Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[amirm]

And? Is it just based on performance alone or labor and material cost, eg each pair us custom tuned by Mr. Clark himself by inserting micron thickness platinum shims to tame down resonances in driver?

Basically yes.

 

[AudioScienceRequired]

Just ordered my first DCA product because of this review. My wallet may not be deep enough for the Slealth but this is definitely a company I want to do business with and I think the Aeon closed RT will do nicely while I wait to amass riches and for the Stealth tech to trickle down. Way to go DCA!

 

[amirm]

Just ordered my first DCA product because of this review. My wallet may not be deep enough for the Slealth but this is definitely a company I want to do business with and I think the Aeon closed RT will do nicely while I wait to amass riches and for the Stealth tech to trickle down. Way to go DCA!

That's the key message I meant to put in the review. We have the first company to fully adopt research and engineering for headphones. All others are playing around but Dan Clark is committed and executing. So no wonder the results are so good.

 

[aasearles]

Finally, no EQ recommended, just awesome. The industrial design is quite appealing also. Well done, Dan Clark!

 

[usern]

No matter how good they sound, four grand is a ridiculous price for a pair of headphones

There is market for expensive luxury stuff, look at Abyss. But these have the measurements to back them up. They even look like 4k headphones unlike Abyss which are, to be blunt, ugly.

 

[_thelaughingman]

OMG are we seriously seeing a $4k headphone with an impeccable design and measurements to boot. Mr. Clark you have outdone yourself with this design and implementation. Kudos.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

The seeds of discontent have been sown!

 

[_thelaughingman]

The seeds of discontent have been sown!

QUE? for what reason?

 

[Xulonn]

It is rare in audio for a very expensive component to actually be the very best in its category.

Congrats, Dan Clark!

 

[testp]

nice.. somone should make headphones for that little panther & it should measure well...

 

[SpinifexV]

Oh man, incredible! This will force me to buy...

a couple of lottery tickets.

 

[OctoEmu]

@amirm is the bass distortion noticeable?

 

[peniku8]

Been reading about metamaterial and its effects on (sound) waves two or three years ago after I somehow ended up reading about university students trying out acoustic lenses, after I read an article about Cherenkov radiation (in nuclear reactors!). I immediately knew this is going to be the next big thing in all of audio reproduction. Pretty sure you can do anything you want with it, which means you will be able to accomplish listening experiences that were not possible before.
Sadly I'm lacking the means and contacts of researching this amazing technology, so I'm bound to designing traditional speakers at the moment.
I wonder if this will also completely replace horns and how thick the material has to be in order to have an effect on a certain wavelength.
I am incredibly excited that we're seeing the first products with this technology on the market now. You could build speakers with a flat response from all angles with this stuff. The possibilities are endless!

 

[thewas]

Really nice to see a small audio company being a positive exception in mostly overpriced poor "high end" engineering, even more at headphones. Hope Mr. Clark will continue his success story and there will technology diffusion in the future also to lower price models, despite being a loudspeaker listener I could be tempted to buy something like that in at approximately one grand, maybe in 3-5 years from now? Time will tell...

 

[amirm]

@amirm is the bass distortion noticeable?

Not at all. Everything sounds stunningly clean. I didn't want to put such subjective descriptors in the review and get called on it. But the level of detail and clarity of it constantly surprised me over and over again. It was one of the most pronounced things in the listening tests.

 

[MRC01]

Incredible!
I wonder how the Aeon 2 performs? From what I read, somewhere between this and the Aeon RT. At $900 it may be the poor man's version of the Stealth.

 

[elliott]

This makes me sad... so sad. I was hoping to come to ASR to cut through the BS of expensive headphones and get some cans at a reasonable price with great audio, but sometimes the best does in fact come at a cost.

 

[OctoEmu]

Not at all. Everything sounds stunningly clean. I didn't want to put such subjective descriptors in the review and get called on it. But the level of detail and clarity of it constantly surprised me over and over again. It was one of the most pronounced things in the listening tests.

just a theory, but could the Fletcher Munson curve be the guide for absolute level of distortion?

 

[Hemi-Demon]

@amirm

First off excellent review and a great job by the designer.

Would it be possible to place the cans on the measuring unit and play music at about 80-90db and detail how much sound leaks, when you stand back a few steps? I own a few DCA closed cans and while I love the sound, they leak quite a bit, defeating the purpose of "closed" headphones. Thanks, although I am angry that I need to source $4,000 to buy more gear

 

[Coin3]

Based on subjective listening tests, how would you compare these to the Aeon Closed RT (with EQ)? Are the cheaper headphones lacking in any way such as clarity or soundstage?