[supervisor]

At home.

Very special headphones,for its appearance and sound.—

Regards

Sisco

beautiful setup--do you think the Utopia and Clear will get equal love and listening time?!

 

[stersa]

Tks
I m not compared them.

I ll hear first more time Clear,and after i ll check comparative sound,but Utopia has near Stax sound,and Clear is an all rounder.

Regards

Sisco

 

[Jodet]

If my experience with the Elear and Utopia is of any use to you, I recommend spending at least 50 hours before judging the Clear. What you write duplicates my experience. Some people don’t believe in burn-in but my experience and some A/B testing with the Focal headphones has taught me otherwise. After roughly 200 hours the Focals seem to settle and sound their best. Clear may be similar. So give them some time.

Yeah, absolutely agree. I've never owned a headphone that needs more break-in than the Clear.

 

[Ekul61]

Listened to the Utopias for a good couple hours today. Very special.
They didn't have the clear. I'd be astonished if the clear sounds as good as the Utopias.

 

[donlin]

Listened to the Utopias for a good couple hours today. Very special.
They didn't have the clear. I'd be astonished if the clear sounds as good as the Utopias.

Not sure why anybody would expect Clear to sound better than Utopia at 1500.00 vs 4000.00

 

[Ekul61]

Not sure why anybody would expect Clear to sound better than Utopia at 1500.00 vs 4000.00

Not sure many believe the clears will be better.
But some have bought the Utopias as low as $2300. So a better thought should be the new and improved $1500 headphone vs the older $3000 headphone.

 

[TSAVJason]

Listened to the Utopias for a good couple hours today. Very special.
They didn't have the clear. I'd be astonished if the clear sounds as good as the Utopias.

Well you shouldn’t need to worry about being astonished then. .....they are good but I wouldn’t suggest to anyone the Clear is as good as the Utopia

 

[TSAVJason]

Not sure many believe the clears will be better.
But some have bought the Utopias as low as $2300. So a better thought should be the new and improved $1500 headphone vs the older $3000 headphone.

The Utopia is still a $4k Headphone. Focal has not changed the price.

Just a thought but has anyone noticed that the dealers selling New Focal Utopias at those sub $2500 are no longer Focal dealers? The only way to get it under $2500 with a warranty is to buy the used reconditioned units from Moon Audio when they have them or if you don’t care about the warranty you can buy it used. I’m not allowed to discuss who those ex-Focal dealers are but I can tell you that the dealer that put out that $2300 price was no longer a dealer 2 days later and the decision to terminate that dealer happened within an hour of them posting that price on slickdeals

 

[Matro5]

@TSAVJason Curious, since you've probably heard a few different combinations: do you have any amp recommendations for the Clear? Any pairings in the store that seem to work really well?

 

[TSAVJason]

@TSAVJason Curious, since you've probably heard a few different combinations: do you have any amp recommendations for the Clear? Any pairings in the store that seem to work really well?

I might also ask @TSAVAlan this same question. My experience with the Clear ranges from these amps; HeadAmp GSX mk 2, Chord DAVE, Chord Hugo 2, Moon by SimAudio 430 HAd, Questyle Gold Stack .....so far that’s all I’ve really played with learning the Clear characteristics and pairing possibilities. My hope is to find time to get private time on the lower cost amps. I was surprised at a few minutes with the McIntosh MHA50 and the Clear. Streaming from my iPhone, it did raise an eyebrow enough to make me want to spend more time with that combo. I’m also wanting to spend time on the Chord Mojo but my 2-3 minutes wasn’t bad so I’ll do my best to get there to be able to be of more help on info. So that’s where I’m at in what I’ve tried with the Clear. So far, the HeadAmp GSXmk2 and the Moon by SimAudio 430HAd pair very well. Another group of amps I need to try are the Woo Audio Amps. It’s cool how nicely the Clear scales up.

Hit up TSAVAlan, he gets to spend more time in the HeadGear Department than I do these days.

Cheers

 

[TSAVAlan]

@TSAVJason Curious, since you've probably heard a few different combinations: do you have any amp recommendations for the Clear? Any pairings in the store that seem to work really well?

I quite like a simple setup like say the Questyle CMA600i balanced out or the Sony WM1Z to the TA-ZH1ES with the balanced out again. The Chord pieces like the Hugo 2 to the Woo WA-5 was quite a nice warm pairing I like to do to mellow out, otherwise the Mojo to the WA-8 was a nice psuedo portable pairing I quite liked. The Questyle CMA800i to the ampsandsound Mogwai using the 800i as Dac preamp in has been our setup for a while does work quite well together for the Clear.

My preference lately has been pairing up the Clear to a warmer source, and certainly been having fun with tubes!

 

[Giraku]

Well you shouldn’t need to worry about being astonished then. .....they are good but I wouldn’t suggest to anyone the Clear is as good as the Utopia

Maybe I'm crazy then. I'm thinking about selling my Utopia and keeping Clear. For some reason I prefer Clear to Utopia. Utopia sounds a bit too organized (polite?). Clear excites me better. Also these 2 shares lots in common. So selling Utopia gives me some room for something new and different.

 

[TSAVJason]

Maybe I'm crazy then. I'm thinking about selling my Utopia and keeping Clear. For some reason I prefer Clear to Utopia. Utopia sounds a bit too organized (polite?). Clear excites me better. Also these 2 shares lots in common. So selling Utopia gives me some room for something new and different.

Sounds like you may have found your nirvana

 

[ribosradagast]

Maybe I'm crazy then. I'm thinking about selling my Utopia and keeping Clear. For some reason I prefer Clear to Utopia. Utopia sounds a bit too organized (polite?). Clear excites me better. Also these 2 shares lots in common. So selling Utopia gives me some room for something new and different.

In his introduction video to the Clear, @jude expressed the same sentiment - that he prefered the Clear to both the Utopia and the Elear. Now, whether that's New Toy Syndrome or not is anyone's guess, but yeah I don't think it's that far-fetched to think that people will prefer the less-expensive, better-accessorized (but slightly less revealing) version.

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

Finally got around to shooting the Focal Clear video. I talk about the whole line up (Elear, Clear, Utopia) and give some info off the top of my head.

I am still glad/amazed I didn't cough through the video since I have been sick! Check it out if you have the time.

FOCAL CLEAR VIDEO