Focal Clear Measurements and Impressions

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by purr1n, Dec 20, 2017.

  1. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Kevin over at Your Final System was kind enough to lend me his Focal Clear for review. Here are my initial impressions and measurements. Some things subject to change as I listen more.

    - Immediately apparent is that these sound noticeably more coherent and balanced than the Elear from top to bottom. They are a little more akin to the balance of the Utopia but less bright.

    - Bass and midrange up till about 1KHz is absolutely fantastic. Wonderful extension, a tasteful bass hump in the lower registers (vs mid-bass like HD650), and overall of high quality. Low distortion, fast, clean, lots of slam, and very dynamic. Excellent.

    - Upper-midrange is rather forward, not unlike the HD600. It's not as shouty as the Elear, nor do I find it quite as "hot" as the HD600, but it's a bit much for my tastes regardless. In this regard, the Clear actually reminds me somewhat of the HD600.

    - Treble is a bit bright at times, but not like the Utopia. As a whole, treble is fairly balanced, very fast, very sharp, and very clean sounding. No sense of being round, slow, or veiled.

    - Yes, as a whole, the Clear sounds "hi-fi" and makes the HD650 sound wooly, cloudy, grey, and slow. However, I do think this comes at a price.

    - When factoring in the midrange and treble, the Clear as a whole does not sound particularly natural to me from a tonal and timbral perspective. Like the Elear and Utopia, the upper-end response sounds more ragged and uneven to me than it does smooth and cohesive. Ignoring that I find the tone to be very slightly U-shaped in a sense, or ignoring me finding the treble a bit bright, the Clear to me sounds like the other Focals: Very fast, very dynamic, and very clean, but somewhat artificial, aggressive, edgy, and rough in timbre. But of the three, Elear, Utopia, and Clear, I do find the Clear to sound the most balanced and "right" of the bunch.

    - Resolution is great on the Clear. However, as immediately enticing as the Clear's "hi-fi" sound is, I am still partial to the way the HD650 resolves. It sounds more nuance to me, whereas the Clear sounds more like it's brute forcing all its details. That said, the overall level of detail and resolution on the Clear seems to match the HD650 at least, and has better clarity and speed, but I think at the expense of losing a more cohesive, natural, nuanced sound. The Clear sounds like it's trying to show off. The HD650 seems to be content and accepted what it is. (I also find stuff like the Auteur, Eikon, EMU Purpleheart, and LCD-2C w/ vegan pads to sound more natural as a whole, and, of course, I'm referring to this bullet point and the previous...mostly the previous.)

    - Staging is a bit aggressive on the Clear. It's less laid-back and more forward than the HD650. Neither are particularly expansive or 3D sounding in the grand scheme of things. But for what it is, it has a proper sounding stage, presents depth information well, has no issues with left/right panning, and overall seems cohesive despite being a bit forward.

    - Comfort is still somewhat poor on the Focals. I think it's time everyone gets with the program and starts using suspension headbands. Stuff like the HD650 can get away without because they're light and have actual cushions in the headband, though they do require stretching to reduce clamp.

    - Minor annoyance, but the cable seems stiff and likes to get bunched or curled up easily. I'm not really one to grip about this stuff, though. The overall presentation of the Clear, both in packaging and included accessories, is excellent.

    I have to say that I disagree that the Clear is an HD650 successor. If anything, the tone sounds more like an HD600 to me, with the more aggressive upper-midrange. I'd be more inclined to call it an HD600 successor (not a bad thing), but even then I wouldn't go that far. And, yes, the performance and response of the Clear below 1KHz blows the HD650 out of the water. It's very important to not overlook or understate that. And me disagreeing with the "HD650 successor" label is not to say it's a lesser headphone. It is certainly better in many regards.

    But, to me, the HD650 is special because of how balanced, cohesive, smooth, and natural it sounds from the midrange through the treble. I've found more overall neutral sounding headphones than the HD650, or ones with better bass (ha, that's easy), but nothing that touches in in midrange through treble balance in terms of tone and timbre. To me, that's what the HD650 is about, though I admit I am also partial to it being a bit warm and bassy below.

    I just don't hear the Clear in that same way...at all. That's fine, though, because I think the Clear is a great headphone for what it is in and of itself. I don't think we need an HD650 successor of any kind to still have an excellent headphone, whether or not it caters to everyone's tastes. (And, yes, I am thinking of HD650s as a whole...stock models, my mod, the KISS mod I heard months ago, etc. Just in case you were wondering if I was stuck in Hands Mod HD650 land.)

    Now, all that out of the way, the Clear is an excellent headphone and definitely raises some bars (perhaps not the bar), but it's not without its flaws. I am a bit concerned that it's overall performance, given my problems with it, are more suited for a headphone costing less than $1000. In fact, I think this is what the Elear should have been. So, I find myself wanting to be more strict of it because of some arbitrary line I put around a grand. Ignoring price, it really is a great headphone, but one I have reservations about, like all the Focals. That said, I encourage everyone to hear it for themselves and decide what they think. Just like I don't care for the timbre of BA, multi-driver IEMs, many have decided for themselves on those products. Same for my preference for most dynamic headphones over planars. You know how it goes.
     
  2. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Frequency response for the left channel. This is using my normal, old in-ear method, not the EARs rig. Still working on that. I am abstaining from posting distortion results at this time. My room is too noisy as of late, and I will eventually try to move my measurement gear elsewhere. I think Tyll and Marv have shown the Clear has excellent distortion.

    It's a trivial thing, but when I matched this response to 90dB at 1KHz, it just didn't seem quite right. Since I hear these as a bit forward in the upper-mids, I bumped it up a bit. It's funny how just a minor relative difference in the graph can change how things look.

    So, looking at the "adjusted" graph, the response up to about 1KHz looks great. Slight bass boost, centered around 50Hz, with a smooth transition into the midrange. Extension is excellent. It's not totally neutral, like the LCD-2C, but it sounds powerful and dynamic. It works for almost all music. I like it.

    Beyond 1KHz, we can see a slightly rough and uneven response through the remaining midrange and treble. The 1-7KHz range as a whole is elevated about 2-3dB more than what I'd like, which I think is my main concern.

    Still, the overall balance and curve is pretty darn good. Better than 99.9% of headphones, and clearly more normal looking than the Elear or Utopia (to me, anyway). While I might have found it a bit too hot/bright and uneven, this is still pretty damn good.

    Focal Clear Left FR.png Focal Clear Left FR Adjusted.png

    CSDs at -35dB seem to suggest some short-lived ringing in starting in the lower treble. Nothing horrible. As a whole, this looks decent. At -45dB, we can see more noise. Not terrible, but not great. The HD650 and PMx2 are squeaky clean in comparison. It's possible this contributes a bit to the rough nature I heard on the Clear, but it's also possible my brain filters this stuff out.

    Focal Clear Left CSD.PNG Focal Clear Left CSD -45dB.PNG

    Compared to the Elear, the Clear is less bassy. I consider this a good thing. The Clear, as I personally heard and measured, sounded very shouty and aggressive in the upper-mids. It was, honestly, hard to listen to. And while the Elear is less energetic in the lower-treble, it still sounds noticeably less cohesive than the Clear. While I found the Clear to be a little too energetic and rough above 1KHz as a whole, at least it sounds somewhat normal. The Elear just sounded kinda weird.

    Clear vs Elear.png

    The Clear's response is much closer to that of the Utopia. Thankfully, the Clear is less aggressive through ~2-7KHz as a whole. The Utopia was too much for me there and difficult to listen to unless an amp boosted its bass through high OI. I can at least say that the Clear is listenable, even to my ears. Either way, I think this goes to show that the Clear is the most tonally balanced of the three.

    Clear vs Utopia.png
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2018
  3. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Surprising no one, the first thing I tried on the Clear was slapping some foam over the driver. I took the foam inserts I got from my Aeon Flow Open and, well, just kind of stuck them in there as best as I could, just enough to cover the driver but not the open mesh to the "rear" side of the driver.

    Basically, the foam raised the bass by about, oh, roughly 1dB, and lowered the response above 1KHz by about 1-2dB. The Clear still doesn't have that "organic" and natural sound like the HD650 in the upper registers, but, honestly, the foam was really about all I needed to dial them in for my tastes. You do lose some of that raw impact, clarity, and sharpness like this, but the Clear still retains most of that "moar hi-fi than HD650" sound. It's still kinda rough and etched sounding on the edges, but I can easily live with it for what positive traits it brings to the table.

    Were it not for the Clear's relative lack of comfort, this would take it from being a, "Great, but flawed, and not exactly my thing," sort of headphone to, "I would consider buying this even over $1K," sort of headphone. So, the good news is that if someone gets a Clear and thinks it maybe too aggressive and bright relative to their HD650, a bit of foam over the driver might get them exactly what they want. I don't consider this a bad thing, because even the HD650 sounds like ass without the foam over its driver and baffle.

    Clear with Foam Insert.png

    Again, as is expected, this seems to clean up the decay a bit...if nothing else because that whole area got lowered a bit.

    Focal Clear Left w Foam Insert CSD.PNG Focal Clear Left w Foam Insert CSD -45dB.PNG

    Compared to my HD650, with fresh pads, it's evident that the HD650 has less bass extension, has a greater bass emphasis at arguably a less desirable point (basically an octave up from the Clear), and has a thicker midrange response overall. That's at least one reason why they sound woolier and less clear than the...Clear. But you can see why I hear these as relatively forward, aggressive, and rougher than the HD650 in the mids and treble. And while the HD650 isn't perfect, I can imagine the graph showing it having a bit of a boob with a large nipple around 5KHz. The Clear seems more like it has claws above 4KHz. Which would you rather play with? :)

    Clear vs HD650 Hands Mod.png

    Relative to the LCD-2C, the Clear is a bit colored and bassy in the low-end. But I kind of like this, because it helps offset any lean music and makes everything sound dynamic on the Clear. Still, I'd give the nod to the LCD-2C for overall bass quality. Either will best the HD650 here, flat out. Both headphones have a somewhat rough upper-mid and treble response, but the LCD-2C is more easy going to listen to due to the lowered nature of that whole area. But I think I would argue the Clear has a more nuanced and refined top-end compared to the LCD-2C. If only it weren't quite as bright. (Oh, wait, just stick some foam in there!)

    Clear vs LCD-2C.png
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2018
  4. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Holy ringing CSDs Hands-man! No wonder you found them shouty!

    But wow, really, that ringing looks like it might be a tad grating on the ears. Interesting how there's significantly left on Marvey's measurements earlier in the thread. Any chance you might have a lemon, perhaps?
     
  5. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

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    Your graph looks pretty similar to the Utopia, but without the 5kHz peak. Now if we could fill in the hole between 1.5kHz and 50Hz from the DF/Harman target it would be pretty good. Kinda how I felt about the Utopia, too. A recession in the lower and middle midrange.

    How does it compare to the modded Elear you used to have?
     
  6. brencho

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    Nice that is for all of this @Hands! My experience closely mirrors yours except that I kept feeling that the bump in the bass kind of masked vocals with some music. On instrumental stuff, jazz, acoustic etc this wasn't as much of an issue but otherwise the bass levels distracted me a bit. Not by a huge amount but wish it were reduced a tiny bit. This seems to be a case where subjective impressions don't match measurements, cause the Clear and Utopia seem similar below 1kHz but to me the Clear bass was more distracting than Utopia. Also kinda feel that the hd600 is more aggro in the upper mids but then again I like the hd600 tonal balance and felt the Clear were a bit bassier and a bit warmer Sounding -- but also like you say a marked improvement in many ways.

    Also wonder if the Elear with perforated pads (or Elex for that matter) would show a similar (or greater?) Drop in bass levels vs the Clear.
     
  7. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    I would not worry about it too much. While this in-ear method can get awesome looking results, like on the HD650 or PMx2, it seems more common for it to show ringing and noise in CSDs when other rigs don't, usually flat plate or foam couplers. Like I said, it's possible my brain filters this stuff out, or it's possible it contributed to what I heard. It could just be headphone-dependent inaccuracies or some weird interaction with my mic. I highly doubt it's a lemon. And it's odd that a bit of foam seemed to fix most things up for me despite the CSDs still looking a bit noisy. Kind of like how the LCD-2C looked noisy in CSDs too, but I didn't hear it nearly as grating as some other headphones I've heard with audible ringing that also showed in my CSDs. I'm more concerned about stuff like the M1060 that showed horrendous ringing.

    I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'll post the EARs results soon, and you'll see the CSDs look noticeably cleaner on that. Which is more correct? I dunno. Don't stress it.

    I don't hear it so much as having a lower midrange recession as I do it being somewhat aggressive in the mids starting around 1KHz. I mean...I guess it's all relative, but that's how it sounds to me. I actually quite like the response from bass till about 1KHz.

    The modded Elear I had was more tonally balanced and had a more natural sounding timbre than the stock Clear but sounded less hi-fi in general. Hard to explain. It had some strengths over the HD650, like the Clear but less so, but I honestly never listened to it due to lack of comfort.

    That said, I think the Clear's driver, while based on the Elear, does have some audible benefits due to the new voice coil. It just sounds more refined and responsive overall. Clearer. Less weird. And while I had to go through hoops to mod the Elear, the Clear seems happy enough with just a bit of foam over the driver. Elear needed all new pads and shit. I'd be more inclined to buy a Clear and slap a bit of foam over the driver than I would be to buy another Elear and mod that. If only I found them more comfortable, I might have actually done that!

    I noticed that the Elear, with its relatively low impedance, noticeably changes from amp to amp. From the Magni 3, the whole bass through 1KHz range sounds really nice, controlled, and balanced. Going to the HP out on the Amethyst, which is about 3 ohm OI, changed the sound. Going to the ZDT Jr low OI jack even more so, boosting the bass and sorta crowding things out.

    Which brings up another point I forgot to mention. I wish the Focals had higher impedance so they wouldn't be quite as amp sensitive...BTW, the Clear has lower impedance than the Utopia, hence why you heard the Utopia as less problematic. Or so would be my guess. 86 ohms on Utopia vs 63 ohms on Clear, per Tyll's measurements. And if you look, the impedance hump in the bass is even higher on the Clear...and the overall impedance is lower.

    The HD600 is more aggressive in the upper-mids as a whole, IIRC, but also has a smooth climb in this area vs. the "hillier" response of the Clear. I actually found the HD600 pretty hard to listen to, maybe more so than Clear at times, but the HD600 also sounded more coherent and integrated regardless.

    So, if any of you like the HD600 and maybe even prefer it to the HD650, you might love the Clear! We all hear differently, listen to different music, have different tastes, so it makes sense.
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2018
  8. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    Yeah I agree with your impedance points. Maybe that's why I feel the Clear has just a bit too much bass. Never felt that way about the Utopia even put of the ZDS. Maybe I'm too used to the sound of the hd600 but to me the Clear sounds a bit more bassy and less aggressive by a little bit. Basically I'd like a clear with a flatter FR and higher impedance haha.

    Man now I'd really like to compare these to the Elear with the clear pads.
     
  9. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Yeah, I think I know what you mean. I mean, the Clear does have a mild-to-moderate bass boost below 100Hz, whereas the HD600 will sound more mid-heavy and have less bass extension. I can see why the Clear would sound more bassy, and it probably is a little less aggressive in many regards.
     
  10. brencho

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    Yeah exactly man. And the bass boost where it is sounds like it adds some coloration that gets in the way of vocals for some reason. Noticed it most on Jeff Buckley Lilac Wine when the bass kicks in. I didn't get to listen to too many songs so I want to hear it again, to see if it's just track dependent or more pervasive. Still it's a really nice sounding headphone but that's my main hangup with them for now. Again this is with ZD with an OI of 12. Maybe focal headphones are more like speakers in needing more like 4-8ohm or some shit. Now I'm just talking straight out of my ass though.
     
  11. Melvillian

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    I don't find them shouty at all and I find the HD600's very shouty. My main complaint with the Clear is the unnatural timbre, especially coming from the HD650. For certain genres like Jazz, they sound pretty good. Vocals are very clean and smooth, but a little cold and withdrawn. Overall I find them much more resolving than the stock HD650, I don't really think it's that close tbh. Maybe because I've been using a stock HD650 and the midbass is masking details.

    Will hopefully have a chance to compare with the HD650 out of a good SET amp today. Maybe the ZDS is just too thick and doesn’t bring out all the details with the HD650. Those headphones seem to have no limit with scaling so it’ll be interesting
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2018
  12. Hands

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    I think most people mix up clarity and detail with resolving ability. It's hard to explain...and sounds pompous saying stuff like that, so I hesitate to say so, until I do, which still makes me an ass. Of course, it might all be made up on my end. :)
     
  13. Hands

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    Oh, and, I probably wasn't clear enough when saying the Clear is at least as resolving as the HD650. I'm still going through stuff to see if the Clear starts digging up stuff the HD650 can't (so far, maybe a tiny bit). HD650 takes more effort to hear what it's digging up at times. Something to be said about that. And I wouldn't argue if someone said the Clear was more resolving than the HD650, just that I think the gap would be very narrow and not anything to write home about in light of the Clear's more obvious strengths over the HD650. The Clear definitely has clarity, speed, and immediately apparent detail in spades, whereas the HD650 can struggle there. Those strengths often add up to give the appearance of additional resolving ability, but whether or not that's the case, the fact of the matter is that they are better traits than what the HD650 delivers in those areas as a whole. No way around it. Nonetheless, it's the more nuanced, eased way the HD650 displays everything that is more my style.

    In writing, I am beginning to hate that the Clear is called the Clear, as it confuses even myself when I have to use the word "clear" otherwise.
     
  14. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    @Hands proves once again that we are ear siblings. You essentially described them the same way I did, and I too tried putting some foam in front of the drivers (I used old HD650 foam and it covered probably too much) to reduce fatigue.

    Edit: Don't remember if I linked my review here. http://www.basshead.club/focal-clear-review/
     
  15. brencho

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    Maybe by clear they were referring to the color scheme LOL
     
  16. allegro

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    Thanks for your impressions and measurements @Hands. Based on my personal experience with the Elears (hate them) and reports here on the Clears and Utopias I won't be buying any more Focal phones. HD800S until Senn comes out with something better.
     
  17. Rthomas

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    See you in 2025. ;)
     
  18. Ray

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    I’m curious about these, but I’ll wait on the loaner. If these are indeed more like the 600 that’s a no go for me. On another note through emails with Doug at ecp he said focal phones did not match well with his amps.
     
  19. Hands

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    I guess you could say they're kinda in between the HD600 and HD650, but I found them more forward and fatiguing like the HD600 than I did smooth and fatigue free like the HD650.

    Either way, they are still very much worth a listen and do a lot right. And all it might take is sticking a bit of foam or something over the driver if you find them at all bright or aggressive, possibly leading to finding one of your favorite headphones.
     
  20. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    In a couple of months used ones will go by Smear, also because of colorscheme.
     

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