[801evan]

I just read through all 286 pages of this thread and it was just a solid year of 801Evan talking about nonsense.
You guys do realize that you don't have to respond to him, right?

Anyway, my actual question was if any of you have heard the Stealth on the Ragnarok 2?

Not as much nonsense as that coffee guy proving his point by cranking up the ahb2 to the point of hitting protection mode. Great way to ruin a pair of HPs...and ears.

 

[OneEyedHito]

I just read through all 286 pages of this thread and it was just a solid year of 801Evan talking about nonsense.
You guys do realize that you don't have to respond to him, right?

Anyway, my actual question was if any of you have heard the Stealth on the Ragnarok 2?

Ragnarok 2 is too much power for them, you need to have an attenuator installed to get the best out of the Stealth. Less power is more power in the upside down.

 

[801evan]

Susvara is both higher impedance and lower sensitivity than Stealth. If you find Hugo 2 not being able to power the Stealth properly, there's no chance with the Susvara.

I have yet to try the Susvy but I have experienced bass clipping on the Hugo2 with the Stealth. If the Susvy is as demanding as people say it is, then I doubt the Hugo2 could power it "properly".

I've driven the Susvara and Stealth with much less and louder via a 400mw amp. Zero clipping. Zero distortion. Hugo 2 is practically double so

Even Diablo can drive Susvara at low gain splendidly and better than unity gain and low gain's max is 142mw.

 

[801evan]

I'm USB from my IPad Pro.

“Unoptimized chain” is not a thing.

Again no proof and nothing to back up this claim. The tt2 will either clip or not clip based on volume. “Unoptimized chain” is not a thing.

The proof is your rant and disbelief in my posts is based off you running USB from an ipad pro.

 

[6PANDEMONIUM6]

Ragnarok 2 is too much power for them, you need to have an attenuator installed to get the best out of the Stealth. Less power is more power in the upside down.

You're right, I should just put all of my flac onto my old PSP and run the Stealths off of that. I only listen at about 70-80db anyway.

 

[HONEYBOY]

The Stealth has become my favorite headphone and will be my reference moving forward. I was able to try these at CanJam Chicago and was quite blown away by the tonal accuracy and balance. The timbral accuracy of these headphones is beyond anything I've heard and it produces immense detail and resolution with no need for a boosted treble to do so. No pseudo detail here. Everything emerges from and incredibly black background with a high level of transparency. This is the type of transducer I want to build a system around.

Interestingly, these were the first set of headphones I tried and they were nowhere on my radar prior to this, but I was really impressed with them. Everything else perhaps with the exception of the Susvaras sounded off. I then tried them the following day after having sampled a number of headphones and these then sounded really lacking in dynamics and punch. However, once I give myself time to acclimatize with them the beautiful tonality and dynamics was there, but just not to the overly dramatic or unnatural way that it was on others. I recognized that it was tough to get a handle on these in a setting like that. Not to mention these headphones are quite revealing of the audio chain and sounded quite different on each different set up.

I ended up grabbing a pair from Dan Clark himself, who is quite the gentleman. He has excellent taste in music and even took some time to walk me around the show and suggest a few amps to try!. In brief conversations you sense that a lot of thought went into these headphones. I'm super chuffed to have one in my stable.

The hunt is still on for a great amplifier and DAC. Right now the Ferrum Stack is doing a fine job. The Topping A90 Discrete is a great paring as well and I find it just as good with perhaps better dynamics than the Benchmark HPA4 if one is seeking extreme neutrality and balance. These also seem to work well out of the Wells Audio Dragon. Didn't get to try it with the Milo, but I suspect the pairing would be quite stellar.

 

[JLoud]

I just read through all 286 pages of this thread and it was just a solid year of 801Evan talking about nonsense.
You guys do realize that you don't have to respond to him, right?

Anyway, my actual question was if any of you have heard the Stealth on the Ragnarok 2?

I own the Stealth and Ragnarok 2. I run it on medium gain and just past 12 o clock on the volume. I think it sounds very good. Silent background and good speed and dynamics.

 

[dougq]

The proof is your rant and disbelief in my posts is based off you running USB from an ipad pro.

That doesn’t even make sense. You realize you look silly right?

 

[inseconds99]

I just read through all 286 pages of this thread and it was just a solid year of 801Evan talking about nonsense.
You guys do realize that you don't have to respond to him, right?

Anyway, my actual question was if any of you have heard the Stealth on the Ragnarok 2?

I’ve said it a few times, but I’m almost positive the person is trolling just to get their post count up. Trying to have the “Headphoneus Supremus” title.

 

[DarginMahkum]

The Stealth has become my favorite headphone and will be my reference moving forward. I was able to try these at CanJam Chicago and was quite blown away by the tonal accuracy and balance. The timbral accuracy of these headphones is beyond anything I've heard and it produces immense detail and resolution with no need for a boosted treble to do so. No pseudo detail here.

Same here. Tonal accuracy combined with the immense level of detail and black background with 3D felt space between the instruments. Better than anything out there including Susvara. As you mention, many headphones rely on pseudo details by pushing the upper treble, which is also not the case here.

 

[dleblanc343]

Shameless plug-in but also a great opportunity to help take your Stealth to true endgame - parting ways with WyWires Platinum cable since selling my DCA Stealth :

https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/dca-stealth-wywires-platinum-balanced-cable.27186/


This was by far the best cable I've owned for Stealth for about 8 months. It outperformed the following which also came through my collection:

- MoonAudio Silver & Bronz Dragons
- Forza HP Noire mk2
- Cardas Clear
- Lavricables Grand Silver

I hate advocating for cables as it's a minor change, and 90% of the times just a luxury, but in the case of the DCA Stealth, it magnifies & compounds sound characteristic changes very clearly upon cable swap - testament to a very revealing driver!

I don't want to say it makes the headphones sound better than stock, as with cables, it's always a case of sounds "different" & fine nuance. But in this case, transparency augmented and transients speed (therefore dynamic contrast) as well, which helps the headphone with PRaT and engagement factor.

 

[tinariwen]

Hey guys,

ZMF Atrium owner here, potentially looking at the Stealths.

So, since getting the ZMF atrium i realised how much I prefer a more lifelike (accurate?) timbre and tonality.

To my knowledge, the most accurate in those departments are the Stealth and Susvara, but the Susvara wouldn’t be much use to me right now as I need better isolation.

So my question is, have any of you heard the Atrium, and if so, how do they compare?

The atrium seem a little slower than the VCs I owned before, and a little less detailed, but have a wider and deeper stage.

I suppose I’m missing the extra detail from the VCs, but more specifically the sense of ‘air’, as the treble is a bit more rolled off in the Atrium.

There’s a place locally I can try the Stealths, but I have to buy and return them (no penalty for that, thankfully). So before I do that, I wanted to see if any other people had experiences / opinions.

For amplification, I’d probably be looking at the Cayin IHA-6 to begin with, with the Schitt BF2 as DAC.

 

[801evan]

Hey guys,

ZMF Atrium owner here, potentially looking at the Stealths.

So, since getting the ZMF atrium i realised how much I prefer a more lifelike (accurate?) timbre and tonality.

To my knowledge, the most accurate in those departments are the Stealth and Susvara, but the Susvara wouldn’t be much use to me right now as I need better isolation.

So my question is, have any of you heard the Atrium, and if so, how do they compare?

The atrium seem a little slower than the VCs I owned before, and a little less detailed, but have a wider and deeper stage.

I suppose I’m missing the extra detail from the VCs, but more specifically the sense of ‘air’, as the treble is a bit more rolled off in the Atrium.

There’s a place locally I can try the Stealths, but I have to buy and return them (no penalty for that, thankfully). So before I do that, I wanted to see if any other people had experiences / opinions.

For amplification, I’d probably be looking at the Cayin IHA-6 to begin with, with the Schitt BF2 as DAC.

I mean ZMF designs these HPs where anything past 1khz won't go above 1khz. That's a big no-no for me. And that wood resonance is...no. Stealth is reference grade. Done.

 

[Tachyon88]

Anyone have both a stealth and Sony Z1R ? My question is how comparable is the isolation of the Z1R compared to the stealth ?

The isolation is definitely one of stealth great strengths, I'm just curious what other closed back is comparable to it in this regard ? TH900 is basically an open back comparatively, IMO.

 

[chesebert]

I mean ZMF designs these HPs where anything past 1khz won't go above 1khz. That's a big no-no for me. And that wood resonance is...no. Stealth is reference grade. Done.

@801evan @tinariwen I would not say ZMF has any deficient mid and treble. To my ears ZMF Atrium has fairly realistic timbre across multiple instruments including different human voices. I think it can use a bit more spacial resolution and treble resolution but those are good just not great areas.

I think the reason you prefer Stealth is it’s scooped out lower mid and upper and mid bass frequency response. This will make the treble more prominent and you get that fake sense of space and resolution - some people may be impressed by this short term but I believe Stealth is ultimately a one night stand and not something you can br married to for a decade.

@tinariwen Atrium is a far better can than VC. You might want to check your source and amp if VC is outperforming Atrium on your rig.