Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[JohnYang1997]

What exactly is the logic behind this? The size of the product? If so, then I bet IEMs are a piece of cake to put together.

Mass production for IEMs is actually the easiest among the three. But in the end it depends on how much is out sourced, how much is in house.

 

[Jave]

RT is Direct only so we can keep it affordable.



We can service all our products, we don’t design disposable things, it’s against our ethos.



We try to keep overseas price = US+duties+shipping so real cost is as close to uniform as we can make it. The EU VAT instantly adds 22% or more… we sell RT direct only because there’s no way we could hit that price in the channel but we felt it important to make something accessible to a lot more people.



A good seal matters for the bass, I wear reading glasses and I either rest the arms with the glasses on top of the pad or Tuckett into the top of the pad and that works fine, this may or may not work for others. Beards are OK within limits because the pads are large and soft and generally will seal OK, but obviously if you’ve gone ZZ Top there may be an issue…

Seal is important. I wear glasses for work and either rest the arms on top of the pad or insert it near the top to keep the seal. The pads are soft with a lot of surface area and seem ok with beards if they aren’t ZZ Top but YMMV, it may not be for you.

Believe it or not one of my motivations to start the company was simply to do something that made people happy… so we have gone both lower and higher in prices to expand our reach.




The synthetic leather that is used is on the outside surface that doesn’t make skin contact. It’s usually acid in the skin that degrades the material, no acid, longer life. Plus we use this insanely expensive material from Japan, for most users the material lasts years Even with skin contact. Aeon has been around four years and most still have original pads, once in a while someone goes nuts cleaning them, or just has real acidic skin, but that’s not common. The suede is even more durable, it’s a microfiber used for autos So it’s really tough. Both materials feel like the real thing too. And we don’t GLUE the pad it’s on with an adhesive and the owner can peel and replace. There are many reasons to go this way including tolerances, weight, and quality of air seal.



Amir expressed interest a while back so sure if he’s willing.



Sort of, Bruce didn’t actually work on any of the driver designs, but he did answer a couple of questions we had about driver technology and one of those comments he made inspired the idea for the v-planer processing so we added him to the patent.

So from your experience, normal glasses will break the seal?

 

[sifi36]

Yeah.. but make a mass production of headphones is easier than a mass production of a mid size speakers..

Why would that be? Often, making a smaller version of something is usually a lot more expensive and essentially a headphone is a pair of smaller speakers.

It may be a moot point anyway as part of the reason for the unparalleled performance seen here is that they are manufactured, tuned and matched in a way that would be unfeasible for mass manufacturing.

Cost complaints about this thing are like saying a Rolls-Royce is too expensive when there is nothing else that can offer the same experience. Not that I’ll be in the market for a 4K pair of headphones anytime soon!

 

[Jave]

@amirm - I don't know how long it takes to take the THD vs frequency measurements, but since you mentioned it might be limited by your system, maybe you could try running it in smaller increments over 94dB (1dB increments?) to see when the 2nd harmonic comes over 20dB? Might let you know what is the system's limit

 

[617]

Well, i think we can discuss that point, but transport these big boxes to the end user are a huge problem

Yeah but is a bit of boring the fact that we again gonna a experiment a mass price rice in headphone world. Again.
for example, a LCD5 6000 USD?

I don't pretend to understand the headphone market, but I would assume that it would be hard to sell a headphone for more than this one unless the performance is better than this one.

I think we should be optimistic that reasonably priced headphones will continue to get better, but we need to be prepared for the reality that the best will always be rare, handmade prototypes like this one.

The HD650 measures pretty good and is mass produced. You can buy them on Amazon for 1/10th the price of this.

 

[Dan Clark]

So from your experience, normal glasses will break the seal?

Thick framed glasses that immediately pull away from the face will open the pad, thin Frames that come off the ear flat to the face usually seal fine. Most of my reading glasses are fine but I just put the arms on the pad out of habit as it doesn’t affect my reading.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

I don't pretend to understand the headphone market, but I would assume that it would be hard to sell a headphone for more than this one unless the performance is better than this one.

I think we should be optimistic that reasonably priced headphones will continue to get better, but we need to be prepared for the reality that the best will always be rare, handmade prototypes like this one.

The HD650 measures pretty good and is mass produced. You can buy them on Amazon for 1/10th the price of this.

Hmm.
If a new brand hit the best performance is his decision to increase his price or earn more more in differents way than increase the price a lot.., maybe i'm asking too much because 4000 usd + taxes is out of my wallet XD

 

[Jave]

Well, i think we can discuss that point, but transport these big boxes to the end user are a huge problem

Yeah but is a bit of boring the fact that we again gonna a experiment a mass increase price in headphone world. Again.
for example, a LCD5 6000 USD?

I guess these are more of a contender for the Audeze CRBN which bring the same THD and frequency response (although electrostatic instead of planar)

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

It's completely understandable, but it doesn't make it any less sad. Maybe one day. Thanks for the reply.

You're getting a lot of value for that 22%. I'd rather frankly.

 

[617]

Hmm.
If a new brand hit the best performance is his decision to increase his price or earn more more in differents way than increase the price a lot.., maybe i'm asking too much because 4000 usd + taxes is out of my wallet XD

You could always steal a pair! At a certain point the reward surpasses the risk.

 

[preload]

How much bass boost can these thing take? I usually end up needing to add about +10dB to headphones to get an equivalent balance with loudspeakers.

 

[Helicopter]

This, Focal Stellia, or the Noire?

Need some more (2) reviews before deciding. Stellia seems to have the edge on aesthetics, pad material, pad connection, power requirements, and price. This actually has a better warranty, and of course SOTA innovative tech for the best FR. Also portability.

And Noire seems to be the big question mark:? Based on what I have seen, it should be a slam dunk too, though not at this level obviously.

I am totally with Dan Clark on getting there acoustically rather than in the signal path.

In any case, I am sticking with Focal Celestee for closed passive as I don't use them much.

 

[respice finem]

How much bass boost can these thing take? I usually end up needing to add about +10dB to headphones to get an equivalent balance with loudspeakers.

A boost in bass will always be combined with boosting distortion, too. That said, these are closed-back, so probably not needed - and if needed, you can always lower the mids and highs instead, and probably by less than 10 dB. Maybe your speakers are too bass heavy? It's easy to get acquainted to "overblown" bass and then the "correct" FR appears to be lacking bass.

 

[usern]

I've seen some subjective reviews of the RAAL SRa1 headphone where people have a similar reaction - that it's a transformative experience.
Would be interesting to see if Amir could get ahold of a pair and review/compare.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...requisite-sr1a-ribbon-headphone-review.16355/

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

A boost in bass will always be combined with boosting distortion, too. That said, these are closed-back, so probably not needed - and if needed, you can always lower the mids and highs instead, and probably by less than 10 dB. The other question is, maybe your speakers are too bass heavy? It's easy to get acquainted to "overblown" bass and then the "correct" FR appears to be lacking bass.

Is not about '' dB '' speakers have a more tactile bass, is more physical and fun.
I think he do that huge boost because you need high spl for start to feel the bass in the ears

 

[respice finem]

Is not about '' dB '' speakers have a more tactile bass, is more physical and fun.

More fun, which is nice of course, does not have to equal high fidelity. It all boils down to what the buyer wants. If "pleasant fidelity" is enough, EQ FTW. But "pleasant fidelity" doesn't require spending this kind of money IMHO.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

An open version will be an instant buy for me

I don't think you understand what this product does. Now maybe I'm confused as well, but doesn't this thing sound like an open set of headphones already?

How much bass boost can these thing take? I usually end up needing to add about +10dB to headphones to get an equivalent balance with loudspeakers.

Quite a bit. If you aren't used to planars, you may find the bass is already pretty close to what you need. The bass in a planar is more powerful than the measurements show.

I don't know if I'm happier to see NO LEATHER (good for many reasons including performance and comfort) or great sound. Thank you DCA for doing things the right way.

 

[Hifihedgehog]

In some ways the Stealth reminded me of OLED TVs. The first time you watch them and see the inky blacks and wonderful contrast, you have regret that all that time you didn't get to see what your content really looked like. Stealth does that for sound reproduction.

That's the most glowing recommendation I've heard for a headphone here ever. I realize a lot of work goes into achieving this level of fidelity, naturally reflected in the price. But I hope this level of performance eventually trickles down to the sub-$1K mark in the next few years.

Since we are now entering the big leagues with these top-of-the-line ultra luxury models getting regularly tested, I wonder if @amirm can ever get to measure the Orpheus (vintage and/or current generation)? I am highly curious to see how Sennheiser's best compares with the Stealth, especially if it can manage to match its performance. Are there any fortunate Orpheus owners here in the forum who would be willing to do this?

 

[Dro]

This, Focal Stellia, or the Noire?

Need some more (2) reviews before deciding. Stellia seems to have the edge on aesthetics, pad material, pad connection, power requirements, and price. This actually has a better warranty, and of course SOTA innovative tech for the best FR. Also portability.

And Noire seems to be the big question mark:? Based on what I have seen, it should be a slam dunk too, though not at this level obviously.

I am totally with Dan Clark on getting there acoustically rather than in the signal path.

In any case, I am sticking with Focal Celestee for closed passive as I don't use them much.

If it helps, I have a Focal Clear whose frequency response got worse over time and it was not related to pad wear. It just got a bit more upper bass and less lower bass. The Clear also changes its frequency response with SPL, so unless Focal change their driver design, I am not going to spend a lot of money on another Focal headphone.

 

[ZööZ]

Not sure if this has been said already but I have a feeling that it would be good for the reviews if Amir took a little break from reviewing headphones after this one, this one may have messed up the scheme a little bit, not that I don't trust Amir's professionalism but something to cleanse the palate after a homerun like this can't be a bad thing, or the next headphones could seem quite underwhelming?