Oh nice!!! If I may ask though....what stands out to you about them? Some of the info in this thread may be a little outdated in the current HP landscape. Would love to get a grasp on why you love them personally if you had the time
I got them when I was looking for an upgrade to my Audio-Technica ATH-M50x, where the fake leather started disintegrating after two years (blue/copper edition may have something to do with that). The Focal have held up much better, even the thin cable survived several rough disconnects that killed multiple Kabeldirekt TRS cables (which only fit when unscrewing the plug cap - finding replacement cables for the Focal Listen isn't easy because of the locking mechanism leaving only a thin channel).
They sound as clear as the M50x, but have more bass, and are more efficient, so a regular smartphone is happy to drive them to louder than comfortable levels (well, back when they still had headphone jacks...). With the M50x, boosting the bass on the LG G4's equalizer decreased everything else because I was at max volume - not enough power. The Listen still benefit from better gear, though (more on that below).
Both the Focal Listen and the Meze 99 Classics would have been an upgrade over the M50x, fixing the bass deficiency and slight harshness of the M50x. But while the 99 Classics look much fancier, the Listen got me hooked with their incredible imaging. I didn't even know what imaging was until I described that to the guy in the audio store. Each instrument has a clear, concise source, rather than coming from a broad area in the sound stage. Pin-point accuracy - also happens to be great in VR for that reason. Experiencing that imaging turned me into a full blown audiophile, I got curious what else I had been missing out on all this time, and the original $250 price tag of the Listen quickly changed from "a bit pricey" to "super affordable" in my mind.
Comfort could be better. After wearing them for an hour or so I get a hot spot on the top of my head, but that's easy to fix by rolling them forward or back a bit. The earpads are a bit small, but good enough, unlike the M50x's which I had to make thicker with some cotton balls to prevent my left ear from hurting a lot after a while. Still, I switched to the bigger
BRAINWAVZ Sheepskin Ear Pads on the Listen. They increase the sound stage nicely, at the expense of a bit of bass. This is reversible, no glue involved.
Always looking to upgrade, I compared them to the Dan Clark Audio / MrSpeakers ÆON Closed (the first one) and really struggled to hear a difference. I always hesitate to mention that, surely an $800 planar should blow them out of the water - well, not with my phone at the time, nor with the Chord Mojo they used, at least to my ears with my limited experience at the time.
However, the ÆON is definitely more comfortable and arguably looks better, but it's also harder to drive and less portable. I could imagine the ÆON 2 or ÆON 2 Noire to be more obviously superior, but I have not heard them. They ÆON 2 certainly pulled much closer in terms of portability.
The Ether C Flow on the other hand is definitely better. A cleaner, more authoritative and refined sound, more resolving, and more comfortable (while even less portable than the ÆON). But as mentioned, they haven't soured me on the Focal Listen.
The Sennheiser HD 660S sounded like an open version of the Focal Listen to me. Similar tonal balance, but the HD 660S has a bigger sound stage. With music, the HD 660's graininess bugs me, but for movies they are great. With the Focal Listen I can hear some graininess, but it doesn't bug me too much. It's better with good, low noise gear, but planars reign supreme in that regard. However, a beefy tube amp from Woo Audio had quite a bit of audible noise with the Listen (too sensitive), and one amp that Focal used at a show ironically did as well. So some amps just are too noisy for them, bear that in mind.
Just to finish this off, the microphone in the cable is pretty mediocre and the button is easy to press accidentally.
A co-worker asked me to recommend some headphones, and I just gave him the Listen to try. He really liked them and bought a pair for himself and says he loves them.
I also showed the M50x to an acquaintance, and she was impressed by the clarity. Then I let her use the Focal Listen and her eyes lit up even more, she definitely noticed the increase in bass. No idea whether she actually bought them eventually, though.
