I plan to post some impressions on the Spirit Professional next week, once I get my grubby hands on them. In the meantime, let me praise the Focal Spirit Classic! (Praise the sun!) I've had these bad boys for two weeks now, and wow! That's all I can say: “Wow!” Well actually, I can say a lot more than that.
For starters, the Focal Classic’s sound-signature is definitely warm, and though I prefer more neutral cans, the tuning on the Classic is rather special. These headphones, for example, deliver all the details of so-called bright headphones with none of the negatives. And this means no fatigue. No sibilance. No harshness. No unruly treble tonalities. No “peakiness.” Some might be inclined to call these headphones “laid-back,” but that might bring to mind something like the Sennheiser HD 650, and I guarantee you, the Classic is in no way that relaxed. Not even close. And yet, the Classic reminds me of the HD650 and HD600 in so many subtle ways, especially in how they image.
Pretty impressive, if you ask me, but not as impressive as the Spirit Classic’s bass—actually, not as impressive as the Classic’s amazing midrange fullness either.
But let's talk bass for a minute. In a word, the bass on these headphones is: Extended. This is how you do bass. It's freaking deep, guys: miner in a subterranean cavern deep. Of course, the bass won't please your Beat’s wearing uncle; the Classic just doesn't do the urban rumble thing. Not really. So bass-heads be warned: these headphones won't rattle your brain-stem.
Anyway, I own a good number of headphones, mid-fi and hi-fi cans, and not one of them extends as deeply as the Focal Classic. (Well, I should say, none sound as extended as the Focal Classic.) But here's the subtle point: the bass, despite its prominence, doesn't obliterate or otherwise overshadow the mid-range frequencies. I recognized this long before I accepted it, and for the first week, I kept thinking, “You can't have bass like this without mucking up the mid-ranges.” I kept listening though, track after track, album after album, day after day. In the end, I had to accept what my ears were telling me: the bass, though often ferocious, and always authoritative, was tuned with precision, and never really intruded upon the mid-range frequencies, or worse: the bass never rudely shoved the mid-range into the background. (Remember the Beyerdynamic DT 770? If so, then you know what I'm talking about.)
Of course, I could complain about a number of small things, but far and away, lack of comfort is my number one complaint. I don't want to beat a dead horse here, folks, but I have to say what everyone knows by now: these are not comfortable headphones. I have an average sized head, and after one hour of use, these headphones get a little medieval on my ears. Can you say, “ear-vise”; if so, you now know what to expect. I really hate to end my impressions on such a sour note--but c’mon Focal what the F were you guys thinking. Anyway, nuff said. And Cheers!
and that, I must say, is music to my ears. 
