[6sigma]

Hey everyone, thanks for the nice reception! My thanks to everyone who has supported us, we love what we do and you make it possible!

We had our 9th anniversary this spring, and we wanted Stealth to be the embodiment of everything we've learned over the years as our technology and skills have grown.

Stealth took four years to develop and a lot of failures and experiments on the way, but we put our hearts into every part of this headphone, and for the first time even the packaging! We really hope you enjoy it.

For your enjoyment here are a few beauty shots (the red in the photos is a bit hot in the strap photos, it's more like the box).

Congrats, @mrspeakers ! ! ! Really appreciate the interview and your approach to designing, tuning & innovating!

 

[bidn]

Taped and synthetic.

Thank you for this information,
but in the context of ear pads, "taped" is not clear enough for me. Could you please clarify it, esp. re. the following questions ?:

- Are the pads directly (immediately) detachable? If not, how much effort and time would it take to remove the existing ones and to affix new ones?

- What would be the steps of the procedure for swapping pads?

- How much damage would it (detaching the pads) bring to the headphones and especially to the pads (I mean the pads being swapped off )?

- How are the pads affixed: slots or velcro band or... glued (by " taped", I understand : glued through the use of double-sided adhesive tape, i.e. a manner of glueing them)?

- Would one need specific stuff to affix new pads, e.g. special adhesive tape having the specific shape of the surface between the headphones and the ear pads? If so, would it be easily available?

Congratulations for the frequency response of your new model and have a nice weekend!

 

[trellus]

In my experience they don't last longer than 6 months of regular use.

I can understand the use of fake, vegan leather ear pads on bluetooth headphones (re. contraints to keep the price under a few hundreds dollars, so to save every single dollar),
but absolutely not on premium, so expensive headphones like the Stealth. And its is not even a question of vegan ideology since the headbands are said to be made from... leather (I understand genuine leather).

At this price point I expect genuine leather (or at least micro-fiber, but never fake, vegan leather!)
What a pity they saved money like this by using fake leather ear pads. I cannot accept expensive headphones whose ear pads quickly fall apart, so these are unfortunately a no-go for me.

If I remember correctly, @mrspeakers has addressed the choice of materials in making the earpads from that protein leather in other models and it isn't a cost-saving measure so much as about a preference for the physical properties and consistency in manufacturing -- something along those lines.

EDIT: Another Head-Fi'er hightlights the reasons Dan Clark gives specifically for these earpads on the Stealth, not cost savings at all: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/dan...w-interview-measurements.959214/post-16516189

 

[kkugel]

Thank you Andy! My enthusiasm ran away with my ideas. I have the Cayin n6ii E02 so I might keep with it, consider pairing it with the C9, or consider the A02+C9 (although the A02 is hard to find). Maybe one of those plans for the Stealth. Maybe a second n6ii with the R01 for my CIEM listening Your input helps set my expectations and put me on a better plan for my upgrades. Thank you!

R01 runs Aeon 2 at high gain and 75% volume. It's tight but works

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

It's going to be really hard to choose new headphones soon. I definitely want to know how these compare to the CRBN. Even though it's not apples to apples.

 

[vkenz]

it is almost a perfect closed back if only we can have more choices. this is exactly why stellia does not have a broad appeal. the color matters. and not everyone likes red. also the pad choices… we want freedom of choice to personalized the headphones we buy that are uber expensive.

 

[tutetibiimperes]

Glued fake-leather Pads?!
Completely unacceptable in this price range..

For what it’s worth, as a guy who’s normally all-in for real leather vs pleather, the pleather DCA uses is by far the best I’ve ever felt.

When I demoed the Ether CX I was super-impressed by the quality of the pads, you could easily believe they’re real leather. If this uses the same quality of pleather I wouldn’t worry about it.

it’s a far cry from the cheap awful feeling pleather used in the TH-X00 and AKG K553.

 

[432789]

Congratulations, in investing and achieving actual physical improvements on your new release.
A breath of fresh air away from most of the unscientific companies who take the short-cut and just offer placebo as improvements year in year out and easily sell a ton of snake oil as innovation.
but it's looking more and more like a new era is coming. who can't get with it will probably be left behind and its good so.

 

[SR1se]

I worried about 7.5kHz peak. Is it real peaky sound?

 

[erics75]

@mrspeakers @TaronL and any other vendors that will have a Stealth at CanJam, my question is what amps will you be demoing it on? Just curious if you'll have some common/readily accessible amps to try it on, or if it will be all exotica level stuff. Having a few low/mid level amps like an Asgard 3, etc. will be useful as many have owned them at some point, but much fewer have had the fortune of either owning or using the kilobuck stuff. it's a good point of reference for many. i keep an Asgard 3 around just for that purpose myself when testing new gear. excited to try this thing out, i used to be a huge planar fan. My personal fav of Dan's was the Alpha Prime. what it lacked in technical prowess, it more than made up with high musicality. The Mad Dog Pro was also insanely fun to me.

 

[musicday]

"Composite synthetic suede and protein-leather pads"

No word about whether they are replaceable. Don't see special teardrop shaped pads for sale, either (other than those for the ÆON).

At this price point I want genuine high quality leather and easy to remove earpads and some spares to be included free in the box.

 

[mrspeakers]

@mrspeakers, what's the warranty on the Stealth? Same 2 years as the other models?

2 years. For most headphones our service rate is <1%.

Warranty is very important especially for something with new untested technology like this. That universal headband sounds good but for how long? Also that stuff between the tranducer, will they compressed or wear off? Hifiman have 3 years for their HE1000+ and same for abyss I think.

You don't want to be the first user of Apple magnetic charger.

Our design goal is 10 year service life, amd we maintain parts for headphones for service. This headphone is built to last.

Protein pads will not last very long imo and i hope this automatic headband adjustment will last longer than in AKG headphones.

Not true. The suede we use was made for high end car seats, it’s super tough yet feels like nice suede. The protein leather looks so real multiple reviewers have thought it was leather, and this stuff cost $30k for bolt. It’ll last for years.

I hope they offer 4.4mm termination with the stock cable.

We offer all terminations.

Will there be an EU review sample shortly? Would love to compare to the R10P as long as it's here.

Yes, it’s en route to our distributor next week.

In my experience they don't last longer than 6 months of regular use.

At this price point I expect genuine leather (or at least micro-fiber, but never fake, vegan leather!)
What a pity they saved money like this by using fake leather ear pads. I cannot accept expensive headphones whose ear pads quickly fall apart, so these are unfortunately a no-go for me.

Not ours, and this was about comfort, tolerances, and durability not pinching pennies.

@mrspeakers are the earpads easily swapable?

Meze and T+A made that really easy on their flagships and this is very Important to me, since I always consider owning my stuff for ages

And pads are glued lol!

Glued fake-leather Pads?!
Completely unacceptable in this price range..

For what it’s worth, as a guy who’s normally all-in for real leather vs pleather, the pleather DCA uses is by far the best I’ve ever felt.

When I demoed the Ether CX I was super-impressed by the quality of the pads, you could easily believe they’re real leather. If this uses the same quality of pleather I wouldn’t worry about it.

it’s a far cry from the cheap awful feeling pleather used in the TH-X00 and AKG K553.

Ear pads are taped and user replaceable, they aren’t glued and in fact they can usually be removed and replaced 5-10 times before the adhesive fails. It takes 5 minutes to swap pads.

Why tape? Bayonets break and seldom seal well, stretching is bulky. Tape gives us easy service, highest dimensional tolerances, and a reliable seal.

We would never make pad swapping hard for people.

And the materials we use are TOTL, the protein leather costs as much as fine leather, this was about everything BUT cost.

@mrspeakers Dan, out of curiosity, will you be making different color runs of the Stealth? I'm not a fan of black and red (as a combination); my preferred combo is black and blue or black and white. Of course, this one aspect won't affect my decision to buy one (much), but if there are alternate color editions planned, I might just wait for that instead. Thanks in advance!

By the way, congrats on a job well done!

Not planning on other colors. And thanks!

I worried about 7.5kHz peak. Is it real peaky sound?

No. I don’t have a 5128 but I suspect this is the resonator interacting with the coupler. in fact if you listen with technical tones most people will hear about a 2 db dip around 7K. Response peaks or giant holes for most people are replaced by a more continuous response with lower amplitude peaks and dips then you may be used to, which is part of why it sounds so unique.

@mrspeakers @TaronL and any other vendors that will have a Stealth at CanJam, my question is what amps will you be demoing it on? Just curious if you'll have some common/readily accessible amps to try it on, or if it will be all exotica level stuff. Having a few low/mid level amps like an Asgard 3, etc. will be useful as many have owned them at some point, but much fewer have had the fortune of either owning or using the kilobuck stuff. it's a good point of reference for many. i keep an Asgard 3 around just for that purpose myself when testing new gear. excited to try this thing out, i used to be a huge planar fan. My personal fav of Dan's was the Alpha Prime. what it lacked in technical prowess, it more than made up with high musicality. The Mad Dog Pro was also insanely fun to me.

Our plan is to be there and showing, we will have a variety of gear there.

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

Personally, red is my favorite color. So red stiching is great to me. Lol

 

[DuncanDirkDick]

In my experience they don't last longer than 6 months of regular use.

I can understand the use of fake, vegan leather ear pads on bluetooth headphones (re. contraints to keep the price under a few hundreds dollars, so to save every single dollar),
but absolutely not on premium, so expensive headphones like the Stealth. And its is not even a question of vegan ideology since the headbands are said to be made from... leather (I understand genuine leather).

At this price point I expect genuine leather (or at least micro-fiber, but never fake, vegan leather!)
What a pity they saved money like this by using fake leather ear pads. I cannot accept expensive headphones whose ear pads quickly fall apart, so these are unfortunately a no-go for me.

Massively depends on the material. "Synthetic Suede and Leather" says absolutely nothing about longevity and haptic feel. It's 100% about implementation

 

[vkenz]

Massively depends on the material. "Synthetic Suede and Leather" says absolutely nothing about longevity and haptic feel. It's 100% about implementation

At this price, it is already more expensive than Luis Vitton luxury bags. Why are we not given a reasonable explanation why a "real leather" is not provided. I can understand if he says it about animal cruelty and all.