SolarCetacean
500+ Head-Fier
I haven't been in a fully anechoic chamber, but at work, we have a sound isolating booth that we use for hardware noise measurements, and it has a similar effect. I was discussing fan noise testing with a coworker in the booth the other day, and her voice was oddly emphasized and intense while in there. Once we continued the conversation outside, her voice returned to normal. That vocal character is similar to what I heard on the Aeon 2 and Stealth. I've also clapped while inside the booth just for fun, and yeah, the reverb or lack of it is similar to how I hear drums on the DCA headphones.This is exactly what makes Stealth so unique and transparent, no artificial reverb/decay, only what's there on the recording. It gives the effect of an anechoic chamber which can be very unnatural to our ears (ever heard a balloon pop in such a room? Very weird). I can totally see why you don't vibe with it.
However for me live recordings sound extremely natural with the proper amount of decay. My conclusion was that for other music the fault lies in the mix and not the headphone. In the end however accuracy is not the aim but musical enjoyment is and if the Stealth is not enjoyable for you then so be it.
Have you heard it on a high end tube amp? Haven't myself but I've read of tube amps adding thicker note decay that may alleviate this effect for you.
I keep on hearing about these mythical perfect recordings that sound extremely lifelike on the DCA headphones, but I have not encountered one myself. Or rather, I have not encountered any that I would consider more lifelike on a DCA than on a Stax or something like that. More neutral, sure. More detailed, sure. But more lifelike? I don't spend my time in recording studios or anechoic chambers. I have no reference for what instruments should sound like there. I don't look for a headphone that tries to render instruments as if they were played in such spaces. If anything, given my musical background, I'd expect more reverberation from an instrument than average.
I haven't heard the Stealth on a good tube amp, unfortunately. However, I have heard the Aeon 2 on the Ferrum Erco, and I think that DAC/amp has a very dynamic and punchy sound that alleviates some of those 'DCA house sound' issues. I've also used the Aeon 2 with dynamic EQ which I configure as an expander, so all transients in the music get overdriven and expanded. Then it sounds really good! There's more impact, there's more pronounced decay, there's more openness to the sound, etc.! If the DCAs weren't damped to the extent that they are, I'd love them! I'm sure I would love the Stealth if I applied the same dynamic expansion to its input. But then I'm adding in the extra reverb and decay that Dan Clark intentionally tried to avoid in his designs... There's also the issue that what pairs well with the DCAs also pairs well, perhaps even better, with my electrostatics, and I don't know that if I had the DCA and a Stax or Shangri-La Jr in the same setup if I would ever reach for the DCA. The Corina quickly lost vs the X9000 at CAF, and honestly the Stealth did too as both were available at the HeadAmp table.
I cannot say that the Stealth is deficient in any regard. To me, "deficient" implies that the designer was unable to properly tune the headphone. But nothing that the Stealth does is due to Dan being unable to tune something better. Dan Clark is a master of the trade; everything I've seen in interviews shows that he knows what he's doing. I just disagree with his design choices. For me, the Stealth, Corina, and DCA headphones in general remind me of the Rene Magritte "This Is Not A Pipe" painting. This is not a pipe, it's a picture of a pipe. For DCA headphones, I'm always reminded that "this is not music, it's a recording of the music". I get why the Stealth does this, and it's a good headphone, but it is not great to me. My philosophy is that great headphones bridge the gap between recording and reality. It shouldn't sound lifelike only if the recording is lifelike; it should make recordings sound lifelike. Ultimately, it's this fundamental philosophical divide that makes me not enjoy the Stealth and DCA headphones, even though I understand their strengths and their underlying design goals.