- Thread Starter
- #21
Oops. Poll added. 
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.~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?
The headphone has less base loss with leakage as it’s open back, and therefore lower acoustic impedance. (Not competence as originally posted).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 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...)
"Use" is misspelled as :"Uese" in the second graph as well, Amir.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.
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.
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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/
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
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?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.I wouldn't buy it because of the glued pads
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![]()
Your pressure argument just folded. Back to the price thingyso the price don't matter for me anyways
I don't think I fully understand this sentence. Less leakage bass loss means less competent?The headphone has less base loss with leakage as it’s open back, and therefore lower acoustic competence.
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 :-(