Heh, flipping the headphones reveals a completely different set of imbalanced frequencies (though one still seems to line up). I think it's not really possible to make a comparison by flipping, since the cup volume changes so dramatically. (Though it does suggest that it's more likely an ear...

Hi! Could someone with Utopias try this tone generator? https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/ On my pair, 6100Hz-6800Hz sounds significantly tilted towards the left channel, as does 8000-8200Hz, while 7400-7800Hz sounds tilted towards the right channel. I don't think it's (just?) my ears...

Utopia headbands.

To circle back to my original question, I got an answer from Focal: My main concern is not whether the Utopias will survive a rough-and-tumble environment, but whether they will actually last me 10-20 years of regular, daily use.

But shouldn't we expect that a $4000 product is made of the best and most durable materials possible?

Hmm... if true, it's somewhat disappointing that such an expensive headphone has plastic parts in an area that sees a lot of stress. I can twist up my substantially cheaper V-Moda headphones with no fear of the headband breaking.

True, but the counterpoint is that very few people have Utopias, relatively speaking. If the headband is plastic, which it seems to be for several other Focal models, I'd like to know that.

@FocalOfficial (or anyone else in this thread), can you tell us what the headband material is under the leather? I have an opportunity to buy the Utopia at a great price, but I'm concerned about stories such as https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/p1cay8/what_900_buys_you_at_focal. Is...

How different are these going to sound from the Crossfade 2 Wireless I currently have? (Do I infer correctly that these will be more bassy? I really love the tuning of the Crossfade 2!) Are the media control buttons still made of plastic? (That's my number #2 complaint about the Crossfade 2...

Funny, this is very close to how I felt about the V-MODA Crossfade 2s. Nowhere close in terms of spatiality or detail to the HD800S I tried out in a Sennheiser store — and not even a great BT headphone to begin with due to hiss and low battery life — but that perfectly tuned bass made my...

A bit surprising to hear, because when I was trying to pick a BT headphone several years ago, the DSR7BT sounded really bad to my ears... (Which is not to say that the DSR9BT can't sound miles better, but the DSR7BT basically made me lose all confidence in AT as a BT headphone manufacturer.)

I admit that my shopping needs may be slightly eccentric... :)

It's really, really hard for people to examine audio quality objectively. Listening tests on Hydrogenaudio.org (with good equipment!) have repeatedly shown that V2 MP3s are transparent in 99% of cases. AAC at the same bitrates fares even better. So the fact that these headphones are using AAC...

The difference here is that a headphone is, fundamentally, a dead simple mechanical device. I'm not saying this is true in the case of the AirPods Max, but if enough engineering talent is thrown at the problem (and if we account for the inevitable bias that creeps in from differences in price...

As a long-time lurker, just wanted to chime in to say thank you for your comparisons. It's really difficult to figure out how good the AirPods Max actually sound due to most reviewers qualifying their praise with "for a noise-cancelling wireless headphone" or "for a consumer product"...