Focal Clear use fabric earpads. The earpads you mentioned are leather. It's the difference in material used that change the oem sound signature a little. Going from fabric to leather boosted the low end a little.

Yeah, that one. They have that inner fabric rings which are very important for maintaining the original sound signature as much as possible. The perforated version might be your liking too but it might not be 100% match for you Radiant sound wise (perforated vs non-perforated).

Most likely not defective headphones then, which what we try to determine. :thumbsup:

Give these earpads a serious consideration. Search Amazon for focal earpads and look for the one by Voarmaks

Cracking in one side or both sides. Phones may not have enough power to reveal issues (if there are real issues with the hp). Random or during low frequency bass?

Some laptop coolers have fan speed controllers. Some folks fail to mention that they have fans under, or cold ambient temperature, or highly ventilated room/house etc., Your next unit would most likely be the same (if you exchange).

S17 - Focal Clear - @ volume 48 seem too loud to me, unless your input side is low. My S17 - Focal Clear - 50ma/L - always below volume 30.

Try all combinations, 100ma/50ma/H/L, to find YOUR general preference. Your general preference is just general and not all the time. Sometimes you may prefer other combos for certain music/tracks. If you change headphones then that whole preference may change with it too.

Thanks for the well documented disassembly. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: I have been wondering if there are thermal pads or compound used between the heat-sinks and if the bottom heat-sink make contact with the housing. I have been considering open up mine unit to add thermal pads or...

This is a thread from a SPEAKER amp site. Talks about amp operating temperature. One of the posts is very educational. https://emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/47267/amp-operating-temperature

My roommate has heat issue. It's cold winter and that person keeps turning the heat off. If the heater/house temperature goes above 20C, then "It's too hot! I am burning up here!" :thinking:

There were many Focal Clear driver issues during it's early production. There were many concerns, discussions about the defects at that time. Music with few low frequency would play ok most of the times. But the main stream music would reveal the defects quickly. That song was written...

Play all 3 Focal heapshones for comparisons, troubleshooting the Clear. Not for the purpose of testing 3 headphones. exclusively.

Test with all 3 Focal that you have with same track, same volume, same settings, same equipment. What happen then? Play the track Ana Mile - gruponiche and tell me what happen.

I am not sure what the "driver clipping" sound like. Perhaps its the distortion sound that I called "crackling"? Would really like to know/learn. Could someone point me to a site with this sound file?