I had the opportunity at the
Dutch Audio Event in The Netherlands to audition some headphones and amplifiers. The Dutch distributor
Dune Blue was present with a lot of other brands. They are the official importer of Dan Clark, but also of headphones like Hifiman, Meze, and HEDD, plus DAC-amplifiers like Enleum, Feliks, Violectric, Rockna, Viva and others.
I had a quick impression of a bunch of headphones which I compared to the Expanse, like the DCA Stealth (more shut in sound, treble not so refined, thinner timbre), DCA Aeon 2 Noire (zizzy treble; definitely needs EQ), the DCA Corina via a Stax SRM-T8000 amp (super nice resolution, not as rich and “acoustic” as the Expanse), the HEDDphone TWO (really off in timbre, scratchy treble), the Hifiman Susvara (larger imaging and clearer separation, but nasal-type of coloring), and finally the Meze Elite (good bass control, nice overall timbre, a bit less refined treble, but overall very enjoyable and closer to the Expanse as I would suspect). The DCA Expanse was clearly my favourite, not because I own one, but because of its natural timbre, its refined treble, and the evenly energetic/drive/punch over the full frequency range. It feels most natural to me. The negatives is the somewhat narrower imaging (or “air” if you like it more), and the deeper bass region can be a bit muddier with some recordings (easy to EQ).
I did audition the DCA Expanse (and most others) via an Enleum AMP-23R, which always intrigues me. It has a marvellous natural timbre, with an incredible good separation and control. In my own setup I use an Ayre Codex, which sounds very good to me as well, and I was curious about the exact differences, and whether it makes sense to do a further investment. The exhibitor was OK if I would bring my own stuff for comparison, so the next morning I was sitting at the same spot with my Ayre Codex, with next to it the Enleum AMP-23R and the Enleum AMP-23RM. The Enleums were connected to the Ayre Codex analog outputs, so that the conversion was done with exactly the same source; the DAC from the Codex connected to my Macbook with my own music.
The Enleum AMP-23R is clearly the better amp; it has a better control of the bass region, its mid is comparable to the Ayre (slightly thinner), and treble is in the same league, but a bit more crisp. What is most striking of the Enleum is the super accurate outlining of sound sources, which gives an added contrast and texture to the musical scene. The Ayre has a similar organic sound, and its mid is super lush and accurate. Treble is comparable and a tiny bit veiled compared to the Enleum, and bass is a tiny bit muddy in the deepest registers. The amps are much closer to each other than I did expect, and gave a similar dynamic response. The order of difference wasn’t worth a €7500 upgrade to me. If I would have to start from scratch, and I wouldn’t care too much about the finances, I would definitely and seriously consider it.
The cheaper Enleum AMP-23RM (€3700) has similar characteristics as the AMP-23R, but for all of the above described differences it is less explicit, and much closer to the Ayre Codex. Where I would rate the 23R as better than the Codex, the 23RM I would rate as a little bit better.
I’ve also auditioned the Enleum with a Rockna Audio Wavedream DAC. It results in a more crisp and energetic treble, but it also gives a scratchy edge to the treble for which I am pretty allergic. The difference between DACs was larger than the difference between the amplifiers.
So, learned a lot in about 1,5 hour, and a confirmation that my current setup is within a 80-90% range of what can be potentially reached (at a fraction of the price).
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There was a lot of other stuff to be heard, like the complete OOR stack, the complete DCS stack, Chord DAVE and HugoTT2, Lehmann, T+A HA-200, Riviera Labs, Erzetich, the Yamaha YH-5000SE, multiple Hifimans and Mezes, but at a certain point you reach listening saturation, so maybe next year I have more experiences to share.
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Forgot to make a photo... but you can get an impression of the exhibition via Facebook
here and
here