Dan Clark E3 Headphone Review

[Robbo99999]

I thought I'd post this here since there's a lot of discussion around this headphone.

I find the E3s to be a bit brighter than Amir's measurements. There's a bit of extra heat in some vocals and distorted guitars sometimes have some edge to them. When I took a look at other reviewer's measurements, I noticed that some seem to pick up a bit of extra energy in the ear gain region from around 2k to 5k. Oratory1990, GadgetryTech, and DMS all appear to show this in their data, while VSG, Amir, and Jude don't.

I'm obviously no expert, but there could be a number of reasons for this:

• HRTF variation among different measurement setups and people
• Different positions for the headphones on different rigs. I know some people take multiple measurements with different positioning to get a feel for how the headphone changes, while others may not
• Minor sealing differences. I believe Dan has said these are more susceptible to seal issues than other headphones, though I could be mistaken so don't take that as gospel
• Unit-to-unit variation, though Dan Clark seems to have pretty good driver consistency
• It could be something as simple as how different people choose to display their data.

Whatever it is, I've found that my experience with the E3 matches the way Oratory has measured it, so I took his data and plugged it into AutoEQ. Here's what it looks like (I have smoothing turned on):

View attachment 391798
The blue line is the Harman 2018 target, while black is the actual measurement. It's still obviously very close to the target (stunningly so, as Amir and others have pointed out), but you can see the extra energy in the areas I was talking about above. I can also detect these peaks/valleys when I run test tones, so they're not just measurement quirks.

I then used AutoEQ's custom EQ function to develop the following filters.


This is the result:
View attachment 391800

This makes the sound just a bit smoother overall and helps lessen some of the extra bite that can exist on some vocals and guitar tracks. I don't bother EQing the rest of the frequency range as I don't notice the deviation from Harman in those areas as much in the treble. The small drop from 600 to 2k or so can also a bit of spaciousness to the sound, which can be a positive thing for headphones.

There's definitely some differences between Amir's & Oratory's measurement in terms of the where those broad peaks at 2.5 & 4.5kHz sit in relation to Harman Curve, with Oratory showing more energy in those two areas (sitting above Harman Curve whilst Amir's is below). The EQ changes you made were quite small, but they'd be noticeable if you flip the EQ switch on & off. I'd probably say the 10000Hz High Shelf Filter would likely make the most change as long as your hearing is quite good around 10kHz and above. And then the 2.6kHz filter is probably the next most significant one, even though that's quite a narrow filter & the other filters are even narrower as well as being small in dB change, (so those other ones probably don't do much in reality).

 

[evanft]

There's definitely some differences between Amir's & Oratory's measurement in terms of the where those broad peaks at 2.5 & 4.5kHz sit in relation to Harman Curve, with Oratory showing more energy in those two areas (sitting above Harman Curve whilst Amir's is below). The EQ changes you made were quite small, but they'd be noticeable if you flip the EQ switch on & off. I'd probably say the 10000Hz High Shelf Filter would likely make the most change as long as your hearing is quite good around 10kHz and above. And then the 2.6kHz filter is probably the next most significant one, even though that's quite a narrow filter & the other filters are even narrower as well as being small in dB change, (so those other ones probably don't do much in reality).

They're subtle for sure and the effect is going to vary depending on what you're listening to. While you can get a pretty decent result by just using a high-shelf at around 2.5k instead, I found that there was still a bit of wonkiness in vocals and harsher guitars that seems to go away with the more precise EQ. I think the issue I have may not just be the amount of energy in that area, but also the differences between those frequencies. I'm also sensitive in those frequencies so my personal HRTF may be making this more obvious.

 

[Grobbelboy]

I think the variance in frequency response between Amir, Oratory, etc has a lot to do with the way the cups are positioned and the direction of the AMTS in relation to the ears (though to a lesser extent than the Stealth and Expanse). If I let the back of my ears touch the inside of the cups just barely (so the headphones are placed a bit more forward on my head) this often mitigates the somewhat harsher aspects in the frequency response of certain recordings.

 

[Robbo99999]

I think the variance in frequency response between Amir, Oratory, etc has a lot to do with the way the cups are positioned and the direction of the AMTS in relation to the ears (though to a lesser extent than the Stealth and Expanse). If I let the back of my ears touch the inside of the cups just barely (so the headphones are placed a bit more forward on my head) this often mitigates the somewhat harsher aspects in the frequency response of certain recordings.

Some headphones vary more than others with different spatial placements on a measuring rig (& on real heads), so it would be quite interesting to see that variance for any given headphone model. To be honest though, when I wear headphones I just put them on my head so that I can't feel my ears touching any part of the earcup in cases where the earcups are large enough. For a lot of headphones the cups aren't big enough to allow for much scope of movement, so whenever I use my miniDSP EARS to measure headphones then I always measure roughly centrally as that is how I would wear them. I think for headphones with larger earcups then this placement variance becomes more interesting because there's so much more scope for non-central placement. It would be interesting to see on-rig variation in reviews in terms of how much it varies with different reseats, but it's quite a bit more work - in an ideal world from my point of view I'd like to see Amir do multiple reseats of the headphone and a frequency response measurement for each reseat and then to see that vs a calculated average of all of them, as this would help see the consistency variable and the average frequency response would be more useful to use as an EQ starting point. To be fair though, that has been discussed before and Amir's focus is not on providing measurements for EQ purposes (Oratory already does that), but to see the on-head consistency variable would still be interesting & potentially useful in a purchase decision because you'd want minimal variation.

 

[evanft]

RTings actually checks the sound consistency across multiple heads as part of their reviews. I think they just use random people in the office. It's pretty interesting stuff.

 

[gilency]

@amirm Can I ask why you switched from the Stealth to the E3 as your every day phone? Thanks

 

[Doodski]

Amir. Can I ask why you switched from the Stealth to the E3 as your every day phone? Thanks

Howdy @gilency. To get @amirm's attention you could put the @ character before his name and while doing that you will see a small pop up window with the choice to click on that for contact.

 

[gilency]

Thank You

 

[evanft]

I've done some further refinement of my EQ profile based on more listening.

When I do tone tests using the EQ I laid out in my previous post, I pick up a peak around 8.6khz. I took a look at Oratory's measurements, and sure enough he's got a bit of a peak there:

I'm thinking that as I smoothed over some of the other peaks, it may have made this more apparent than it was before. I went ahead and updated my EQ profile to add a reduction at 8.6k:

Preamp: -0.10 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 2604.0 Hz Gain -1.6 dB Q 3.63
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 4025.0 Hz Gain -0.6 dB Q 3.87
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 6012.0 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 6.00
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 8600.0 Hz Gain -2.0 dB Q 6.00
Filter 5: ON HSC Fc 10000.0 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 0.70

Please note that this area is going to be VERY user dependent, so you may not hear the peak at all. As with all EQ profiles, they should be customized to the your personal preferences and experience with the headphone. Everyone's head is going to be different.

Here's a graph of the result:

I think the variance in frequency response between Amir, Oratory, etc has a lot to do with the way the cups are positioned and the direction of the AMTS in relation to the ears (though to a lesser extent than the Stealth and Expanse). If I let the back of my ears touch the inside of the cups just barely (so the headphones are placed a bit more forward on my head) this often mitigates the somewhat harsher aspects in the frequency response of certain recordings

100%. Dan even says to do this when putting on the headphones and it has an obvious effect on sound, IMO.

 

[Mauro]

I have an E3 and compared it to Ether CX.
My take: tonal balance isn’t well represented by measurements. To my ears treble is a tad elevated and with significant peaks (7.6 and 10.5), voices tend sound not much open/honky like CX but more relaxed/hollow and at the same time with more shout/throat sounds unlike CX. Some sibilance, as well.
E3 has nothing offensive, all good apart from some upper treble extra detail that makes cymbals and the like artificial to me.
An acoustic filter can tune it down easily. Unluckily not present anymore in the box. Apple style. No more DIY style.

The only thing I would suggest @Dan Clark to work on is the soundstage. It’s not wide as with CX. It doesn’t go from ear to ear but is more flat on the front of the head with no much hard panning to the left right ears. I don’t know if it is because of the highly-oriented waveguides but this limits instruments separation and limiting the cone of sound to the front doesn’t anyway give a perception of a band in front of you.

Being such an expensive device, if anyone is curious and wants to ask things about it (mechanics/comfort and so on), I will have it here for a few days..

 

[Chagall]

I have an E3 and compared it to Ether CX.
My take: tonal balance isn’t well represented by measurements. To my ears treble is a tad elevated and with significant peaks (7.6 and 10.5), voices tend sound not much open/honky like CX but more relaxed/hollow and at the same time with more shout/throat sounds unlike CX. Some sibilance, as well.
E3 has nothing offensive, all good apart from some upper treble extra detail that makes cymbals and the like artificial to me.
An acoustic filter can tune it down easily. Unluckily not present anymore in the box. Apple style. No more DIY style.

The only thing I would suggest @Dan Clark to work on is the soundstage. It’s not wide as with CX. It doesn’t go from ear to ear but is more flat on the front of the head with no much hard panning to the left right ears. I don’t know if it is because of the highly-oriented waveguides but this limits instruments separation and limiting the cone of sound to the front doesn’t anyway give a perception of a band in front of you.

Being such an expensive device, if anyone is curious and wants to ask things about it (mechanics/comfort and so on), I will have it here for a few days..

I've tested my E3 with perceptual FR sweeps and although the treble is a bit elevated overall, there were no significant peaks - they sounded very smooth, especially when compared with highs on EQed HD800S. So, I guess it depends on the unit to unit variations, heads and ears shapes and sizes.

IMO when it comes to fine tuning the sound to individual HRTF and preferences, EQ is infinitely more useful, making a fixed tuning filter redundant.

 

[evanft]

I have an E3 and compared it to Ether CX.
My take: tonal balance isn’t well represented by measurements. To my ears treble is a tad elevated and with significant peaks (7.6 and 10.5), voices tend sound not much open/honky like CX but more relaxed/hollow and at the same time with more shout/throat sounds unlike CX. Some sibilance, as well.
E3 has nothing offensive, all good apart from some upper treble extra detail that makes cymbals and the like artificial to me.
An acoustic filter can tune it down easily. Unluckily not present anymore in the box. Apple style. No more DIY style.

The only thing I would suggest @Dan Clark to work on is the soundstage. It’s not wide as with CX. It doesn’t go from ear to ear but is more flat on the front of the head with no much hard panning to the left right ears. I don’t know if it is because of the highly-oriented waveguides but this limits instruments separation and limiting the cone of sound to the front doesn’t anyway give a perception of a band in front of you.

Being such an expensive device, if anyone is curious and wants to ask things about it (mechanics/comfort and so on), I will have it here for a few days..

I believe you and I hear this headphone pretty similarly.

If you want to use a simple shelf filter, I've found that a -1.5 db cut at 2khz with a Q of 1 works well to reduce most of the treble issues. It works similarly to the EQ I outlined above but it's obviously much simpler, so it will work on a wider variety of setups.

 

[DEF]

What about around 4000Hz? I am hesitant to purchase these because I listen a lot to female vocals.

 

[Mauro]

What about around 4000Hz? I am hesitant to purchase these because I listen a lot to female vocals.

The “shout” of vocals I was mentioning. Not so offensive anyway. It affects the timbre of voices. Personally, I prefer a more filled upper midrange and less lower treble because it provides more focus/power to voices. Still E3 is a great headphone. Not sure about the price. Other lower-priced DCA headphones might be as good. See CX for vocals.

 

[DEF]

The “shout” of vocals I was mentioning. Not so offensive anyway. It affects the timbre of voices. Personally, I prefer a more filled upper midrange and less lower treble because it provides more focus/power to voices. Still E3 is a great headphone. Not sure about the price. Other lower-priced DCA headphones might be as good. See CX for vocals.

Well I would need for certainty a more comfortable cable than stock, and 3/4 jack.
About voice - might not be your taste at all - but here you go - can you tell me if it sounds bad on E3?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gwvBrlUiww

 

[DEF]

Hey.

I read that about comfort - and knowing from Beyerdynamic DT series is that I need to have extra comfort on the apex.
It's also called fontanelle cutout / recess. Not to mention, if I am buying E3 I need a different cable than stock because the standard ones are super bulky.
I need something thin - which comes with extra cost!
Heres a review I found on DCA website:

 

[Mauro]

Well I would need for certainty a more comfortable cable than stock, and 3/4 jack.
About voice - might not be your taste at all - but here you go - can you tell me if it sounds bad on E3?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gwvBrlUiww

I like to hear new music genres! Very engaging rithm!

Voice is well centered but a little spatially diffused. No defects apart from a little Sss. With CX her voice is more present and powerful. With he1000v2 is tonally similar to E3 (ie slightly recessed) but with different sibilance, with the HE1000 having the advantage of sounds popping around you and dynamic bass.
On the other side layering of instruments with E3 is very good and bass textured and beautifully controlled. Treble with this song was smooth, but it seems that the song was already not treble forward.

So E3 is quite an analytical headphone, very good control from bass to treble, but tonally not voice focused.

 

[DEF]

I like to hear new music genres! Very engaging rithm!

Voice is well centered but a little spatially diffused. No defects apart from a little Sss. With CX her voice is more present and powerful. With he1000v2 is tonally similar to E3 (ie slightly recessed) but with different sibilance, with the HE1000 having the advantage of sounds popping around you and dynamic bass.
On the other side layering of instruments with E3 is very good and bass textured and beautifully controlled. Treble with this song was smooth, but it seems that the song was already not treble forward.

So E3 is quite an analytical headphone, very good control from bass to treble, but tonally not voice focused.

So either HE1000 or CX - right? Which one was your favorite for that genre?

 

[Mauro]

So either HE1000 or CX - right? I am going to try <3

I see them as complementary. One for vocals. The other for sounds popping all around you. Those are the ones that I am gonna keep at least for now.. until a STAX I have just auditioned knocks at my door… so you never know

 

[DEF]

I see them as complementary. One for vocals. The other for sounds popping all around you. Those are the ones that I am gonna keep at least for now.. until a STAX I have just auditioned knocks at my door… so you never know

Interesting. Especially since some said the E3 does "everything"
I thought the E3 could even be transformed for everything, e.g via Equalizer.