So I’ve had a pair of DC Pro for a bit, and they’re interesting. I’m now pretty confident they’re the best final has ever done for an overall headphone. I always think the magic of finals are within their more subtle aspects that other headphones just don’t do as well, or their projects that are so fucking weird that you can’t ignore it; there’s no in between and thankfully this is the former. On the older pro, the main thing that really grew on me was the shape and texture of bass, I have not heard other headphones with that level of bass shape and timbre. The rest of the headphone wasn’t as universal praise from me, the bass on that is really what made me keep it around but it was fun and enjoyable for a more intimate, cleaner v shaped planar that had good overall technicalities and moments of impressive organicness despite it’s weirder overall experience (spatially also can have moments of brilliance in depth and placement + layering). The DC Pro is not that, they really had a different focus for this headphone, and it really shows. A few initial thoughts:
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The biggest thing to me is that this headphone has that rare chameleon aspect to it for almost every metric. It represents whatever you play or connect to it really well. I have a largely really balanced and honest chain at the moment, but this has already helped to easily reveal how I had tuned it to match with the hekse, and it’s not happy about that lol. For whatever music you play, it will take on the characteristics of the recording as if it was already best suited to it. Both of these aspects were really fucking with my impressions and experiences, because it felt like inconsistency when I wasn’t expecting it, but with more testing and listening, this really is just a very unusually honest headphone. For example, I was trying to figure out how it staged and it’s overall spatial abilities but kept getting confused about the size, scale, and placement, but it’s just so close to the recording that it was throwing me for a loop. The way it recreates the sound of the room and the background of it is really fascinating; the overall background will go from a dense opaque to a deep black to smooth/soft gray and anything in between, and it took some getting used to. Or bass for example, sometimes it will feel thick and bloated, other times maybe overly clean, others potentially overly polite, all while having that awesome shape and texture that made the first pro special elevated to another level. All good headphones will shift to the chain and music in varying degrees, but I just fail to convey how well this in specific is doing it lol, and I think it’s the main reason why I am having a hard time wrapping my head around what this does, and why it’s both shocking but also boring lol. If you have a bad chain or bad music, this can become a very underwhelming or wrong sounding headphone, but unlike something like a susvara which lulls you into complacency and covers over your mistakes, or a sr1a which punishes you while claiming that it’s not the problem here, this headphone will just faithfully blend into the resulting problem which might not be easy to identify for some.
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While doing all of this, it is not in your face, and has an air of refinement that just presents it to you, maybe in a more slightly relaxed and smooth? manner than neutral, but in a way that also doesn’t feel very colored or disruptive. This is the largest overall consistency for the headphone. And this isn’t to say it can’t be offensive either, it will flat out sound broken with some music if that’s how it was recorded, but it does it in a way that makes it very clear you’re the listener, if that makes any sense. I don’t want to say it doesn’t put you in the space itself because it recreates things extremely well, but it always is moreso presenting it to you rather than forcing you there. You have the choice to take it all in if you want to, or not. It’s not going to give you that super tactile and direct “live” sort of experience, but it also doesn’t feel like you’re being put in an artificial space and/or artificial space and you can easily take yourself there if you want to. You are present where it was recorded from, and you can experience all of the aspects of that place, but at your own leisure/desire. I don’t know, I feel like this paints it in a bad light, but I’m kinda neutral on it being this way because it allows the headphone to be both a universal daily driver yet remain very faithful to everything that goes through it or is connected to it. In this respect, some of the directness of the older pro would maybe be slightly desired for my own preferences, but this is interesting and different in it’s own right and the way it maintains this almost unsteady balance is something I barely ever experience.
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If I did have to pin some base characteristics to the DC, especially compared to the older pro, it’s more tonally complete and balanced despite still having a bit of a colder lean (mid weight and presence is the most improved), it’s a lot wider more expanded presentation than the more intimate and mostly depth focused older (while improving on the depth and accuracy as well), technicalities have taken a full step up to reach what I would consider equal susvara level on a reasonable chain (but can’t confirm how high it scales, as mentioned it’s so sensitive I’d imagine it scales almost as much as the susvara now). I do think there’s a bit of extra smoothing on treble but I still think it can get a bit too harsh sometimes like the og. And those 2 huge things I just talked about previously that are way more important than these. It both feels like a refinement of what was on the Pro, but taking those aspects in an entirely different and much more realized vision of what was likely their original goal with the D8K. From what I had briefly read/gleamed it really seemed like the DC were a more subtle refinement of the formula, I think that’s really under representing what these do, but I can also see how some might get that impression if their chain isn’t up to snuff. The older d8ks feel more like a traditional headphone, this does not, and because of that it almost feels hard to make the comparison.
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The Washi pads are huge and slightly rough but not in a bothersome way, the awesome part of them is that they breathe so well while still having great bass, the headphones are a lot more open feeling because of it and I feel like the pads won’t get gross and don’t heat my ears/head up much at all. I do think clamp is higher in comparison though and I don’t like that, less weight was a good change. I don’t find it as comfy as a hekse or susvara in weight, clamp, and pad shape/material but they’re still overall comfy headphones once you get used to them. I need more time to talk about cable differences, but this headphone reveals them extremely well, and right now it’s begging for a brise or danacable, the options I have here don’t feel right for my chain. I’ve got a proto norne drausk and the stock cables with an adapter (I wish it came with an SE cable), and while I think the stock cable gives them a reasonable brighter balance that’s well rounded but restrained/reserved, getting them on the norne really lets them open up spatially and dynamically, but exposes the lack of refinement and upper harshness/forwardness that can happen with that cable (also adds more weight and warmth which is a welcome improvement). I would say stick with stock unless you can move to something warmer and very refined/capable since otherwise it feels more like strong compromises that can easily mess up balance.
I’ll add more when I get more time, it’s just something that’s caused me a lot of internal rethinking of my setup and what I want out of it, planning changes to best allow this to perform. When I first got them, I was honestly really disappointed in every aspect vs the hek, but after letting them break in a bit and really getting listening time in, it took me some time to really appreciate what they’re doing and why they’ll likely be what I plan to settle with for a long ass time (there’s still a few other headphones I’m thinking about down the line though, but it’s very very very few lol). I’ll think about proper comparisons when I have more time on them, and when I better optimize my chain for them.