Focal Clear

The main difference is the low amplitude late room reflections, i.e. phase issues in the midrange and particularly in the lower-midrange (early reflections on the other hand are louder, hence more destructive and bad, and involve the lower treble too). Listening to full range drivers in sealed enclosures in a heavily damped room or ideally an anechoic chamber feels a lot like listening to headphones. The sounds is quite clinical and the stage is deep but not spacious/grandeur. HP manufacturers have come up with a bunch of tricks to mimic speakers presentation, like introducing larger cups to allow for early reflections and semi-open baffles to allow a low amplitude back wave to penetrate the cup through baffle refraction. None of these tricks can yield exactly the same effect though, as it's a matter of space/time for the waves to propagate and reflect.

 

Would it be fair to say I don't fancy either? I just find Utopia a much more pleasant listen than stock HD800.

The HD800 soundstage seems to rely on treble lift and cup reflections. A large soundstage it is, but it feels as if the orchestra has been placed behind a big high-pass fifter screen. Utopia is more balanced, but sacrifices the large soundstage. The upper midrange bump isn't helping either. The Clear is better in this regard and IMO is what Utopia should have been for its price tag in the first place. Compared to HD800, Utopia presents a picture of sounds with better defined shape/form, but everything is much closely stacked together.

Sorry, I can't make a this-over-this type of comparison... when it comes to headphones, I'm not looking for soundstage, nor killer detail retrieval... I just want them to sound clean, balanced... and not fatiguing or annoying.

 

I thought it may be easier to pin down how to improve this using a higher-end can like an HD800 or Clear vs a relatively lower-end can like a mid-fi K712 for example, which I own, among others. My thinking was that the higher-end headphones may be better able to reveal what specifically to fix so to speak. Perhaps this is not the case. Generally speaking, it may improve with a DSP of some kind, this may change at some point in the future.

This sort of puts a pause on me jumping to a higher-end headphone like a Clear. I suppose it boils down to what everyone says: listen to them first. This may make it easier to justify the leap to that level relative to managing my own expectations. Certainly more reading is in order first in any case.

 

From this I assume the overall (clarity) resolution is up near the top cans, while the image/venue perception is different.
I think your description is of the soundstage perception.

My take is that although in the end,
we need to have a Frequency Response signature we can live with,
still there is other aspects you allude to like sounstage.

But what most important I feel is:
Timbre
Realism.

I myself group cans in terms of realism, over any signature or soundstage..

So if the Clear is between the Elear and Utopia that says A lot(!).

Here is how I group them in realism (only)...

1-Abyss Phi
2-Susvara
3-Space-void-nothing
4-HEKV2(Feilian port Mod)
5-HEKV2
6-Utopia
7-HD800 (moded & amped well can climb from 7 to number 3 spot!)

8- space void nothing else comes close
8-stock HD800
9-less popular old classic top headphones and unique cans like PMx2 & Code-X .
9.5- Void _ deep_ void
10- the rest of headphone land seas of (nice) upper midfi units....
With Eikon at top (&HD650 moded)
.. Etc.

Also I am also of opinion that a great signature headphone can be more musical or enjoyable, and so every level has favorites.

I can't agree enough that tube amp is the way to go to fine tune the system synergy for your headphones, plus no aggressive or strident upper range and no loss of soundstage that you will get from SS amps..
I personally would never recommend a SS amp to anyone but that's just me.

All this make me think about the upcoming Elex as the poor joe slop mod headphone to come..
Edit :
That's a good thing and looks to me like it's Focal response to price complaints.

 

Believe it or not, weight doesn't bother some of us. My primary headphone is an LCD 3, with a way inferior leather headband. Admittedly, it's not the world's most comfortable headphone, but it doesn't bother me either.

 

For me, when it comes to comfort, the type of headband used is far more important than the weight.

I have resigned myself that if a headphone uses a solid bar style (like the Focal Clear or the HD 800), I won't be able to use it long term. After 20 minutes the bar on top of my head makes itself known to me. After 30 minutes I am adjusting the headphone on my head to relieve pressure. After 40 minutes I am more focused on the headband than the music.

A suspension type system enables me to use the headphones longer term, and they never seem to present themselves to me the way the bar style does. Even relatively heavy headphones like the LCD-4.

So ultimately, my choice of headphones is now limited to suspension style headbands only, and unfortunately, that rules out a lot of great headphones for myself. I wish these things were easier to customise.

 

Thick padding or maybe a Lohb strap, where applicable, do wonders for long term listening comfort.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=headphone+padding

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sus...pha-dog-paradox-fostex-t50-rp-modders.729774/

 

Lcd4 was more comfortable for me than the Utopia. I have a small head, and the looser Utopia fit leaves all the weight on the headband. LCD4, while heavier, has a suspension headband and the soft cups grip my head a bit better, taking weight off the top even further

 

I definitely prefer suspension systems as well. Part of why I used Audio-Technica headphones very often for a long time despite not necessarily providing the best sound quality. I was able to wear them for hours and hours without discomfort.

That said, I rarely found the HD650 and HD800 uncomfortable perhaps due to the lighter weight while the Elear gave me massive headaches at times. Outside of the HD650 and HD800 my experience has been similar to yours. I could name several headphones with standard designs that were uncomfortable or even painful to wear for more than an hour or so. I agree that it becomes difficult to enjoy the music, game, or whatever I am doing at that point. I become focused on how uncomfortable the headphone is.

I do recall one suspension system headphone that also hurt my head a lot. The Q701, my first foray into full sized open headphones. The suspension system is there, but the headband had these bumps on it. To this day the Q701 is one of the least comfortable headphones I've ever owned.

 

Jeff,

If you send me the Airline Tickets, I’d be happy to bring my Clears down for a listen...

 

Mine have 200+ hours on them now, the slight “treble roughness” is almost gone, unless I drive them hard Metalica. The head-stage seize doesn’t compare with the HD800, but literally they are better in every other aspect. Plus, in that head-stage the image specificity is something special.

 

Day 3 Running Updates:

• I left them burning in overnight. I do think I'm starting to hear differences, whether it's real burn-in or brain burn-in I cannot say.
• Today, Cello sounds much more natural to me. Yo-Yo Ma is a secret pleasure of mine (I used to make fun of old people who listened to him) and The Cello Suites sounds outstanding right now.
• I'm much more convinced after a couple hours this morning that I want these. Eventually.
• Most classical music still sounds better to me from modded HD650s than the Clear.
• Clear aren't ultra versatile. I don't like heavy rock, most classic rock, or most modern music from them. They're too revealing of the crap recordings.
• For me, they'd almost be a one-trick pony. Or a couple trick pony, anyway. Acoustic guitar and jazz perhaps? Definitely the former.
• Tough to justify a $1500 purchase for one or two genres.
• Yesterday I wasn't sure if my headaches were the Clear or a lack of adequate caffeine intake. Today, I've been listening to Audeze LCD-2 Classics most of the day. No headache. 30 minutes with the Clear and I have a headache. Damnit. That means mods would be absolutely necessary.
• I keep bouncing back to Marv's comment that HD650s sound absolutely Mid-Fi in comparison to these. Kinda? These are better in some very specific areas (which all do translate to "high fidelity"), but the HD650s are more enjoyable for some genres.
• After wearing the clouds that are LCD-2Cs most of the day, the Clears really aren't comfortable at all for me. I wish my ears didn't touch the inside of the pads and there was decent weight distribution on the headband.
• The Focal Clears are like a supermodel. Sexy, refined, gorgeous... but I'm having trouble falling in love with them.

 

Near the end of day two of nearly constant listening through the Clear (letting it burn in when they aren' on my head - basically a constant flow of tunes), and the sound is really growing on me! Here I'll also share some impressions for the readers' benefit.

Background: my experience has been with Senn HD-250 Linear mk-ii, Sennheisers HD600, Audeze LCD-X, Oppo PM-3, Hifiman HE-400i, Sennheieser HD800 modded, HD650 stock and modded (various), Audeze EL-8O

- I got to try a lightly used demo model of the Clear at the audio store for a couple of hours. I dont find store conditions to be ideal but I liked what I heard. "I'll give it a shot and return them if they're bogus." So I bought them.
- The remaining impressions are done using a purchased model, they can be taken with some salt but they are my honest impressions.
- at first the Clear sounded off to me, I didn't hear the extra Clearity I was promised. For five hours I spent my time listening to them, before leaving them running the rest of the evening into the next day. I was not wowed immediately.
- My daily driver for a couple years, recently modified (stock sound except for the addition of modest amounts of dynamat on the back) HD650 seemed to offer better resolution and tonal balance at first, than these absolute, bought from AD (at a slight discount) brand new Clears.
- With the hefty price, advertising (always with a kilogram of salt), and many reviews (including Tyll) promising me a great headphone, I would have returned them. But I know that earlt impressions aren't reliable.
- Today this early impression has reversed completely
- switching back and fourth between this, the HD650, and the HE-560 (which I do not use often), I now prefer this (Focal Clear).
-What sounded flat and lifeless on first listen, now sounds way more dynamic and entertaining than before
- Classical music doesn't sound absolutely insanely awesome like it did through the Sennheiser HD800S. That was stunning. However in the past it has happened often that the gear which stuns me at first which tend to disappoint me later in some way.
-The Clear is an ideal "all-rounder," headphone to me. And when I want to party, the bass boost on the unit works fantastic to pump up the low end, it's a very linear and tasteful bass boost. With or without the boost, I say this: When on the go, the pocket-sized Oppo HA-2SE DAC/AMP combo is the perfect solution. With or without the bass boost, the combination of these pieces of gear is very good! Perhaps due to the fact that the tamer high end of the Clears might mesh favourably with the more "typical solid state" sound of the Oppo unit. I won't pretend to know why, but it just works.
- Ultimately music seems to sound much better through Clear as burn-in continues (right now, I think the majority of the burn in is in my brain, but I suspect a lot of the new details coming in are from physical burn in.
- I might in fact be greatly underestimating the true impact of a psychological adjustment to the sound; "learning to listen," if you will.
- Listening to Clear trough the Bottlehead S.E.X. 3.0 (With C4S and DIY power cord) is also a very good match with Clear, using the Oppo as a DAC. However when using Astell&Kern AK300, it doesn't go well with Clear. Hard to say why, I think the thing might just not power it well enough. My cell phone sounds similar, but quieter. These things need a bit of juice to shine (but not much).
- The stock cable is god-awful. Not in sound - I don't think that makes a perceptible difference - but in ergonomics. Goddamn annoyingly stiff and retaining shape
- Yanni, Gustav Mahler, Berlin Philharmoniker (Holst - The Planets), and Al Di Meola sound so good. Also, the electronic trippy psy-dub bass music sounds incredibly good
- I find them to be sufficiently "full sounding" for most recordings. Complaints of them sounding thin, I don't hear it. No thinness, there's just nothing pushing them the opposite way. They seem well balanced at every glance of the ear
At first they sounded honky. I' like to spend some time away from the Clear now and come back to see if they sound as unimpressive as they did when I first put them on, or if they retain their "burn-in." This has always been a curiosity for me.
- Soundstage is not super wide, but deep and layered. It falls short of Utopia, but pulls ahead of most cans I've tried.

Someone said in another post that the stage sounds like a what would be reproduced similarly by a 2 channel system placed in an equilateral triangle, that sounds pretty close. I don't believe I have ever heard soundstage this good yet, only the Utopia bests it.

January 1st update:

Offering a few more impressions in stream-of-consciousness form. Further updates in from this point on have been added (February 26th)

The Clear might be picky about pointing out low fidelity sources, but to me that is not a real negative feature. I appreciate an accurate and detailed headphone that doesn't tire me out with overemphasis. Clear manages to do this with a boost in the upper mids that is just below my threshold. Any more would be too much.
Glitchy, crispy psychedelic electronica is on the menu and it is a feast for my ears. Nice job, Focal.
I've got a bass boost of between two and four decibels right now, but I have been using the boost only about one third of the time maybe. Currently only on the 2 dB. It's the perfect amount of bass. Update: a few months later, and the amount of Bass on the Clear is just perfect. Any more would be too much. And I am coming from a stock HD650 for a long time. I had modded it about a month ago, with the simple addition of dynamat behind the driver.. I also have been playing with the hybrid elite Dekoni earpads for HD650, and I enjoy them. Update: ended up preferring stock pads on HD650, and Dekoni perforated leather pads on HD600
I appreciate the well amped HD650, similarily to how I now really enjoy the Clear. It doesn't assault me with treble, or add unnecessary bass.
So far it is a winner, especially in how awesomely well-rounded this headphone is, it feels like a mature approach to manufacturing these things.
- A new Clear definitely needs some burn-in I got them the sound was sort of "honky," and it the had a nasty lift in the mids, lack of detail in all areas including limp soundstage, and shitty compressed sound. About a day into it, they became much better. I feel it is an exceptional headphone at around 100 hours, and haven't detected any further improvement. I don't think the commonly suggested 150-300 hours plus for these cans is necessary. At 30 hours they were practically nearly perfect.
- Soundstage really scales up with high end amplifier. Mjolnir 2 with NOS Reflector 6H23p fed by Modi Multibit. Stage has gone from mildly underwhelming to wider than average and much more clearly defined.

 

Exactly. Seems to be a common experience.

It happened to me with the EL-8 Open. The treble was bright in all the wrong ways and not detailed either. The bass was also lacking and there was a nasty lack in any dynamics of any sort. And scarily compressed and claustrophobic, especially for the price I was paying (and the beautiful build of the headphones). About 30 hours later there was a huge difference in sound and an improvement. Didn't end up being my fave though It had a similar problem to the Elear in missing a section at around 7kHz. Annoying problem for me. That crosses the line at the 1k and above price range. And I do mean Canadian dollars. It had other problems to, while I'm off topic... the stupid fazors touch of those EL-8 touched my ear when the pads compressed (about a half hour into the listening session). It was downright painful to listen for longer than that.

Anyway the Clear really is quite an epic headphone. I'm actually happy with my purchase.

 

Got the opportunity to audition the Clears today for a little less than an hour or so. The headphone was their demo one that´s been there since the launch and has been used a ton, no no burn in issues whatsoever. Source was a Marantz CD player with their separate headphone amp, plus in the end I also quickly tried them with my Sony Walkman A35 DAP. For the demo I used my own CD´s I had with me: a mixture of different genres, everything from Gorillaz to Katie Melua.

Some background first: I´ve auditioned the Elear and Utopia earlier this year at the same place. Went in expecting to love at least one of them, but ended up discarding both as serious options. Back then I listened to both of them through a Naim all-in-one unit and to be fair I don´t think it was a very good match for them at all. Why did I discard them? I loved a lot of things about the Elear: dynamics, bass, decent comfort and so on, but the tonality (drop in upper mids) was unforgivably flawed for my taste. Vocals didn't sound right and everything had a congested feel to it, making you want to raise volume all the time to get the mids right (but they never get there no matter how loud you listen to). Personally I'd much rather listen to a Beyerdynamic T1 or stock HD 800 with their treble spikes than anything with a dip in the upper mids. Overall the voicing ruined the headphone completely to me - as if it had been made for listening to highly compressed DR 2-3 pop music. At the time I wrote that I'd much rather take a HD 600/650 than the Elear due to the tonality; posted my impressions here where I clearly wasn't the only one who thought so, but also at Head-Fi.org and there my impressions got a "slightly hostile" reaction as expected since at the time the Focal hype train was at full swing.

As for the Utopia I never managed to give them a chance as they were a.) way too heavy for my taste (same reason I can´t take most planars seriously either) and more importantly b.) I couldn't even get a good seal with them as they didn't clamp enough for my head. In other words I had to listen to them so that I would push the earcups towards my ears with my hands as I listened; thus obviously instantly discarded as a serious option. Didn't listen to them for long, but I remember being underwhelmed (main issue, if I remember correctly was that I found them too shouty/edgy sounding) despite the clarity. That being said, to be fair I've never liked any Focal speakers and have heard various of their high end beryllium tweeter based models at local trade shows - just not a fan of the be sound at all. I do respect the company a lot though as they obviously have a lot of fans and have a long track record of R&D etc. In other words I had absolutely zero expectations of the Clear going in.

So how was the Clear? As with all of the Focal high end line the first thing you notice is the supreme build quality. It feels expensive, there are zero blemishes or underwhelming materials used. If any headphone manufacturers are reading this, this is how you build >1k high end headphones. The Clear has the same clamp as the Elear, which for my head was pretty good. I am worried about the headband though, mostly because it doesn't have the typical Sennheiser bumps on the right and left side (reason for that: pressure tends to build the most directly on top of your head). Thus I fear the Focals might become uncomfortable to wear after a few hours, but it didn't happen during my audition at least. Maybe it won't due to the clamp (there's more than on HD 800 S), I hope so at least. No way to know except owning them for a longer time. The Clears are also a bit heavy compared to the HD 800 lineup, but it didn't bother me at the audition since the weight distribution was also on the ears due to the heavier clamp...

What about the sound? Now here it gets interesting. I went in expecting nothing and came back wanting the own the Clears. Total 100% surprise to me. I won't talk about the Utopia as my audition of it was deeply flawed due to the weight/fit (+ general dislike of beryllium sound) so it doesn't mean much, but what I can say is that the Clears are exactly what I hoped the Elears would have been. I'll get into specifics later, but overall I'm fairly confident to say that for my ears this is the first dynamic driver headphone I've heard that is on par or surpasses the HD 800 (modded or S). Here it goes:

- Most enjoyable bass I've heard out of an open headphone. I'd still say the original HD 800 bass is higher quality (meaning you can hear the bass texture better for example), but the Clear goes deeper and has more impact. Sometimes quantity is more important than quality and this is one of those occasions. The deep hard hitting bass creates and awesome rhythm baseline for all kinds of music. Against the HD 800 S I´d say the bass is probably higher quality as well. Against the HD 600/650/660 S it´s not even a contest. Completely different levels.

- Beautifully clear midrange with no sibilance. Not too recessed or forward, more or less perfect to my ears. Clarity on par with HD 800 and a substantial step above the HD 600/650/660 S. On many songs I listened to I probably enjoyed the vocals more than on my HD 800 S. I got the impression the vocals were a bit more forward than on the HD 800 S, which I actually enjoyed a lot.

- Sweet highs that aren't recessed or bright. Very natural, but not as extended or smooth as on HD 800 S. Here I'd say the HD 800 S still wins out, but it is not a clear knockout/another level. The difference isn't that big and most I think will actually prefer the Clear treble as HD 800 S may be too bright/extended for a lot of people.

- Soundstage was better than I expected. No, it's not competitive with what I consider the main selling point of the HD 800 (S), but it's not horrible either. It's definitely more open than the in comparison congested Elear. It's not ideal for my taste, but on many songs the more intimate presentation works really well. I could probably get used to it and I have to stress that there are a lot of people who really prefer this kind of more classic headphone soundstage compared to the HD 800 one that many feel is artificially wide etc.

- As reported, these have the least controversial tonality so far in any high end dynamic headphone. This is probably their main selling point. Every other high end headphone is basically flawed or at least an "acquired taste" in some ways. It might not win completely in any single area, but it does everything well.

I left the audition really conflicted... Why? I really want to own these headphones, but I'm not willing to part with my HD 800 S for them (they do different things well). Owning two 1500 euro flagships goes against my principles, but I don´t know... Unfortunately for my wallet they also made me a good trade in deal for my HD 660 S and I´m seriously considering it.

All in all it's obviously way too early to say anything definite, but based on this audition I'm inclined to agree with Tyll, Marv and others that this is the best case for a substantial HD 600/650 upgrade so far. Even if I don't end up buying these, I'm really happy these were finally made: this should wake up Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic to step up their game. Otherwise within the next few years they will lose a lot of market share in the high end segment.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that they actually sounded pretty ok out of my Sony Walkman A35 (volume cap removed with the Rockbox tool). Sure I had to have the volume almost at max and that was with fairly loud/low dynamic range music, but it was definitely enjoyable. The sound was somewhat thin and weak sounding compared to a desktop size rig, but much, much, much better than what the HD 800 S sounds through that DAP. Based on this I'd guess the Clears sound really neat already with a standard small Schiit stack/most USB DAC/HP amps.

 

This is what I told my friend the other day, who was interested in buying the Clear. While the Clear might be one of the best purchase for the $1k ish tier, its value becomes quite questionable when used Utopia are going for $2k these days.

Personally, if I were to buy a Focal it would be either the Elex at $700 or Utopia at $2k.

Great to hear, my LCD2C purchase seems way more justifiable now. What other headphones do you like with today's poorly recorded music?

 

I ma not sure if this is already in the thread or not but, how does this fit in with experience with the Klipsch HP3?

 

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...lipsch-heritage-hp-3-headphones-preview.5072/