Dan Clark Corina electrostatic

[justin]

A new electrostatic from Dan Clark is arriving -- the Corina.

I've had the opportunity to try it and if you are a SR-007 person and not as into the 009/X9K, this is a fulfilling option. It does require considerable power, which the Stax mafia has been taking care of since ~2003

https://www.headamp.com/products/dan-clark-corina

 

[spritzer]

I look forward to trying these out but the damping does make the worried.  DCA feel the need to add damping to everything while being shit at doing it, I mean the Voce was pretty much terrible in ever way.  Also the matched earpads has to be the stupidest shit ever, this is worse than Hifiman levels of utter BS. 

[Voltron]

It was in a loud meet room but I thought the Corina sounded fantastic from Justin's amazing new chunk of aluminum with an amp in it. I also heard the X9000 for the first time and that was pretty damn good too. 

[spritzer]

I listened to the Cortina three times, twice off a BHSE and once off the new GC amp.  Unfamiliar sources are an issue plus regular meet conditions but there was something about the midrange that bothered me, like an etch to voices which came off as very artificial but I need more time with them to nail it down.  I also feel that headband is utter trash, on the second time I put them on my head the headpad caught on the metal springs causing the headphones to make a very lough "twang" sound through the earcups.  I prefer the older type on the Voce, seems much more solid and better made. 

I'm also not sure if these are worth the price, just put them next to the CRBN and it looks like some cheap fake out of China,  The headpad and earpads feel cheap and nasty and not high end in any way.  This is always a personal thing but they were both sitting in front of me and they don't look, or feel, like a comparable product.  

The biggest issue for me though are the people who were there from DCA, I mean fucktards doesn't really cover them.  I know fullwell I can be brash and bombastic but these people are utter fucking idiots.  I went to their table to try the Voce and wanted to know when they were fixed as the original release of the Voce... they were fucking awful.  This earpads never made any sense and it's clear to anybody who has messed with electrostatics for s long time.  Same issue as with the King Sounds back in the day and they now, too, have moved to new earpads.  Now the guy there, who was quick to point out he was the president of the company, said this gem when I said the Voce was awful, "Ohhh you like electrostatics so you don't like bass!"  Yeah... and he also wanted to ask if I had ever designed headphones and when I started to listen, he ran over to Justin to bitch about me... which I heard most of.  What a fucking idiot.

Then we have the lady who was there, when I said matching of earpads was stupid loudly said this "SIR, THEY ARE HANDMADE!!!"  Well fucking duhhh, all earpads are handmade outside of the molded ones super cheap ones.  Most of my life I've been making things by hand, which have to be extremely consistent and it is easily done with far worse materials than these.  Now I reached out to two manufacturers and asked if they had measured earpad effect on the sound.  0.1-0.4dB is worst case and with large production runs of earpads they are much closer. 

So the bottom line, the people making them are fucktards but I need to spend more time with the headphones.  I don't feel they are worth the extra cost over the Voce, which looks much better made, and now sounds far better than they did.  Add to that the Audeze CRBN being sold as B-stock for less than 3k$ and this becomes a pretty hard sell.

[Voltron]

The woman at DCA's table seemed clueless but pleasant. If the the big guy with black hair who looks like Bluto from Popeye is the president of the company, then Dan Clark's judgment is suspect. He's been around the audio business forever and I'm sure he's been  fired for being a douche by companies better than DCA.

[Emooze]

I didn't mind the headphones too much, but I don't like douches. He was also vaping inside the whole weekend. 

[Oneguy]

I haven’t heard the Voce since 2017 at the Fujiya Avic Headphone Festival (wow has it been that long?) but it was terrible then. Muddy and no treble to speak of. @spritzerIt’s interesting that you say they seemed to have fixed their voicing since the early runs. I may have to consider giving them a listen if i ever run across an opportunity to try a pair. But based on my Voce experience I wasn’t expecting much out of the Corina. Would still like to give them a listen to officially close the door on them. 

[garageboy]

Dan is not the president of the company?

 

Or was there a "restructuring"? I remember seeing emails asking for investors for DCA

[Pars]

I see an Andy Regan listed as president. Might be "Bluto". I think Dan is still CEO, but don't know for sure.

[Voltron]

Andy Regan is Bluto

[spritzer]

I'm happy that at least got him to stand up and move from that fucking chair...  😉  It was funny to see the difference compared to other vendors who had perfectly affable people working there and this shit show. 

I wonder if DCA is doing the Cavalli route, have some idiot show up with an investment and blow through all of it and move on to the next sucker? 

But vaping in and around delicate electronics like this is beyond stupid.  What does think is in the smoke, magic fairy dust that makes electrostatics better? 

[musicman159]

Ha ha ha !!!

I know exactly who you guys are talking about. Before DCA he was with HiFiMan and at Axpona a friend of mine and myself had the worst experience with a dealer/manufacture in a show. He was so bad and rude that we got up and left saying good bye to HiFiMan because of him.

When I saw him now with DAC I just could not understand why Dan made that move. 🤨

 

[spritzer]

It's a bit amazing how people like this are like leaches on the industry.  I did a little bit of digging and yeah... found this:

https://www.startengine.com/offering/danclark

So sites like these are iffy to say the least and a good way to be utterly fucked as the investor and why would any legitimate company go down this route.  There is Bluto himself singing his praises...