what you're looking for. I have used it for mixing plenty. I can't speak to the E3, but it should be a little more energetic from what I hear. The distortion levels of the Stealth are unmatched, even by the E3, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Stealth also outperforms the E3 on impulse response. However, given the price difference between the Stealth and the E3, combined with the universal praise the E3 is getting (versus the Stealth on release), I think you couldn't possibly go wrong with it. Any minor technical edge the Stealth might have surely won't be audible. If I didn't already have the Stealth, the E3 would be a no-brainer buy for me.

If you're looking for an open back, you can consider the Audeze MM-500.
Hey ra990, thanks so much :). The closed-back design *is* a big and definite plus in itself for my use-case. I can't stand all the noises I hear across the studio anymore, may it be the computer, the bad power supplies... I seek silence.

Interesting what you say about the Expanse... So it's really more bass forward than the other. The curve suggests it to some extent, but I wasn't imagining such a difference. Luckily, about the 3dB proprietary DCA bass bump, I think it can be corrected with one band of hardware eq on the masterbuss... I can't fuss around witth eq too much for technical reasons, but one band on the master is "ok".
On the other hand I see that the Expanse is a bit shy in the 6k to 10k region, relative to the Harman curve. This concerns me quite a bit.

If we had the E3 impulse response, we could form an informed opinion on the 5th gen DCA driver. Graph show that it has more distortion ok, but right now we don't know how much slower it is compared to the Stealth and Expanse 4th gen drivers.
The bump above 10Khz on the E3 is not exactly Harman compliant either.

The Stealth is really intriguing. I was not considering it as much as the other two at the beginning, but there is SO MUCH to like about it. Amir said it all already... <3

The MM500, yeah... I'm afraid I won't like it. The "studio neutral" kind of curve, where the bass is just a straight flat line, it doesn't really work for me (for a mixing or casual listening standpoint). I'm more a DT770 guy, I disliked the DT880 very much, I found it to be very bass-shy. It must be said that I'm doing mostly electronic music, so there's that... Bass range has to be a driving force of the listening experience. To me, headphones like the DT880, HE6, HD600 or probably MM-500 sound as if you're listening for flat studio monitors, but outside, in a garden or a park. Lots of details, but definitely not enough balls.

It's interesting how everybody differs... It's probably music genre-specific too.
 
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If looking for absolute, most accurate sonic performance, Stealth is definitely the current king. I'm sensing the E3 is second (which I haven't heard) then Expanse which I feel is too warm and less accurate to my ears especially when A/Bed with the Stealth.

My utmost recommendation is the Stealth for mixing and casual listening overall. However, listening outside, nothing beats the Zero 2 or any SOTA $20 IEM on the market
 
If looking for absolute, most accurate sonic performance, Stealth is definitely the current king. I'm sensing the E3 is second (which I haven't heard) then Expanse which I feel is too warm and less accurate to my ears especially when A/Bed with the Stealth.

Although I supposed they can all be EQ'd to have the same approximate tonal accuracy? But I'm guessing the treble region may be an exception to this though due to reflections/phase errors. Yesterday I was listening to the E3 EQ'd to the Harman linear in-room response curve (as close as I can get using other people's FR measurements), it was an interesting experience and a drastic change but certainly not one I prefer.

Hey :)
first post !
Music producer and mixer here.
I'm changing room and won't be able to work on studio monitors the way I did for the last few years. I'm looking for the best headphone from a production and mix stand point. Ideally it should be Harman tuned (a balanced middle-ground tuning that helps universal translation of one's work), detailed & resolving, fast & dynamic, distortion-free, L-R drivers closely matched, true to the source.... With these criterias, the DCA TOTL really stand out in an obvious manner to me. Incredible headphones...
I don't quite know which DCA headphone to chose between the Stealth, the Expanse and the E3.
I wanted to ask Amir or Dan Clark if they have an impulse response graph to share for the E3 ? :)
Comparing the three headphones, the E3 impulse response is the one graph that I find is dearly missing.
Cheers !

PS : my favorite headphone are the DT770. I have not tried many models. I realized how close the DT770 is to the Harman curve two days ago on Rtings. I really like its tuning, it makes work easier for me. It's been 7 years since I last purchased a headphone. I know I'm in for a treat with the new generation of headphones...

I'm pretty sure Amir doesn't have an E3 anymore, @Dan Clark might be the only one who can provide it.
 
Although I supposed they can all be EQ'd to have the same approximate tonal accuracy? But I'm guessing the treble region may be an exception to this though due to reflections/phase errors. Yesterday I was listening to the E3 EQ'd to the Harman linear in-room response curve (as close as I can get using other people's FR measurements), it was an interesting experience and a drastic change but certainly not one I prefer.

Sure you can! Don't think they'll exactly sound the same even after EQed to Harman. If you heard the Expanse side by side with Stealth, it's not just about warmth, there are narrow peaks from unsmoothed measurements that can contribute to the "timbre" differences between them even when the tonal balance is EQed to the same target. Expanse is more colored in the timbre category than Stealth and yes more colored in timbre than even Aeon 2 Noires despite the Expanse closer to the target than the Noires. Keep in mind, all this timbre talk is influenced by brain interpretation and HRTF
 
Although I supposed they can all be EQ'd to have the same approximate tonal accuracy? But I'm guessing the treble region may be an exception to this though due to reflections/phase errors. Yesterday I was listening to the E3 EQ'd to the Harman linear in-room response curve (as close as I can get using other people's FR measurements), it was an interesting experience and a drastic change but certainly not one I prefer.



I'm pretty sure Amir doesn't have an E3 anymore, @Dan Clark might be the only one who can provide it.
The impulse response should be available or calculable from the same sine sweep measurement file.
 
I don't know if you watch/read Scan Pro audio content (on Youtube or via their website article), but I think it's some of the best most specialized content out there, when it comes to CPU benchmark, general audio computing, and headphone monitoring applied to music making.

Tom, their reviewer, made several interesting videos dicussing "production and mix with headphones".

Very valuable in my opinion, watch it if you produce, mix or master audio content. He discusses Audeze, Hedd, Slate VSX etc.

Scan have some DCA headphone for sale on their shop, accompanied with Ollo, Audezes etc. I managed to get Tom's take on the Stealth vs Expanse vs E3 via the Scan support :

Capture d’écran 2024-01-17 à 17.27.18.png
 
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