Focal Utopia Review (collective stream of consciousness)

I'm curious if and when the TOTL market for wired headphones will face a backlash. Inner Fidelity recently reported that Bluetooth headphone sales equaled or exceeded (I can't remember which) wired set sales. I'm sure Focal and others realize this and do their best to keep the current trend going while they still can. If a backlash occurs, maybe we'll see great cans at great prices.

 

It's possible, but another scenario is that totl wired vs wireless headphones occupy non overlapping populations or segments of the market. Like beats. if anything I wonder if the direction of influence will flow the other way, i.e., it'll drive wireless guys to improve their shit. But probably not cause they might not need to to keep selling wireless.

 

@brencho, good point. Perhaps wired sets increasingly a boutique item. If so, then get those HD650s now while they are so cheap...

 

@ultrabike Your friend has good ears and is right on point in his description of one of the major Utopia issues. As for the facetweeter, most likely that's precisely what he would do as those are even more hollow sounding.

Suppose qualities of his current stereo system are way less important than his abilities to hear live music and correlate that experience with audio reproduction without any compromise.

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/822133/your-suggestions-about-utopia-elear
Focal would like to hear your suggestions about potential improvements on Elear and Utopia.
It's a good sign.

 

Guys, ever since I saw the bedazzled Utopia I've been dreaming about owning one. I have a plan to acquire them once my independent business ventures take off. I can only imagine how good they must sound with symphonic metal and アニメ (or "anime" as you Westerners like to spell it ^__^) soundtracks.

But until then, I have found what I believe to be an acceptable stop-gap solution:

https://www.amazon.com/HiFiMAN-HE-500-Beats-Headphones-Studio/dp/B01ED5X45K/



As you can see above, these are the Hifiman HE-500 (discontinued, now unobtanium) with a custom jeweled design.

Reviews are mostly positive, but this comment gave me a bit of pause:
"I would give these a 5-star rating, but these headphones have a sibilant harmonic convergence at around 10Khz while playing 50 Cent's "Candy Shop", which is unacceptable."

Anybody heard these and conducted a (proper) blind test against Bejeweled Utopia?

 

Not just you; that is an Audeze.

 

And they're not that hard to find either, plenty of HE-500 for sale around. Nice headphones. One of the best that Hifiman ever made.

 

Humour.

 

Lol either a joke post or bait...probably joke...I hope...

That Amazon listing is cringe worthy.

 

I got my Utopia a few days ago. Have been going back and forth on whether to keep them. Today has been leaning on the 'keep' side. There's a brightness to them that can be bothersome while my HE1000 slight treble peak doesn't bother me at all. Being more dynamic and with the treble brightness they give the impression of being much clearer than the HE1000 but they do lack the tinge of warmth that make the HE1000 so appealing to me. The closed in soundstage compared to the HE1000 isn't ideal either. On the other hand I love how dynamic and clean they sound.

They are miles better than my HD800 I had, modded and then finally sold. I couldn't stand the lack of bass, too wide & diffuse soundstage and brightness of the HD800. The Utopia have none of these problems, the question is if I'm going to keep them alongside my HE1000. I would definitely keep these if they were $1800, but they're not.

 

@paranoidroid

4k is a lot, no doubt. I would be interested if they were 2k but sadly they're not. Up to you. You might like them better with the Elear pads if you can find those?

Also - just for the record. The HD800's can be made to have bass and sound dark-ish with the right mods and DAC, mine are.

 

Amazing thread. I've been away from SBAF for a while but this is intriguing. I will be getting my Utopias soon with a DHC Prion 4 cable upgrade, to be compared with my DIYT2 - SR009.

 

cant wait for your impressions.

 

If I can find the Elear pads I'll give it a try. A few more days with them and my fondness for these are growing. Still stunned by the uber clarity.