Dan Clark Audio E3 Review: Interview, Measurements, Impressions

[xtremepsionic]

Does anyone have experience with a Hifiman headphones and the E3? How does the E3's soundstage compare to the He1000se or the Organic?

This is rather subjective and I wouldn't expect everyone to feel the same since headphones interact with each person's head and ears slightly differently. If I were to give the HE1000SE a 9/10 for sound stage width, then the E3 is a 6.5 for me. However, the E3's sound stage and imaging is very natural and coherent to my ears. There's no 3 blob effect, no feeling of instruments crowding the center or the sides. It sounds right, and if I'm not A/B testing against other headphones, the E3's sound stage width never draws my attention negatively.

All that said, depending on your use case and your ambient environment, if there's any outside noise that you'd like to block off at all, the E3 easily claws back in terms of detail. The hifimans are perhaps more speaker like and transparent, whereas the E3 takes you into a much blacker background with amazing detail and tonal balance and good stage depth.

Hope that helps. I'm sure my experience isn't universal.

 

[Waddiewadkins]

Does anyone have experience with a Hifiman headphones and the E3? How does the E3's soundstage compare to the He1000se or the Organic?

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/dan...nts-impressions.970772/page-165#post-18375803

Halfway down page compares E3 to Arya Stealth

 

[Zibi]

This is rather subjective and I wouldn't expect everyone to feel the same since headphones interact with each person's head and ears slightly differently. If I were to give the HE1000SE a 9/10 for sound stage width, then the E3 is a 6.5 for me. However, the E3's sound stage and imaging is very natural and coherent to my ears. There's no 3 blob effect, no feeling of instruments crowding the center or the sides. It sounds right, and if I'm not A/B testing against other headphones, the E3's sound stage width never draws my attention negatively.

All that said, depending on your use case and your ambient environment, if there's any outside noise that you'd like to block off at all, the E3 easily claws back in terms of detail. The hifimans are perhaps more speaker like and transparent, whereas the E3 takes you into a much blacker background with amazing detail and tonal balance and good stage depth.

Hope that helps. I'm sure my experience isn't universal.

One more consideration on my side. Impressions of comparison between E3 and HE1000SE will be driven not only by the characteristic of each headphone but also by the amplifier that you use. E3 is more demanding (lower impedance and lower sensitivity 27 OHM / 90 dB/mW than 1000SE 35 Ohm / 96 dB/mW). You may feel that E3 is failing you but the reason may be the amp that you use. If I learned anything in this hobby (the hard way) is how important is the right pairing between the amp and the load.

 

[gelapenochip]

Does anyone have experience with a Hifiman headphones and the E3? How does the E3's soundstage compare to the He1000se or the Organic?

I don't have the HE1000se, but I do have the HE1000 v3 (the one with stealth magnets). The soundstage of E3 is smaller to my ears, but imaging remains good. The HE1000 v3's soundstage is more expansive. The treble is also more shimmery on the HE1000 v3 as well. E3's treble sounds cleaner. Different styles of treble presentation, but both are good (for me). Kind of depends what I'm in the mood for.

 

[Redwingnine]

Just received the E3 phones today. I had a pair a few months ago, and whilst they did many things right, the midrange was too recessed for my tastes. So I sold them.

I missed what what they did right, so bought another pair to try out. This pair is amazing. Unlike the first pair, the midrange is not recessed at all. The midrange is spot on. Not sure what's going on, but I absolutely love the sound from this pair. I'm wondering if there is some variation in performance from unit to unit. It's been reported Audeze has had that issue in the past, which is why I stay away from them. Although it's likely a small deviation between the first pair and this pair, it's a huge difference in listening enjoyment between them. I couldn't be happier with this pair.

I'm wondering now if I should have sent the first pair back to Dan to investigate? Anybody else experience issues with frequency deviation with the same model of headphones?

 

[yrstruly]

Does anyone have experience with a Hifiman headphones and the E3? How does the E3's soundstage compare to the He1000se or the Organic?

Comparing any closed back (even the E3) to the HE1000se's soundstage isn't a fair fight really...!

 

[Daiyama]

Just received the E3 phones today. I had a pair a few months ago, and whilst they did many things right, the midrange was too recessed for my tastes. So I sold them.

I missed what what they did right, so bought another pair to try out. This pair is amazing. Unlike the first pair, the midrange is not recessed at all. The midrange is spot on. Not sure what's going on, but I absolutely love the sound from this pair. I'm wondering if there is some variation in performance from unit to unit. It's been reported Audeze has had that issue in the past, which is why I stay away from them. Although it's likely a small deviation between the first pair and this pair, it's a huge difference in listening enjoyment between them. I couldn't be happier with this pair.

I'm wondering now if I should have sent the first pair back to Dan to investigate? Anybody else experience issues with frequency deviation with the same model of headphones?

What the owner said about recessed mids you sold your first E3 to?

 

[Redwingnine]

Nothing. Seems to be happy with them. We all hear differently.

 

[Fhjull]

New E3 owner here. It took me a lot of time to go through the whole thread and I must admit I couldn't stop smiling while reading it. It's incredible how many different opinions were shared here and how almost all of them were true for me. Let me elaborate.

First, when I was trying E3 at my local dealer, I thought they were quite nice, but very plasticky at the same. I didn't quite get it why they get so much praise for their tuning etc. Assuming there may be something wrong with me and thousands of people on the internet cannot be wrong, I took them home for further listening.

At home I felt like they sounded tad better, not as much as plasticky as before, but on the other hand, I was underwhelmed by their extremely soft bass and "flat" presentation - most instruments and vocals were lacking proper weight, they were more like a thin wall of sound instead of a 3D image. I was even more confused. I started tinkering with my set up, switching modes, gains, opamps etc. trying to make them sing. As a result, I think I was getting more out of them, but I was still underwhelmed. While the flat effect was gone, the midrange (especially lower midrange) started to sound veiled to me, I missed some presence there and I cought myself cranking up the volume to get more of that, which in the end resulted in very bright and V-shape type of sound. E3 started to be fatiguing to me, so I continued listening and tinkering. Finally, yesterday, they started to sound like (I assume) they were intended to. It's mind boggling, it's like somebody opened them up, bass is tight and authorative, midrange is nice and full, maybe a tad forward in some tracks, but still very tasteful and very well done. Stage got much bigger and holographic. It's like a completely different headphones to me. Not sure if that's the effect of brain burn-in, the actual burn-in or anything else, but it made all the difference in the world and it took me +-5 days to finally be able to appreciate the headphones.

I guess the conclusion is that if you feel underwhelmed by those (or really any) headphones, give them time, don't go back and forth with other cans, allow yourself to get familiar with them and it's very likely that you'll end up very satisfied with your new buy.

 

[Opstck]

New E3 owner here. It took me a lot of time to go through the whole thread and I must admit I couldn't stop smiling while reading it. It's incredible how many different opinions were shared here and how almost all of them were true for me. Let me elaborate.

First, when I was trying E3 at my local dealer, I thought they were quite nice, but very plasticky at the same. I didn't quite get it why they get so much praise for their tuning etc. Assuming there may be something wrong with me and thousands of people on the internet cannot be wrong, I took them home for further listening.

At home I felt like they sounded tad better, not as much as plasticky as before, but on the other hand, I was underwhelmed by their extremely soft bass and "flat" presentation - most instruments and vocals were lacking proper weight, they were more like a thin wall of sound instead of a 3D image. I was even more confused. I started tinkering with my set up, switching modes, gains, opamps etc. trying to make them sing. As a result, I think I was getting more out of them, but I was still underwhelmed. While the flat effect was gone, the midrange (especially lower midrange) started to sound veiled to me, I missed some presence there and I cought myself cranking up the volume to get more of that, which in the end resulted in very bright and V-shape type of sound. E3 started to be fatiguing to me, so I continued listening and tinkering. Finally, yesterday, they started to sound like (I assume) they were intended to. It's mind boggling, it's like somebody opened them up, bass is tight and authorative, midrange is nice and full, maybe a tad forward in some tracks, but still very tasteful and very well done. Stage got much bigger and holographic. It's like a completely different headphones to me. Not sure if that's the effect of brain burn-in, the actual burn-in or anything else, but it made all the difference in the world and it took me +-5 days to finally be able to appreciate the headphones.

I guess the conclusion is that if you feel underwhelmed by those (or really any) headphones, give them time, don't go back and forth with other cans, allow yourself to get familiar with them and it's very likely that you'll end up very satisfied with your new buy.

Nice to read!
When they got better, did You reset the eq or were they so with some tinkering?

 

[Sound Eq]

i really think the design of the headband system on the older e2 is way more comfortable than the one on e3 with the stretching mechanism

 

[Fhjull]

Nice to read!
When they got better, did You reset the eq or were they so with some tinkering?

To be specifc - I have upgraded V7 opamps Burson Soloist 3XP and Composer. I didn't do any EQ, but with those devices I have some room to alter the sound a bit - changing the amp mode from regular mode to power amp mode, change DACs mode from PRE to pure DAC mode, can change gain on both or simply swap Vivids V7 with Classics V7 opamps and use MOJO2 as a DAC. There are some configurations that I may prefer just a tad better (like contrary to my other cans: Utopia OG and Audeze LCD XC, I prefer E3 with MOJO2 as a DAC over Composer), but in general, as soon as the headphones started to sounds like they're supposed to, I went back to my default initial setup to make sure it's about the headphones and not that particular setup/configuration and it stayed that way. Just to have a good reference point.

 

[bagwell359]

i really think the design of the headband system on the older e2 is way more comfortable than the one on e3 with the stretching mechanism

I'm waiting for an open E3, the E2 has many great traits like the bass, the comfort, and more. The treble is a bit dark however and needs PEQ. I have yet to hear a closed back I would buy at any price, by any maker.

zibi said:

One more consideration on my side. Impressions of comparison between E3 and HE1000SE will be driven not only by the characteristic of each headphone but also by the amplifier that you use. E3 is more demanding (lower impedance and lower sensitivity 27 OHM / 90 dB/mW than 1000SE 35 Ohm / 96 dB/mW). You may feel that E3 is failing you but the reason may be the amp that you use. If I learned anything in this hobby (the hard way) is how important is the right pairing between the amp and the load.

Bagwell responds: The difference in efficiency is something to take note of. Since its expressed at the respective resistance, that number doesn't really matter since SS amps meant for headphones should handle 27 and 35 equally well.

 

[tcarlson]

New E3 owner here. It took me a lot of time to go through the whole thread and I must admit I couldn't stop smiling while reading it. It's incredible how many different opinions were shared here and how almost all of them were true for me. Let me elaborate.

First, when I was trying E3 at my local dealer, I thought they were quite nice, but very plasticky at the same. I didn't quite get it why they get so much praise for their tuning etc. Assuming there may be something wrong with me and thousands of people on the internet cannot be wrong, I took them home for further listening.

At home I felt like they sounded tad better, not as much as plasticky as before, but on the other hand, I was underwhelmed by their extremely soft bass and "flat" presentation - most instruments and vocals were lacking proper weight, they were more like a thin wall of sound instead of a 3D image. I was even more confused. I started tinkering with my set up, switching modes, gains, opamps etc. trying to make them sing. As a result, I think I was getting more out of them, but I was still underwhelmed. While the flat effect was gone, the midrange (especially lower midrange) started to sound veiled to me, I missed some presence there and I cought myself cranking up the volume to get more of that, which in the end resulted in very bright and V-shape type of sound. E3 started to be fatiguing to me, so I continued listening and tinkering. Finally, yesterday, they started to sound like (I assume) they were intended to. It's mind boggling, it's like somebody opened them up, bass is tight and authorative, midrange is nice and full, maybe a tad forward in some tracks, but still very tasteful and very well done. Stage got much bigger and holographic. It's like a completely different headphones to me. Not sure if that's the effect of brain burn-in, the actual burn-in or anything else, but it made all the difference in the world and it took me +-5 days to finally be able to appreciate the headphones.

I guess the conclusion is that if you feel underwhelmed by those (or really any) headphones, give them time, don't go back and forth with other cans, allow yourself to get familiar with them and it's very likely that you'll end up very satisfied with your new buy.

I came from the DCA Aeon Noire and I think that helped me, as I already knew the DCA sound and what I wanted from the E3. It’s a big upgrade (slam, speed, etc.). I’ve had the same effect you describe on other devices (Dac/amp, dongle, IEM’s, etc.). I now kind of expect it. The E3 shines at 1.2 watts or higher.

 

[Zhuyaj]

What's everyone's favorite aftermarket cable for the e3. I heard good things about the Artic magnus v2, as they tames some of the high trebles.

Any other suggestions from you guys?