How many discorders agree with this? 
I think this should be the new official standard phrase when describing a a transducer that is lacking in slam/macrodynamics. 
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I have some thoughts on this. I can definitely understand this statement, as it’s not as clear for trailing ends of tones as some of the open-back flagships, but at the same time it’s right up there with the best of them for instrument separation and incisiveness - at least for how I hear it.
With that in mind, I strongly feel that the tradeoff here is in what’s required to achieve the tuning that they did, especially for a closed-back planar. None of those other flagships have quite the FR that the Stealth has, and I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to bite the bullet on that tradeoff. Most people buying these high end headphones aren’t going to EQ anything, and so if that’s the consequence of nailing the FR like this then I’m also fine with it.
In some ways it reminds me of some of my conversations with IEM manufacturers where they’re like “yeah if you want the good tuning there’s a tradeoff”, and you see different design choices on that front as well. I think with open-back headphones, that tradeoff is maybe less of a requirement, although I’ve also come across some counterexamples lately.
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Heck of a trade-off for $4k.
I don’t want or expect Utopia levels of dynamics, but I don’t want to spend that much for it to sound like it’s playing through a pillow either.
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Having those trailing ends all meld together for any kind of period of time is just difficult to deal with for any kind of complex music, at least for me. So do you think its kind of “faking” definition with spacing and incisiveness - not trying to be pejorative but its the best I can do. I try to get a handle on specifics especially for the big dollar cans.
Me, I can adjust to FRs that are a bit off so I dont get overly fixated on them within reason but I do know what I like, but the other technical issues like macro and micro performance, thats harder for me to psychoacoustically adjust to.
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I do get that, but… I should clarify that while it’s not at the Susvara level, it’s not that far off either. Certainly more impressive than the Empyrean for detail 
- haha I’m just messing man, I need to still do that comparison. But for real, while I personally have a hard time with $4k+ headphones in general, I can kind of see it with the Stealth because there’s literally nothing else out there like it. The closed-back planar competition - especially with this kind of FR and comfort - simply doesn’t exist (from anything I’ve heard yet).
I wouldn’t describe it as a ‘melding together’ on that - in fact it’s the opposite on the Stealth. It’s only really something I notice when doing comparisons for individual instrument lines. When lots of stuff is going on, that’s where the Stealth’s best aspects come to life in my opinion. I’ll give another example. The Utopia does do better for clarity of trailing ends of tones and the ‘microdetail/microdynamics’ front. But for the ability to hear the various individual instrument lines in a mix when lots of stuff is going on, I’d actually say the Stealth does it better. In some sense this is just the planar advantage, but on a personal level it’s a quality that I do value more. If I want to simply ‘hear more’, that quality is essential.
I think the same is true for the lower end Aeons - like the originals. They don’t have the same microdynamic/microdetail clarity as even something like the Sundara - almost walking the line there towards a hint of bluntedness (they’re on the right side of it). But they’re also better than the Sundara for instrument separation, and I can see how someone might find that to be the more important factor for overall enjoyment.
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So you feel the separation and staging can compensate for the trailing edges being less distinct? Fair enough.
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To a certain degree yeah. Like, it has to be at least sufficiently ‘resolving’, and I’m not sure I mentioned this but I was comparing the Stealth to the Ether 2 recently, EQ’d to the same FR, and the Stealth was clearly better for that quality.
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I can see this, but I guess I should also clarify that I don’t separate out closed-back and open-back when making assessments. When I talked about the Stealth I am talking in relation to all headphones. I don’t think Stealth should get a pass for being a closed back and there aren’t many.
I have to disagree here.
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In general I agree that it doesn’t quite compare at the $4k price tag yeah if you’re not separating open vs closed. But, if I think about… why headphones cost these insane prices to begin with, it’s often internally justified by those who think there’s nothing else like it out there. So even if something is only marginally better (in the minds of the manufacturer), they might feel justified in having it priced exponentially higher. So I guess by that I mean that, this might not be top tier with those other ones, but those other ones aren’t massively ahead either, just marginally. I think it’s important to remember here that there isn’t necessarily a perfect relationship between price and performance.
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I didn’t try it head to head, but wasn’t sure if it felt larger than the VCs, which is the what I was curious about from a large stage, closed back. Did you get a chance to try that out while with them?
I agree with your takes, in general, @dncnexus . I didn’t give it an overly thorough listen but tried it with a couple setups and it was fine. Not sure it was $4K “fine” as there were headphones that were far less that I thought were more enjoyable and engaging. The DCA sound isn’t my preference so I’m probably not the best judge.
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Honestly, I think everyone needs to hear the Stealth for themselves before passing jugement. Perhaps, on the right head with the right gear, it slams just fine. I appreciate subjective experiences, but never do they substitute for actually hearing something myself. Hopefully I’ll hear these in the near future.
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Let’s get this phrase put in a glossary. Wonderful stuff.
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“It Slams just fine” … you are still assuming here, however I don’t think you are wrong. 
One of the things I hope the few and lucky Stealth owners do is report back here when they’ve experienced proper brain burn in. Owners should have at least 3 weeks of solid listening with there DCA Stealth’s. Opinions and feelings could very well change.
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Well, it is better than cocaine dick dynamics. 
And more PG. 
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I just want to take the time and say thank you for some people here sharing their experiences with the DCA Stealth.
I’ve been so curious about this headphone and I’m really routing for Dan Clark to have an incredible and ground breaking winner here.
So far it sounds like the DCA Stealth with its patented AMTS Tech could be the #1 closed black headphone for openness and width in soundstage.
HD 800’s look out? Not exactly, but I really do imagine it is close and for a closed back that is certainly impressive and for some it may warrant that beefy price tag.
I’d really like to try these headphones even more now than the focal Stellia.
It is gonna be 5 thousand dollars for us Canadians to buy this. Ugh!
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Well, I did use the word “perhaps” to qualify it - I didn’t simply say “it slams just fine;” you took that out of context when you quoted me. My comment was more of an enthusiastic, hopeful statement rather than an assumption. However, anyone who has not yet heard the Stealth is assuming, so you’re technically correct in that regard; and that’s my point - we should stop assuming and instead go listen for ourselves.
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could someone that has the Stealth listen to this demo of Dolby Atmos with a configuration of 15.1.8 surround… this particular demo is created with a set of 24 Genelec 8351b speakers on a linearized HD800… I am more curious about how the Stealth will isolate the 24 speakers into their respective locations and how easily it is or not to discern the 24 different speaker locations using the Stealth…
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Yeah. Actually you are right. I did read it incorrectly. Apologize for that.
Now I’m gonna try and buy this headphone. I’m gonna give it serious consideration. Looks like Dan might be the Man.
No worries. If you do pick up the Stealth, do let us know what you think. Happy listening!
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