Dan Clark Audio E3 Review: Interview, Measurements, Impressions

[liujun050612]

Today I went to the dealer and tested the new AK Kann Ultra with my E3. I have a huge expectation since it is a power beast dap. I am still a little worried since my Kann alpha can't drive the E3 properly.

The new Kann Ultra certainly look nicer and has a new and a faster interface. Until I plug in my E3, it sounds better than my kann alpha, but the problem still exist. The sound especially bass will still distort at above 80 db, which is at volume of 125/150 single ended super high gain. Haven't tested balanced connection because I don't have the balance cable. But I believe on balanced super high gain, the problem will still exist, just with lower volume to reach 80 db. This happened to my LCD 5 before. Not confirmed though. Therefore, I can't take the new Kann Ultra, and beside M17, which is too huge, I can't find a pocketable dap for E3.

Now I have to treat E3 as a desktop headphone, same as the Stellia. It works much better on home setup rather than portable. I will still keep my old Kann alpha and Celestee as the portable setup. If I have to take E3 out, I will carry my Hugo 2. (which I rarely do). Hope Dan will bring a dap friendly or easy to drive headphone in the future generations. I really wish one dap do everything rather than hook dap and amp together, which is not pocketble. E3 is certainly a portable headphone, and sound amazing, but not portable enough.

 

[tjkohli]

Today I went to the dealer and tested the new AK Kann Ultra with my E3. I have a huge expectation since it is a power beast dap. I am still a little worried since my Kann alpha can't drive the E3 properly.

The new Kann Ultra certainly look nicer and has a new and a faster interface. Until I plug in my E3, it sounds better than my kann alpha, but the problem still exist. The sound especially bass will still distort at above 80 db, which is at volume of 125/150 super high gain. Therefore, I can't take the new Kann Ultra, and beside M17, which is too huge, I can't find a pocketable dap for E3.

Now I have to treat E3 as a desktop headphone, same as the Stellia. It works much better on home setup rather than portable. I will still keep my old Kann alpha and Celestee as the portable setup. If I have to take E3 out, I will carry my Hugo 2. (which I rarely do). Hope Dan will bring a dap friendly or easy to drive headphone in the future generations. I really wish one dap do everything rather than hook dap and amp together, which is not pocketbale. E3 is certainly a portable headphone, and sound amazing, but not portable enough.

100% agree. The E3 is much harder to drive than a few other closed-backs I've tried. It's basically a desktop-only closed-back headphone, which is somewhat of an oxymoron. It's a shame, because I think the E3 is a really great headphone overall. That was a deal breaker for me (looking for something that performs decent even while traveling), so I just returned mine.

 

[SlothRock]

Gotta imagine there’s a DAP that can drive it. What’s the dude in Antarctica using?! Mine will be desktop only anyways, so no biggy for me, but gotta believe something portable will drive the E3

 

[tjkohli]

Gotta imagine there’s a DAP that can drive it. What’s the dude in Antarctica using?! Mine will be desktop only anyways, so no biggy for me, but gotta believe something portable will drive the E3

Portable DAPs like the Hugo could drive the E3 I imagine, it's just relatively harder to drive than others and you'll have to crank the volume way up. I imagine you wouldn't want to listen at very high volumes anyways.

 

[Rhamnetin]

While I'm not equipped to measure it, my Chord Mojo 2 isn't leading to audibly higher levels of distortion in the bass compared to my HeadAmp GS-X Mini.

 

[liujun050612]

While I'm not equipped to measure it, my Chord Mojo 2 isn't leading to audibly higher levels of distortion in the bass compared to my HeadAmp GS-X Mini.

Mojo 2 works fine. But you have to hook a source, a phone or a dap on it, which makes it non-pocketable. On mojo 2, you have to crank the volume at least to green or blue for comfortable listening levels. To me, it's almost the max volume.

 

[jarnopp]

Mojo 2 works fine. But you have to hook a source, a phone or a dap on it, which makes it non-pocketable. On mojo 2, you have to crank the volume at least to green or blue for good listening levels. To me, it's almost the max volume.

Mojo2 with Poly or an optical converter out of a phone works great. I’ve personally been using Poly for years and with Roon or hotspot for SD playback it’s fantastic.

 

[BassicScience]

Gotta imagine there’s a DAP that can drive it. What’s the dude in Antarctica using?! Mine will be desktop only anyways, so no biggy for me, but gotta believe something portable will drive the E3

The "dude in Antarctica" is using a Benchmark DAC3 HGC on high gain. Volume knob is typically set around 11 o'clock. Bass quantity/quality is outstanding, although I recall instrument separation and soundstage dimensions being somewhat superior from my speaker amp at home. In any case, thanks for the opportunity to post a few more gratuitous photos. The weather today was awesome, and I did some group kayaking. We encountered a humpback whale and a couple of elephant seals (pictured below) at close range!

 

[SlothRock]

The "dude in Antarctica" is using a Benchmark DAC3 HGC on high gain. Volume knob is typically set around 11 o'clock. Bass quantity/quality is outstanding, although I recall instrument separation and soundstage dimensions being somewhat superior from my speaker amp at home. In any case, thanks for the opportunity to post a few more gratuitous photos. The weather today was awesome, and I did some group kayaking. We encountered a humpback whale and a couple of elephant seals (pictured below) at close range!

Beautiful pictures!! But ya, no way that Dac3 is fitting into a pocket!

 

[Rhamnetin]

Mojo 2 works fine. But you have to hook a source, a phone or a dap on it, which makes it non-pocketable. On mojo 2, you have to crank the volume at least to green or blue for comfortable listening levels. To me, it's almost the max volume.

Yeah I have the volume in green. But the high end DAPs with balanced out should deliver more power than the Mojo 2, granted those are around twice the price.

 

[liujun050612]

Yeah I have the volume in green. But the high end DAPs with balanced out should deliver more power than the Mojo 2, granted those are around twice the price.

Well, Kann Ultra have plenty of power, and twice as expensive, but it can't drive E3 well compare to Mojo 2. Volume certainly sufficient, but you will hear distortion on Kann Ultra, not Mojo 2.

 

[Clemmaster]

I bet the Woo Tube Mini would drive this well!

 

[gonintendo]

it’s definitely fine as a portable. you’re not going to drive it to its fullest potential, so I could see something like a stellia or lyric being better as a dedicated portable set for some people but even off of a mojo 2 it’s leaps and bounds better than something like an aeon, an ether c or even a radiance/celestee IMO. A radiance might have a bit more bass punch than an E3 driven off a mojo 2, but the E3 does pretty much everything else better.

 

[Rhamnetin]

it’s definitely fine as a portable. you’re not going to drive it to its fullest potential, so I could see something like a stellia or lyric being better as a dedicated portable set for some people but even off of a mojo 2 it’s leaps and bounds better than something like an aeon, an ether c or even a radiance/celestee IMO. A radiance might have a bit more bass punch than an E3 driven off a mojo 2, but the E3 does pretty much everything else better.

Soon I'll see if my local store has a Stellia to demo, I'll listen to them side by side off of the Mojo 2. After comparing the E3 on the Mojo 2 and HeadAmp GS-X Mini, I'm not convinced the Mojo 2 doesn't drive it to its fullest. I thought there'd be a tangible difference, but it's next to nothing when level matched to my listening level.

 

[gonintendo]

Soon I'll see if my local store has a Stellia to demo, I'll listen to them side by side off of the Mojo 2. After comparing the E3 on the Mojo 2 and HeadAmp GS-X Mini, I'm not convinced the Mojo 2 doesn't drive it to its fullest. I thought there'd be a tangible difference, but it's next to nothing when level matched to my listening level.

mojo 2 and gs-x mini have kind of opposite sound signatures, mojo 2 is fast and detailed while gsx mini is smooth and refined (it’s very detailed too but in a subtle way). so the mini isn’t going to make a planar like e3 really move air in my experience with it (from before I had E3). there are amps that do. I’m not convinced it’s a raw power thing as much as it’s about how the amp delivers that power (beyond a point)