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Dan Clark Stealth Review (State of the Art Headphone)

spartaman64

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on the subject of whether the price is worth it. probably a lot of people here went to the theater to watch a movie before. tickets for the theater near me is like 14 dollars and lets say the movie is 3 hours long so thats 4.7 dollars per hour of enjoyment. i listen to music pretty much every day for at least an hour. so lets say these headphones will break in 20 years and i listen for an hour every day thats 7300 hours of entertainment. these headphones cost 4000 dollars so thats 55 cents per hour of entertainment. and that really lowballing the headphone durability and how long i listen to music lol. so if these headphones are a terrible deal then even more so are movie tickets
 

abdo123

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Is a bit weird to say these kind of word because we can't measure the '' punchyness '' or the '' how tactile ''gonna be the bass

Ofcourse we can, bass is not just about energy (frequency response magnitude), it's also about timing.

for example sealed subwoofers feel 'punchier' because they deliver the energy faster than ported subwoofers, which take more time to build and release the sound from the ports.

the more the bass reflects a minimum phase system with no delay in energy release the punchier it is.

However i have no idea how much of that translates to headphones.
 

abdo123

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. so lets say these headphones will break in 20 years

This is not a fridge from the 60s, the headphones will likely start degrading in one way or another shortly after the warranty period is over.

planned obsolescence baby!

seriously 20 years? lol.
 

Merkurio

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HE-6 has much lower distortion in the low frequencies even at higher level. This is possibly causing audible difference.

Punchy bass from dynamic drivers don't really exist. The once with "punchy" bass usually has mid to upper bass emphasized. They sound soft once you eq them to flat.

What about the AirPods Max (despite the poor target compliance before 1 kHz)?

Dynamic driver with Stealth levels of boosted bass and ultra low distortion:

index.php


index.php
 
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Interpretation is only necessary when the results are messy which is not the case here.

I have watched a ton of Andrew's reviews as I research for other reviews before writing mine. In every case I have to stop after the measurement section. Otherwise I would cringe so much during subjective aspects that you wouldn't be able to wipe that expression off my face. :)

Ah so I think we're in agreement here. Reviews such as ones for the DCA Stealth shouldn't need anything after the measurements since there is subjective aspects that might skew or mess with the interpretation of the data. When it comes to science, these types of subjective observations done by one reviewer doesn't provide better information than the objective measurements already presented.
 

imagidominc

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Fun fact: the first shipments are going out today.
Hey Dan, this is a bit off topic, but I just copped a pair of AEON RTs and Wow... I think they might be my new favorite headphone. And if they sound that great, I can only imagine how good the stealth sounds. Congrats on creating a revolutionary product that I'm sure will go down in audio history as one of the best headphones ever made.
 

Georgrig

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What if you listened to them and declared they have no bass at all. You expect me to say that too? My reviews are based on solid foundation of audio engineering and research. I don't make up terms and imagine characteristics that can't be defended in any way.

I have listened to Abyss and it is nowhere near this headphone without EQ in any metric. And I can demonstrate that with measurements:

index.php


Anyone who thinks that is an example of a good sounding headphone needs to go back to basics and study the research and importance of frequency response.

Or maybe they need to be able to distinguish between distortion and "detail:"

index.php


I have watched a ton of Andrew's reviews as I research for other reviews before writing mine. In every case I have to stop after the measurement section. Otherwise I would cringe so much during subjective aspects that you wouldn't be able to wipe that expression off my face. :)

Use the part from his reviews that are on solid footing (measurements) and ignore the rest and you will see high agreement in this case.

I am doing these headphone reviews because of the mess that is out there mixing what is real with what is imagined and can't be proven.
Why so aggressive? At the end of the day, I think his initial thoughts regarding the DCA Stealth have been positive. Cringe? You could say that you don't agree.
 

Kyle / MrHeeHo

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Thanks.
Does he mean by " no Macrodynamics" "no slam" as this is often critizised with planar and Dan Clark headphones?
If so, I could imagine that this will be the main discussion point of the Stealth (besides the optics ;)).
my guess is it's the whole "DCA headphones sound compressed" nonsense going around that's nothing more than their subjective impressions being colored by online discourse surrounding the brand
 

tusing

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FWIW Amir's subjective measurements are one of the few I trust.

While everyone was praising the SR1a, Amir described their sound like that of "a satellite speaker in dire need of a subwoofer," which perfectly lined up with my own impressions after I bought mine - somewhat tinny and very satellite-speaker like.

I also found that his impressions of the HD800S sound very accurate: "a spooky layering and I guess I should say clarity that is not only surprisingly but delightful." Again, another subjective measurement, but anyone that has heard an HD800S will no doubt find themselves agreeing.

His AirPods Max review was also on-point with my own impressions: "I paid for the full spectrum of the music I consume, not just the bass."

So I think it's important to find a reviewer whose impressions you align with, given your own experience.
 
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FWIW Amir's subjective measurements are one of the few I trust.

While everyone was praising the SR1a, Amir described their sound like that of "a satellite speaker in dire need of a subwoofer," which perfectly lined up with my own impressions after I bought mine - somewhat tinny and very satellite-speaker like.

I also found that his impressions of the HD800S sound very accurate: "a spooky layering and I guess I should say clarity that is not only surprisingly but delightful." Again, another subjective measurement, but anyone that has heard an HD800S will no doubt find themselves agreeing.

His AirPods Max review was also on-point with my own impressions: "I paid for the full spectrum of the music I consume, not just the bass."

So I think it's important to find a reviewer whose impressions you align with, given your own experience.

I would be cautious relying on subjective descriptions of headphones since each reviewer will describe them differently and possibly not agree with each other. It's much safer to just trust the science and have science determine what you are hearing.
 

philosobyte

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Why so aggressive? At the end of the day, I think his initial thoughts regarding the DCA Stealth have been positive. Cringe? You could say that you don't agree.
I agree with this sentiment. Resolve had some posts in this thread - all of which seemed polite and constructive. Amirm's was far less so. And because of that, it's possible Resolve has been discouraged from contributing to this thread. Which would be a shame because I was interested in the comparison he said he was going to make.

You don't have to be a nice person to be competent, but everyone benefits when you're both.

I would be cautious relying on subjective descriptions of headphones since each reviewer will describe them differently and possibly not agree with each other. It's much safer to just trust the science and have science determine what you are hearing.

At least subjective impressions can lead to further analysis of the existing measurements or, better yet, new measurements. But I do prefer when subjective impressions are more concise and qualitative, with less "I just couldn't put them down" and more "the soundstage seems vertically lower than other headphones" or something like that.
 
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At least subjective impressions can lead to further analysis of the existing measurements or, better yet, new measurements. But I do prefer when subjective impressions are more concise and qualitative, with less "I just couldn't put them down" and more "the soundstage seems vertically lower than other headphones" or something like that.

There's too much variation when it comes to subjective impressions. The reviewer could be tired or in a bad mood and give a product a more negative review than they would if they were in a better mood. Let's just stick to science guys. If it's not measurable, then it doesn't exist right?
 

smodtactical

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What if you listened to them and declared they have no bass at all. You expect me to say that too? My reviews are based on solid foundation of audio engineering and research. I don't make up terms and imagine characteristics that can't be defended in any way.

I have listened to Abyss and it is nowhere near this headphone without EQ in any metric. And I can demonstrate that with measurements:

index.php


Anyone who thinks that is an example of a good sounding headphone needs to go back to basics and study the research and importance of frequency response.

Or maybe they need to be able to distinguish between distortion and "detail:"

index.php


I have watched a ton of Andrew's reviews as I research for other reviews before writing mine. In every case I have to stop after the measurement section. Otherwise I would cringe so much during subjective aspects that you wouldn't be able to wipe that expression off my face. :)

Use the part from his reviews that are on solid footing (measurements) and ignore the rest and you will see high agreement in this case.

I am doing these headphone reviews because of the mess that is out there mixing what is real with what is imagined and can't be proven.

What about Abyss TC with EQ ?
 
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amirm

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Dogen

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If headphones were my primary way of listening to music, and I wanted the best sound, I’d definitely try to find a way to buy these. Nobody blinks at a 4K pair of speakers, why should these be out of bounds? One can hope that the technology will trickle down to more affordable products, but DCA invested a lot of time and expertise in developing these and hit the mark.
 

soundwave76

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Thanks! WhatHiFi is ranked #44 in that category so that shall be the goal to pass right? :)
 
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