Dan Clark NOIRE XO Headphone Review

[amirm]

Oops. Poll added.

 

[ayane]

~410gr

Thank you! A bit on the heavier side for me but still reasonable. The LCD-5 is the heaviest I've found to be still tolerable, so this is excellent.
How does Noire XO handle leakage (long hair/glasses) compared to other DCA headphones?

 

[RogerSmith]

Looks like a really nice headphone, soundwise abd functionally. Even the gaudy colored stitching from the more pricey phones does not disturb.

 

[Somafunk]

Thank you! A bit on the heavier side for me but still reasonable. The LCD-5 is the heaviest I've found to be still tolerable, so this is excellent.
How does Noire XO handle leakage (long hair/glasses) compared to other DCA headphones?

DMS reviewed it for the Headphone Show on YouTube and mentioned that he noticed no difference with or without glasses which he was very impressed with, so I guess it will do well with long hair, Griffin from that crew/crowd will most likely be listening to it and he’s got long hair so check with their website/youtube

 

[Dan Clark]

Thank you! A bit on the heavier side for me but still reasonable. The LCD-5 is the heaviest I've found to be still tolerable, so this is excellent.
How does Noire XO handle leakage (long hair/glasses) compared to other DCA headphones?

The headphone has less base loss with leakage as it’s open back, and therefore lower acoustic impedance. (Not competence as originally posted).

 

[Henreid]

The headphone has less base loss with leakage as it’s open back, and therefore lower acoustic competence.

Thanks, Dan Clark (and Amir)! You've made my day. It was just this afternoon that I first learned about the release of the DCA Noire XO, and my immediate response was "This is great news! Now, I wonder when Amir will be able to test these..." Discovering that the review was already posted was like getting an early birthday present. I'm impressed and very enthusiastic about the performance of these headphones. For the longest time I've been hoping that a headphone model would be introduced with low distortion, close compliance with the Harman curve, and good "technical" qualities. The Noire XOs possess all those features. In addition to that, they're comfortable and within my price range. These headphones have "sealed the deal" for me (and I have the hunch they may become one of DCA's best-selling models ever...)

 

[dartinbout]

Amir! Great review. I don't think it's only my subjective experience but ASR has "Gene-Laly" (typo in 1st graph) had a net postive effect on the audio industry.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Amir! Great review. I don't think it's only my subjective experience but ASR has "Gene-Laly" (typo in 1st graph) had a net postive effect on the audio industry.

"Use" is misspelled as :"Uese" in the second graph as well, Amir.

 

[evanft]

The frequency response looks overall less agreeable to me than the standard NX. Too much energy in the upper mids/lower treble and less bass.

 

[Maiky76]

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.
View attachment 449784
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:
View attachment 449785
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:
View attachment 449786
Company has focused its distortion mitigation at lower frequencies, and it shows:
View attachment 449787
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:
View attachment 449788

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:
View attachment 449789

Impedance is variable indicating tuning of the frequency response using passive components:
View attachment 449790

The very low impedance combined with below average sensitivity points to needing a headphone amplifier to drive it to loud levels:
View attachment 449791

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:
View attachment 449792
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/

Here are some thoughts about the EQ.
Please report your findings, positive or negative!

Notes about the EQ design:

• The average L/R is used to calculate the score.
• The resolution is 12 points per octave interpolated from the raw data (provided by @amirm)
• A Genetic Algorithm is used to optimize the EQ.
• The EQ Score is designed to MAXIMIZE the Score WHILE fitting the Harman target curve (and other constraints) with a fixed complexity.
  This will avoid weird results if one only optimizes for the Score, start your journey here or there.
  There is a presentation by S. Olive here.
  It will probably flatten the Error regression doing so, the tonal balance should be therefore more neutral.
• The EQs are starting point and may require tuning (certainly at LF and maybe at HF).
• The range around and above 10kHz is usually not EQed unless smooth enough to do so.
• I am using PEQ (PK) as from my experience the definition is more consistent across different DSP/platform implementations than shelves.
• With some HP/amp combo, the boosts and preamp gain (loss of Dynamic range) need to be carefully considered to avoid issues with, amongst other things, too low a Max SPL or damaging your device. You have beed warned.
• Not all units of the same product are made equal. The EQ is based on the measurements of a single unit. YMMV with regard to the very unit you are trying this EQ on.
• I sometimes use variations of the Harman curve for some reasons. See rational here and here
• NOTE: the score then calculated is not comparable to the scores derived from the default Harman target curve if not otherwise noted.

Good L/R match.

I have generated one EQ, the APO config file is attached.

Score no EQ: 81.7
Score Amirm: 80.8
Score with EQ: 89.2

Dan Clar NOIRE XO APO EQ Score 2 Flat@HF 96000Hz
May102025-131812

Preamp: 0.00 dB

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 118.8 Hz Gain -2.08 dB Q 0.84
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 333.8 Hz Gain -2.56 dB Q 2.30
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1098.9 Hz Gain -1.88 dB Q 2.98
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 2232.6 Hz Gain -4.12 dB Q 2.43
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 5665.8 Hz Gain -1.90 dB Q 4.54
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 10459.4 Hz Gain 1.37 dB Q 1.86
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 13506.8 Hz Gain -11.40 dB Q 4.51

 

[Boobisha Chodhankar]

I wouldn't buy it because of the glued pads

 

[BeeKay]

I wouldn't buy it because of the glued pads

I mean isn’t it just double sided adhesive tape? Seals better than Velcro and with a little effort replacing it should be possible, I guess?

 

[Grobbelboy]

I wouldn't buy it because of the glued pads

Lol not this again. The pads are easily removed and replaced, the adhesive doesn’t leave marks.

 

[Tell]

These looks great! Well except yhe price, but "luckily" I can't use these types of headphones anymore (I get dizzy from the pressure somehow) so the price don't matter for me anyways

 

[Chagall]

These looks great! Well except yhe price, but "luckily" I can't use these types of headphones anymore (I get dizzy from the pressure somehow) so the price don't matter for me anyways

What, openbacks?

 

[BeeKay]

so the price don't matter for me anyways

Your pressure argument just folded. Back to the price thingy

 

[taotone]

These look great, unfortunately at 410g they are still too heavy for me for more than an hour before neck pain and crippling headaches set in. 410g is a huge improvement on most of the Audeze line and most other planars, but unfortunately it doesn't matter how good it sounds if the weight is too high. I think my planars will now forever be for very short listening sessions.

I am now using Koss Porta Pros and the new Audio-Technica R70xa (200g) which I can wear all day, and IEMs for the audiophile side of things.

 

[JakeK]

The headphone has less base loss with leakage as it’s open back, and therefore lower acoustic competence.

I don't think I fully understand this sentence. Less leakage bass loss means less competent?

I generally prefer open back headphones. For one thing I want to hear some background sounds such as the doorbell and my wife calling me. They also tend to be more comfortable and less sweaty. If I'm on a plane or train I like the isolation of a closed back but if I'm at home in the quiet not disturbing anyone with my music I like open back.

 

[PenguinMusic]

Hi,

There is a question I still have to ask in here.
I understand that if you look at the measurements, some really cheap IEM's will outperform the more expensive over-ear headphones.

So my question is : does the FR graph tells it all ?
I understand it reflects a global tonal balance.

But to tell the truth I have several headphones with about the same FR after EQ.
And to my ears they really sound totally different...
Yes, the "tonal balance" is about the same and I like that.

But the level of details, the "clarity" (meaning the way you can differientiate the vocals, instruments), the way they expose the sense of "placement" (of course the Take five album from Dave Brubeck or the live at Alhambra from Loreena McKennitt can serve as reference here) varies A LOT to my ears when I switch headphones.

Is this just my imagination ?

I am asking because I just broke my Moondrop Venus that I liked a lot.
I replaced it with a Sony MDR-Z7 I had.
And to my ears they really sound totally different even though they are EQ'd to achieve the same FR curve :-(

 

[Chagall]

Hi,

There is a question I still have to ask in here.
I understand that if you look at the measurements, some really cheap IEM's will outperform the more expensive over-ear headphones.

What do you mean by outperform? Stick closer to a target that you may or may not like?
IEMs have their own set of problems compared to headphones, and some people (me included) don't like to shove things in their ears.

So my question is : does the FR graph tells it all ?
I understand it reflects a global tonal balance.

All it tells is one frequency response on one measurement rig (that also changes depending on the placement of the headphone), which is better than not having the measurement at all.

But to tell the truth I have several headphones with about the same FR after EQ.
And to my ears they really sound totally different...
Yes, the "tonal balance" is about the same and I like that.

Same FR after EQ on a measurement rig that may not be the same FR on your head - that's why it sounds different. Headphones can couple differently for different people while listening, based on their HRTF.

But the level of details, the "clarity" (meaning the way you can differientiate the vocals, instruments), the way they expose the sense of "placement" (of course the Take five album from Dave Brubeck or the live at Alhambra from Loreena McKennitt can serve as reference here) varies A LOT to my ears when I switch headphones.

Is this just my imagination ?

No, it's all baked in the frequency response you get with a one set of headphones on your head versus a different set of headphones. Although, some headphones present sound unlike any other, due to the angle of the drivers and the distance to the ears (this is only an opinion). Take HD800s, for example, with their soundstage. Is that baked in FR, I don't know.

I am asking because I just broke my Moondrop Venus that I liked a lot.
I replaced it with a Sony MDR-Z7 I had.
And to my ears they really sound totally different even though they are EQ'd to achieve the same FR curve :-(

Sure, I think most of them EQed to the same curve won't sound exactly the same.