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Focal Utopia headphones...with Beryllium driver


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  • 3 years later...
On 11/15/2016 at 12:54 AM, NotoriousBIG_PJ said:

I have a pair here. I'm really digging the Utopia's in my system. Really hard to find any major faults with them. They are so detailed, yet all types of recordings are listenable and I can play music on them for hours without fatigue. I haven't had this much fun with a headphone since first listening to ps-1's.

Biggie.

 

I spent a fair bit of time with the Utopia at the audio show yesterday, definitely the most fun I've had since listening to your PS-1 setup back in the day.  Punchy as hell and it just doesn't compress or soften even if I played very dynamic music way louder than I'd usually listen.  Pretty much everything I've heard other than my LCD-XC and the RS-1/PS-1 will soften & compress to some extent, my Senn 580 and  AKG K340 do it, and so did the Focal Clear I tried out yesterday.  My first impression of the Utopia was that Focal took an RS-1, fixed up the treble tizz and bass, and then just cranked everything to 11.

I can also see where @EdipisReks1 is coming from regarding the soundstage & placement, it's definitely more of a Grado soundstage than my LCD-XC or K340.  Audezes are the best I've heard so far at creating a believable sound field, that is, not only placing voices & instruments in the correct place, but also getting them to project properly.  For instance, a timpani will make a sphere of sound whereas a trumpet will make a cone of sound, most headphones I've heard will make both of them into a ball-ish shape.  The Utopia has a sizably smaller soundstage than my LCD-XC and at times it did feel a bit cramped like there wasn't quite enough space for all the instruments & voices to breathe & project properly.  I get why an audio engineer wouldn't want to use these for mixing.

Overall, I think it's the best dynamic headphone I've heard so far.  If I hadn't heard Audezes I don't think I'd have any real complaints on the Utopia.  This is definitely another headphone which I need to hear in a quiet room to hear what it can really do.

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