Focal Spirit One Headphones - Page 6

oh oh btw, i think you guys will find this very itneresting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5X9oUNSYyE i came across this track while searching for a track to test/burn in my focal, and holy ****, when i was listening to this track it fraeked the **** out of me! thought someone came into my house and just around me! haha i think this track is to test the surround sound effect of your headphones or something? well if it is for that purpose then focal spirit one is amazing at it! ha!

 

Thanks for sharing! I don't hear of anything bad that would potentially bother me. I'm now even more intrigued. But please get back to us with more as you get more listening in.

just to update, i have just wore the headphones out, to be honest, its isolation is not amazing, comparing to the qc3, its not really good, i was playing some music at around 40% of the volume of my ipod on the bus, and i can still hear people chatting around me, but it's not so annoying that i hate it, just u won't be in ur music, but i guess looking at it on a bright side, it is a safe headphones to wear out? as long as you dont turn it up too loud u will be aware of ur surroundings :P but yea if u turn the volume up to like around 70% then u pretty much wont hear anything else other than ur music! that's it for now :)

This is good news, I hate too much isolation. I don't like people hearing my music (leakage) but I do like to hear what's going on outside of my listening.

i haven't really tested the leakage, but i doubt it leaks a lot, i was on a super crowded bus and i turned my music to the max and no one around me looked over, so i guess no one really heard? :P

it's not an active noise-cancelling headphone with active microphones that record and cancel out ambient background noise like the bose either, so that's not surprising.

after a quick test run in a french shop, I'm fairly disappointed with these headphones.

I was expecting much more from Focal (my main loudspeakers are Focal 826W 30th anniversary ed).

Basically, I think they are just average closed cans. It sounds average and it looks average.

 

The web photos look much better than the actual product, they feel light, but in a plasticky way. At least they are comfortable, the pressure is good, I guess one can walk around with these.

To my ears, low-mids are forward. It doesn't seem to go really deep and there's no sparkle in the highs. Not bad with vocals but it sounded congested and it's definitely a closed (claustrophobic ?) headphone.

 

Maybe in real-life noisy situations, they can outshine other closed cans as Dathisper seem to appreciate them, but after a few minutes, I lost interest. It just didn't sound any special to me. Felt like an average closed headphone, nothing is really terrible, but nothing is great also.

 

the sources I used for testing were a Cowon J3 (decent portable source) and a Samsung Galaxy s2 (pretty bad source) with flacs & mp3s >256. I'm usually using Senn IE8 iem in the bus/subway and Denon D5000 at work.

 

tracks played & some impressions :

Hendrix - Little Wing : ok. the song is awesome, the hp is average. works for me, but I was expecting some Focal 'magic' touch...let's try another track.

Aga Zaryan - Daydream (live at Palladium) : obviously the Spirit One doesn't go deep enough (there's a great double bass on this track). disappointing

Patricia Barber - Let it Rain (live) : ok - good. (song starts with some claps, we can hear the audience then a nice voice and a guitar. The start of the song sounded nice with the focal hp)

Andrew Schenck - Barber - Adagio for strings : sounds bad. weird reverb. highs lack sparkle. next track. quick.

Lorin Maazel, cleveland orchestra - Prokoviev's Romeo & Juliet - The quarrel (symphonic track with high dynamics) : super muddy, a mess.

)EIB( Bad Company - Four Days (drum&bass track with wide freq range and complex layered bass and sub-bass) : sloppy, bloated. boring.

 

I had high hopes for this closed hp for commuting, but I'll stick with my iem without any regrets for now.

 

 

 

Edited by cannibalox - 3/9/12 at 2:53pm

lack of sparkle means maybe they don't have treble peaks and ringing!  Good news so far...  :-)

maybe good for you yes :) I'd rather have 'hot' treble and EQ them down if needed, but I appreciate the d5000 highs as-is. I don't hear them as 'ringing' / unpleasant but I can understand why it could be bothering to some.

in comparison, the Focals almost sound muffled, but they are clearly not in the same league. to me, even the d2000 is lightyears above the focal spirit one.

 

I sure hope not. The D2000 is a really poor performer IMO.

The Denons get a special notch for being the only pair of headhpones and/or speakers I've used that has made my mac's volume control beep sound metallic.  Props to ringing and lacking of treble extension!

Exactly. "Disappointing" initial reviews = great headphones. Especially when the initial reviewer is using crap sources.

spirit one is basic model

 

i want utopia

 

 

My taste is better than yours blabla! Quite stupid to argue about personal preferences. ^^ Some like them highs neutral, others boosted and others slightly recessed for a warmer sound. Personally I know I like it tilting just a very tiny bit so especially the lower midrange in the 400 ~ 1000 Hz or so area should be quite forward sounding and the top-end just very very gently rolled-off for my liking, probably HE-500-style.

Edited by RPGWiZaRD - 3/9/12 at 5:13pm

Any fear of these being bass light is certainly unfounded. These cans really thump. Unfortunately my pair came with a nasty vibration in the right earpiece. Something inside the cup rattling or a blown driver (I doubt it's blown though, but that is sort of what it sounds like). I'll have to get a replacement.
Edited by Maxvla - 3/12/12 at 5:58pm