Headphones — Dan Clark Audio CORINA

The CORINA is Dan Clark Audio's open-back electrostatic headphone and the first of the company's electrostats to use its patent-pending Acoustic Metamaterial Tuning System (AMTS). It replaces the VOCE, Dan Clark Audio's first electrostatic headphone, as the top electrostatic model of the brand, and it is priced even above the current STEALTH and EXPANSE planar magnetic headphones.

Key specs that matter

The electrostatic driver has an 88mm diaphragm only 2.4 microns thick. The headphone connects to the standard 580V 5-pin output of an electrostatic amplifier. Because of the large driver, it is slightly less efficient than typical Stax models or the Audeze CRBN. Weight is about 465g.

Engineering and use context

The company says the new diaphragm has more consistent tension and better uniformity than the one in the VOCE, which improves linearity and channel matching. AMTS is an inline device placed between the driver and the ear. In one compact structure it combines waveguides, diffusion control and quarter-wave and Helmholtz resonators, and its job is to remove the standing waves that form in conventional headphone designs. The self-tensioning headband with an arch of Nitinol titanium alloy is shared with the STEALTH and EXPANSE. New suede earpads reduce the build-up of heat and moisture. Thanks to the low centre of gravity and the thin titanium wire headband, the CORINA feels lighter on the head than that weight would imply.

Pairing

An electrostatic amplifier with a 580V 5-pin socket is required. Dan Clark Audio notes that the CORINA responds well to a higher bias voltage within sensible limits and to an amplifier with strong output current, as the large driver asks for it. The company names its own Blue Hawaii SE amplifier as the partner that gets the most from the headphone.

Alternatives

The Dan Clark Audio VOCE is the brand's earlier and less expensive electrostatic headphone.