Focal Utopia headphones...with Beryllium driver

[Dreadhead]

I owned and measured Qualia I really doubt that

[Dusty Chalk]

He did say, "properly fitted", and I do remember them being extremely sensitive to position.

[purk]

I would say the Qualia, R10, and properly amp HD800 and hopefully the Utopia.  I wish I can audition the Utopia locally here in GA.  In most rig, the HD800 just sound a bit too thin next to the Elear and most people will easily pick the Elear.  I was lucky enough to own Doug's DSHA-0 and this amp really a perfect match to the HD800...help to propel it over the Elear for me.

Edited October 2, 2016 by purk

[HemiSam]

It's a shame that so often the response is some unobtainium pair of cans that are not only are pricey but would prove difficult to service should a problem arise.

Not going down that path anymore.  I'll stick with very good at the risk of missing out on someone else's nirvana.   007A's out of a Carbon, HD650's out of a Headamp GS-1 dynalo+, and my TH900's out of a Woo WA7 w/ some upgraded tubes all fed by an Ygg.  Nothing crazy but each one makes me smile and 99% is good enough.  Must be strong...

I'll save the self-flagellation for my race car...LOL

HS

[mypasswordis]

I had big hopes for the MDR-Z1R as a Qualia successor after reading this statement Tsunoda Naotaka gave in an interview:

Q: Which is better, Z1R or Qualia 010?

A: Well, although I designed Qualia 010, and Z1R is designed by my protégé, I think Z1R is the better headphone. This headphone has Sony's latest and best research and technology put into it. You can't compare the tools and research environment nowadays to 20 years ago.

But then I found out it was closed, and I don't like closed headphones. The magnet also seems to be weak relative to its bonkers 70mm diameter radiating surface, but that's probably why they made it closed, or vice versa.

 

Edit: weird, it keeps quoting the entire rest of the post. Removed said quote.

Edited October 2, 2016 by mypasswordis

[TMoney]

Stereophile review of Utopia. They got it pretty much right as far as I am concerned.

The Utopias are a bit of a devining rod. A lukewarm or negative review of them tells me more about the reviewer than anything.

I still feel guilty about buying another expensive headphone, but boy do they ever sound fantastic.

Apologies for potato-quality screenshots from my phone.

[DonkeyBalls]

"ultra-soft lambskin leather from New Zealand" - am I the only one that finds that statement mildly arousing?

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Nope

I, for one, will never forget thrice's analogy. 

[Sherwood]

On 10/2/2016 at 10:58 AM, purk said:

I would say the Qualia, R10, and properly amp HD800 and hopefully the Utopia.

Well, I'll hold for the Utopia, then.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Sherwood

[Dusty Chalk]

Whoa, microZOTL, there's an amp I haven't heard of in a while...

[skullguise]

Whoa, microZOTL, there's an amp I haven't heard of in a while...

There's a version 2 out, licensed from Berning by some nice gents called Urban Audio....big stuff over on H-F, but this time rightfully so IMO. Have one myself....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[purk]

7 minutes ago, skullguise said:

 

There's a version 2 out, licensed from Berning by some nice gents called Urban Audio....big stuff over on H-F, but this time rightfully so IMO. Have one myself....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Wonder if there is any improvement over the 1st version?  I always thought that the original zolt can swing plenty of dynamics.

[JimL]

30 minutes ago, skullguise said:

There's a version 2 out, licensed from Berning by some nice gents called Urban Audio....big stuff over on H-F, but this time rightfully so IMO. Have one myself....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Actually, the microZOTL 2.0 is licensed from Berning by Linear Tube Audio, who also build a number of Berning's other designs.  I used a Berning EA-230 amp for a number of years for my Quad electrostatics - nice amp.  The big thread on H-F is largely about substituting better power supplies for the original switching PS.  I heard a demo of different power supplies at the Albuquerque Head-Fi meet earlier this year, and it does make a difference, but it also gets expensive pretty fast.

[Wmcmanus]

Still use my original microZOTL in one of my bedroom headphone rigs.

[skullguise]

10 hours ago, JimL said:

Actually, the microZOTL 2.0 is licensed from Berning by Linear Tube Audio, who also build a number of Berning's other designs.  I used a Berning EA-230 amp for a number of years for my Quad electrostatics - nice amp.  The big thread on H-F is largely about substituting better power supplies for the original switching PS.  I heard a demo of different power supplies at the Albuquerque Head-Fi meet earlier this year, and it does make a difference, but it also gets expensive pretty fast.

Ah, yes, thanks Jim.  Urban Hi-Fi is the retail side of it.....

I haven't looked recently at the H-F thread.  I know there was someone who was doing mods there that took pages and pages, that and the PS discussion took over the thread.  But originally, it was about the base amp, maybe with some tube-swapping.  One of the few threads I read there.....

I used to own the original ZOTL as well, nice blue color; used it both with phones (Senn 580's) and with some bass-reflex Lowther speakers I had.  Lovely product!  Can't compare the 2.0 to it, way too many years, but the 2.0 is very good.

Edited October 7, 2016 by skullguise

[astrostar59]

Tyll found another set off ears? From thinking the Stax 009 is the best headphone he ever heard, he now says (all) electrostatics are too 'fuzzy up top'.

Anyone have an idea on this? I hope he hasn't become a sponsor's bitch.

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/worlds-best-headphone-focal-utopia-page-2#FWZovWFpm27dV06V.97

Edited October 9, 2016 by astrostar59

[TMoney]

Astro, please stop now and save yourself the embarrassment. 

[swt61]

Have you ever met Tyll? If so I doubt you'd have said anything like that. And you won't get much support for that train of thought here.

[DonkeyBalls]

Never met the man, but I do respect his integrity. I sometimes disagree with his judgement - but that's cool.

If he was a corporate whore - as per the multitude of other "review" websites out there - he would hardly have dumped on the LCD-4. This after having the Wall of Fame plastered with Audeze products in the past. That took real balls and might very well cost him in the future, but he did it anyway.

Every other "review" I have seen of the LCD-4 is a flood of ejaculatory hype leading to a jizz tsunami.

[Dusty Chalk]

I hate when that happens.

[Sherwood]

5 hours ago, astrostar59 said:

Anyone have an idea on this? I hope he hasn't become a sponsor's bitch.

Tyll's the last dude who smoked me out.

[astrostar59]

3 hours ago, DonkeyBalls said:

Never met the man, but I do respect his integrity. I sometimes disagree with his judgement - but that's cool.

If he was a corporate whore - as per the multitude of other "review" websites out there - he would hardly have dumped on the LCD-4. This after having the Wall of Fame plastered with Audeze products in the past. That took real balls and might very well cost him in the future, but he did it anyway.

Every other "review" I have seen of the LCD-4 is a flood of ejaculatory hype leading to a jizz tsunami.

Fair enough. I was curious how he seemed to change his wording on the 009s for example, from best HP ever to 'fuzzy up top' Clearly he has changed his mind about Stats. 

[swt61]

Look, he's not all of a sudden condemning stats. More likely he's stating that there's no perfect headphone, and speaking in subtleties. Tyll still gets excited about headphones after all these years, and like many of us, his perfect headphone would probably consist of traits of different designs combined into one. When a new phone comes along with a desirable trait, he's going to expound on that trait. Again, I think you need to know the man to know his writings.

[DonkeyBalls]

My guess is that the baseline for headphones has changed with the Flow / Utopia / Elear. What was great last year might no longer quite cut it, and the gap between stats and dynamic / planar cans has shrunk. So the level of focus and critique gets sharper. The Audeze range has great bass and mids, but the treble is kinda broken. In the past that was overlooked, but not anymore because the yardstick has changed with the new cans. So Audeze drops off the WOF and gets a "nice, but not good enough anymore" from Tyll.

You might agree or not agree with this approach, but at least it is a hell of a lot more up front than the usual "everything is wonderful, go buy it now" bollix that is spouted almost everywhere else.

[swt61]

3 hours ago, DonkeyBalls said:

...and the gap between stats and dynamic / planar cans has shrunk.

I agree with this. Sadly the price gap between the two has been eviscerated.