Focal Utopia headphones...with Beryllium driver

[JonChoivo]

On 7/18/2016 at 1:06 AM, TMoney said:

Heard the Focal Duo at the SF HF meet yesterday on my rig.

My impressions of the Focal Utopia:

• The $4k price is unfortunate. This is a headphone that needs to cost $2k at most for it to be a good value.

   

 

My impressions of the Focal Elear:

• Priced at a grand, it is nice to see a step in the right direction on price. Should be $600, but at least its not $1,500.Between Utopia and Elear I lean very strongly towards Utopia.

Give Sonic electronics a call once they're out a month or so. They offered a buddy of mine 3.15k for a brand new LCD 4.

[Nanoha]

Tyll published a short post on InnerFidelity yesterday and appears to be very impressed by the Elear. http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/disruption-headphone-world There are also measurements of the Elear, Utopia, and pre-prdocution Mr. Speaker Flow in the post.

[velvetx]

Impressions from Wikia regarding the Focal line:

Focal Elear (out of Eddie Current BW SC):

• Really well built
• Solid feel and very comfortable
• I have to say I did feel like this was a cleaner HD650 and slightly more detailed
• Would probably describe it as having the best of both worlds between the HD600 and the HD650
• Best part about it is you don't need an expensive custom tube amp to remove the HD650's veiled sound
• At a $999 price point however I feel like another entry into upper mid-fi  will hold this headphone back

 

Focal Utopia (out of Eddie Current BW SC):

• Another really well built headphone
• Solid feel and very comfortable
• Very clear and detailed with a decently wide sound stage
• Bass is a bit lacking for me but overall good tonal balance
• Sometimes I felt however that there was the same hyper realness that I don't like with the Stax 009 present.
• Most impressed though with the golden headphone case @jude had these housed in.
• Unfortunately at $4k I really feel this headphone is overpriced especially against the next headphone I am going to mention.

Sorry for any Stax 009 fans didn't mean to insult but just not my bag.  I'm a 007 MK1 fan

[calaf]

about the Elear/Utopia, looks like I heard it differently than most people at the SF meet. I should mention that I did spend a *lot* of time with both headphones, particularly the Utopia as there was something amiss with the Utopia I was trying to put my finger on. Briefly, copying velvetx format:

 

Focal Elear (out of Cavalli Carbon and Crimson)

• lots of energy (punchy bass) and speed (transient reproduction).
• Warmish tone, closer to HD600 than HD650. Very clean mids and extended highs.
• Good, deep soundstage.
• In summary, the Elear reminded me more of the HE500 than the HD6x0, with a cleaner, more transparent sound.

Focal Utopia (same amps, plus Questyle dual mono stack)

• Tight, detailed bass.
• There is a bloom in the mids that made it sound gorgeous, but a touch artificial. Even after one hour, I was listening to the Utopia, not to the music being played.
• Soundstage was very "enveloping", for lack of a better word. It was wide and deep, but lacking in focus (compared to the HD800 I had in tow, but also to the Elear)
• In summary, I think Focal tried to go for the HE-90 sound and in the process lost ultimate transparency. Not worth $4K to me. Even at $2K they would face stiff competition from HE1K and Ether Flow.

[spritzer]

I'd suggest trying them on a Cmoy to see if a superior amplifier might help. 

[wink]

11 hours ago, calaf said:

(snip)

Focal Elear (out of Cavalli Carbon and Crimson)

First problem delineated.  

Focal Utopia (same amps, plus Questyle dual mono stack)

second problem delineated.  

 

Edited July 26, 2016 by wink

[TMoney]

Great review, @Tyll Hertsens!

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/enter-next-generation-focal-elear-headphone#oLrVYB1qTyI1gpvE.97

It must be nice to have the full line-up form the wall of fame to use in comparative reviews!

 

Edited July 28, 2016 by TMoney

[robm321]

Nice, thanks. Added to my "read it later". 

[Tyll Hertsens]

On July 28, 2016 at 11:18 AM, TMoney said:

Great review, @Tyll Hertsens!

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/enter-next-generation-focal-elear-headphone#oLrVYB1qTyI1gpvE.97

It must be nice to have the full line-up form the wall of fame to use in comparative reviews!

 

The PR people cry when I tell them I have to keep them....and then they laugh and giggle.

[TMoney]

 

21 minutes ago, Tyll Hertsens said:

The PR people cry when I tell them I have to keep them....and then they laugh and giggle.

Huh, you'd think they would see the logic in it.

If their product is a real winner it will be brought back up in your reviews over and over again as it gets compared to the latest product under review.

[Dusty Chalk]

7 hours ago, TMoney said:

 

Huh, you'd think they would see the logic in it.

If their product is a real winner it will be brought back up in your reviews over and over again as it gets compared to the latest product under review.

Thats why they laugh. 

[purk]

Tyll just declared the Utopia as "World Best Headphones".  Has anyone of us actually heard them beside Tyll?  Thoughts?

Edited August 9, 2016 by purk

[DonkeyBalls]

22 minutes ago, purk said:

Tyll just declared the Utopia as "World Best Headphones".  Has anyone of us actually heard them beside Tyll?  Thoughts?

Might get shredded for saying this. I take anything Tyll says with a large grain of salt after he labeled the dreadful 430HA as a "reference amp". That unit is veiled, slow and lacking in dynamics. I get more transparent and impactful performance from my 300B tube amp. Reference SQ the 430HA is NOT. Warm and musical yes. Transparent or "reference grade" - no.

[swt61]

You're more likely to get shredded for that stupid name. Tyll is well respected here, but you're allowed to disagree.

[DonkeyBalls]

Just now, swt61 said:

You're more likely to get shredded for that stupid name. Tyll is well respected here, but you're allowed to disagree.

I was going to use "Tony" but that was taken, so DonkeyBalls was sure to be free.

I was mildly drunk at the time. That shouldn't be a surprise.

[swt61]

Just now, DonkeyBalls said:

I was mildly drunk at the time. 

You may fit in after all.

[Hopstretch]

Not if he stops at "mildly"!

[stax fart]

Mike Mercer disliked the Utopia (called them sterile sounding), judging by his tastes in audio equipment (Cavalli and +1k headphone cables), Utopia might be the best headphones ever.

Really, I didn't care about them but now I want to hear them.

[TMoney]

Couldn't agree more re: Mercer. Whatever he says, do the opposite.

[wink]

Everyone can be inadvertantly right sometimes.   

Just ignore Mercer and move on.    

happenstances happen.     

[spritzer]

I'd love to try the Focal phones but given how much I hate their speakers I'm not optimistic.  Like so many other speaker manufacturers they just try way to hard to impress people and end up with a lackluster product.  Still I really want to try the headphones. 

[Nifrigel]

33 minutes ago, spritzer said:

Still I really want to try the headphones. 

Based on their specs, what amp would you use for them?

[spritzer]

The specs will tell me very little about their requirements.  Goes to show how useless they are but I'd start with the PureBipolar and work from there

[xEcuToR]

3 hours ago, spritzer said:

I'd love to try the Focal phones but given how much I hate their speakers I'm not optimistic.  Like so many other speaker manufacturers they just try way to hard to impress people and end up with a lackluster product.  Still I really want to try the headphones. 

I am in total agreement with you on this. Last year, while looking for a decent floor-standing 2 channel speaker system, I auditioned several speaker systems at various stores and to my surprise I didn't like a single Focal system, but with other manufacturers I at-least liked one out of all the systems I auditioned like KEF, Klipsch,B&O. Ended up buying the Polk Audio RTI A5. 

[morphsci]

I'm waiting for the model with an Oganesson driver.