[sheldaze]

I love the dichotomy between sites on audio "consensus'".

People on this site seem to love Chord, people on other sites love Schiit, and others love Metrum or MSB or whatever.

From the people I've spoke with who've tried a ton of TOTL dacs many of them hate Chord's lower end stuff, but even they tend to admit Dave can edge out Yggy. Gotta be something there.

Just joined the Utopia club btw. Anyone have an Eddie Current amp with the Utopias? Currently using WA7s and a Cayin iDac-6 and itching to upgrade.

I use Eddie Current - first a little background, so I am less rando. I like clean and clear, but I hate glare, or treble peaks. I've recently come to find I like bass that is complete, but I also hate excessive distortion. Let me put a few of these into perspective - HD800, regardless of amplifier used, was simply too much. HD800S tames this, a little, and adds some bass - using a distortion trick, which I do not find to be too much. Denon AH-D2000 had too much distortion, on many amplifiers - TH-X00 also could distort the bass too much for my taste. Focal Utopia has zero distortion, and plenty of bass, and I love it for this! But it does have, to my ears, a small hint of too much treble - not in the same way as the HD800S (yes, it still can have too much treble). The Utopia is just a quantity issue for my ears - not a quality issue.

Eddie Current Black Widow (second generation, all-in-one chassis) is one of my two favorite amplifiers for HD800S. It has a magical way of reinforcing the bass without losing quality or details on the highs. But this combination, I personally found not to my liking on Utopia. I like the bass as-is, without any added "je ne sais quoi" that is part of the Black Widow secret sauce. In solid state, I prefer my HeadAmp GS-X mk2 or even my Rupert Neve Designs RNHP.

Eddie Current Zana Deux S is semi-permanent connected to my Utopia. The tubes trick my ears, ever so slightly taming the highs of the Utopia. Everything else is just clean and pleasurable. Until I have the chance to hear Balancing Act (or anything newer...) this is my Utopia go-to. I'm using a Yggy for my source - I am on the tour for the Hugo 2, so am keen to compare these.

 

[Whitigir]

My Utopia go to

One of the best portable system ATM

Just packed up, securely, and go for Portability joys!

 

[AnakChan]

? You're moving on? What's next? I thought you loved the system.

 

[Whitigir]

Nope, I meant it was just packed up and go with for Portability joys. I have a cables ICM

 

[buzzlulu]

Is that the stock cable determinates balanced with a Pentacon?

 

[Whitigir]

Yes, but a tad too long

 

[AnakChan]

My setup's the same - the Utopia with the NW-WM1Z balanced but I have the Brise Audio cable instead (more appropriately lengthed).

 

[Galm]

I use Eddie Current - first a little background, so I am less rando. I like clean and clear, but I hate glare, or treble peaks. I've recently come to find I like bass that is complete, but I also hate excessive distortion. Let me put a few of these into perspective - HD800, regardless of amplifier used, was simply too much. HD800S tames this, a little, and adds some bass - using a distortion trick, which I do not find to be too much. Denon AH-D2000 had too much distortion, on many amplifiers - TH-X00 also could distort the bass too much for my taste. Focal Utopia has zero distortion, and plenty of bass, and I love it for this! But it does have, to my ears, a small hint of too much treble - not in the same way as the HD800S (yes, it still can have too much treble). The Utopia is just a quantity issue for my ears - not a quality issue.

Eddie Current Black Widow (second generation, all-in-one chassis) is one of my two favorite amplifiers for HD800S. It has a magical way of reinforcing the bass without losing quality or details on the highs. But this combination, I personally found not to my liking on Utopia. I like the bass as-is, without any added "je ne sais quoi" that is part of the Black Widow secret sauce. In solid state, I prefer my HeadAmp GS-X mk2 or even my Rupert Neve Designs RNHP.

Eddie Current Zana Deux S is semi-permanent connected to my Utopia. The tubes trick my ears, ever so slightly taming the highs of the Utopia. Everything else is just clean and pleasurable. Until I have the chance to hear Balancing Act (or anything newer...) this is my Utopia go-to. I'm using a Yggy for my source - I am on the tour for the Hugo 2, so am keen to compare these.

Yeah I'm thinking of pairing Utopia with a Yggy and EC Aficionado that's about to or already began production.

 

[Liu Junyuan]

Utopia/ZDS/Yggy is really amazing, dangerously so. Too many nights I have stayed up until dawn seemingly incapable of stopping the music. The resolution and clarity of the Utopia jives so well with the luxurious, smooth, and spacious character of the ZDS, with the Yggy's detailed and involving sound suitably feeding both.

 

[Jozurr]

Utopia/ZDS/Yggy is really amazing, dangerously so. Too many nights I have stayed up until dawn seemingly incapable of stopping the music. The resolution and clarity of the Utopia jives so well with the luxurious, smooth, and spacious character of the ZDS, with the Yggy's detailed and involving sound suitably feeding both.

What 6SL7 are you using with the ZDS and Utopia?

 

[Energy]

I am wondering if anyone else is using equalization (EQ) on their pair of Focal Utopia headphones.

https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/focal-utopia-update

Based on InnerFidelity's findings, there is apparently a stable 3-4KHz peak in frequency response and another one at 6KHz which is more unstable as it seems to depend on how the Utopia is positioned on the head or based on the pinna in the ear, it may or may not be heard by individual listeners.

The first pair of Utopia's I owned some time ago did not exhibit any peaks that I could naturally hear on my own that I thought needed correction, but this pair has some brightness to it that causes fatigue after long listening sessions. It isn't as smooth as before. The only equalization I have done so far is very similar to the one done by Tyll over at InnerFidelity.

For my current settings, the 72.8Hz region is boosted by 3.50dB (a little less than Tyll due to my warmer sounding amplifier) at low shelf which helps with bass below the 200Hz region to sound more pronounced. The gain has been brought down by -3.50dB (equal to EQ) to prevent clipping. I want to know if anyone has done anything to deal with this problem.

What throws me off is later in another article, he says there is a peak at 5KHz.
"I find the Utopia to still be an excellent headphone, but a peak at 5kHz can be annoying and its bass extension isn't as good as the LCD-4."

(source: https://www.innerfidelity.com/conte...ame-adjustments-focal-utopia-and-audeze-lcd-4)

 

[Whitigir]

I have 0 problems with my Utopia, period. Again, you have problems that could be caused by your other components within your system. At the performances of the Utopia, even cables changes would be so transparent to observe

Here is my review about Utopia

https://www.head-fi.org/f/showcase/focal-utopia.21682/reviews

 

[Energy]

Wish I could say the same. I'm using the stock copper cable and it's still slightly bright.
I've also switched my setup to the HeadAmp GS-X MKII with Holo Audio Spring or Schiit Yggdrasil as the DAC but it still gives me the same results.

I've tried EQ (with DMG Equilibrium) at 3-6KHz which helped somewhat but I still feel a sharp peak somewhere else, maybe in the 8KHz. If only I had extensive gear to calibrate these myself.

 

[x RELIC x]

I am wondering if anyone else is using equalization (EQ) on their pair of Focal Utopia headphones.

https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/focal-utopia-update

Based on InnerFidelity's findings, there is apparently a stable 3-4KHz peak in frequency response and another one at 6KHz which is more so unstable as seems to depend on how the Utopia is positioned on the head, and based on the pinna in the ear, it may or may not be heard by individual listeners.

The first pair of Utopia's I owned some time ago did not exhibit any peaks that I could naturally hear on my own that needed correction, but this pair has some brightness to it that causes fatigue after long listening sessions. It isn't as smooth as before. The only equalization I have done so far is very similar to the one done on InnerFidelity.

For my current settings, the 72.8Hz region is boosted by 3.50dB (a little lower than Tyll due to my warmer sounding amplifier) at low shelf which helps with bass below the 200Hz region to sound more pronounced. The gain has been brought down by -3.50dB equally as the boost to prevent clipping. I want to know if anyone has done anything to deal with this problem.

What throws me off is later in another article, he says there is a peak at 5KHz.
"I find the Utopia to still be an excellent headphone, but a peak at 5kHz can be annoying and its bass extension isn't as good as the LCD-4."

(source: https://www.innerfidelity.com/conte...ame-adjustments-focal-utopia-and-audeze-lcd-4)

Could be the first early pair you heard was tuned more like the one Tyll did his review on, and the second is more like the one Bob Katz reported on. Seems there is a diffence between early models and later models, or at least a few possible outliers.

 

[Energy]

Could be the first early pair you heard was tuned more like the one Tyll did his review on, and the second is more like the one Bob Katz reported on. Seems there is a diffence between early models and later models, or at least a few possible outliers.

This makes perfect sense and I'm surprised I haven't thought about it like that.
Something funny happened however. It's much less bright now, about less than half. I'm starting to think that stress levels can make it harder to handle treble. Either way if it doesn't go away within a few more days I'll either have to transition to a warmer DAC or start doing tubes (maybe DNA Stratus). I'm trying to de-stress myself by listening to music but it's making things more stressful..