Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

[phrwn]

Also, glasses are a complete no-go, and no amount of EQ helped me here.

I am seriously considering switching to contacts for these headphones. And I've never worn contacts. That's how impressed I am by the Stealth.

This is interesting to me - an issue I deal with too. I think you have to be careful when you just say 'glasses' because arm thicknes, angles, and composition all have different effects on separating the pad from your head. The glasses I use have flat titanium arms that sit near flush against my head and bend easily under headphones. I have never been able to detect any difference in bass quality or quantity with them on or off, with various headphones, including Elegias, which are apparently notoriously difficult to seal correctly.

@amirm appears to be wearing glasses all day long every day and he didn't mention having a problem with seal with the Stealths, so I'm presuming it's highly dependent on all the variables.

EDIT: I also trialed contacts for a few months and oh my god if there isn't a more infuriating activity than repeatedly poking your finger in your eye first thing in the morning trying to get the bastard things in place, I've yet to find it. So much rage. Do not recommend.

 

[Robbo99999]

I agree--Dr. Olive's presentation was both technical and coherent--learned a bunch. Not shown but highly amusing was the beating Dr Dre's headphones took--both trained and untrained listeners ranked them at or near the worst.

And the following is a good link to give people who don't know much about "headphone science" and Harman who would rather read - these are Harman slides/presentation:

https://www.listeninc.com/wp/media/Perception_and_-Measurement_of_Headphones_Sean_Olive.pdf

 

[tusing]

This is interesting to me - an issue I deal with too. I think you have to be careful when you just say 'glasses' because arm thicknes, angles, and composition all have different effects on separating the pad from your head. The glasses I use have flat titanium arms that sit near flush against my head and bend easily under headphones. I have never been able to detect any difference in bass quality or quantity with them on or off, with various headphones, including Elegias, which are apparently notoriously difficult to seal correctly.

@amirm appears to be wearing glasses all day long every day and he didn't mention having a problem with seal with the Stealths, so I'm presuming it's highly dependent on all the variables.

EDIT: I also trialed contacts for a few months and oh my god if there isn't a more infuriating activity than repeatedly poking your finger in your eye first thing in the morning trying to get the bastard things in place, I've yet to find it. So much rage. Do not recommend.

I also have glasses that fit flush against my head, but unfortunately that seems to be enough to destroy seal

 

[phrwn]

I also have glasses that fit flush against my head, but unfortunately that seems to be enough to destroy seal

Have you had the same issue with other closed-backs, or is this particularly bad?

 

[EJH]

I agree--Dr. Olive's presentation was both technical and coherent--learned a bunch. Not shown but highly amusing was the beating Dr Dre's headphones took--both trained and untrained listeners ranked them at or near the worst.

What was most interesting to me about that anecdote was that people inside Harman wanted to emulate the sound of Dr Dre headphones. If you want to sell a lot of headphones, just copy the most successful ones, right? That’s the difference between people who actually care about what they do and those who just want to make a buck, engineering vs marketing.

 

[amirm]

@amirm appears to be wearing glasses all day long every day and he didn't mention having a problem with seal with the Stealths, so I'm presuming it's highly dependent on all the variables.

I actually do not wear my glasses often when I am in front of my computer and listening to headphones. My regular glasses also have ultra thin metal arms:

They are called "tincup" from Oakley. Note how they don't have the traditional arm that goes behind your ears either. I wear hearing protection when working in my woodshop or outside and until I got these, regular glasses would get very uncomfortable to wear with headphone hearing protection.

 

[_thelaughingman]

And the following is a good link to give people who don't know much about "headphone science" and Harman who would rather read - these are Harman slides/presentation:

https://www.listeninc.com/wp/media/Perception_and_-Measurement_of_Headphones_Sean_Olive.pdf

This article needs to be "stickied" in the headphones review forum for reference purposes.

 

[phrwn]

I actually do not wear my glasses often when I am in front of my computer and listening to headphones.

Did you try the Stealths with glasses and, if so, did you notice any issues?

 

[tusing]

Have you had the same issue with other closed-backs, or is this particularly bad?

It was particularly bad on the Stealth, but kind of workable on my VC. Usually I am able to reclaim what's lost with EQ but for whatever reason that didn't happen with the Stealth.

 

[nagster]

@JohnYang1997
DAC is D90SE. Headphone is Stealth.
Please tell me the recommended headphone amplifier.

 

[KiyPhi]

This is interesting to me - an issue I deal with too. I think you have to be careful when you just say 'glasses' because arm thicknes, angles, and composition all have different effects on separating the pad from your head. The glasses I use have flat titanium arms that sit near flush against my head and bend easily under headphones. I have never been able to detect any difference in bass quality or quantity with them on or off, with various headphones, including Elegias, which are apparently notoriously difficult to seal correctly.

@amirm appears to be wearing glasses all day long every day and he didn't mention having a problem with seal with the Stealths, so I'm presuming it's highly dependent on all the variables.

EDIT: I also trialed contacts for a few months and oh my god if there isn't a more infuriating activity than repeatedly poking your finger in your eye first thing in the morning trying to get the bastard things in place, I've yet to find it. So much rage. Do not recommend.

I don't notice a large difference either but I lose bass from the gap behind my jaw and hair so in both instances, I have a bad seal. It took me getting a headphone that is seal agnostic (HE6SE) to know what low bass really sounded like. Prior to that, and learning more about headphones, I could never figure out why the bass in so many headphones varied widely from measurements and subjective reviews. You may be lucky and have the opposite, a head shape where you get a good seal regardless.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

I’ve been meaning ask this for ages, and it’s just returned to my mind, so I’ll give it a go.

If it’s been asked and answered already, someone please point me to the correct page, as I many have missed it.

@amirm did you have a go at removing the small hump at 100-160hz, and if you did, how did it sound?

And if it didn’t sound as good, are you going to alter your target curve, or try inserting a similar hump in other headphones to see how that sounds?

 

[Kennyknetter]

@JohnYang1997
DAC is D90SE. Headphone is Stealth.
Please tell me the recommended headphone amplifier.

No doubt - it's the A90 for you.

Class leading power level. Class leading noise level. Class leading distortion level. Class leading connectivity. Matching looks with your D90SE.

Topping A90 Headphone Amplifier Review

This is a review and detailed measurements the Topping A90 Balanced and Unbalanced Headphone Amplifier. It was kindly sent to me by the company. The A90 is available for ordering and I am told ships by end of this month. It costs US $499. The A90 is one of the best executions of the Topping...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[dehati_paul]

I caved in and bought the Stealth! It's amazing (comparable to Stax SR-009S and Sony IER-Z1R, which I own). I am currently playing it through Topping stack (D90SE -> A90), but looking for a portable DAC/Amp or just a portable Amp suggestion. Tried to play it through Fiio M15 (Single-ended) and it sounded feeble.

 

[tifune]

I caved in and bought the Stealth! It's amazing (comparable to Stax SR-009S and Sony IER-Z1R, which I own). I am currently playing it through Topping stack (D90SE -> A90), but looking for a portable DAC/Amp or just a portable Amp suggestion. Tried to play it through Fiio M15 (Single-ended) and it sounded feeble.

FWIW I'm using the E1da 9038S Gen2 - it's good enough for about 85% of my usual playlist but I can hear a little clipping when I turn up the bass too much. I'm a big fan of the "subwoofer effect" - not sure if the Stealth can do it, working at home I've tried to dial it in with my A90 but haven't quite got it (yet). Currently looking for a deal on a Hidizs S9 but I suppose sellers aren't too motivated to offer discounts when there's weeks/month of waiting for stock, in some cases.

 

[Robbo99999]

I caved in and bought the Stealth! It's amazing (comparable to Stax SR-009S and Sony IER-Z1R, which I own). I am currently playing it through Topping stack (D90SE -> A90), but looking for a portable DAC/Amp or just a portable Amp suggestion. Tried to play it through Fiio M15 (Single-ended) and it sounded feeble.

A lot of people like the Qudelix-5K as a portable DAC/amp with 10 band PEQ included:

Qudelix-5K Bluetooth DAC & Headphone Amp

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Qudelix-5K USB DAC and balanced headphone amplifier with Bluetooth receiver. I purchased this myself but a member kindly donated one third of the cost. The Qudelix 5K costs US $110 on Amazon including shipping. The Qudelix comes in a nice...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I'm not big on portable options so not sure if there are better options out there, but I would be surprised if there are better options that include portability and PEQ ability. Having said that, most people wouldn't really need to EQ the Stealth as it conforms so close to the Harman Curve, but of course there's always scope for bass adjustments particularly.

 

[John B]

I received my unit a day or two back. Depending on the type of music you listen to, this isn't a "good headphone" it is something entirely different.

I primarily listen classical piano recordings, the problem of recreating a key strike (which is essentially a harmonically rich drum) and a sustain (which is the sound of thousands of parts resonating in specific ways) is difficult, add to that having sawed away at acoustic instruments for hours a day in youth, the real world reference is hard to meet. On properly engineered recordings these things sounded unbelievably accurate! It was like downloading music into your brain.

Being impressed with my primary use case, I wandered through my library. The way these things handle tympani strikes in high quality full bandwidth recordings is beyond belief - violins no longer had that light sheen of high frequency noise, they sounded like violins.

I listened to some non-classical music and these things are so transparent you get a sense right away of depth of compression on drums and kicks, how things were mixed etc, Its like having a birds eye view into mastering choices, which can be good or bad depending on the recording and what those choices were.

Long story short, zero buyer's remorse.

 

[tusing]

iFi xCAN has this really annoying high pitched hum with the Stealth. Most audible when playing something at around 25hz.

 

[brandall10]

I caved in and bought the Stealth! It's amazing (comparable to Stax SR-009S and Sony IER-Z1R, which I own). I am currently playing it through Topping stack (D90SE -> A90), but looking for a portable DAC/Amp or just a portable Amp suggestion. Tried to play it through Fiio M15 (Single-ended) and it sounded feeble.

The Kann Cube is a very powerful and somewhat reasonably priced option. Haven't had my head in this space in awhile so there may other newer options, but having massive power was the point of that unit.

As someone who also owns an IER-Z1R... does it really play in the same zip code as the Stealth and Stax? I heard the 009S years ago at a CanJam but it was too noisy to get a good read and like most estats the tuning's a bit wonky on paper.

I have a KSE1200 that to my ears is very much a level above the IER-Z1R w/ PEQ applied (knock on the KSE is the poor tuning, but they take EQ like a champ) - now *that* I could imagine might be comparable, but I'd still hope for $4k and overall lack of portability it's a fair bit more satisfying than any IEM.

I've nearly pulled the trigger on the Stealth like 3x now but there's been some sideways comments on head-fi and the release of the LCD-5 I've been watching.

 

[d2k5000]

Just got back from Canjam, and I wanted to let everyone know that the Stealth is everything that Amir says it is! It sounds awesome. Great tonal balance with a soundstage to rival top end open cans. Total cliché, but I feel like I am hearing details that I have never heard before in familiar songs. I find the bass quantity fine, but It may not be a headphone for bassheads without eq.

It think it sounds better on my home setup (topping d90, topping a90) than any of the show setups. Only the Chord audio setup in the Dan Clark audio room came close imo.

I actually purchased one of the show demo units for $3,500 directly from Dan Clark. Not small purchase for me. I am gonna probably have to sell my Raal Requisite SR1a to fund them, but I have no regrets. I can't believe a closed headphone sounds this good to me. I have never been a closed headphone guy.