And with a different DAC and/or amplifier, the sound would be different again. This is the hurdle the audiophilic faces and his/her sense of hearing is not always constant and can vary because of all sorts of factors like health, tiredness, alcohol or other substances. ....... I've had albums...

IMHO there is no "best" but I've no doubt there are many top units which will yield great analog from digital. One which I'm using is the LKS DA-004, now superseded so possibly available used at an enticing price. The other I've had success with (and A/B comparisons found the sound identical...

Your observations reflect my experience. Yes I do prefer the Utopias but the difference is not great and not observable on all music. I have a different balanced cord coming for the Clear MGs so it will be interesting to see if it improves the (already good) soundstage. I particularly dislike...

I just received this bit of fiction in an email so did some Googling and came across this interesting research https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3406203/ So we can relax although careful hygiene is undoubtedly helpful.

Very reasonably priced, top quality and a wide variety to choose from - I prefer the multi copper leads. www.lunashopsd.com

POSTSCRIPT: I've listened to these new toys for some time now and can detect a subtle difference between them and thr Utopias, and that subtlety might not be evident on all systems. It could esily be masked by the DAC, cabling, ... The difference I can detect is in the sound stage. It is more...

OK. here is a more complete review: It is interesting to compare these to the much admired Utopias, something I’m currently doing and finding little difference. This might sound crazy but look at what is going on a little more closely. Focal have engineered a masterpiece of headphone...

OK guys, to clear up a point raised earlier - why would Focal design the Clear Mg to be as good as the Utopia? My take is to increase sales as the Utopia is reaching saturation to those idiotes like me who bought into them. Well not really idiotic as the Utopias are superb BUT, on first...

I have a pair of these Clear Mg Professional headphones on the way and will be inrterested to decide how they compare to the Focal Utopia ones already here. They will ultimately reside in a third headphone system with Roon feeding from a Aurilac G1 to a modded LKS DA-004 -> SMPL SP400 amp. But...

You have hit on its weakness - not great sensitivity. To hear it at full tilt requies better than average output from a DAC.

I purchased one of these after reading glowing reviews and must say it is excellent value. I had intended to do an A/B comparison with my Audio-gd Master 9 taking feed from an Audio-gd R8 DAC but found the sensitivity too low so it went where it was finally intended, into another room with an...

Auralic’s Aries G1 Transport – How Important is the Bridge? Maybe more Important than the DAC? I’ll answer that question first up by admitting that for me, the G1 has been far more important than I previously realized in my pursuit of audio quality. You could find the same – it depends on the...

Not really a multiroom jittery set up. The G1 bridge is in the same room as the headphone setup and a 4M length of quality Canare cable goes from the amplifying splitter near the G1, to the headphone setup. I think the previous noise was caused by a faulty cable. All systems in the house are...

Point taken and agreed to. I'll make no further comment until April and will enlist some other ears to help..

I’m not having any problems at the moment but do concede it is unfair to compare a well run in LKS to a relatively new R8 so should hold back further comment until the R8 had another few hundred hours on it. Currently I find it very difficult to distinguish between the sound via the LKS and the...