Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[Paolo]

Hi @amirm

Does the RME ADI-2 FS DAC do the Stealths’ justice? Or do they need a more powerful headphone amp?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

As stated in the review, you should be well served:

… I was fine using my RME ADI-2 DAC so it doesn't have to be crazy power. …

 

[Dro]

More specifically, the 6.35 mm jack should hit 119 dB SPL in high power mode at max volume. For me, that is about 20 dB more than I'll need, but I like it rather quiet.

 

[Robbo99999]

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?

That's a good point, I'd also like to see Amir keep some of these different flagship headphones (examples that he finds does various things outstandingly) so that he can compare them in the same listening session to be certain of his evaluation of any new headphone. It's so easy to be just in a good mood and then the headphone sounds better, or if you're feeling a bit stressed & ropey then the headphone sounds bad, and additionally you can't remember how a headphone sounds from a review you did yesterday (let alone one done months before).....so to prevent outlandish claims of fantastic sound (etc) I think it would help to have a bank of flagship or benchmark or important/unusual headphones that can be used as a comparison. I know from my own headphone comparisons how quickly your brain gets used to a headphone and it takes swapping back to another one to realise the difference.....it's really hard to remember sound experience accurately. I think when making bold claims about $4000 headphones it's wise to have some benchmark headphones to compare against to be sure of your own subjective review. It would add considerable time to the headphone review process (and self critical stress to be honest!), but I think it would make it more accurate. (I would probably make the headphone comparisons once EQ'd to the same curve as clearly would be large differences without doing so, and I believe at this level of headphone dedication that buyers who go to this forum would be EQ'ing theirs).

 

[amirm]

Hi @amirm

Does the RME ADI-2 FS DAC do the Stealths’ justice? Or do they need a more powerful headphone amp?

Yes although when I want to listen very loud, I have to push it to 0 dB on the volume control. In other words, it works and I will continue to use it but doesn't have the large headroom a standalone headphone amp would. These questions are a bit hard to answer because I can't determine what you consider loud vs what I do.

 

[Thomas_A]

That's a good point, I'd also like to see Amir keep some of these different flagship headphones (examples that he finds does various things outstandingly) so that he can compare them in the same listening session to be certain of his evaluation of any new headphone. It's so easy to be just in a good mood and then the headphone sounds better, or if you're feeling a bit stressed & ropey then the headphone sounds bad, and additionally you can't remember how a headphone sounds from a review you did yesterday (let alone one done months before).....so to prevent outlandish claims of fantastic sound (etc) I think it would help to have a bank of flagship or benchmark or important/unusual headphones that can be used as a comparison. I know from my own headphone comparisons how quickly your brain gets used to a headphone and it takes swapping back to another one to realise the difference.....it's really hard to remember sound experience accurately. I think when making bold claims about $4000 headphones it's wise to have some benchmark headphones to compare against to be sure of your own subjective review. It would add considerable time to the headphone review process (and self critical stress to be honest!), but I think it would make it more accurate. (I would probably make the headphone comparisons once EQ'd to the same curve as clearly would be large differences without doing so, and I believe at this level of headphone dedication that buyers who go to this forum would be EQ'ing theirs).

I remember the time when I was evaluating >30 headphones as a part of a panel for a magazine. Although not perfect we always had two headphones connected to the amp to make pairwise comparisons. It was a good help.

 

[amirm]

That's a good point, I'd also like to see Amir keep some of these different flagship headphones (examples that he finds does various things outstandingly) so that he can compare them in the same listening session to be certain of his evaluation of any new headphone.

I am negotiating to keep this one. Listened to it all day yesterday and just can't imagine letting it go. But yes, being able to do AB tests is very important. I hope to create a dual-DAC+amp setup so I can level match both and then do AB tests between headphones.

 

[preload]

Ok so do these surpass the sound quality of the Revel Salon2’s or other big league loudspeakers? (Minus the bass and soundstage reproduction of course).
I mean how much better are these than say the HD800 w/eq or the other DCA offerings?

 

[Robbo99999]

I am negotiating to keep this one. Listened to it all day yesterday and just can't imagine letting it go. But yes, being able to do AB tests is very important. I hope to create a dual-DAC+amp setup so I can level match both and then do AB tests between headphones.

Awesome, I really think that's the way forward. I can imagine a collection of HD800s, this DCA Stealth, maybe a super low distortion planar headphone that you liked.....just headphones that were outstanding in some aspect, whether that be soundstage or bass or detail....whatever they would be benchmark outstanding examples of some aspect of headphone listening......and then perhaps you'd have your old faithful HD650 as a headphone everyone can relate to, etc. Maybe 5 headphones or so max, I dunno something like that. Sounds good that you're really considering starting to do this......I can imagine it might add more time and self critical stress though, it's quite an obsessive mindset to get into and I find it a bit stressful if I go overboard comparing my headphones between each other & with different EQ's......but it'll be a great way to get some markers in the ground before each headphone review you do.

 

[Dogcoop]

Yes although when I want to listen very loud, I have to push it to 0 dB on the volume control. In other words, it works and I will continue to use it but doesn't have the large headroom a standalone headphone amp would. These questions are a bit hard to answer because I can't determine what you consider loud vs what I do.

Thank you!

 

[Lazerbeard]

Man these seem really enticing. I'd really love to see a review of the Arya since I don't care about open back or not and what I'm looking for is measuring well and having an expansive and detailed soundstage and imaging. Wondering how close the Arya gets to this for half the price.

 

[Vini darko]

I am negotiating to keep this one. Listened to it all day yesterday and just can't imagine letting it go. But yes, being able to do AB tests is very important. I hope to create a dual-DAC+amp setup so I can level match both and then do AB tests between headphones.

Go for it , who needs two kidneys anyway

 

[Dan Clark]

Dan Clark could literally put these together with macaroni, hot glue and pipe cleaners. The price is justified by the performance, not by how much he has to suffer making them.

I told you to keep our new headphone PASTA secret! Darn you!

 

[Robius]

Even though I can never afford a headphone that expensive it feels so fullfilling to see such good measurements.

 

[Zim]

Buy an Aeon RT - $500
Become a Club DCA member to get 15% off.
Buy the Stealth at $3400.
Sell the Aeon RT. Or keep it. I don’t know.

You get two headphones for $3900
Or the Stealth alone for $3400 if you manage to sell off the Aeon RT at retail.

I don’t know. It’s a $4000 headphone that can already be bought for less, assuming you can immediately apply the Club DCA discount after purchasing an Aeon RT.

 

[VariousArtists]

@Dan Clark Any reason for not having the 6’ 4.4mm option for the included cable for the STEALTH on your website?

 

[Dan Clark]

@Dan Clark Any reason for not having the 6’ 4.4mm option for the included cable for the STEALTH on your website?

We don’t offer that as standard, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.4 are 3.5k’. We recently added a 6’ 3.5mm, and can make custom 2.5 or 4.4 there’s just a bit of wait.

 

[fluufy]

This meta material is very interesting. This would allow different design compromises, there is always a balance between size/weight, distortion, FR etc. If my reading is correct, by placing this between driver and ear, it is effectively acting as mechanical equalisation, amongst other things. It’s not that different in principle than fiddling with the felt thickness in a Fostex, but this stuff is way smarter and I’m guessing it can be designed to achieve specific results.

We have seen how Bose can use ANC tech to do electronic eq, then design a simple but very low distortion driver, and get very good results. But how much better could this be if the driver was equalised mechanically, and the ANC only has to correct for the external environment?

Some people on here have complained that electronic eq is “cheating“. Well here is the mechanical solution!

 

[mslim]

Yes, metamaterial is not a particular material, it's structuring various materials to create effects not found in natural materials. So you could use plastic, metal, or anything appropriate to the part. For us we have to 3D print because the path designs would be very difficult to create any other way, but this has to be done on very expensive laser printers, not filament-style.

It's an interesting topic and the range of applications is really large. For example, we and KEF use quarter wave resonator arrays tuned to multiple frequencies, but the resemblance ends there; think of the effects as a system. KEF uses a matrix of resonators on the vent of a tweeter to absorb rear-side wave energy that otherwise would be projected into an enclosure causing internal reflections/resonances.

AMTS goes between the transducer and ear functioning as a waveguide with diffusion and multiple types of resonators with high and low Q features and "programable" filter frequency and depth. If AMTS were applied to a home stereo, as a metaphor, it'd be a material that fills almost the entire room between the speaker and the listener to reduce room standing wave modes.

It's interesting stuff, for sure!



Soft touch? Not sure what you reference except the ear pad? If so that's the type of microfiber used on high-end car seats. Nothing here is rubberized.

Amir mentioned the case is soft-touch. It looks like a matt surface. What material is it? I refer to this surface. Thx.

 

[amirm]

Amir mentioned the case is soft-touch. It looks like a matt surface. What material is it? I refer to this surface. Thx.

The case is not soft touch either. I guess I created a lot of confusion with my remark.

 

[maxxevv]

The case is not soft touch either. I guess I created a lot of confusion with my remark.

From the picts, it looks like DCA used a semi-matte finish on large parts of the headphone.
These can create a psuedo 'soft-touch' feel to finishes. I believe that's what you were alluding to ?