[classymaillot]

…so that’s why we call it Expanse!

I agree with that too. The soundstage presentation is so realistic. It starts closer to you but extends way further. When the recording calls for it, you can hear things really far.

Compare that to he1000se for example, the soundstage is epically large, but feels exaggerated, especially for a trained ear. That’s nice (and addictive) for epic music, but it’s not real or accurate.

I feel a lot of people are used to distortion and exaggerated presentations that when they hear extremely low distortion with realistic presentation, it does not sound as magical. And IMO it shouldn’t.

The expanse soundstage is so cohesive and beautiful, beyond any other headphone I ever tried. So is the Stealth and the E3. It’s incredible (and an engineering feat) that closed backs sound this large.

@mrspeakers - Thanks for these great headphones!

 

[SLC1966]

I agree with that too. The soundstage presentation is so realistic. It starts closer to you but extends way further. When the recording calls for it, you can hear things really far.

Compare that to he1000se for example, the soundstage is epically large, but feels exaggerated, especially for a trained ear. That’s nice (and addictive) for epic music, but it’s not real or accurate.

I feel a lot of people are used to distortion and exaggerated presentations that when they hear extremely low distortion with realistic presentation, it does not sound as magical. And IMO it shouldn’t.

The expanse soundstage is so cohesive and beautiful, beyond any other headphone I ever tried. So is the Stealth and the E3. It’s incredible (and an engineering feat) that closed backs sound this large.

@mrspeakers - Thanks for these great headphones!

Extremely well articulated. I could not agree more.

 

[gadus]

Over two weeks ago I received the wooaudio mini tube, a small but powerful tube dongle with excellent sound,
I was surprised when I connected it to the Expanse, it gave a really good result, however I was a little worried, it was a little hard for me to believe that a small dongle would drive the Expanse properly.
Now after many hours I confirm that it works great with Expanse, drives it easily and gracefully with tube sound,
It's great fun to the ears and it's great fun for the mobility it allows.

 

[mrspeakers]

Over two weeks ago I received the wooaudio mini tube, a small but powerful tube dongle with excellent sound,
I was surprised when I connected it to the Expanse, it gave a really good result, however I was a little worried, it was a little hard for me to believe that a small dongle would drive the Expanse properly.
Now after many hours I confirm that it works great with Expanse, drives it easily and gracefully with tube sound,
It's great fun to the ears and it's great fun for the mobility it allows.

I'll be sure to give it a listen next time I see Jack!

 

[speCD]

I want to thank DCA for bringing such a marvelous device into life.

100 hours of burn-in and now I can “see” the music. Nothing else matters, maybe except a higher upsampling rate.

P.S. I can understand people enjoying the expanse with a woo tube mini, but the bass through the dongle is nowhere close to what the cans are capable of (single ended though).

 

[gadus]

I want to thank DCA for bringing such a marvelous device into life.

100 hours of burn-in and now I can “see” the music. Nothing else matters, maybe except a higher upsampling rate.

P.S. I can understand people enjoying the expanse with a woo tube mini, but the bass through the dongle is nowhere close to what the cans are capable of (single ended though).

I like the combination of the minitube with the Expanse, using a balanced output, it's much better, the bass is also great, with a realistic texture,
With the power base it's even better,
I'm not saying it's better than a 'full' desktop amp, but it's a great and addicting combo,
Now I can listen to Expanse in different places and even in bed...

 

[gammi]

I just did a shootout where I measured almost all of my headphones using in ear microphones to see how they actually respond on head and the Expanse was a real standout.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/gammis-mega-headphone-shootout.972886/#post-18131663

Feels like a lot of them are doing similar things but Expanse stood out to me for having the most bass, for being the flattest in 1-2k (everything else had a hump of some kind there except verite which dipped), and for having the nicest treble roll off without major spikes. Expanse is my go-to when I want to listen to music while doing something. Out of all my headphones it's the one that makes everything sound the least offensive/smoothest. And after doing this test, it's clear why, such a smooth response without any spikes.