• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Dan Clark Expanse Headphone Review

Rate this headphone:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 10 2.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 12 3.3%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 65 17.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 281 76.4%

  • Total voters
    368

DJBonoBobo

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 21, 2020
Messages
1,360
Likes
2,851
Location
any germ
Understandable, considering the sales price in Europe contains VAT (19% in Germany) and one USD pretty much equals one EUR now. When I bought my Stealth living in California, I had to pay sales tax on top of the $3400 price tag for Club DCA members. There is no foul play here.
Yes, it pretty much mirrors the €/$ rate developement of the last year since the Stealth was announced.
 

Geert

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 20, 2020
Messages
1,937
Likes
3,525
but I really would be interested on how has the price been decided.

If you sell whatever product or service that's the best and/or most exclusive in the world you can practically ask whatever you want, as there's no objective benchmark to determine the value for the customer. As long as it sells your golden. If not, you can always lower the price. And people who don't believe its the best, they're free to buy something else.
 

Jimbob54

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Oct 25, 2019
Messages
11,065
Likes
14,696
If you sell whatever product or service that's the best and/or most exclusive in the world you can practically ask whatever you want, as there's no objective benchmark to determine the value for the customer. As long as it sells your golden. If not, you can always lower the price. And people who don't believe its the best, they're free to buy something else.
Also- I am pretty sure the price of the Expanse is set based on the price (and success) of the Stealth. To have any meaningful differential would be silly given the obvious kinship.
 

Geert

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 20, 2020
Messages
1,937
Likes
3,525
Also- I am pretty sure the price of the Expanse is set based on the price (and success) of the Stealth. To have any meaningful differential would be silly given the obvious kinship.

Probably. So Dan already had a good idea of what price is acceptable for the happy few. People need to understand that for thousands of people 4k is spare change, especially if it buys you something exclusive.
 

PeteL

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Messages
3,303
Likes
3,838
If you sell whatever product or service that's the best and/or most exclusive in the world you can practically ask whatever you want, as there's no objective benchmark to determine the value for the customer. As long as it sells your golden. If not, you can always lower the price. And people who don't believe its the best, they're free to buy something else.
Yes, you can always lower the price of something. If you launch at a certain price tough, increasing later is the death of it.
 

Jimbob54

Grand Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Oct 25, 2019
Messages
11,065
Likes
14,696
Probably. So Dan already had a good idea of what price is acceptable for the happy few. People need to understand that for thousands of people 4k is spare change, especially if it buys you something exclusive.
If only those folks would let me have a good root in the depths of their sofas.
 

Geert

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 20, 2020
Messages
1,937
Likes
3,525
Yes, you can always lower the price of something. If you launch at a certain price tough, increasing later is the death of it.

Exactly. Drop the price with 1k at black Friday and sell your whole stock in one day.
 

Noob

Active Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2018
Messages
158
Likes
250
4 grand for a headphone is laughable regardless of how it measures. there is nothing in materials that justifies this cost!
The cost of any sort of instrument does not come primarily from material cost or even the time taken to construct it. It comes from the craftsmanship and the performance capabilities of the instrument. It's ok to admit ignorance of how the market works. Just because you don't understand the price, does not mean it is the wrong price.
 

Jimster480

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 26, 2018
Messages
2,880
Likes
2,032
Location
Tampa Bay
I'm sure there are some smarthome devices that would notify you with a blinking light or something if someone drops of a parcel and rings the doorbell.

Mine is my wife, she punches me in the Rips or somewhere that is not my head. (Because of the headphones).

But there are nice alternatives like a doorbell camera that you could watch on a tablet.
I don't waste time with that sort of crap. I do have cameras on my house, but I don't watch them all the time. I also have kids and I have to hear them.
This is especially the case when my wife is at work. So I bought open back for that reason exactly.
 

ra990

Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
76
Likes
99
I don't waste time with that sort of crap. I do have cameras on my house, but I don't watch them all the time. I also have kids and I have to hear them.
This is especially the case when my wife is at work. So I bought open back for that reason exactly.
Same, except I have dogs that bark when they need to go out. I absolutely loved the Stealth, but had to sell it because I couldn't hear them with it on. I had been waiting for an open-back Stealth since then. Glad to finally see it.
 

Robbo99999

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Messages
6,874
Likes
6,672
Location
UK

GaryH

Major Contributor
Joined
May 12, 2021
Messages
1,348
Likes
1,804
Well, I do indeed have less/zero fine grass in my NAD HP50 (which is my only closed back headphone) between 1-4kHz when I look at the measurements now:
View attachment 230854 View attachment 230855
So that does support your theory on outside noise causing fine grass between 1-4kHz.
Yeah, don't think I've seen any true closed-back headphone showing any 'fuzz'. Nor on the group delay.

Is there anyway for me to test this theory further with my HE4XX? I did have one idea of running sweeps on the HE4XX at a very low volume to allow any outside noise more chance to dominate the measurements - and then comparing that to sweeps done at the normal high volume (around 84dB).......of course I wouldn't move the headphone during the different sweeps so that wouldn't be a variable, and I'd overlap the two measurements at the low & high volumes to see if they overlapped perfectly - perfect overlapping would then prove that outside noise is not causing the differences. Is that a valid test do you think?
Yeah that might work. If the noise is time-varying though that might complicate things. You could also try recording 'nothing' (if possible) with the headphones on the rig to capture any noise they let in, for several different headphones.
 

Vacceo

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 9, 2022
Messages
2,632
Likes
2,751
Considering Dan Clark's track record, it would be interesting to see how he'd transport all the know-how and design excellence to an in ear device. Audeze has tried with not that bad results...
 

Robbo99999

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Messages
6,874
Likes
6,672
Location
UK
Yeah, don't think I've seen any true closed-back headphone showing any 'fuzz'. Nor on the group delay.


Yeah that might work. If the noise is time-varying though that might complicate things. You could also try recording 'nothing' (if possible) with the headphones on the rig to capture any noise they let in, for several different headphones.
I might be able to try that soon, and may do a quick & short post (as it's a tangent to the subject title) in this thread replying to you and whoever else was involved in the conversation.

(The noise shouldn't be time varying as the noise (if its noise) survived the averaging 20 individual measurements over the span of 20-30mins multiplied by a number of different headphones.)
 

GaryH

Major Contributor
Joined
May 12, 2021
Messages
1,348
Likes
1,804
I have observed the same thing in my own measurements (also easily seen in my spectrum plots) but one day I am going to plot it over a longer time period. This can show it is surrounding noise. Fuzz only in open designs or even closed ones that aren't that closed.
More corroboration then, would be interesting to see those plots.

The sawtooth alike response in the hifiman has a different root cause. You guys are discussing different things.
Yeah we got past that confusion, we're both talking about the very fine fuzz in between the sawteeth(?) now.
 

escalibur

Active Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2018
Messages
236
Likes
161
Alas, we don’t talk about future products. There’s no better way to go out of business than to promote that which doesn’t exist.
That's understandable. Though I'm glad that you didn't say 'no'. :)
 

Noob

Active Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2018
Messages
158
Likes
250
Considering Dan Clark's track record, it would be interesting to see how he'd transport all the know-how and design excellence to an in ear device. Audeze has tried with not that bad results...
Most of what he has learned with headphones doesn't even apply with IEMs. They are just such different devices. But if he did, he would definitely do the necessary research to make a great product.
 

solderdude

Grand Contributor
Joined
Jul 21, 2018
Messages
15,891
Likes
35,912
Location
The Neitherlands
More corroboration then, would be interesting to see those plots.


Yeah we got past that confusion, we're both talking about the very fine fuzz in between the sawteeth(?) now.

Let's have this discussion in another thread and not mess up the DCA thread.
 

Vacceo

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 9, 2022
Messages
2,632
Likes
2,751
Most of what he has learned with headphones doesn't even apply with IEMs. They are just such different devices. But if he did, he would definitely do the necessary research to make a great product.
My point is still valid then.
 
Top Bottom