[davidmolliere]

My Stealth are finally arriving on thursday, thrilled!

 

[ra990]

Really looking forward to this review @Currawong

 

[Nomax]

For me Stealth is way overpriced, they just not offer good pirce to sound ratio.

I think in terms of the sound/tonality its really worth the price

NOMAX

Ps.if the stealth headphones had the same buildquality and finish as Utopia/Elite...Dan Clark could take 1 k more

 

[Currawong]

if the stealth headphones had the same buildquality and finish as Utopia/Elite...Dan Clark could take 1 k more

I don't see a problem with the build quality of the Stealth, unless you're going to nitpick over differences in stitching quality in the headband or the like.

 

[Halimj7]

Rob actually says the USB input has >200dB of filtering. Yet I think the weakness still lies in the internal noise of the USB board. 5k usd of usb solution couldn't fix the USB input of the Chord products (including HMS} the same way a toslink with a good source can. MBP and Asus Essence optical out are not good sources. Topping d10s and src dx are good solutions. Make sure to put sorbothanes on em.



I grappled with this for years with usb accessories. I've heard Radiohead - Planet Telex :39 - :44 in over 20 different ways in how it's presented with each different tweak changing the amount of detail and phase shift. The chase made me more lost than getting closer to the truth.



This is correct. One tends to get excited on new gear especially if it has more of (something). People pay premium for 'air' and some TOTL exploit this via tuning, but yes, I've come to understand that pandering to tuning an HP to have more air is simply giving the listener hyper hearing. This is not what I'm paying for in a TOTL HP.

Also, I think we have to understand that a recording that has that much air intact won't sound good on consumer devices. Ultimately, tracks are mixed and finished to sound good for the lowest common denominator, which is along the lines of in-flight entertainment/car. It's the engineer's job to make it sound good to most people, which in terms affects the number of plays and sales. Which means, most of the air is NOT in the recording. Most of the extra highs/air I hear in other HPs are group delay, poor fitting, distortion, poor amplification/chain, intentional tuning for higher $$ tag, wireless + cellular interference.


Yea.... I find it funny how there's pages and pages of people asking for more punch in these TOTL headphone threads. Again, an engineer's whole job is to create a balanced sound. So there's no way for bass to be even a bit more dominant that the others. A TOTL HP strives for balance. Any studio engineer strives for balance in their album...so why ask for a HP with more punch than usual? That's the not the HPs job. Its the job of the engineer by adding low-pass, compression,gain, cut filters in the mix to CREATE the perception of punch IF they want that in the track. It's not punch that's related to dB/SPL. (ie. No need for speaker amps. )

I completely but respectfully disagree. A TOTL headphone strives to sell by delivering what the consumer wants. There are plenty of buyers that want extra “punch” or extra treble, midrange, etc. look at headphones like the 1266 or Sonorous X or L5000. Personally I find the Harmon target boring. When I see a a headphone with a Harmon Frequency response I become a little disinterested.

 

[Widell]

I don't see a problem with the build quality of the Stealth, unless you're going to nitpick over differences in stitching quality in the headband or the like.

Please we need your review now......anyhow bought a pair in despair.......

 

[Currawong]

Please we need your review now......anyhow bought a pair in despair.......

TLDR version: With well-recorded acoustic music, they are awesome, given the resolution (ultra-low distortion) and Dan working on the tonality of instruments and vocals being correct. With anything else, you hear how messed up the recording is. I'll expand on that in the review with some perspectives.

 

[jarnopp]

I completely but respectfully disagree. A TOTL headphone strives to sell by delivering what the consumer wants. There are plenty of buyers that want extra “punch” or extra treble, midrange, etc. look at headphones like the 1266 or Sonorous X or L5000. Personally I find the Harmon target boring. When I see a a headphone with a Harmon Frequency response I become a little disinterested.

This seems reasonable, as long as we can know what true neutral, transparent, as low distortion as possible sounds like. Once we get there, then people can tweak dacs, amps, headphones, etc. to their preferences, whether it’s because they just like fatter bass or sparklier treble or because they listen to compressed music and tubes sound better or whatever. But I think, overall and on balance, most recorded music is being made to the best of the production ability and neutral and transparent is going to provide the best balance for most people. My tastes hav been modified over the years, and I can’t say how much is age vs. a better audio system, but I think having a better, more neutral and transparent, system plays a part. It lets you appreciate more quickly and easily, versus simply listening to Stairway to Heaven 1000 times, for example.

 

[qboogie]

In support of the m17 able to drive the Stealth and some comments saying the Hugo 2 can't drive the Stealth and that it lacks bass, here's a rough sound demo off my phone with the Stealth being driven by a Phonitor One that's just a fraction of the power of the Hugo 2 with the volume just a bit above my tolerable listening level.

Track: Feist Pleasure

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AzdAD5Jk6HHpgqQ6A

I love that song. Feist has said that she wanted to make that album that was like a charcoal sketch, not like the watercolor paintings her past albums have been.

 

[801evan]

I completely but respectfully disagree. A TOTL headphone strives to sell by delivering what the consumer wants. There are plenty of buyers that want extra “punch” or extra treble, midrange, etc. look at headphones like the 1266 or Sonorous X or L5000. Personally I find the Harmon target boring. When I see a a headphone with a Harmon Frequency response I become a little disinterested.

Granted, one man's ear trauma/ear fatigue is another man's fun, exciting, punchy and detailed headphone. Too many people wants to give their ear a work out and come out of a listening session with temporary hearing loss and call it a good day because they feel they extracted the most out of a music track.

 

[newworld666]

I completely but respectfully disagree. A TOTL headphone strives to sell by delivering what the consumer wants. There are plenty of buyers that want extra “punch” or extra treble, midrange, etc. look at headphones like the 1266 or Sonorous X or L5000. Personally I find the Harmon target boring. When I see a a headphone with a Harmon Frequency response I become a little disinterested.

Yes you are right .. Harman target is concerning 50% or less of the consumers... I have read that bass head consumers are usually younger people and represent less than 10 to 15%.
We can easily imagine that every firm producing some headphone can approach more or less the harman curve as a target, but they often prefer to create more personalize headphones with a real signature, which is a good thing to offer such choice to the consumers.

On my side, I still think the Harman curve makes the low and ultra low frequencies too much in front, with something like muddy impacts and some rumble even hiding some low mid-frequencies. So, I regularly need to PEQ my headphones to lower some low frequencies and get the fastest, the clearest and the deepest impacts the headphones can provide (Z7M2, Ed15 Veritas need lo lower significantly low frequencies). Luckily, to lower low frequencies, we are not limited at all by a huge increase of distortion !!!

In that sens, the DCA Stealth seems to be a really impressive headphone which covers probably 50% of the consumers taste and can also please some other like me who prefers clearer and deeper impacts, so they can still play, when required, with some little PEQ with a very limited risk to add some annoying distortions (which can't be done when we need to increase ultra low frequencies).

 

[gKalkin]

With anything else, you hear how messed up the recording is.

The separation and low distortion do really highlight recording quirks. I find myself hearing boundaries of samples on electronic music more often than I do on any other headphone. However, this doesn't really take me out of the music in most cases. Highly subjective for sure. Everyone is going to have different reactions to hearing music they know in a new way.

 

[alxw0w]

So the question is: LCD5 or Stealth
I'm waiting for LCD5 to be available at my local dealer. Already talked with Stealth dealer and I'm going to demo Stealth and LCD5 side by side and decide on my next headphone (or maybe I'll stick with he1000v2? who knows)

ps. @mrspeakers please Dan think about all black version of Stealth. There are not many 12yo customers among us

 

[801evan]

So the question is: LCD5 or Stealth
I'm waiting for LCD5 to be available at my local dealer. Already talked with Stealth dealer and I'm going to demo Stealth and LCD5 side by side and decide on my next headphone (or maybe I'll stick with he1000v2? who knows)

ps. @mrspeakers please Dan think about all black version of Stealth. There are no many 12yo customers among us

It may ultimately boil down to noise floor performance of your chain. Having both will serve as a good barometer too. Stealth will perform better on a lower noise floor chain while the 5 will perform better on a higher noise floor is my prediction based on ppl's impressions and my up and down experience with the Stealth across different chains.

 

[davidmolliere]

Stealth arrived one day early
Just an hour with it out of M17 in desktop mode (running at 70/75 out of 120 even on Jazz but I am a low volume listener).
I'll clock more time with it but let's just say I am so happy with my purchase, stepping into the headphone game after spending boatloads on IEMs...

I'll just say this : Stealth is so effortless and lifelike, music just flows and it makes itself forgotten on your head... in love with the mids...also, I don't get the whole "no bass" thing, it's not a basshead headphone for sure but I find bass has beautiful textures and a very high sense of realism to it and decent slam too.