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I finally heard the Expanse next to my Aeon X Open. Once again, Amir's objective review truly translates to a phenomenal listening experience! IMHO, you absolutely NEVER need to EQ this headphone as this is the most competent tuning of any TOTL I've ever heard and slightly preferred this to the Stealth
Side note, I haggled for a 25% discount but they can only do 15% off. Wish I had my call options printing madly before I got a chance to hear this masterpiece
I finally heard the Expanse next to my Aeon X Open. Once again, Amir's objective review truly translates to a phenomenal listening experience! IMHO, you absolutely NEVER need to EQ this headphone as this is the most competent tuning of any TOTL I've ever heard and slightly preferred this to the Stealth
Side note, I haggled for a 25% discount but they can only do 15% off. Wish I had my call options printing madly before I got a chance to hear this masterpiece
600 US dollars off MSRP for 15% off. I intentionally try to low ball to try one of the best deals ever so I put a hard 1K off MSRP (25% off). Anyways, for those who have the budget, look no further IMO unless one prefers a colored tuning sound of other flagship headphones like the Utopia or Susvara
There is no way to do a quick AB test so anything I offer, won't be that reliable. In general though, if you don't need a closed headphone, then the decision is easy to go with Expanse.
Thanks Amir, I’m mainly thinking about the bass response between the two. I’ll see if I can access your frequency response graph from your Stealth review and compare it to this model as a start.
There’s this thing called pad placement—some headphones have a very narrow window for how tightly the pads enclose your ears to provide optimal tuning. This is one reason why headphone measurements can be tricky—the placement of the cans on the measuring rig can lead to significant changes in the frequency response curve.
When I wear my glasses, the stems can prevent the pads from making a proper seal over my ears. I think that may have been the point of the OP’s post.
There’s this thing called pad placement—some headphones have a very narrow window for how tightly the pads enclose your ears to provide optimal tuning. This is one reason why headphone measurements can be tricky—the placement of the cans on the measuring rig can lead to significant changes in the frequency response curve.
When I wear my glasses, the stems can prevent the pads from making a proper seal over my ears. I think that may have been the point of the OP’s post.
I guess this is one way to help out with the rising cost of TOTL headphones... Audeze announced at CamJam a new trade up program for the LCD-5 or the CRBN electrostatic ... you can now get either of those for $2495 with a trade in.... what a deal
The thing that is impressive to me about Dan Clark Audio is that TOTL headphones- even from the 'big boys' (Sennheiser, AKG et al)- are often riddled with flaws (as shown by testing here), and some even underperform their own lower priced offerings. In other words, paying more doesn't always get you more. Dan Clark is creating products that are beating the snot out of comparably priced products from sources that have way more experience and R&D resources than he probably has... So if he can produce a high end headphone that isn't an 'under-engineered mess', why can't they?!? Is it because they aren't really trying to and that many people buy things because of how expensive they are- not how good?
Agreed. Also you charge competitively. $4,000 has become the price point for headphone “statement” pieces ever since Focal released the Utopia in 2016. Meze Elites, Audeze’s LCD-5, Abyss’s Diana Phi all followed suit, and HiFiMan upped the ante to almost 6 thousand for the Susvara.
If Clark didn’t price his own flagships accordingly there are buyers in this market who would view these cans as lesser beasts as its competitors, and the psychology of this influences reviewers and dealers too. For those who “aspire” to this market, the price increases FOMO as well.
I would be thrilled if it cost less, obviously. But for me anyway, headphones are very personal, and I feel protective of my best pair. Besides, due to this site I’ve saved at least the costs of these on my streamer and DAC!
The thing that is impressive to me about Dan Clark Audio is that TOTL headphones- even from the 'big boys' (Sennheiser, AKG et al)- are often riddled with flaws (as shown by testing here), and some even underperform their own lower priced offerings. In other words, paying more doesn't always get you more. Dan Clark is creating products that are beating the snot out of comparably priced products from sources that have way more experience and R&D resources than he probably has... So if he can produce a high end headphone that isn't an 'under-engineered mess', why can't they?!? Is it because they aren't really trying to and that many people buy things because of how expensive they are- not how good?
There are many competitors at this price point who are making very fine headphones. These are hitting the Harman Target better than the competitors, but that isn’t necessarily indicative of putting the others to shame. Many folks who buy these will still apply PEQ—everyone’s tuning tastes are different. The HC is an attempt to define a mean reference point—there are plenty of folks who fall into the standard deviations of the curve.
There are many competitors at this price point who are making very fine headphones. These are hitting the Harman Target better than the competitors, but that isn’t necessarily indicative of putting the others to shame. Many folks who buy these will still apply PEQ—everyone’s tuning tastes are different. The HC is an attempt to define a mean reference point—there are plenty of folks who fall into the standard deviations of the curve.
Yes, I didn't mean (or even imply, I think) that DCA was the only hi-buck product worth buying. But there are also quite a few that have difficult-to-forgive flaws*. Do a search of the review index starting with whatever price point you like and 'No' in the 'Recommended' box. Many 'deep-end' sets seem to deliver nothing that you can't get for a lot less. IMO a $4K headphone (Hell, a $1.5K set- remember the controversy when the HD800 came out at a then-shocking $1500?) shouldn't have much in the way of major shortcomings. But there they are. And headphones are hardly the only product category this happens. A little research will reveal many devices that live down to the late speaker designer Brian Cheney's observation that, often, "The price is the product."
Still 100% satisfied with my Stealth's over a year in for those considering buyer's remorse. For those weighing open and closed back, it is worth downloading an SPL meter to take an honest measure of your ambient noise situation. The Stealth's aren't boxy sounding thanks to the fine engineering and the isolation lets me appreciate what they are delivering over noise gremlins in my environment.
Still 100% satisfied with my Stealth's over a year in for those considering buyer's remorse. For those weighing open and closed back, it is worth downloading an SPL meter to take an honest measure of your ambient noise situation. The Stealth's aren't boxy sounding thanks to the fine engineering and the isolation lets me appreciate what they are delivering over noise gremlins in my environment.
The biggest thing I have against closed-back headphones for home use is that I often have talks or meetings during the day, or Discord calls in the evening for gaming, and I'd like to use these for all of that. But closed-back makes it so I sound weird to myself, which I am not a fan of. Speaking of which, I even sound different when I wear my SR-007 instead of my HD800S, both open-backed headphones. Kind of crazy to think about.
Is that possibly the most overkill use for TOTL headphones? Yes. But my desk is cluttered enough as-is. I have 3 pairs of 'phones within arm's reach, I'd like to reduce that to 1.
Besides, these are allegedly properly comfortable. Though I doubt more comfortable than the HD800(S)...
Looks great in stock form. Maybe little too bassy. Looks similar to Arya's shape i wonder how they compare after eq. Possibly similar presentation due to cup shape ?
There's no true Harman target headphone without EQ. The Expanse is no exception, as can be seen by its predicted preference rating of 76% stock, which is great, but not amazing. Having said that, the AKG N700 was released 4 years ago, and goes for around 25 times cheaper at ~$150...
Yeah, the Expanse is not the first, that goes probably to the Stealth for passive headphones and maybe the N700NC (active) overall, but the preference rating is bad and should not be relied upon at all.
