Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[Robbo99999]

@amirm does this track sound loud/annoying to you in the 2-4 kHz range when listening through the Stealth?

I find this one hard to listen to with the Stealth (the entire album really), particularly after the 8:00 mark. Much better if I drop that frequency range by 2-3 dB. However, I can see in the spectrum that this range is quite elevated in the track, so maybe it is badly EQed rather than my hearing or the Stealth off.

I listened to this on my Harman EQ'd Hifiman HE4XX just now, and it seems fine.....there is a hella lotta energy coming from the Hi-Hats though so that might be what's bothering you. Actually one thing I've done differently with my HE4XX (yesterday & which might be relevant to you) than I have with my other headphones is that I smoothed out 4-8kHz to remove "waviness" (peaks) when running through a slow sine sweep from here (https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/ ), and I know from listening to the same sweep on my EQ'd Anechoic Flat 308p speakers that my normal hearing is free of any waviness and peaks in the 4-8kHz zone, yet there were some annoying & obvious peaks I identified at 5.5kHz, 6.4kHz, and 7.5kHz which I was able to smooth out into the surrounding areas by applying Peak Filter cuts at those points.....I'm very impressed with this HE4XX now as I always found it had an annoying uncomfortable quality somewhere, but I think I've found out what that was now. In fact here's the frequency response graph showing the green circled part where I cut the response to below the blue coloured Harman Target during my listening testing: . My other headphones don't need cutting below the Harman Target in this area, so it's either unit to unit variation or the HE4XX reacts differently on my head & on the GRAS unit than my other headphones do. It could be that the Stealth is reacting to your anatomy differently in that area too. If you are gonna do the sine sweep experiment that I did then you'd be best off listening to some anechoic flat speakers with a sweep first though, because your natural hearing might have peaks in some places which you wouldn't want to correct - for instance I have a massive natural boost to my hearing from 8-12kHz (weird!), so I wouldn't want to correct for that broad peak in headphones (or speakers).

 

[Skeptischism]

Thanks, now I have to work out how to buy these ....

a much better execution of ear-speakers than this fresh hell of comb-filtering right here ... its almost as if they didnt learn from the K1000 at all ...

https://mysphere.at/

 

[RHO]

@amirm does this track sound loud/annoying to you in the 2-4 kHz range when listening through the Stealth?

I find this one hard to listen to with the Stealth (the entire album really), particularly after the 8:00 mark. Much better if I drop that frequency range by 2-3 dB. However, I can see in the spectrum that this range is quite elevated in the track, so maybe it is badly EQed rather than my hearing or the Stealth off.

Listening to it now (FLAC ripped from the CD, that I still own!). I'm wearing my DCA Aeon RT closed.
It is a bright mix. I'm not missing any bass (other Tool albums have more bass in the mix) but indeed, the mids and mainly upper mids and lower treble are a bit excessive at times.
With the excessive mids and lower treble it can sound like the bass is missing.
Just noticed that on "The patient" you can hear the noise of the (guitar) tube amps coming trough.

 

[Jimbob54]

Listening to it now (FLAC ripped from the CD, that I still own!). I'm wearing my DCA Aeon RT closed.
It is a bright mix. I'm not missing any bass (other Tool albums have more bass in the mix) but indeed, the mids and mainly upper mids and lower treble are a bit excessive at times.
With the excessive mids and lower treble it can sound like the bass is missing.
Just noticed that on "The patient" you can hear the noise of the (guitar) tube amps coming trough.

Yup-on anything I play it on (at volume) when the guitar is at max and the snare goes hard its too much- needs a db or so taking off across the mids - treble to be comfortable

 

[mslim]

I think it would be interesting to compare/over lap the measurements of the Harman tuned DCA HP which I think at the moment are the Aeon RT, Noire and Stealth.

 

[F1308]

Even when I am not listening to music, they feel fairly open. Of course outside sounds are attenuated, but it is easy to forget these are a closed system.

Surely...you are enjoying this...

https://science.howstuffworks.com/question556.htm

 

[F1308]

Exactly, it attenuates that “cuppy“ sense of closeness. That is the AMTS at work.

The miracle is very old...

https://science.howstuffworks.com/question556.htm

 

[someguyontheinternet]

The miracle is very old...

https://science.howstuffworks.com/question556.htm

Just because the concept is old doesn't mean the solution is.

 

[diddley]

how will it looks in 5 years from now? will the stealth technology trickled down to a price level from under $1000? i hope so.

 

[someguyontheinternet]

how will it looks in 5 years from now? will the stealth technology trickled down to a price level from under $1000? i hope so.

Since it was hinted at in the interview Dan had with Headfi I assume that we will see more of this technology by DCA in the next years. I think most of the cost is also not associated with the manufacturing of the AMTS, but mostly the designing and fine-tuning (I speculate that a high precision 3d printer and it's maintenance is probably the biggest chunk of manufacturing cost). The Aeon (and RT) headphones might be similar enough to the Stealth to not require a fundamental redesign in the AMTS structure given their similar shape.
I think the Aeon priced headphones might get this tech after the Stealth's wave has gone down. Not sure if the Ether is different enough to require more of a redesign, but I think it's not unlikely to see the AMTS adopted to the rest of DCA's lineup.

 

[frogmeat69]

Amir, have you heard the Aeon RT Opens?

Yeah @amirm , I would also like to know if you have or will be reviewing any of the open back models. The open Drop version is one of my favorite headphones, no EQ, I just use the one notch filter, and I am a happy guy.

 

[F1308]

Just because the concept is old doesn't mean the solution is.

Sure not, exactly as birds and...Concorde? ...Space Shuttle ? ...F35?

 

[F1308]

Yeah @amirm , I would also like to know if you have or will be reviewing any of the open back models. The open Drop version is one of my favorite headphones, no EQ, I just use the one notch filter, and I am a happy guy.

...then don't fix it...?

 

[frogmeat69]

...then don't fix it...?

I don't want to fix anything, just would like to see the open back DCA gear get looked at by Amir.
Believe me, even if it measures like crap, I will still enjoy it. I just like open back headphones and am curious how it measures up to Dan Clark's closed models.

 

[Dro]

Thanks @Doodski, @Robbo99999, @RHO and @Jimbob54 for your impressions. Sounds like everybody here can hear some issues with this track.


The spectrum here looks like the 2-4 kHz region is significantly elevated compared to tracks that sound better to my ear, and coincidentally, lowering this region by 3 dB or so makes it a lot more pleasant to listen to. With our ears being the most sensitive in this region, having a local maximum there seems... questionable.

It would still be interesting to hear from @amirm or @Dan Clark if they agree that listening with the Stealth does not make for a great experience on this track:

Spoiler: Youtube

I don't expect badly made music to sound great with good speakers or headphones, but this is curious since this album has a fairly good reputation for sounding well, yet at the same time there is lots of indication for the opposite.

 

[F1308]

Thanks @Doodski, @Robbo99999, @RHO and @Jimbob54 for your impressions. Sounds like everybody here can hear some issues with this track.

View attachment 150263
The spectrum here looks like the 2-4 kHz region is significantly elevated compared to tracks that sound better to my ear, and coincidentally, lowering this region by 3 dB or so makes it a lot more pleasant to listen to. With our ears being the most sensitive in this region, having a local maximum there seems... questionable.

It would still be interesting to hear from @amirm or @Dan Clark if they agree that listening with the Stealth does not make for a great experience on this track:

Spoiler: Youtube

I don't expect badly made music to sound great with good speakers or headphones, but this is curious since this album has a fairly good reputation for sounding well, yet at the same time there is lots of indication for the opposite.

The funny thing is that one might like it or not, that one can think some parts do sound harsh or too detailed, bassy or too bright, whatever... but in the end, without knowing exactly what was placed there by the composer, player, mixer, it turns out the opinion is nothing but a subjective matter.

 

[Jimbob54]

Thanks @Doodski, @Robbo99999, @RHO and @Jimbob54 for your impressions. Sounds like everybody here can hear some issues with this track.

View attachment 150263
The spectrum here looks like the 2-4 kHz region is significantly elevated compared to tracks that sound better to my ear, and coincidentally, lowering this region by 3 dB or so makes it a lot more pleasant to listen to. With our ears being the most sensitive in this region, having a local maximum there seems... questionable.

It would still be interesting to hear from @amirm or @Dan Clark if they agree that listening with the Stealth does not make for a great experience on this track:

Spoiler: Youtube

I don't expect badly made music to sound great with good speakers or headphones, but this is curious since this album has a fairly good reputation for sounding well, yet at the same time there is lots of indication for the opposite.

You might want to investigate the mid /treble tilt filter @Robbo99999 discovered or at least figured out the parameters for. It works well if you're listening to whole albums like this mixed too bright /dull for your tastes. High shelf 982hz q0.2 then dB to taste. It's what I used to knock everything down a notch on this record. Leaves the bass alone.

 

[Robbo99999]

You might want to investigate the mid /treble tilt filter @Robbo99999 discovered or at least figured out the parameters for. It works well if you're listening to whole albums like this mixed too bright /dull for your tastes. High shelf 982hz q0.2 then dB to taste. It's what I used to knock everything down a notch on this record. Leaves the bass alone.

Hi Jimbob, and @Dro , I've found a more precisely linear tilt tone control than the one I mentioned back in that thread I created. It's three High Shelf Filters acting together (you'd set the Gain to the same value to each one): 63Hz Q0.5 / 632Hz Q0.5 / 6324Hz Q0.5
Someone had mathematically worked out the most precise way to represent a straight line (linear) tilt filter using parametric filters, which they did over in a forum on miniDSP a few years ago (I found it recently). I'll update my thread with that finding, as it is indeed a more linear effect, especially when you increase or decrease the gain by larger amount. I do actually seem to prefer it's more precise effect, I've permanently baked it into my miniDSP as part of my Anechoic EQ of my speakers....it was the most optimal way to add the finishing touches to my permanent EQ, but it's certainly useful as a tone control to change from album to album depending on how bright it's been recorded.

 

[amirm]

Yeah @amirm , I would also like to know if you have or will be reviewing any of the open back models.

I am not right now because I have more than a dozen headphones to review. Timing is also poor given our plans for other things than running this forum. Hate to ask for other headphones to come to sit here. Once I get through this crunch, sure, I will ask for more to test.

 

[Dro]

Hi Jimbob, and @Dro , I've found a more precisely linear tilt tone control than the one I mentioned back in that thread I created. It's three High Shelf Filters acting together (you'd set the Gain to the same value to each one): 63Hz Q0.5 / 632Hz Q0.5 / 6324Hz Q0.5

If I ever switch to software EQ, I will give this a try. For now I stored an extra profile in my ADI-2 DAC that drops 3 kHz by a bit in case I come across another very bright/"loud" recording. I am generally very tolerant when it comes to treble and have treble control on the DAC anyway.

For the Lateralus album, I tried setting up a dedicated PEQ that sounds way better and I might use to create a "fixed" copy in the future. Unprocessed Lateralus sounds much better with the Ether 2 than the Stealth, the Ether 2 is quite low around 3 kHz, which really fixes the guitar harmonics yelling at you. I think a slight weakness in this area might be desirable over being perfectly accurate, it is much more compatible with questionable sounding music.