[mrspeakers]

Something I discovered over the course of my time with the Stealth is that there does also seem to be some difference in terms of upper midrange level depending on the back-to-front positioning, as well as being a bit different depending on how much clamp there was. I was just doing some additional measurements to confirm and sure enough it's two very different results in the upper mids. So when I had it positioned a bit higher and further back, there was noticeably less upper mids (2-3khz specifically), but when I had it more forward on my head, it was bordering a bit on shout. Point being, it's worth playing around with that a bit to see what works best for you as that region does seem to change.

Thanks for noting that. I posted this before but it's worth repeating; I recommend placing the headphone to position the rear of the ear (around 10 o'clock) is close to the deepest/widest part of the ear pad. Max soundstage and smoothest response.

I'll add this to the user guide.

 

[TMRaven]

Upper midrange tends to get affected the most by ear placement within the pads, because it's the portion of the frequency response that naturally sees gain from the pinna of the ears. I did these measurements recently for the Ether2 thread, comparing two separate measurements each of the ears to the front and rear of the pad.

Red and yellow are with ear at front of pad, blue and green are with ear at back of pad. Front of pad yields more upper midrange and smaller soundstage. Ear at back yields less upper midrange and larger soundstage.

 

[BassicScience]

I'm curious, could people listen to the track "Native Sense" by Chick Corea and Gary Burton and share some thoughts on how it sounds on the Stealth? It's one of my reference tracks because I've found the vibraphone very hard to sound "right".

Links:
Tidal
Qobuz
Amazon Prime Music
Apple Music

Cheers!

FWIW, I just listened to the title track ("Native Sense") on the Susvara. Might have been a decent recording, but I think they simply mic'd the instruments too closely. Might work better on speakers than cans.

 

[xirxes]

So, the issue I've had with that track before is the very top-end of the vibraphone can sound _aggressively_ sibilant on some chains/hps. In particular, the second song on that album, "Love Castle", between 0:45 and 01:08 has some sections of vibes that I really like on the Raal's, but have heard as ear-piercing on other setups.

There's a subtler point around the texturing the vibraphone and keys create that I have a hard time verbalizing with precision, but it's one thing I've noticed when comparing my SR-1A's with the Aeon 2's.

The recording _is_ a bit unfortunate, I think none of Corea/Burton's duet albums have excellent recording quality unfortunately.

Just listened to this and they have one single note that reverberates with too high a level with placement of mic, but literally every other strike is wonderful in Stealth.

 

[xirxes]

@mrspeakers Do you have a recommendation for fitment on the cups for those of us with high elevated ears? Mine fit rather well, but if they are ever off they are lower than i would like them to sit. Also what is your recommended cleaning/upkeep on this type of ear pad material, both ear side and outside thanks!

 

[TeeQ]

Made the jump and have to say this has been one interesting headphone to demo.

I now know I can hear the difference between a 24/48 and 24/192 ALAC. I haven't done any real A/B to test in a long time to see if I could tell and honestly wasn't really able to tell on the HD800s when I did. And the math makes sense for why 44.1 should cover all you need.

Cut to yesterday, was doing some A/B between my current favorite headphone VO and the Stealth to see what tracks I liked better on the Stealth. Heading down the classic rock playlist, initially the Stealth is not faring well .... then I hit "hey hey my my - neil young" and DAMN! There was just a level space, detail and depth to the music that destroyed any "Fun" factor that the VO had seemed to have over the Stealth. As im starting the track over, I notice the song is a 24/192 ALAC and oooooo I get it now.

Proceed to try the different avalble quality version of the song on each of the headphones.

Song: hey hey my my - neil young

Stealth
256 aac | 24/48 ALAC | 24/192 ALAC
Dog water | Good/Normal | Better - new levels of detail and depth. Strings get a new refined sound.
(Apple Music) iDevice --USB--> Yaggy A2 Unsion OG --XLR--> Mjolnir2 --XLR--> Stealth

VO
256 aac | 24/48 ALAC | 24/192 ALAC
Ok to Good | Good/Normal | Good-maybe I hear a little something more but nothing where I would really care.
(Apple Music) iDevice --USB--> Yaggy A2 Unsion OG --RCA-> BottleheadCrack+speed --TRS--> VO

The difference is now distinct enough between 24/48 to 24/96 or 192 while working today, it will latterly snap me out of what I was doing when a high-res losses track would come on (In a very good way ). This was on my just on my Bifrost 2 --> Jotunheim 2 step even too!

I now almost think of the Stealth as like a really good 120 fps+ monitor. It can look great at 60fps, but 120+ is where it really shines!

 

[slainte]

About to freeze myself Cartman style...

 

[tusing]

Stealth arrives Saturday, and by Sunday I'll have a 3-way comparison between Stealth, Utopia, and VC for y'all!

 

[Alcophone]

Stealth arrives Saturday, and by Sunday I'll have a 3-way comparison between Stealth, Utopia, and VC for y'all!

Where do you live?

 

[newworld666]

Made the jump and have to say this has been one interesting headphone to demo.

I now know I can hear the difference between a 24/48 and 24/192 ALAC. I haven't done any real A/B to test in a long time to see if I could tell and honestly wasn't really able to tell on the HD800s when I did. And the math makes sense for why 44.1 should cover all you need.

Cut to yesterday, was doing some A/B between my current favorite headphone VO and the Stealth to see what tracks I liked better on the Stealth. Heading down the classic rock playlist, initially the Stealth is not faring well .... then I hit "hey hey my my - neil young" and DAMN! There was just a level space, detail and depth to the music that destroyed any "Fun" factor that the VO had seemed to have over the Stealth. As im starting the track over, I notice the song is a 24/192 ALAC and oooooo I get it now.

Proceed to try the different avalble quality version of the song on each of the headphones.

Song: hey hey my my - neil young

Stealth
256 aac | 24/48 ALAC | 24/192 ALAC
Dog water | Good/Normal | Better - new levels of detail and depth. Strings get a new refined sound.
(Apple Music) iDevice --USB--> Yaggy A2 Unsion OG --XLR--> Mjolnir2 --XLR--> Stealth

VO
256 aac | 24/48 ALAC | 24/192 ALAC
Ok to Good | Good/Normal | Good-maybe I hear a little something more but nothing where I would really care.
(Apple Music) iDevice --USB--> Yaggy A2 Unsion OG --RCA-> BottleheadCrack+speed --TRS--> VO

The difference is now distinct enough between 24/48 to 24/96 or 192 while working today, it will latterly snap me out of what I was doing when a high-res losses track would come on (In a very good way ). This was on my just on my Bifrost 2 --> Jotunheim 2 step even too!

I now almost think of the Stealth as like a really good 120 fps+ monitor. It can look great at 60fps, but 120+ is where it really shines!

Which headphone is VO ?

 

[Nostoi]

Which headphone is VO ?

Veritie Open.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Which headphone is VO ?

ZMF Verite Open

 

[Barone Birra]

VO
256 aac | 24/48 ALAC | 24/192 ALAC
Ok to Good | Good/Normal | Good-maybe I hear a little something more but nothing where I would really care.
(Apple Music) iDevice --USB--> Yaggy A2 Unsion OG --RCA-> BottleheadCrack+speed --TRS--> VO

Honestly, I don't think Bottlehead is an adequate driver, if you want to appreciate the max resolution, layering and imaging capability of the Vérité in Hi Res. I use it with the Benchmark HPA4 and it is another world, technically, compared to a tube amp.

 

[newworld666]

ZMF Verite Open

Thank you ..

 

[MayaTlab]

Upper midrange tends to get affected the most by ear placement within the pads, because it's the portion of the frequency response that naturally sees gain from the pinna of the ears. I did these measurements recently for the Ether2 thread, comparing two separate measurements each of the ears to the front and rear of the pad.

Red and yellow are with ear at front of pad, blue and green are with ear at back of pad. Front of pad yields more upper midrange and smaller soundstage. Ear at back yields less upper midrange and larger soundstage.

What are the values on the y axis ? Measured on the MiniDSP EARS ?