THE DAN CLARK EXPANSE - REVIEW
THE DAN CLARK EXPANSE
This will be a shorter review than usual, as the Dan Clark STEALTH and EXPANSE are in many ways more alike than different, so it will be more of a comparison between the two headphones.
Over the past several years, I have become very familiar with Dan Clark’s line of both electrostatic and planar magnetic headphones. And every single Dan Clark headphone that I reviewed was enjoyable, technically proficient, and musical. I must, however, confess to having a particular penchant for Dan Clark’s electrostatic headphone, the CORINA. At $2,000 less than the STAX SR-X9000 flagship, it is every bit its equal and on certain measures, its better.
My last review of a Dan Clark headphone was the flagship headphone, the STEALTH, a closed-back planar magnetic headphone that easily won our DIAMOND AWARD. This review focuses on its “fraternal” twin, the Dan Clark EXPANSE.
The Dan Clark EXPANSE, unlike the STEALTH, is an open-back planar headphone. That said, both headphones share many features—styling, headphone cup shape, size, and relative weight. The difference, of course, is that the EXPANSE has an open back and the STEALTH does not. As a result, the tuning profile—the “voice”—for each headphone, via the patented Acoustic Metamaterial Tuning System (ATMS), has been adjusted to meet their respective mandates—open- back or closed. How does this difference translate to technical bona fides and “voice,” and what similarities do they share?
REFRAIN: Unlike most reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the headphones actually sound and not the process of physically “undressing” them and/or laying out their various parts, specifications, etc. Think of this review then, as a non-linear movie—Memento, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Transcendence, In the Shadow of the Moon, etc.—that likewise starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning. The Systems - Reference Headphone
Grimm Audio MU1 Streamer
Grimm Audio MU2 Streamer
Silent Angel Rhein Z1 Streamer
Silent Angel Forester F2 Power Supply
Silent Angel Bonn NX Network Switch
Silent Angel Genesis GX Clock
Bricasti Design M1 Special Edition DAC
Border Patrol SE-1 DAC
ALLNIC AUDIO HPA-300B Headphone Amplifier
Aurorasound HEADA Headphone Amplifier
HeadAmp CFA3 Headphone Amplifier
Pass Labs HPA-1 Headphone Amplifier
ABYSS AB1266 Phi TC Headphones
Dan Clark Expanse Headphones
Dan Clark Stealth Headphones
HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled Headphones
HIFIMAN Susvara Headphones
Meze Empyrean Headphones
Audience FrontRow Interconnects (XLR, RCA), USB, Ethernet
Kubala-Sosna Interconnects (XLR, RCA), power cords
Grimm Audio SQM Interconnects (XLR, RCA)
RSX BEYOND, MAX Power cords
AntiCable Level 3 power cords
TORUS AUDIO RM20 power conditioner
The Sound
The sound characteristics of the EXPANSE embody exceptional transparency, resolution, and detail retrieval. This remains true whether they are paired with a solid state or a tubed headphone amplifier, as “good” amplification seems to make very little difference. The STEALTH was notably on the warm side of neutral, and so too is the EXPANSE, though they share excellent technical abilities, as noted above.
The Dan Clark EXPANSE soundstage is certainly a defining factor in separating it from the STEALTH. As with most if not all open-back designs, the ‘“limiting wall” has been removed to a very large extent. This provides an expanded, airy, and ambient rendering that allows musical energy to fill the space naturally and for the resultant notes to decay more naturally. The EXPANSE, given its technical makeup or its “missing” bits—the back panel—rises above its sibling in this way most notably. The result is a larger, immersive, more defined, and layered stage relative to the STEALTH.
Air. Ambiance. Natural decay. The defining sound signature of the Dan Clark EXPANSE is that of an open, spacious, or “expansive” sound stage that has more air, ambiance, and a more natural decay of notes than the STEALTH.
As with all Dan Clark designs, a good headphone amplifier (HPA) with at least a good 2-watts will be needed to make the EXPANSE sing and sing well. We had a number of solid state and tubed HPAs that all fit the bill exceptionally well and drove the EXPANSE beautifully (see Reference HPA System).
Bass
I played the same music for the EXPANSE as had been played for the STEALTH, Eiji Oue’s “V. Infernal Dance of King Kashchey” (Stravinsky, Reference Recording). It was necessary and pragmatic to gauge their relative abilities in regard to bass response via the same material. Interestingly, while the EXPANSE could not plumb the depths to the Holy-Bass-Head-Grail as easily as had the STEALTH, it did manage to get there with a wee bit more power and once there, like its sibling, it never missed a beat.
Midrange
I had written of Patricia Barber’s piece “The Moon” (Verse, Koch Records), which I had used for the STEALTH review, that “The dissonance portrayed by the piano and assorted instruments is given distinction and air and space.” The EXPANSE expanded the stage for this piece while also highlighting texture, presence, tone/timbre, and palpability. Interestingly enough, this gave Patricia’s voice more intimacy and made the song more immersive. If the EXPANSE had lost a wee bit to the STEALTH via the bass, it more than made up for it in the midrange. Voices8's “Prayer to a Guardian Angel” (Lux, Decca) was likewise rendered with a stage that seemed to encompass or expand beyond the STEALTH’s, and ambiance, air, volume were all beautifully rendered, not at the level of an electrostatic headphone, but still quite good.
Treble+
Immediately on Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” (,Columbia), Joe Morello’s drum kit with cymbals high were more open, airy, and ambient than they had been with the STEALTH--no question about it. The stage was wider still and spacing and layering were also better. And again, there was greater intimacy with the EXPANSE relative to the STEALTH, though both provided exceptional resolution, transparency, and a naturalness of tone/timbre of Joe Morello’s drum kit. The EXPANSE does indeed seem to bring more high-frequency energy and with it a more open, natural, and extended decay, that translates more dimensionally.
Comparisons
EXPANSE vs STEALTH
There is, in truth, only one headphone comparison relevant here and especially so, since the other in-house headphones—HIFIMAN Susvara, HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled and Abyss AB1266 Phi TC—are a good deal more expensive.
Easily stated, the EXPANSE and the STEALTH do have much in common and those traits ‘out of common’ are, perhaps, much closer than one would imagine. For instance, with regard to bass response it took the open-air EXPANSE a wee bit more power to achieve the selfsame bass slam, drive, and Holy-Bass-Head-Grail reach, that the closed-back STEALTH was able to achieve. Though the EXPANSE did manage to differentiate itself across the midrange with a more open, airy, and ambient staging, with better decay of notes, that the STEALTH could not replicate. And treble reach, transparency, resolution, were quite similar for both headphones, though the EXPANSE’s open-back, again, allowed notes to unfold more noticeably and naturally and ambient space, especially in large cathedrals, big open spaces to be better defined.
The EXPANSE and STEALTH headphones are true to their technological underpinnings—open-back, closed-back—and what those underpinnings allow when a given space is closed or restricted and when a space is opened up to, well, breathe more readily. This is the difference you will experience regardless of the frequency “boosts” or “lifts,” etc.
The Wrappings and Accessories
The Dan Clark EXPANSE headphones come in a thick black rectangular cardboard box, minimally printed, with the EXPANSE logo on the top face, the Dan Clark logo on a side face, directly beneath the EXPANSE logo.
Removing the top of the box reveals a beautifully sculptured black interior with a die-cut recess that securely holds the EXPANSE’s small black mesh “chrysalis-like” carrying case. From this rather small chrysalis, the EXPANSE unfolds into the beautifully designed Nickel-Titanium, Carbon Fiber, Synthetic Suede/Leather, planar magnetic headphones. This in and of itself is a rather charming introduction.
Inside the box, one finds:
A small mesh carrying case
The EXPANSE planar dynamic headphones
A headphone cable (selectable at purchase)
A Certificate of Authenticity
An instructions/specifications manual
The EXPANSE’s wrappings, as the result of a precise, artistic, and well executed graphic and industrial design regime, are handsomely executed and speak well to the luxury component “transforming” the contents. Bravo!
Design—Look, Functionality, and Specifications
The Dan Clark EXPANSE headphone is, like the STEALTH, beautifully executed. The tear-shaped ear cups, the half-gimbal connectors, the sumptuous ear-pads, the wide protein-leather flexible headband arch, are all impeccably designed.
And the flexible, miniaturizing way in which the EXPANSE finds itself encased in a small black mesh case brings smiles of incredulity. Here is a full-sized headphone of substance and style that fits into a relatively small carrying case—chrysalis—and weighs less than 420 grams. It is one of the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn.
The EXPANSE incorporates two technological developments—its 4th generation planar magnetic driver and what it calls an Acoustic Metamaterial Tuning System (AMTS)—that together enable it in a chameleon-like way, or so I believe, to bring the best of each headphone technology to the forefront when needed.
The EXPANSE is truly an exceptionally designed headphone from the perspectives of industrial design, functionality/performance, and comfort. Bravo!
The specifications for the Dan Clark EXPANSE:
Driver Type: Planar magnetic
Driver Size: 76mm x 51mm single-ended planar magnetic
Driver matching: 0.25db weighted 20-10,000Hz
THD: less than 0.03% 20-20KHz, ref. 1KHz at 94dB
Weight: 415 grams
Ear Pad Material: Synthetic Suede and Leather
Headband: Nickle-Titanium
Baffle: Carbon Fiber
Sensitivity: 87-89dB/Wm (approximation)
Carrying Case: included
Drivability
The Dan Clark EXPANSE, like the STEALTH, was not too difficult to drive, but power was most certainly required. While their sensitivity is not a “shared” measure, it would seem, based on the dial settings of the various headphone amplifiers used, that a possible range would be 86-88dB. You’ll need a bit of power to get the EXPANSE to sound its best, but once you do, nirvana.
Conclusion
The Dan Clark EXPANSE, like the closed-back STEALTH planar-dynamic headphone, is also revelatory, albeit in a mildly different way.
The EXPANSE differentiates itself across the midrange versus the STEALTH with a more open, airy, and ambient staging, with better decay of notes, that the STEALTH could not replicate. And treble reach, transparency, resolution, were quite similar for both headphones, though the EXPANSE’s open-back design again allowed notes to unfold more noticeably and naturally within an ambient space, especially in large cathedrals, big open spaces, arenas that were better defined as a result. And in terms of bass, the EXPANSE will definitely get you to the Holy-Bass-Head-Grail, it will just need more power than the STEALTH to do so.
The EXPANSE easily wins our DIAMOND AWARD for technical excellence and sublime musicality and that open airiness for which open-back headphones are known.
Pros: Technical excellence—soundstaging, layering, resolution, transparency, detail, air—and sublime musicality. Exceptionally well made, beautifully designed, easy to transport.
Cons: Efficiency. You will need more power than resides in most DAPs.
The Company
Dan Clark
EXPANSE ($3,999.99)
3366 Kurtz Street
San Diego, CA 92110 USA
+1.619.501.6313
