Dan Clark Audio Stealth Headphone Review
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Thanks to Head-Fi user sa11297 for the loan of Stealth!
DCA Stealth Website: danclarkaudio....
My Stealth First Impressions: • Dan Clark Audio Stealt...
Channel Intro: • Channel Introduction
My Hearing Quirks: • WaveTheory's Hearing Q...
Hi! Can I use them with the Astell&Kern A&ultima SP3000T player? Is the player powerful enough to use them? Thanks!
Love how you review. One of the best. I find myself seeking out your reviews first on cans I’m leaning towards.
I just bought a stealth to try it myself, having had rather bad experience with the Aeon closed before. Stealth is at least roughly comparable, technically, to other flagship. However, its tuning is slightly too shouty for my liking. A little too bright but at the same time lacking some air frequencies. To me, Harman tuning just isn’t neutral or natural enough. But overall, the headphone is pretty good technically and in terms of build quality.
Lol burn in… please contact me, I got this rope that when you tie it to your headphone cables, it will enhance your clarity and sense of space. Don’t worry it is only 1000 dollars and definitely not made of shoe laces.
HiFiMan recommends 150hrs of break-in time for their headphones.
Nice review! Glad you're smart enough to preserve your hearing and know safety limits. It's crazy how a great portion of the community has hearing loss and is borderline deaf!
Thanks for another TOTL review. When you showed the case I could not help thinking to myself why a product named "Stealth" would have the name printed on the case, and in a high contrast color to boot?
I would love to see your opinion on Audeze CRBN and Stax SR-009s
*4000 DOLLARS?? Crazy!* the host in this channel is amazing. Knows his stuff. Puts it out very very well and good. *THANK YOU!*
iFI Diablo will drive it
Easy , I wanted to say the same
@@x32i77 Me three...
The only problem I had with these is the initial stiffness of the headband. It's something that will break in over time but was really stiff (on my bald head). Other than that I loved everything about these.
I bet he's going appreciate you breaking those things in for him, lol.
It seems this one is very sensitive with positioning on the head. This probably causes so much variation in the sound.
Likely positioning as well as glasses gap on pads. Burn in is questionable.
It is not questionable, it is non existent but trying to argue it doesn't exist is like trying to argue evolution to creationists.
@@st0neageman the thing is even companies like Hifiman recommend it. More research needs to be done
Dan Clark recommends burning in the headphones.
I guess the KANN CUBE or KANN ALPHA from ASTELL AND KERN are some of the few daps that would probably be able to handle this headphone amp wise.
I think the Alpha goes up to 12 VRMS.
That's a decent voltage output for a portable device but for a low-sensitivity planar like the Stealth it's more about current output. That's where most portable devices are really going to struggle.
Thank you for the review. I think you are trying too hard not to offend anyone with your review(s), particularly seeming to go out of your way not to offend fanboys of a given headphone. You describe this headphone as not having enough "punch and slam" and being a "specialist". These 'qualities' alone remove it from the top tier. I heard this headphone and I agree with your description, this headphone does not live up to the standards set by other headphones (open or closed) in the $4k+ category. Every other contender at that $4k+ tier are way better all arounders and way better at the things this 'specialist' specializes in. LCD-5, Elite, Susvara, Utopia, Abyss TC. Actually I cannot think of any $4k+ headphone that does not do everything sound related better than these. There are many headphones priced FAR lower than these that work better for everything including the areas that this headphone 'specializes'- Verite Closed, LCD-XC, Stellia, Arya, HE1000 to name a few. The overall sound quality and technical ability of these puts them in competition with Focal Clear MG, Focal Celestee, LCD-2 and the Ananda, all of which are in the $1k or less area. There is one area where the Stealth does set a very high TOTL standard though. The build quality and aesthetics of the Stealth are beyond reproach. Even if you are someone who dislikes the black/red/carbon scheme, when you hold these in hand, they ooze quality and attention to detail. $1k sound. $4k build quality. These should be $2k headphones competing directly with the Meze Empyrean (also $1k sound & $4k build).
Hi! Thanks for watching and thanks for the feedback. I partially agree with you. I personally wouldn't want to spend $4K+ on a headphone that was only good on a narrow range of genres. However, in the headphone hobby I think it's fairly common to own multiple sets of cans, each specializing in a narrow range of genres. While even more niche than the TOTL headphone market already is, I suspect there are enough TOTL-level buyers who would be interested in a headphone that maximizes certain genres. Thus, I don't think that it's a sign of a poor or overpriced headphone to be a specialist. For the Stealth in particular, the bass-leanness and muted macrodynamics are intentional tuning choices meant to attract a certain audience. I think it will have a fair level of success because of that. And I don't think I agree that makes it less technically proficient than other $4K cans. So, while I appreciate the feedback, I don't see that I was being too kind. I'll tell it straight when I think it's warranted (see my written reviews of Topping A50s and GoldPlanar GL2K, for examples, lol).
Thank you for what you are saying and telling us.
You forget the comfort factor, including how lightweight they are when you criticize these headphones. I don’t think any competing headphones you mention will beat the stealth in weight and comfort. There are a lot of people that put more of a premium on comfort than the sound.
You sound more like a hater or a bitter person than a person who can be trusted. Hard pass.
Always looking forward to a good Waview
The Aeon 2s had the same issue with not being driveable with portable devices, sure they work on daps but they sound weird and only really work with an amp
Keep the good work up
A r really thorough comprehensive review. Thank you. Good to be informed about the long break in period. Thank you. 😎👍
Just spent some time with them at the canjam chicago and I have to say that they are not bright at all like nothing , very good bass, well controlled. I think the break in is really a thing here, thanks for the video
Wave continues crashing down upon TOTL. We need some amps and dacs homie! Maybe the use case for this office use where you can keep an amp/Dac at your desk. Perhaps you could have compared closed back performance to Stellia and VC which are the other totl closed.
After I couple months with the stealth I realized just how temperature sensitive the pads are and how it affects the sound. This is more likely what you're experiencing. To test this, get a dryish hot towel and let it sit between the pads for a min or so. Lmk how it turns out for ya
I think the cable with the unit you have is unusal, the nylon on mine does have a bit of slack but it seems like quite a bit less than what you showed.
Keep it up scholar appreciate your work!
So i spend $4000 on a average headphone that doesn't sound great out of the factory and another week fixing the sound .....WTF...
Welcome to the hifi hobby
@@x32i77 No need for the welcoming, but thanks anyway, even the reviewer looked uninspired, DCA won't be getting any of my money, for this headphone, when i spend this much i want at least rave reviews to even consider it....
@@chefsteve8381 it's very subjective ! I got the DCA stealth and I was completely blown away . I do own the Sennheiser HD800s , Meze Empyrean , and he6se V2 and the stealth destroyed them in slam , base and vocals .
@@x32i77 Hello! Which amp are you using with these?
@@gauravtyagi5900 burson conductor 3x Performance . I returned the dca stealth though. They got an unpleasant metallic sound and a 8khz peak
OK? Kay? Umkay? Am I watching King of the Hill? Okay!