[Stillhart]

I already commented to scaling, both here and in the review.
 
Utopia scales down poorly; it needs lots of power to overcome the impedance spike.  Also, since it's so clean when driven well, the looseness from the poorly driven bass is more jarring.  Scaling up, I suspect we'll be seeing Utopias at a lot of amp manufacturer tables since it's really good for showing off what your amp is capable of.
 
Elear scales down better than the Utopia.  Its impedance spike is smaller, for one thing.  And for another, since the bass is a little bloomy already, loosing some of the control doesn't seem nearly as jarring as it does on the Utopia.  The Elear sounds good on good equipment, but it's simply not as technically proficient as the Utopia and isn't going to show off the resolution of high end equipment as well.  That means it scales up to a point but beyond that it doesn't really need a crazy good amp.
 
This is all in my humble opinion and based off the limited time I had with them for the review.  Once I get to spend more time with them, my opinion may change.  YMMV

 

[pearljam50000]

Utopia vs HD800?

 

[Audio Addict]

I already commented to scaling, both here and in the review.

Utopia scales down poorly; it needs lots of power to overcome the impedance spike.  Also, since it's so clean when driven well, the looseness from the poorly driven bass is more jarring.  Scaling up, I suspect we'll be seeing Utopias at a lot of amp manufacturer tables since it's really good for showing off what your amp is capable of.

Elear scales down better than the Utopia.  Its impedance spike is smaller, for one thing.  And for another, since the bass is a little bloomy already, loosing some of the control doesn't seem nearly as jarring as it does on the Utopia.  The Elear sounds good on good equipment, but it's simply not as technically proficient as the Utopia and isn't going to show off the resolution of high end equipment as well.  That means it scales up to a point but beyond that it doesn't really need a crazy good amp.

This is all in my humble opinion and based off the limited time I had with them for the review.  Once I get to spend more time with them, my opinion may change.  YMMV

Thank you @Stillhart

 

[grizzlybeast]

 

  No Vegan pads, Alacantra for you?
 
I got the Elear. Though my system is up to snuff for the elear my wallet isn't. Even if it was Id be getting another amp and heapdhone for that price.

I like cowhide (ZMF style) and lambskin, personally. Even the protein leather that Fostex uses is fine, just not microfiber 

Sorry to inform you but I was unable to pull the pads off of the headphones. They seemed very fixed to the headphones. I didn't want to rip them. 

 

[Vigrith]

Utopia vs HD800?

 
Plenty of comparisons in the thread already, just search for HD800 I'm sure you'll them. 

 

[manpowre]

  Also, since it's so clean when driven well, the looseness from the poorly driven bass is more jarring. 
 
 
 
 

Can you elaborate on the bass reproduction of Utopia a bit more ?
Just wondering if you really meant that Utopia has poorly driven bass and is jarring. I looked up jarring, meaning harsh, unclear, undecided, discordantly and unpleasant sound!

 

[chowmein83]

  Can you elaborate on the bass reproduction of Utopia a bit more ?
Just wondering if you really meant that Utopia has poorly driven bass and is jarring. I looked up jarring, meaning harsh, unclear, undecided, discordantly and unpleasant sound!

 
Anybody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he meant that the bass becomes obviously loose and jarring when it is not driven well. Not that it has poor quality bass.

 

[manpowre]

   
Anybody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he meant that the bass becomes obviously loose and jarring when it is not driven well. Not that it has poor quality bass.

Yeah, that happens with LCD4 too if its not driven well.

 

[Stillhart]

   
Anybody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he meant that the bass becomes obviously loose and jarring when it is not driven well. Not that it has poor quality bass.

 
Correct, thanks.

 

[XERO1]

The Elear and Utopia's headpads are definitely removable.  Nicholas removed one of the pads off of the Elear to show me.
 
They seemed to have a similar attachment design as the pads for the Oppo PM-1/PM-2.
 
What I'm most curious about is trying the Utopia pads on the Elear to see if they might change the Elear's FR to more closely match the Utopia's FR.

 

[ddanois]

My Utopia now has about 70 hours on it and the real character of the headphone has become apparent. I can confirm much of the previous impressions such as the incredible resolution, smoothness across the tonal range and the excellent transparency. Comparing to my LCD-4, the Utopia has less "fullness of tone" but is still very satisfying in its presentation.
 
More to come...

 

[x RELIC x]

My Utopia now has about 70 hours on it and the real character of the headphone has become apparent. I can confirm much of the previous impressions such as the incredible resolution, smoothness across the tonal range and the excellent transparency. Comparing to my LCD-4, the Utopia has less "fullness of tone" but is still very satisfying in its presentation.

More to come...

Interested in further impressions...




You may also want to post them in the Utopia Impressions thread:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/811273/focal-utopia-impressions-and-discussion/15

 

[ddanois]

Will do! Thx.

 

[phase0]

It seems like the Utopia is most compared to the HD800 which I didn't like at all when I heard it at a CanJam. I thought it lacked bass and wasn't really enjoyable. In the impressions so far I remember someone saying Utopia can't match planer bass. That means I won't blind buy without a listen. The one review I saw posted that mentioned Utopia vs Abyss that the Abyss wins (and some people said with that reviewer whatever is more expensive is always best in his reviews so I don't even know if that can be counted). Once these get out to the dealers I should be able to find somewhere local I can go demo. Until then still waiting... I would love to see some impressions of Utopia vs Abyss.

 

[TSAVJason]

It seems like the Utopia is most compared to the HD800 which I didn't like at all when I heard it at a CanJam. I thought it lacked bass and wasn't really enjoyable. In the impressions so far I remember someone saying Utopia can't match planer bass. That means I won't blind buy without a listen. The one review I saw posted that mentioned Utopia vs Abyss that the Abyss wins (and some people said with that reviewer whatever is more expensive is always best in his reviews so I don't even know if that can be counted). Once these get out to the dealers I should be able to find somewhere local I can go demo. Until then still waiting... I would love to see some impressions of Utopia vs Abyss.

Where are you? I might be able to direct you to the next dealer to have them. If you're in SoCal we have them for demo and purchase