[Conan1974]

I just got the all perforated one for my Clear OG. Very good indeed and thank you for your suggestion. Haven't put on Radiance yet. It is much better than my another brown leather one from AliExpress. I even like it more than the Dekoni Elite Velour. You save me a lot of money from buying the original pads.

Hallo
I can see You have the Clear OG and Radiance.
I had the Clear OG but replaced it with the Denon AH D9200. For me Denon had more open sound - that gave the soundtrack and classical music more energy, brought back the live to the instruments.
How would You describe the differences between the Clear OG and Radiance?
Can

 

[Jay Smith]

Hallo
I can see You have the Clear OG and Radiance.
I had the Clear OG but replaced it with the Denon AH D9200. For me Denon had more open sound - that gave the soundtrack and classical music more energy, brought back the live to the instruments.
How would You describe the differences between the Clear OG and Radiance?
Can

Radiance is more intimate feeling, but not necessary a bad thing, bass is fuller and best for electronic music like Daft Punk, Clear OG sounds good for all kind of music. To me, Radiance and OG Clear both are good, no winner here. For system synergy, Radiance performs more natural on my SS Beyer A2, bass my be too much on tube HP8 sometimes. Clear OG performs excellent with HP8mk2, I hope more people can try HP8mk2 with Clear, it is really good indeed. Hope this help.

 

[Conan1974]

Radiance is more intimate feeling, but not necessary a bad thing, bass is fuller and best for electronic music like Daft Punk, Clear OG sounds good for all kind of music. To me, Radiance and OG Clear both are good, no winner here. For system synergy, Radiance performs more natural on my SS Beyer A2, bass my be too much on tube HP8 sometimes. Clear OG performs excellent with HP8mk2, I hope more people can try HP8mk2 with Clear, it is really good indeed. Hope this help.

So it means they do sound similar.
That means, the Radians goes off the list.
Thanks

 

[thelittletaffia]

I h

So it means they do sound similar.
That means, the Radians goes off the list.
Thanks

I'm a Clear MG and Denon AH-D9200 owner. I had the Radiance at home for around 10 days, just to give me something different from the Denon. I didn't want something better per se just a little different. It was something of a disappointment really, very little substance and thin sounding. Perhaps I was tainted by using the Clears, which I find excellent, but they came nowhere near to the Denons in detail nor depth. The Radiance were returned.

 

[Conan1974]

I h

I'm a Clear MG and Denon AH-D9200 owner. I had the Radiance at home for around 10 days, just to give me something different from the Denon. I didn't want something better per se just a little different. It was something of a disappointment really, very little substance and thin sounding. Perhaps I was tainted by using the Clears, which I find excellent, but they came nowhere near to the Denons in detail nor depth. The Radiance were returned.

So it looks like i should be keeping myself away from Focal.
Maybe I shouldn't be selling the Denon.
Too late now. The search continues.
Thanks for the info.

 

[evhvis]

I h

I'm a Clear MG and Denon AH-D9200 owner. I had the Radiance at home for around 10 days, just to give me something different from the Denon. I didn't want something better per se just a little different. It was something of a disappointment really, very little substance and thin sounding. Perhaps I was tainted by using the Clears, which I find excellent, but they came nowhere near to the Denons in detail nor depth. The Radiance were returned.

I wouldn't describe the Radiance as thin sounding, but they are tuned fairly close to the Harman. Headphones that have lower level than the Harman curve in the 2-4khz area will sound warmer, more laid back and more mid forward, but generally at the cost of some nuances in voices, saxophone etc. Both the Clear MG and 9200 have quite significant dips compared to the Harman curve so anything following the Harman curve will be perceived as thin if you use those as reference.

 

[thelittletaffia]

I wouldn't describe the Radiance as thin sounding, but they are tuned fairly close to the Harman. Headphones that have lower level than the Harman curve in the 2-4khz area will sound warmer, more laid back and more mid forward, but generally at the cost of some nuances in voices, saxophone etc. Both the Clear MG and 9200 have quite significant dips compared to the Harman curve so anything following the Harman curve will be perceived as thin if you use those as reference.

It's like everything you try, it's personal preference. To me they sounded too measured and they were not what I was looking for and I didn't think they really compared that well to the Denons. To be honest if I had to sacrifice a pair of headphones it wouldn't be the Denons. I'm still looking for a second pair of closed backs, concentrating this time on planars and waiting for an audition of the new Meze Liric 2 which will be tested against the Stellias, just in case but don't tell the missus.

Your comment on voices is pretty relevant as my favourite genres are folk rock and singer songwriters and most of the albums I buy, including SACD, are well recorded and not effected by the loudness wars.

 

[Conan1974]

Exactly, personal preferences.
I did listened the Stellia, against the Clear OG. Wanted a closed one. But it did not wowed me. If the price would be 1500 I would buy it. Did hear the Empyrian, first edition and as well, could not justify the 3000 price, even de Utopia did not presented anything special. Sometimes when I read how people are praising these headphones, my reaction is just what are they saying?

 

[evhvis]

It's like everything you try, it's personal preference. To me they sounded too measured and they were not what I was looking for and I didn't think they really compared that well to the Denons. To be honest if I had to sacrifice a pair of headphones it wouldn't be the Denons. I'm still looking for a second pair of closed backs, concentrating this time on planars and waiting for an audition of the new Meze Liric 2 which will be tested against the Stellias, just in case but don't tell the missus.

Your comment on voices is pretty relevant as my favourite genres are folk rock and singer songwriters and most of the albums I buy, including SACD, are well recorded and not effected by the loudness wars.

Personal preference is everything in this hobby as it is about musical enjoyment. Personally I love the Radiance and they grow so much when putting them on better amps and frequency response is close to ideal for me. Swapping out the crappy cable that Focal supplied also made a difference, e.g. using a cable for a D7200 was a noticeable upgrade on the Radiance (same pin out and plug types). I do run mine balanced with an aftermarket cable.

The Radiance is actually slightly warmer than a strict Harman curve tuning with a bass bump and slightly lowered treble. A true Harman curve tuning would sound a bit thinner. If you feel the Radiance are too thin then you will probably want avoid headphones that follow the Harman curve closely and rather look for headphones that dip somewhat in the 2-5khz range compared to the Harman curve. Frequency response isn't everything, but it gives a good indication of the tuning balance of a headphone.

Oratory1990 has a good list of headphone measurements. If you have access to a 7 or 10 band PEQ then you can tune the AH-D9200 to what would measure like a Harman tuned headphone and then play around with the frequency response to get a better idea of how the frequency balance of different headphones would be. It will not be exact as there are more factors involved in how sound is reproduced, but it will give you a bit more information about what you do and don't like in frequency response.

 

[Brandfuchs]

Hello fellow Radiance users, could you please help me with a question? Do any of you experience sound leakage with your Radiance, especially in quiet environments?
I'm looking to buy a closed-back for use in the office, was considering the DCA AEON because of its good isolation and tuning, but unfortunately, there aren't any reasonably priced available in my area... so I'm turning to radiance now

 

[Brandfuchs]

Update*
Since I couldn't find a preowned Aeon 2 priced reasonably here, I ended up purchasing the Focal Radiance. Fortunately, it has excellent sound isolation and almost no sound leakage issues.
I really like its sound!

 

[Erick Muller]

Bad news people, a few weeks ago the left driver on my radiance gave up the ghost, fortunately headphones.com came through and my headphone it's on its way to canada for RMA, my only concern is that given that this headphone is not currently in production and Focal doesn't even have replacement pads for them, they might come back at me to give me the news that they cannot repair this headphone because they no longer have the parts to replace the drivers on my pair, which would be a super bummer, hope that I'm just being overly pessimistic as I tend to be in these kind of situations.

On another topic, does anyone have any recommendations for products to treat and take care of the leather parts, specifically the pads on the radiance and other headphones that have real leather?

 

[thelittletaffia]

hope that I'm just being overly pessimistic as I tend to be in these kind of situations.

I doubt very much that the parts will not be available. The Radiance are a progression from the Celestee with just slightly different tuning. You may just find it's a bit of a wait if the parts have to come from France given your location.

 

[Erick Muller]

I doubt very much that the parts will not be available. The Radiance are a progression from the Celestee with just slightly different tuning. You may just find it's a bit of a wait if the parts have to come from France given your location.

Well those are good news then, you have uplifted my bad mood my friend. I'm not in a rush to get this repair ASAP, I would prefer that they take their time on my headphone and do a good work on it because apart from the driver failure, the left cup also had a weird creaking sound when I was adjusting the headphone and cups to fit me properly, it may have something to do with the springs that the cup has that keep them at a certain position, I would like to get that fix too.

As a correction and I just remember this, it was the right driver that failed and the left cup that has the creaking sound when adjusting the headphone.

 

[thelittletaffia]

had a weird creaking sound

I think you'll find that is to do with the yolk, does some times happen with my Clear MGs and it was also present on the Radiance I had on audition. It's not something I would worry about.