Dan Clark NOIRE X Headphone Review

[Mike_Trueman]

I am using the "Linear Slow" PCM filter so thats why i use high gain. Needs more volume with that setting and it sounds great for me.

 

[Dk33145]

I tried this on my Noire X. Not gonna lie, it sounds godawful. Reduces presence and really brings out sibilance I didn't even notice was in the track.

It certainly sounds more dynamic either without eq or with Amir's eq even but somewhat shouty to me. Maiky's eq tames it down, but yes less dynamic/presence for sure.

 

[Dk33145]

It certainly sounds more dynamic either without eq or with Amir's eq even but somewhat shouty to me. Maiky's eq tames it down, but yes less dynamic/presence for sure.

Not a believer of burn-in, but just got mine and the sound has improved considerably over the last 24 hours or so. The earpads are fairly stiff and so I think with use, they have become more compliant and are sealing better. Sub-bass extension is there now and Maiky's eq sounds as good as Amir's now and less shouty to my tastes. Needed closed backs and these are great. Bass is nearly as good as K371 but the attack, soundstage and separation are miles ahead, as you would expect given the price.

 

[Mike_Trueman]

The Noire X is still the best closed headphone i heard in the price range around 1000€. Especially for my 45 years old ears.
No equalizer needed for this headphone. Listening and enjoying music every day with these headphones.

I do not recommend this headphone for people with glasses, long hair or hats/caps. One little lift on the earpads and the sound is gone.

 

[Grimoire]

The Noire X is still the best closed headphone i heard in the price range around 1000€. Especially for my 45 years old ears.
No equalizer needed for this headphone. Listening and enjoying music every day with these headphones.

I do not recommend this headphone for people with glasses, long hair or hats/caps. One little lift on the earpads and the sound is gone.

I have long hair and wear glasses. I'm afraid that I cannot agree with you there.

 

[Dk33145]

Try this EQ and play "Royals" by Lorde on the Noire X or "Supersonic" by Skrillex or "xanny" by Billie Eilish :

Preamp: -4.5 dB
Filter 1: ON LS Fc 105 Hz Gain 3.8 dB Q 0.71
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 215 Hz Gain -1.8 dB Q 1.2
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 2340 Hz Gain -1.4 dB Q 2.4
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 3480 Hz Gain -3.2 dB Q 1.8
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 4700 Hz Gain -3.7 dB Q 3.5
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 5200 Hz Gain -1.2 dB Q 2.8
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 12800 Hz Gain -4.5 dB Q 4.2

Can't count how many times I have heard "Royals" but never like this, I get why this costs $1k+ now...

 

[Mike_Trueman]

I just bought a nice wooden headphone stand for my Noire X with wireless charger.

 

[Mort]

I just bought a nice wooden headphone stand for my Noire X with wireless charger.

View attachment 522112 View attachment 522113

I see a lot of performance for the price in your choices. I'm a Noire X owner but am probably selling because I don't need closed back as often as I expected. I prefer the Sennheiser HD800s with EQ. I almost turned them into a travel set but I will stick with IEMs.

 

[Mike_Trueman]

I see a lot of performance for the price in your choices. I'm a Noire X owner but am probably selling because I don't need closed back as often as I expected. I prefer the Sennheiser HD800s with EQ. I almost turned them into a travel set but I will stick with IEMs.

The total audio setup costed me more then 6000€ in my country in the EU (without the price of my PC setup). Mostly bought on reviews from this forum.
I still prefer my speaker/sub setup because it sounds better for me and the closed headphone is just needed for keeping the peace with the family in the late nights sessions.

At this moment i am looking at the Luxsin X9 with the parametric eq but i am not it sure it is a upgrade over my DO400.

I am listening and enjoying music every day with this setup. Music is life!

 

[feedjee]

I would like to leave my feedback, maybe it will be useful to someone. Initially, I set myself the goal of finding headphones in which I can mix while everyone is asleep. According to the description, the noire x headphones were perfect, so I ordered them blindly. Unfortunately, they turned out to be completely different from what I had imagined. After 5 minutes of use, I experienced significant discomfort. The headphones put a lot of pressure on my head and provided very little space for my ears. Working with them was a real torture. However, I decided to give them a try because the sound was the most important factor. Unfortunately, I faced another significant issue. Without an equalizer, it is impossible to get an adequate result. The 3 kilohertz are so low that there is no question of any analytical quality. The high frequencies are also not very good in this regard. I had to boost the high shelf significantly. In general, if you choose these headphones for mixing without an equalizer, I strongly advise against it. However, if you just want to listen to music, they are not bad, as long as you are willing to accept that they are not very comfortable for a large head. I have returned them. I've come to the conclusion that mixing with closed-back headphones is not for me, as I experience severe ear pain after short periods of work. I'm considering purchasing iem headphones to check the bass at the end.

 

[Bren Derlin]

Welp. I found the limit of this headphone with the JDS Labs Element IV.

"When I'm With You" - Denmark + Winter

The last 45 seconds of this song is wild, and really distorts the planar magnetic drivers. But it also distorts other speakers and headphones I've used - the song just starts reverberating during this passage of the song. There are two sets of speakers this song hasn't caused reverberation distortion. 1) The McIntosh Car Audio system in the Jeep Grand Wagoneer we rented in Arizona. This song was smooth as silk in that car. ....and 2). My Revel M106 + Rel HT1003 + Anthem MRX 540 8K. Also smooth as silk. The audio system in my CX-30 Carbon Edition does a good job of minimizing the distortion.

On a side note: That Jeep Grand Wagoneer McIntosh audio system... I wanted to sleep in that car. The audio quality in that SUV was sublime.

 

[A.West]

I just listened to the last minute of that song on Stax X9000s and I think the blame lies with the recording. IStax headphones are very low distortion, so I think the yuckiness is in the recoding, and good headphones serve it all up to you, like it or not. I'm hearing artificial electronic recording layering and pop music recording compression, at the peak it doesn't sound like an audiophile test recoding to me. My ADI-2 graph shows every frequency lit up momentarily to about -10db or even closer to max across the full spectrum - what actual music does that? Synthesizers and voice seem fed through a bunch of electronic reverb. "Loudness wars"? Grunge filters? Maybe the Jeep took pity on your ears and went into partial limiting?

 

[A.West]

I just listened to the last minute of that song on Stax X9000s and I think the blame lies with the recording. IStax headphones are very low distortion, so I think the yuckiness is in the recoding, and good headphones serve it all up to you, like it or not. I'm hearing artificial electronic recording layering and pop music recording compression, at the peak it doesn't sound like an audiophile test recoding to me. My ADI-2 graph shows every frequency lit up momentarily to about -10db or even closer to max across the full spectrum - what actual music does that? Synthesizers and voice seem fed through a bunch of electronic reverb. "Loudness wars"? Grunge filters? Maybe the Jeep took pity on your ears and went into partial limiting?

Btw, one of my favorite system tests is the last 2 minutes of Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part II) which gives a full range workout with both louder and quieter segments, and then a downward tonal shift over time. Non-zero distortion in the recoding but a weak system turns into mud.

 

[jimmyjames8]

Think I might want one of these. Do I go for instant gratification with a 60 day return period with a 1/4" rca plug or wait but not long I assume for a XLR termination? My HPA has both outputs.

 

[Ahmonge]

Think I might want one of these. Do I go for instant gratification with a 60 day return period with a 1/4" rca plug or wait but not long I assume for a XLR termination? My HPA has both outputs.

If your HPA has a differential power stage (shown by higher power specs on XLR over 6.35 mm socket), wait for a headphone unit with a four wire cable (either with XLR or Pentaconn 4.4 mm plugs). If your HPA is single ended, but has XLR or Pentaconn sockets for convenience, buy now with the 3 wire, 6.35 mm plug

 

[Rayman30]

Been experimenting with EQ to make these warmer with more body in the mid range at the expense of being less airy. I think this makes vocals more natural, especially female vocals. I used Chat GPT to go for a more HD650 sound.

If anyone is feeling adventurous.

Preamp: -6.0 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 111 Hz Gain 1.5 dB Q 3.0
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 3435 Hz Gain 0.5 dB Q 6.0
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 4688 Hz Gain -2.0 dB Q 6.0
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1875 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 5.0
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 640 Hz Gain 2.0 dB Q 4.0
Filter 6: ON LS Fc 100 Hz Gain 2.0 dB Q 0.7070
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 400 Hz Gain 2.0 dB Q 1.0
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 6623 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 2.0
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 9000 Hz Gain 0.5 dB Q 1.80

 

[ALeg]

I have tried them yesterday as I am looking for closed backs. To me treble sound weird. They seem darker than expanse but at the same time they tend to be harsh. The mids sounded very "boxy" to me. Like resonanses i guess... Surprisingly - they are soo much more comfortable than the Expanse. They feel lighter and pads fit my head better. I did not look at that carefully but they felt like the space between ear and the driver is not fully sealed. For me that is a huge increase in comfort.

Overall likeable headphones. I did Amirs eq profile and to me it made huge difference, at least I think so, did not ABX it. Maybe E3 or stealth are way to go?

 

[5onderling]

I am not sure, this is a bit of an ambiguous area. Some people like to talk about "slam" in headphones, but that to me is a complex subject. I have always believed "slam" really is the same region PA people call "kick," about 100-300Hz, which is where people tend to "feel" bass. There is zero research to back this up, that I know of, but the typical HiFiman doesn't follow the Harman bass profile, and instead measures "flat" like a ruler, which relative to Harman adds about 2dB of bass centered at 200Hz. You might try a +2dB PEQ at 200Hz, Q of about 1 which should cover 100-300Hz and see if that does what you expect. The flip is we should deliver much more deep bass if your seal is good. If that's not it, I am not sure I know what else to suggest.

Damn, I just got the headphones a few days ago and I was kinda wondering the same thing as mgilbert. With this simple EQ change the headphones immediately sound like I would have expected. Which means the sound more like my Denon AH-D5200 which I always used without EQ and are a bit boosted in that range (I think, also from the measurements I've seen). I've already gotten pretty much used to the more neutral sound of the NOIRE X though and I think I will keep using them without this boost. I also wear glasses and have long hair, but I don't think it does too much damage to the sound.

 

[Dan Clark]

Damn, I just got the headphones a few days ago and I was kinda wondering the same thing as mgilbert. With this simple EQ change the headphones immediately sound like I would have expected. Which means the sound more like my Denon AH-D5200 which I always used without EQ and are a bit boosted in that range (I think, also from the measurements I've seen). I've already gotten pretty much used to the more neutral sound of the NOIRE X though and I think I will keep using them without this boost. I also wear glasses and have long hair, but I don't think it does too much damage to the sound.

Pull the hair back to allow the pad to rest on skin and try without glasses, you can also press gently on the cups to test seal. Another trick is to put the headphones on, but no music playing and circle the ear pad rubbing your fingertips together. If you can hear your fingertips, your seal is compromised and losing base.

 

[Viennacalling]

I’m pretty surprised you found the AEON more to lay accurate… that said were you using the optional filters with it, e.g. white felt? I can probably help you eq if I know a little more about how you were using the other headphone. NX will clear most ears but yes, there is less clearance.

I am not trying to be flip when I say this but not tapping on the headphone is probable the solution to the band ringing. We have tested this carefully and there is no ringing induced by music. We do have a little clip designed that can solve this if there’s interest. IMHO the biggest application would be for walking about.

If you do prefer the A2 strap we can always provide one and some sliders, it wouldn’t be expensive if you prefer that hack. 90% of feedback is NX is easier and more comfortable to fit but YMMV…

where can i get this clip - this would be great
thank you