Focal Clear

Looking at it again, I'm going to revise my earlier conclusion a bit...

The similar peak impedances of the Clear and Utopia/Elear, 300~330 Ohms at ~50 Hz (Innerfidelity measurements) suggest the mechanical resonances are about the same. Where the Clear differs is more in the electrical characteristics, having a pure copper voice coil that gives a lower 'baseline' impedance (away from the frequency of the resonant peak) of 55 Ohms vs 80 for the Utopia/Elear (Focal specs). Focal says they did this with the Clear to enable easier driving from portable sources, which are generally voltage limited.

The outcome is the same, the Clear being easier to over-drive in the bass - but the reason is more because there's a lower power requirement to reach whatever volume over the rest of the range than because the driver/enclosure system is more resonant.

@StageOne , sorry to hijack your FS with all this - but hey, we're keeping it in the headlines for you!

 

When I had my Elex it used to bottom out on the right phone around 83dB while listening to Hip Hop and ~75dB when listening to film soundtracks. The left phone needed maybe 5dB more to bottom out. I debated this on HF (or maybe on Drop) and seems that there are unit variation on how sensitive the drivers to bottom out. (most people at that era used THX amps including me)

I also heard that the Drop Elexs bottom out earlier than the other Focals.

 

It can certainly happen at lower volumes. As with many things, the issue is multifactorial: the undamped drivers, the output impedance of the amplifier, the resonant frequency and nominal impedance of the headphone, the level of bass frequencies in musical content, overall volume level, unit-to-unit variation, etc.

I think it’s impossible to isolate one factor, but we’re all on the same track.

But seriously, these are great headphones, and most people don’t have any issues with them.

 

Definitely agree with this, The sound the clears make is more tactile/ compared to many other headphones I have tried. I would describe it as having a strong leading edge/attack. If I were to take a guess at what causes this I would think it has something to do with the impulse response of the driver. In the links below you can see the impulse response for the Clears, HD 650, and He6.

The He6 also has a way of making sounds feel more tactile/ textured as well, almost like there is something physical hitting your ear drums, just like the clears manage to do. Both of them have a very short impulse response that does not peak anywhere near as high as the HD 650. They also have sharper peaks and lined in the 30hz and 300hz square wave measurements compared to the much smoother transitioning HD 650. The HD 650 is known for having a gentle and smooth presentation, so my guess is that those graphs somewhat help show that part of the HD 650.

So basically my theory after looking at those charts as well as the Abyss 1266 (from what I've read those are quite dynamic sounding headphones, and I've similarly seen and agree with descriptions of the clears and He6 as being very dynamic) is that lower peaking impulse response and sharper looking square wave graphs = more tactile/textured/dynamic sounding drivers

This is a small data set and I could be extrapolating more than you should out of the charts so I could be totally wrong though


https://www.stereophile.com/images/FocalClearsnA1BRQE000007.pdf
https://www.stereophile.com/images/ifmeasure/SennheiserHD650.pdf
https://www.stereophile.com/images/ifmeasure/HiFiMANHE6.pdf
https://www.stereophile.com/images/ifmeasure/JPSLabsAbyssAB1266.pdf

 

I'm necro'ing this thread to reply to @rlow's profile post today about choosing between the Clear and HD 800 S. I owned the Clear and the HD 800 SDR at the same time and for a couple of years. I also heard both with my old SW51+. (The SDR are pretty close to the S; the SDR has better, tighter, less bloomy bass according to some, inc. me).

The SW51+ wasn’t great with either of them, tbh. It made the staging far too small and closed in for the HD 800 SDR, kind of undermining a key quality of the headphones. It didn’t really do the HD 800 SDR any favors; the warmer, bloomier ZDT Jr amp filled out the sound better. The SW51+ made the Clear too soft and rounded for my tastes, again undermining key qualities of those headphones. The Clear demand to be exciting, lively, punchy, with good, authoritative bass and lots of slam and macrodynamic strength. From the SW51+, they were limp softpoo.

Out of the best amps I heard for each of these headphones, respectively, the

HD 800 SDR

• were much more resolving
• had a much more spacious and open and wide headstage
• had better separation and layering
• had more air and space around instruments
• had more treble emphasis, with a hint of the treble peak the SDR more or less effectively tamped down
• had a thinner, lighter, more ethereal sound
• had tighter, more precise bass
• had less richness in the lower mids
  

Clear

• were faster (both have pretty snappy transients, the Clear, from memory, slightly more so)
• were warmer, with a denser tonality
• had a thicker, richer (but less precise) bass
• had much more slam
• had more macrodynamic strength
• had less microdynamic subtleties and gradations
• had richer mids
• had less treble extension and emphasis but still a kind of crystalline hardness with some chains (but not with the SW51+)
• had much more precise imaging
• had a much less spacious headstage, sounding instead small, if not closed in

Amp pairings matter a good deal with both headphones; the Senns benefit from warmth and/or tubes; the Clear benefit from ss or hybrid amps, or the right kind of tube amps (not ones that lead to too much softening of the sound). From the descriptions I’ve read, the MJ3 sounds like it could work well with both. I’ve not heard the Lyr 3 but I’m pretty sure there are good impressions in the Lyr 3 thread and, above, in this thread.

I’d go with the Clear if you want a richer, fuller, slightly warmer, more intimate experience and the HD 800 S if a lighter, more resolving, expansive, and airy headstage appeals to you more. I’d say the Clear is less finicky when it comes to amp pairings.

 

@rlow mentioned having A2 in the chain. Not sure about your upstream, but this might help the Clears with regards to the SW?

You’re right about amp pairing and that might tilt things a bit, as well as the source. The good thing about his YA2 will be the ability to change flavor when the MIB will be available to more closely align with his preferences.

 

I had the Bifrost 2, so still some nice warmth added to the chain. Alas, I replaced it with the YA2 only after having moved on from the Clear so I can't comment on the synergy there.