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Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

Vovgan

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The world has changed around us John

Sure the price is ridiculous for the average consumer but if it’s the best there is why should it be ridiculous for someone who bothered to leave 7K+ comments in an audio forum?
 

MayaTlab

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Do you mean that the roll off is more pronounced with DCA than the other brands? Reduced bass always happen when headphone seal poorly in my experience. Did you mean to say DCA headphones in general is not a good match for the shape of your face?

I saw a graph somewhere (don't remember where, sorry) for one of DCA's headphones, where indeed a breach of seal had quite a strong impact on resulting FR, starting at higher frequencies than what you usually see in other headphones with a closed-ish front volume.
Difficult to know whether or not you'll be in that situation and to which degree without actually trying the HPs, and as this is a completely new design what applied to other DCA HPs may not for this new model.
 

NeoZs99

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4K damn..that's close to elite studio monitors money
Biggest question at this point is where to buy DC headphones in Europe. My girlfriend hates my Ananda because of the sound leakage, and something like the Aeon RT Closed would be great. Issue being I can't find it anywhere in Europe.
Thomann sells Dan Clark headphones.. but that'd probably be a little more than 4k.
 

DanTheMan

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Well, finally something that absolutely bests my HD650. I have his old Mad Dog 3, so perhaps its equal if I add in a few dollars worth of Mad Dog 20/20. That’ll have to be my consolation because I do want to remain married (I think). I’ll have to ponder that one for a while. Ooops, got to go, she about to look at what I’m typing.
 

restorer-john

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Why carbon fiber?

Goes with the "stealth" name. Gamers (and super-car drivers) love carbon fibre, red stitching on black and other visual cues to show how 'extreme' their gear is.

I actually quite like the look to be honest in this case. I think the design would grow on you.
 

16BitAudiophile

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I'm drooling all over the keyboard!

These are priced like many 3-way speakers. If you see it like that, absolutely worth it!
Personally, I don't like the red stitching with the carbon ear cups, though.
 

usern

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I think the design would grow on you.
It does. When I first saw DC headphones I didn't think much of it, but it grew on me so much so that I bought Noires. Ended up returning them though since I was still using 560S instead most of the time because of comfort.

Sennheiser HD800S design is also that I didn't like at first, but has grown on me.
 

KxDx

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No matter how good they sound, four grand is a ridiculous price for a pair of headphones. I'll take something an order of magnitude cheaper and some free EQ ...
People spend way more than that on speakers all the time. The rule of thumb is always spend the most on your transducers so I can see it being justified for someone with means who is primarily a headphone listener.
 

Tks

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So basically two nitpocks with this one.

The biggest being, it doesnt look the cost. Seems prerty similar to the rest of the line. Look at an HD800 compared to an HD600, night and day.

Also (as always, take a look at Meze, for this price, I expect it to beat an Empyrean in looks department, but it doesnt).


THD sacrificed to I suppose a FR improvement. Still, again, at this price I expect it to be lower. No real excuse seeing as how its current hungry planar (23 ohms is disgustingly low), theres sub $500 dynamics that havevlower THD.

If this were any other headphone these nitpicks wouldnt exist. But with that insane cost. The magnifying glass comes out.
 

Count Arthur

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Dan Clark Audio Stealth closed back <-----

Regardless of price and performance that rules them out for me. I find my ears get a little warm with all over-ear headphones and closed backs get very uncomfortable after a short while.

I think I may have some elephant DNA and use my ears as cooling fins. :oops:
 
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Jumbotron

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Biggest question at this point is where to buy DC headphones in Europe. My girlfriend hates my Ananda because of the sound leakage, and something like the Aeon RT Closed would be great. Issue being I can't find it anywhere in Europe.
The Aeon RT can only be bought directly from Dan Clark Audio's website. Before I bought mine, I asked them about where to buy them in Europe and that is the answer I received.
 

bidn

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Apparently the body and arch are titanium, carbon fiber and aluminum with suede and vegan leathery stuff I think it was when I read it.

Thank you.

I checked their internet site, it states:
- 'vegan suede and "leather" ear pads'
- 'Composite synthetic suede and protein-leather pads'
- 'Ear Pads: Synthetic Suede and Leather'.

The second statement is clearer but the first one (and also the third one) is unclear, misleading. I interpret it as meaning that the ear pads are made from fake, vegan, artificial, smooth protein material looking like leather ( = marketing talk to hide that they are made from fake leather). The second statement makes it luckily clear enough that the pads are made with fake leather.

My experience with vegan fake "leather" ear pads is that they never last more than 6 months before entirely falling apart, unlike ear pads made from genuine leather which I have never seen falling apart, even after many years.
( normally fake leather pads do not fall under warranty: there is no assembly fault, but these are parts submitted to wearing off through use).

Sorry, but I am not wasting $ 4000 on such an expensive device which will quickly fall apart.
I can understand that manufacturers use vegan leather on bluetooth headphones, having to save every dollar to keep the price under a few hundreds dollars.
But to save these few bucks to maximise profit on $ 4000 headphones is something not acceptable for me.
 
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aandres_gm

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Carbon fibre is a fantastic material, no doubt. But the main reason it finds application in many high end devices across different product categories is none other than looks and marketing. People know carbon fibre gets used in F1 and planes, so it must be good, right? In the case of headphones, I don't believe there's any use case where carbon fibre would fare significantly better than good plastics or some metals, which are definitely cheaper than carbon.
 

Chester

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Carbon fibre is a fantastic material, no doubt. But the main reason it finds application in many high end devices across different product categories is none other than looks and marketing. People know carbon fibre gets used in F1 and planes, so it must be good, right? In the case of headphones, I don't believe there's any use case where carbon fibre would fare significantly better than good plastics or some metals, which are definitely cheaper than carbon.

If I’m paying $4000 for a headphone, I want some carbon fibre in there somewhere, just in case :D
 
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