[willstuder]

I find the transmission of cable noise on the DCA Stealth with the original cable to be quite high, at least when I move around as a musician playing or mixing with controllers. The fabric jacket of the cable transmits vibrations or friction noise to the headphone housing. Is there any experience with third party cables that do not have such a hollow sounding jacket?

 

[smallcaps]

I've owned the Stealth for a couple of months and can't get over how amazingly "neutral" it sounds to my ears. Don't get me wrong, I love musical headphones and enjoy my other cans, which include a modified HD580 that I've owned for over two decades now, as well as the VCs and recently obtained ETA O2. However, paired with the Drop THX789, the Stealth is my reference baseline system which I now compare all other systems to now. I didn't think I would enjoy the laser precision of this combo but it's such a stark contrast to my other combos (Bottlehead SEX, Monolith Liquid Spark, TA-20), it's simply a breath of fresh air for me. I currently use a Pegasus R2R as my DAC, but I'm now shopping around for a Delta Sigma DAC to get that next level of precision.

 

[Klabauters]

I find the transmission of cable noise on the DCA Stealth with the original cable to be quite high, at least when I move around as a musician playing or mixing with controllers. The fabric jacket of the cable transmits vibrations or friction noise to the headphone housing. Is there any experience with third party cables that do not have such a hollow sounding jacket?

Lavricables Grand - used them without sleeves on my Stealth and use them with sleeves (only on areas which have no contact with body/ clothes) on my D8000 PRO LE -> dead silent

 

[davidmolliere]

I couldn't agree more. I found the Susvara to be much more relaxed and enjoyable, with a more immersive soundstage. I would say it leans slightly towards being a sound-enhancing headphone. The DCA Stealth, on the other hand, is a masterpiece of analytical listening, offering an incredibly good, sober and balanced transparency. It offers perfect presentation and a clean, structured and unadulterated listening experience.

I have fond memories of auditioning Susvara such a smooth immersive experience indeed
I can't really have open back with no dedicated room and young kids, pointless but if I had an open back that probably would be it and maybe also the Expanse...

I often hear people describing Stealth as analytical (which I am not a big fan of...) but so far my take is Stealth will just reveal the character of its source (as you say it's highly transparent), and that's probably why I don't hear it that way at all... I have smooth, organic sources by taste

 

[plumpudding2]

I've owned the Stealth for a couple of months and can't get over how amazingly "neutral" it sounds to my ears. Don't get me wrong, I love musical headphones and enjoy my other cans, which include a modified HD580 that I've owned for over two decades now, as well as the VCs and recently obtained ETA O2. However, paired with the Drop THX789, the Stealth is my reference baseline system which I now compare all other systems to now. I didn't think I would enjoy the laser precision of this combo but it's such a stark contrast to my other combos (Bottlehead SEX, Monolith Liquid Spark, TA-20), it's simply a breath of fresh air for me. I currently use a Pegasus R2R as my DAC, but I'm now shopping around for a Delta Sigma DAC to get that next level of precision.

IMO the smoothness of R2R is a great combo with the Stealth, D/S can sometimes be prone to harshness in my experience and the Stealth will not sugercoat that in the slightest. If you own an R2R dac and you crave the precision of D/S I'd recommend demoing upsampling using HQPlayer (https://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html), which corrects an R2R dac's lack of a reconstruction filter. Looking up linearity measurements of the Pegasus it doesn't seem to be linear beyond 16 bits, so HQP can also be used to re-dither your music to 16 bits. Anyways I don't want to derail the Stealth thread (again..) with dac talk so that's all I will say about it

 

[DarginMahkum]

I was looking for an IEM that is as close to Stealth as possible without having to do any EQ'ing and at the top of my list was the Thieaudio Monarch MK2. Two days ago I found out that it is also available here in Germany, so I ordered a pair immediately and I received it today. I am not an IEM expert, so I started fiddling with the tips, trying to find a comfortable position, as I have narrow ear canals.

If I insert them too deep (which is the normal thing for most people, I guess, but for my ears it is uncomfortable), it becomes a bass head machine. It can give you shivers. I had a few "oh, crap" moments. Pulling them out a bit it gets closer to what you see below. But I think it is much closer to Expanse than Stealth, which is not a bad thing. If you position it a little bit more further out, than it is much closer to Stealth, but it starts to lose its balance and the mids start to become nasal.

One nice thing is that, these are higher impedance IEMs (36 ohms) IEMs, which is a good thing as the output impedance of the DAP / amplifier has less effect on the sound in such a multi driver configuration. Sensitivity is OK at 108dB.

All in all, I think Monarch MK2 has a very good tuning and can satisfy the Expanse and Stealth lovers that are looking for a well tuned IEM for occasional use.

 

[alxw0w]

I was looking for an IEM that is as close to Stealth as possible without having to do any EQ'ing and at the top of my list was the Thieaudio Monarch MK2. Two days ago I found out that it is also available here in Germany, so I ordered a pair immediately and I received it today. I am not an IEM expert, so I started fiddling with the tips, trying to find a comfortable position, as I have narrow ear canals.

If I insert them too deep (which is the normal thing for most people, I guess, but for my ears it is uncomfortable), it becomes a bass head machine. It can give you shivers. I had a few "oh, crap" moments. Pulling them out a bit it gets closer to what you see below. But I think it is much closer to Expanse than Stealth, which is not a bad thing. If you position it a little bit more further out, than it is much closer to Stealth, but it starts to lose its balance and the mids start to become nasal.

One nice thing is that, these are higher impedance IEMs (36 ohms) IEMs, which is a good thing as the output impedance of the DAP / amplifier has less effect on the sound in such a multi driver configuration. Sensitivity is OK at 108dB.

All in all, I think Monarch MK2 has a very good tuning and can satisfy the Expanse and Stealth lovers that are looking for a well tuned IEM for occasional use.

Have you tried Moondrop Variations?

 

[DarginMahkum]

Have you tried Moondrop Variations?

No I didn't. I stopped following the IEM scene long time ago.

 

[willstuder]

Lavricables Grand - used them without sleeves on my Stealth and use them with sleeves (only on areas which have no contact with body/ clothes) on my D8000 PRO LE -> dead silent

Thank you for sharing your experiences. Dead silent is what I'm aiming for. Can you tell me more specifically what you mean by "used them without sleeves"?

 

[Metalingus]

What’s the point of including portable case with such high power demanding headphone? If this was easy to drive it’d be day one purchase for me.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Weekend music on Stealth, with my favourite fusion guitarist Nguyen Le...

 

[DarginMahkum]

What’s the point of including portable case with such high power demanding headphone? If this was easy to drive it’d be day one purchase for me.

It requires above average power but there are many =>1W DAPs / portable DAC amps (even less power is sufficient in most cases) in the market that can drive Stealth perfectly fine. In fact most of my listening with Stealth is with portables, and I don't also have a super powerful desktop amplifier, either.

Also, the case is quite useful. If I am not using the HP and want to keep it safe, I place it in the case. As the HP can fold, it also doesn't take much space in a drawer - meaning the case and the foldable design is quite useful even if you don't move it around.

When I find the time, I am thinking of writing a review for Stealth and Expanse, especially with portables and music samples.

 

[davidmolliere]

What’s the point of including portable case with such high power demanding headphone? If this was easy to drive it’d be day one purchase for me.

Good thing there are portable options to power it
The fix is easy now, granted not absolutely cheap but it's there and it's amazing

 

[jlbrach]

What’s the point of including portable case with such high power demanding headphone? If this was easy to drive it’d be day one purchase for me.

with rare exception I have found the best HP's require lots of power

 

[elira]

What’s the point of including portable case with such high power demanding headphone? If this was easy to drive it’d be day one purchase for me.

I think it’s transportable, you can travel with it if you carry a transportable device like a Hugo 2 or something. It’s also useful to safely transport them between places, like from home to the office.