Dan Clark E3 Headphone Review

[Zoide]

@Dan Clark How resistant are the E3 earpads to moisturizing face cream, sunblock, etc.?

So far, I've been super careful with them and only wear them on days that I don't leave the house (no sunscreen) or after taking a shower at night...

But is it really necessary or am I being paranoid?

Thanks

 

[Dan Clark]

@Dan Clark How resistant are the E3 earpads to moisturizing face cream, sunblock, etc.?

So far, I've been super careful with them and only wear them on days that I don't leave the house (no sunscreen) or after taking a shower at night...

But is it really necessary or am I being paranoid?

Thanks

Hi, I can't answer that with any precision... We use a synthetic suede that's pretty durable. Most oils and creams aren't acidic, which is sometimes the case with the skin oils of individuals. That's unknown, of course.

That said I don't think it's a general concern, living in San Diego I wear face block almost daily, never had an issue. Of course if a pad does wear we have replacements...

Most users get 2-5 years out of the pads, depending on heat, humidity, skin oil acidity, etc.

 

[Zoide]

Hi, I can't answer that with any precision... We use a synthetic suede that's pretty durable. Most oils and creams aren't acidic, which is sometimes the case with the skin oils of individuals. That's unknown, of course.

That said I don't think it's a general concern, living in San Diego I wear face block almost daily, never had an issue. Of course if a pad does wear we have replacements...

Most users get 2-5 years out of the pads, depending on heat, humidity, skin oil acidity, etc.

Thanks for getting back to me, Dan!

I hope to get much more than 2 years out of them, though

$100 is not pocket change, and who knows how much they'll cost after shipping to Europe + VAT + whatever tariffs end up getting added on top...

 

[Robbo99999]

Thanks for getting back to me, Dan!

I hope to get much more than 2 years out of them, though

$100 is not pocket change, and who knows how much they'll cost after shipping to Europe + VAT + whatever tariffs end up getting added on top...

Ha, yep, that's a bit of a downer with the recent developments in worldwide trade!

 

[Dan Clark]

Thanks for getting back to me, Dan!

I hope to get much more than 2 years out of them, though

$100 is not pocket change, and who knows how much they'll cost after shipping to Europe + VAT + whatever tariffs end up getting added on top...

I share your trade concerns, to put it mildly.

 

[Robbo99999]

I share your trade concerns, to put it mildly.

(90 day reprieve now except China)

 

[Studio66]

New guy with no headphone experience….
The Scan Pro Audio video convinced me I want E3s for mixing.
Trying to determine if my Universal Audio Apollo x4 is enough to power these guys through a 1/4” standard connection or do I need to consider a separate amp etc….
The Apollo is 96mw at 300 ohms….
Anyone caring to share some knowledge with a newb like me is appreciated

 

[staticV3]

New guy with no headphone experience….
The Scan Pro Audio video convinced me I want E3s for mixing.
Trying to determine if my Universal Audio Apollo x4 is enough to power these guys through a 1/4” standard connection or do I need to consider a separate amp etc….
The Apollo is 96mw at 300 ohms….
Anyone caring to share some knowledge with a newb like me is appreciated

Knowing just the available output power at 300Ω, it is impossible to estimate the available power at 27Ω (E3 impedance).

All I can tell you is that it's somewhere between 1mW and 1067mW.

 

[Studio66]

Gotcha….I appreciate your time

 

[Sycraft]

So I just got a pair of these a few days ago and they are what I'd call a mixed blessing. I got them to add to my Sennheiser HD800S phones because these days I'm not in a super quiet room, and some isolation would be nice. In that regard they do decent. They aren't super isolating, nor do they claim to be, but they do a pretty good job of blocking out the low-level background noise that the Sennheisers don't. Maybe 10dB reduction? Does the trick and I don't hear the noise even with fairly quiet music.

Comfort wise, they are a big step down. I knew they wouldn't be as comfortable, but it is a big difference. A lot heavier and man do they clamp HARD. I wasn't thinking I was going to be able to keep them as they were giving me a headache because of my glasses, however someone online pointed out there's set screws you can remove that lower the clamping. That has gotten it to tolerable, but it is still quite a bit. I get that it helps them be positioned correctly on your head and to get a good seal, but it does make them harder to wear. I'm guessing for long gaming sessions I'll have to switch back to the HD800S just for comfort. I don't know that I can do 2+ hours in these.

The real mixed blessing is the sound though. It is everything that was promised: Super clean, super balanced, etc, etc. It is really, really GOOD... and it really, really shows issues in material that has them. I hadn't really noticed lossy compression artifacts for a long time, as lossy compression has gotten better these days and bitrates are higher usually. Well, I've heard some of it now with these. Likewise there are things that I found obnoxious in some songs, like too much limiting, that are now even MORE obnoxious.

They really don't smooth over any details, as their testing would suggest. You hear what's there, and if what's there has issues, you hear that.

But man does music that's well recorded and mastered sound GOOD. One thing that kind of surprised me was distorted guitar. Not the kind of thing I'd think "this will sound better with better headphones," but it does. I'm not quite sure how to describe it other than it just sounded more... right. It's not the only I noticed sounded better, just the one that surprised me the most.

All in all I do like them and will keep and use them, but I'll probably have to keep the HD800S around for games, and for things that maybe need something a little more forgiving.

 

[Robbo99999]

So I just got a pair of these a few days ago and they are what I'd call a mixed blessing. I got them to add to my Sennheiser HD800S phones because these days I'm not in a super quiet room, and some isolation would be nice. In that regard they do decent. They aren't super isolating, nor do they claim to be, but they do a pretty good job of blocking out the low-level background noise that the Sennheisers don't. Maybe 10dB reduction? Does the trick and I don't hear the noise even with fairly quiet music.

Comfort wise, they are a big step down. I knew they wouldn't be as comfortable, but it is a big difference. A lot heavier and man do they clamp HARD. I wasn't thinking I was going to be able to keep them as they were giving me a headache because of my glasses, however someone online pointed out there's set screws you can remove that lower the clamping. That has gotten it to tolerable, but it is still quite a bit. I get that it helps them be positioned correctly on your head and to get a good seal, but it does make them harder to wear. I'm guessing for long gaming sessions I'll have to switch back to the HD800S just for comfort. I don't know that I can do 2+ hours in these.

The real mixed blessing is the sound though. It is everything that was promised: Super clean, super balanced, etc, etc. It is really, really GOOD... and it really, really shows issues in material that has them. I hadn't really noticed lossy compression artifacts for a long time, as lossy compression has gotten better these days and bitrates are higher usually. Well, I've heard some of it now with these. Likewise there are things that I found obnoxious in some songs, like too much limiting, that are now even MORE obnoxious.

They really don't smooth over any details, as their testing would suggest. You hear what's there, and if what's there has issues, you hear that.

But man does music that's well recorded and mastered sound GOOD. One thing that kind of surprised me was distorted guitar. Not the kind of thing I'd think "this will sound better with better headphones," but it does. I'm not quite sure how to describe it other than it just sounded more... right. It's not the only I noticed sounded better, just the one that surprised me the most.

All in all I do like them and will keep and use them, but I'll probably have to keep the HD800S around for games, and for things that maybe need something a little more forgiving.

Assuming you use the HD800s at stock then there's bound to be wild differences between them, the frequency response differences are large between them, so that's why. You could always use an Oratory EQ with the HD800s but you probably know that already. It won't sound as good as the E3 in the bass though regardless of how you EQ the HD800s.

 

[Dan Clark]

So I just got a pair of these a few days ago and they are what I'd call a mixed blessing. I got them to add to my Sennheiser HD800S phones because these days I'm not in a super quiet room, and some isolation would be nice. In that regard they do decent. They aren't super isolating, nor do they claim to be, but they do a pretty good job of blocking out the low-level background noise that the Sennheisers don't. Maybe 10dB reduction? Does the trick and I don't hear the noise even with fairly quiet music.

Comfort wise, they are a big step down. I knew they wouldn't be as comfortable, but it is a big difference. A lot heavier and man do they clamp HARD. I wasn't thinking I was going to be able to keep them as they were giving me a headache because of my glasses, however someone online pointed out there's set screws you can remove that lower the clamping. That has gotten it to tolerable, but it is still quite a bit. I get that it helps them be positioned correctly on your head and to get a good seal, but it does make them harder to wear. I'm guessing for long gaming sessions I'll have to switch back to the HD800S just for comfort. I don't know that I can do 2+ hours in these.

The real mixed blessing is the sound though. It is everything that was promised: Super clean, super balanced, etc, etc. It is really, really GOOD... and it really, really shows issues in material that has them. I hadn't really noticed lossy compression artifacts for a long time, as lossy compression has gotten better these days and bitrates are higher usually. Well, I've heard some of it now with these. Likewise there are things that I found obnoxious in some songs, like too much limiting, that are now even MORE obnoxious.

They really don't smooth over any details, as their testing would suggest. You hear what's there, and if what's there has issues, you hear that.

But man does music that's well recorded and mastered sound GOOD. One thing that kind of surprised me was distorted guitar. Not the kind of thing I'd think "this will sound better with better headphones," but it does. I'm not quite sure how to describe it other than it just sounded more... right. It's not the only I noticed sounded better, just the one that surprised me the most.

All in all I do like them and will keep and use them, but I'll probably have to keep the HD800S around for games, and for things that maybe need something a little more forgiving.

Glad you enjoy the sound, happily we can help with the clamp force.

It's easy to reduce, just email [email protected] and Sue will help. We do find a few people with larger or very small hat sizes may need adjustment and we can resolve issues at either end of the fit bell-curve....

 

[Sycraft]

Assuming you use the HD800s at stock then there's bound to be wild differences between them, the frequency response differences are large between them, so that's why. You could always use an Oratory EQ with the HD800s but you probably know that already. It won't sound as good as the E3 in the bass though regardless of how you EQ the HD800s.

The HD800S was EQ'd (I use an RME ADI-2 as the amp/EQ) to a Harman curve, as I found it sounds very "wrong" without the EQ. The E3 is un-EQ'd at the moment, I find that it sounds "right" out of the box. I might back the highs off for some things to smooth over issues, we'll see. Rolling the highs can help mask compression artifacts.

Also one area I noticed they really emphasized the problems on is some early digital audio. I'm an Information Society fan, and their album Hack has always sounded harsh to my ears. This is likely because it was one of the first done all digital, and mixing rez was only 16-bit. The harshness is even more noticeable on the E3s. They just really don't smooth over any details.

That's not a criticism of them, they are what they claim to be and should be. It just makes me wish I had better versions of some music.

Like Infected Mushroom is another band I love but damn do those dudes love their limiters. They smash their music WAY too hard and it was noticeable before but I can hear the distortion so clearly when it is running too hard. The E3s just make it that much easier to notice. I wish they'd release their albums with the limiter backed off about 6-8dB.

Glad you enjoy the sound, happily we can help with the clamp force.

It's easy to reduce, just email [email protected] and Sue will help. We do find a few people with larger or very small hat sizes may need adjustment and we can resolve issues at either end of the fit bell-curve....

Thanks, I'll do that and yes, I am at the large end of the bell curve. I removed the set screws that I would imagine are for that purpose and it has made it much better, but I could go for even lower force so I'll e-mail your team and see what they suggest.

They make me want to try the Expanse for when I do have a quiet room. Can't afford them at the moment since we just had to buy a new central AC (and nothing makes audio look cheap like HVAC ) but perhaps someday if tariffs don't drive up their price too much.

 

[Robbo99999]

The HD800S was EQ'd (I use an RME ADI-2 as the amp/EQ) to a Harman curve, as I found it sounds very "wrong" without the EQ. The E3 is un-EQ'd at the moment, I find that it sounds "right" out of the box. I might back the highs off for some things to smooth over issues, we'll see. Rolling the highs can help mask compression artifacts.

Also one area I noticed they really emphasized the problems on is some early digital audio. I'm an Information Society fan, and their album Hack has always sounded harsh to my ears. This is likely because it was one of the first done all digital, and mixing rez was only 16-bit. The harshness is even more noticeable on the E3s. They just really don't smooth over any details.

That's not a criticism of them, they are what they claim to be and should be. It just makes me wish I had better versions of some music.

Like Infected Mushroom is another band I love but damn do those dudes love their limiters. They smash their music WAY too hard and it was noticeable before but I can hear the distortion so clearly when it is running too hard. The E3s just make it that much easier to notice. I wish they'd release their albums with the limiter backed off about 6-8dB.


Thanks, I'll do that and yes, I am at the large end of the bell curve. I removed the set screws that I would imagine are for that purpose and it has made it much better, but I could go for even lower force so I'll e-mail your team and see what they suggest.

They make me want to try the Expanse for when I do have a quiet room. Can't afford them at the moment since we just had to buy a new central AC (and nothing makes audio look cheap like HVAC ) but perhaps someday if tariffs don't drive up their price too much.

It is interesting when headphones don't sound the same when both EQ'd to the same Target Curve, it's something I've noticed myself over the years (and that phenomenon is fairly common knowledge here on ASR). HD800s is very low unit to unit variation according to Oratory so theoretically his EQ for it should be pretty spot on & relevant for people's own unit of HD800s that they possess, yet still it sounded different for you in comparison to the E3 - mind you that can be EQ'd to Harman using Oratory too, but it's close already to Harman. Yeah, we just do our EQ's and choose our favourite headphones, for sure though different models of headphones don't sound exactly the same when EQ'd to the same Target Curve.

 

[Sycraft]

It is interesting when headphones don't sound the same when both EQ'd to the same Target Curve, it's something I've noticed myself over the years (and that phenomenon is fairly common knowledge here on ASR). HD800s is very low unit to unit variation according to Oratory so theoretically his EQ for it should be pretty spot on & relevant for people's own unit of HD800s that they possess, yet still it sounded different for you in comparison to the E3 - mind you that can be EQ'd to Harman using Oratory too, but it's close already to Harman. Yeah, we just do our EQ's and choose our favourite headphones, for sure though different models of headphones don't sound exactly the same when EQ'd to the same Target Curve.

I think there's a few potential reasons. One is who knows how close the EQ actually gets the phones to the target? It isn't like I've measured my own phones, so I don't know how much they deviate from the ones Oratory measured, if at all. Thus the difference could be larger than it in theory should be. Also distortion could be a differentiating factor. The HD800S doesn't have high distortion or anything, but it does rise in the bass, and since the bass is being EQ'd up that means it will be even higher. I could see the less inherent distortion of the phones being a reason I seem to notice any distortion issues in the music, if present, more.

Finally there may just be differences we don't yet know how to measure. Dan Clark gave a talk about that, talking about things that we do seem to perceive on headphones, but have not yet developed a way to measure.

 

[CedarX]

I think there's a few potential reasons. One is who knows how close the EQ actually gets the phones to the target? It isn't like I've measured my own phones, so I don't know how much they deviate from the ones Oratory measured, if at all. Thus the difference could be larger than it in theory should be. Also distortion could be a differentiating factor. The HD800S doesn't have high distortion or anything, but it does rise in the bass, and since the bass is being EQ'd up that means it will be even higher. I could see the less inherent distortion of the phones being a reason I seem to notice any distortion issues in the music, if present, more.

Finally there may just be differences we don't yet know how to measure. Dan Clark gave a talk about that, talking about things that we do seem to perceive on headphones, but have not yet developed a way to measure.

I think there is another reason: it is very possible that the HD800S and E3 eq’d to the exact same target on a test fixture give (slightly) different response when placed on your head—different acoustic impedances between the fixture and your head, and no guarantee that both HP interact with these impedances exactly in the same way…

A simple example is how HP response varies with their position on the test fixture: there is no reason this variability is exactly the same between the HD800S and E3.

 

[livinon2wheels]

Still a bit rich for my blood but tempting.

this is a bit rich for my blood too...I get the notion of dropping 12-15k for full range speakers. But 2k on headphones just feels excessive. I just feel like I am being used at that price, no matter how good the cans are.

 

[Robbo99999]

I think there's a few potential reasons. One is who knows how close the EQ actually gets the phones to the target? It isn't like I've measured my own phones, so I don't know how much they deviate from the ones Oratory measured, if at all. Thus the difference could be larger than it in theory should be. Also distortion could be a differentiating factor. The HD800S doesn't have high distortion or anything, but it does rise in the bass, and since the bass is being EQ'd up that means it will be even higher. I could see the less inherent distortion of the phones being a reason I seem to notice any distortion issues in the music, if present, more.

Finally there may just be differences we don't yet know how to measure. Dan Clark gave a talk about that, talking about things that we do seem to perceive on headphones, but have not yet developed a way to measure.

Yes, that was the unit to unit variation aspect I mentioned, but the HD800s is theoretically low unit to unit variation if we go off Oratory's measurements of various HD800s units he's measured, and indeed as you say distortion in bass could be somekind of factor for the HD800s. And as @CedarX said, even if you measure & EQ two units of different models of headphone and EQ them to same target they're unlikely to sound exactly the same, I mean they'd be quite close, but likely to have some noticeable differences, and depending on how different the two models of headphone are in terms of general design I can imagine that would effect how alike they would sound after EQ. There's also things happening from 9000-20000Hz that you can't EQ accurately/precisely using a measurement rig (but you can use measurements in that area to do broad EQ to bring that area to roughly the right level, but it's not fine-grained adjustment) so that's another area of imprecision.

 

[Sycraft]

So a question for other owners out there: Are there any 3rd party cables out there that aren't too expensive and are less microphonic than the included cable? It isn't awful, but transmits more sound than I'd like when I move around.

 

[Alexander Gödde]

So a question for other owners out there: Are there any 3rd party cables out there that aren't too expensive and are less microphonic than the included cable? It isn't awful, but transmits more sound than I'd like when I move around.

You can find some on aliexpress. Of the two that I ordered, one of the connectors to the headphones is a bit janky, otherwise they are fine.