Dan Clark Audio E3

Headphones have come a long way.

I can't say anything that hasn't already been said about the E3. I'll just briefly discuss the journey that led me to it and give my subjective impressions of it.

I was searching for a new closed back headphone to go with my Chord Mojo 2, and recently I tried many: ZMF Eikon, HiFiMan Sundara closed, AKG K371, ETA Mini Closed, Focal Celestee (between this and the Utopia, it didn't seem necessary to try the Stellia and none were available for me to try easily), plus I've listened to the Audeze LCD-XC (though not the latest revision), Fostex TH900, many others though I never had the opportunity to listen to the DCA Stealth. But the DCA Stealth was simply out of my price range, so it wasn't a contender.

During my search, the DCA E3 released along with all the reviews. What timing! I had a vacation coming up in a few days and my closed back headphone search wasn't yet complete, and the E3 launched at the perfect time. Based on the reviews and taking advantage of good return policies, I bought it from my local store. After listening to those first few songs, it was clear I was hearing performance I had never heard before from a headphone.

Digging up the conversation I was having with a friend online when first listening to the E3, it went like this: "This is clearly the best headphone I'm testing, but it doesn't make the K371 sound terrible." You see, I was hoping it wouldn't blow me away, since I wanted to spend under $1k on a headphone. But then I said, "How on earth is the treble so clean? This doesn't make sense" Followed by, "This is amazing." From there I was pretty much speechless. This was all over the course of 2 hours, at which point it was clear I would not be returning it even though I had spent around 4x what I assumed I'd spend.


At home, I listen to music on active 3-way monitors: ADAM Audio S3V and I did the best I could with my listening room to maintain its linear frequency response thanks to Dirac Live digital room correction. I want maximum accuracy from my audio systems... except maybe with somewhat elevated sub-bass. Prior to the DCA E3, my favorite headphone was the Stax SR-009 which I had owned with a KGSSHV Carbon. That blew me away, but only the DCA E3 at all reminds me of listening to music on my S3V.

The main reason for this is its frequency response which is similar between the two systems: in my room, even with the EQ the S3V still has a bit of a spike centered on 50 Hz. The E3 is mostly neutral, but with an elevated bass response to the Harman 2018 preference curve - the frequency response that Harman has discovered satisfies the highest amount of people.

So the E3's general tonality is: a bit "warm", strong dynamics (bass slams and rumbles the headphone), very articulated highs, superb extension in both directions. "Warm" referring to the elevated bass response that ends at just after 150 Hz, which results in most people hearing a closer, more "forward" presentation (opposed to distant) presumably caused by being able to more strongly hear the lower frequencies in everything.

But also the sound stage presentation of the E3 is weirdly speaker-like - not to delve into hyperbole, but it just has this centered presentation that reminds me of listening to my speakers. This, combined with its stellar full range performance (no bottom or top frequency weirdness nor rolloff here), and the unusually clean treble performance blew my mind.

To date, I find it difficult to wrap my head around how clean its treble performance is! I've never heard anything like it from a headphone. I can't wait to try the Expanse and especially Corina some day just to sate my curiosity.


Never before have I heard such linear and clean treble performance from a headphone - headphones always do something wrong here (even if it's a pleasant exaggeration or pleasant recession), but with the E3 I can't find any real faults. Measurements do show a resonance of sorts after 10 KHz, but using tone generators I don't hear anything that really stands out.

During my comparisons to the aforementioned headphones (especially the dynamic driver ones: Focal Celestee, ETA Mini Closed, AKG K371), I was doing my best to pay attention to the "dynamics" since some claimed the DCA Stealth is lacking here. Some claim lackluster performance in this area (without clearly defining what they mean) is an attribute of highly damped, neutral, planar magnetic headphones like these. I don't know about that, but I can say I noticed no difference in dynamics. The E3 does not have a "softer" presentation, nor is it lacking in bass slam compared to those. No, if there's any high end headphone lineup I've heard with what I perceive to be reduced dynamics, it's the HiFiMan HE1000s with their recessed upper mids and flat bass response, creating a more "distant" sound presentation which has its appeal too.

But you can feel the headphone rumble in bassy tracks with the E3. It slams. The dynamics are no weaker to me compared to the above dynamic headphones.


The E3 is the least congested sounded closed back headphone I've heard, with surprisingly good spatial properties and it really excels at separation. It really outclassed every other closed back headphone I tested recently, and has overall surpassed every headphone I've heard period due to its evenness and articulation across the entire spectrum. But I look forward to doing more comparisons going forward. I have no need for EQ with this headphone, and it really was a revelation in headphone listening for me. I didn't want to spend $2k or even $1k on a headphone, but you win Dan Clark. I had to have this.

After some time, I finally got around to experimenting with EQ. Not that I felt it was necessary, but just for curiosity's sake. I started by creating an EQ preset that adheres to the Harman linear in-room response; this is the neutral headphone response curve, it's what Harman's research says is an average representation of what people hear with a flat/linear speaker frequency response.

Using TechPowerUp's VSG database, this is what I came up with. Note, this graph doesn't show my actual target curve (Harman linear in-room) since TechPowerUp doesn't reference it. Also, this is an imperfect EQ because I'm not taking measurements of my E3. It will give me a general idea of how this tuning sounds though.


All of this EQ'd listening was done using Equalizer APO + Peace on my home system, consisting of an SMSL SU-X DAC and Topping A70 Pro amplifier, all balanced, using low gain on the amplifier as that's most appropriate for the E3 between its two gain options (6 dB in this case).

Switching back and forth between this EQ preset and stock, what a difference! And with no audible distortion penalties! The E3 is a chameleon. With this EQ, it becomes considerably less forward. The "warmth" is totally gone, so I'm no longer hearing nearly as much bass frequencies in vocals, instruments, etc, giving the illusion of everything being further away. The slam is also gone, the headphone no longer rumbles in bassy tracks. Definitely not my preference.

If I add some 1-3 KHz recession, then I suspect this will sound like a better HE1000 series headphone to me thanks to more linear treble. That's not to my taste though, and I don't have one on hand to compare.

I also experimented with just those 5.25 KHz and 6.5 KHz filters on their own, which made no audible difference to me. Then I did some listening with that low shelf filter turned down to -4 dB instead of -9-10 dB (and perhaps one other filter to flatten it more), which aligned the bass response with TechPowerUp's illustrated curve in that graph. That made for the expected subtle change: a bit less warmth, but not enough to make a noticeable change in perceived forwardness, and not much of a change in slam or dynamics.

The main point here is, because of how excellent the E3's technical performance is (low distortion, lack of problematic phase errors/reflections/resonances, and no major FR oddities by default), using PEQ you can really transform it into many different headphones. From forward and dynamic to distant and neutral, laid back treble character shouldn't be a problem either (I didn't try this). But I'll be going forward without any EQ.


Moving on, in my closed back headphone search, portability was a significant factor. I only really use headphones for on the go listening, and ones that fold and come with a fitted case have a huge advantage here. My AKG K371 and ETA Mini Closed fold, but I can't find a fitted hard case for them - all the cases I can find are way bigger than necessary which is harder to pack. The E3 solves that issue. Despite its large drivers and cups, it folds very compact and the case is perfectly fitted, making it very easy to pack.


I will keep an eye on the synthetic leather condition over time, hopefully I won't be disappointed. The comfort is perfect for me; the self-adjusting headband is the best design I've come across. Note that due to the size of the cups and the space inside the ear pads, you can move this headphone around to adjust the sound signature slightly (brighter/bassier depending on position). Gorilla glass isn't my preferred material though due to the fingerprints, but I don't let it bother me.

The E3 isolates you from your surroundings fairly well as it is fully circumaural and has a nice moderate clamp (not enough for soreness, but also not enough to remain in place when you move/turn your head). It is no champion in sound leakage but it's also not unusable here; when right next to an E3 user, you might hear loud bass notes, but you won't continuously hear music playing from my experience.

As for power requirements, the E3 isn't highly sensitive but it also isn't very demanding. I use it with a Chord Mojo 2 and I never have to push the volume past the green color range which is far from the maximum. But to drive this point home, I got a second DCA VIVO cable with XLR termination to use on my old home system: Bricasti M1 SE DAC + HeadAmp GS-X Mini combo. I didn't blind test this since I have no way to conveniently switch between both systems (headphone has to be unplugged, recabled, and plugged in elsewhere), but I couldn't reliably pinpoint any differences between either system.

So many high priced headphones sound off and disappointing to me whether due to blatant sub-bass rolloff, high frequency recession or rolloff, weird peaks and/or dips in the frequency response, weird resonances, but I find that the E3 is a rare exception that is actually worth its price.