This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the Dan Clark NOIRE XO headphone. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $1,299.
The mesh on the sides and general material feel is excellent and embue a feeling of luxury. The cups are slightly more compact than my everyday DC E3 and with corresponding lower weight (subjectively). It wears a bit warm. The auto-adjusting headband is comfortable to wear but limits optimization on the test fixture. The hirose jacks on Dan Clark headphones has the best feel of any such connectors.
NOTE: company has been optimizing its design on BK 5128 fixture which may explain small discrepancies between my testing and theirs.
Dan Clark NOIRE XO Measurements
As usual we start with our headphone frequency response and comparison to our preference target:
As noted, macro level compliance with the target is quite good. That said, there are slight variations here and there which don't quite show up on company measurements (or at least to this extent). I will examine their effect in the listening test section. For now, the resolution of our target is quite low so there is no saying whether these variations should or should not be there. Should you choose to correct for them, here is the differential to our target:
Company has focused its distortion mitigation at lower frequencies, and it shows:
The large, narrowband spikes on the right are due to frequency response dips due to cancellations. Overall, distortion is extremely well controlled at 94 dBSPL with the blue line essentially hugging the "0" line.
Here are the absolute levels:
The only area that slightly sticks out a bit is at 1.9 kHz.
Group delay shows some small disturbances but is far cleaner than vast array of headphones out there:
Impedance is variable indicating tuning of the frequency response using passive components:
The very low impedance combined with below average sensitivity points to needing a headphone amplifier to drive it to loud levels:
Dan Clark NOIRE XO Listening Tests
Company asked me to listen before measuring and that is what I did. I very much liked what I heard although the temptation to measure was strong so that is where I went after a few hours.
Once I saw the measurements, I decided to test their audibility using equalization:
Note that the values are tuned by ear.
Overall, I like the effect of EQ better. The headphone handles bass beautifully so might as well goose it up a bit more. The other two filters work with it to generate a bit more exciting experience. With or without the filters, the sound is so enjoyable that I have been listening to the XO all week as my everyday headphone. Bass as noted, is clean and deep. The rest of the response reminds of tonality of excellent studio monitors. Spatial qualities are slightly better with the EQ.
Conclusions
It is wonderful to see Dan Clark Audio continue to bring the price down of their innovating technology and their continued dedication to following research into headphone tonality. Objective measurements predict excellent subjective performance that follows it. Material choices and design are upper class, making for an excellent headphone that gives me joy to discover and listen to.
It is my pleasure to recommend the Dan Clark NOIRE XO.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The mesh on the sides and general material feel is excellent and embue a feeling of luxury. The cups are slightly more compact than my everyday DC E3 and with corresponding lower weight (subjectively). It wears a bit warm. The auto-adjusting headband is comfortable to wear but limits optimization on the test fixture. The hirose jacks on Dan Clark headphones has the best feel of any such connectors.
NOTE: company has been optimizing its design on BK 5128 fixture which may explain small discrepancies between my testing and theirs.
Dan Clark NOIRE XO Measurements
As usual we start with our headphone frequency response and comparison to our preference target:
As noted, macro level compliance with the target is quite good. That said, there are slight variations here and there which don't quite show up on company measurements (or at least to this extent). I will examine their effect in the listening test section. For now, the resolution of our target is quite low so there is no saying whether these variations should or should not be there. Should you choose to correct for them, here is the differential to our target:
Company has focused its distortion mitigation at lower frequencies, and it shows:
The large, narrowband spikes on the right are due to frequency response dips due to cancellations. Overall, distortion is extremely well controlled at 94 dBSPL with the blue line essentially hugging the "0" line.
Here are the absolute levels:
The only area that slightly sticks out a bit is at 1.9 kHz.
Group delay shows some small disturbances but is far cleaner than vast array of headphones out there:
Impedance is variable indicating tuning of the frequency response using passive components:
The very low impedance combined with below average sensitivity points to needing a headphone amplifier to drive it to loud levels:
Dan Clark NOIRE XO Listening Tests
Company asked me to listen before measuring and that is what I did. I very much liked what I heard although the temptation to measure was strong so that is where I went after a few hours.
Once I saw the measurements, I decided to test their audibility using equalization:Note that the values are tuned by ear.
Overall, I like the effect of EQ better. The headphone handles bass beautifully so might as well goose it up a bit more.
The other two filters work with it to generate a bit more exciting experience. With or without the filters, the sound is so enjoyable that I have been listening to the XO all week as my everyday headphone. Bass as noted, is clean and deep. The rest of the response reminds of tonality of excellent studio monitors. Spatial qualities are slightly better with the EQ.Conclusions
It is wonderful to see Dan Clark Audio continue to bring the price down of their innovating technology and their continued dedication to following research into headphone tonality. Objective measurements predict excellent subjective performance that follows it. Material choices and design are upper class, making for an excellent headphone that gives me joy to discover and listen to.
It is my pleasure to recommend the Dan Clark NOIRE XO.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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