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maxvla said:

Any fear of these being bass light is certainly unfounded. These cans really thump. Unfortunately my pair came with a nasty vibration in the right earpiece. Something inside the cup rattling or a blown driver (I doubt it's blown though, but that is sort of what it sounds like). I'll have to get a replacement.

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Does it do it all the time or only with bass? A piece of hair finding its way to the the drivers and vibrating with certain low frequencies sounding like the driver is broke is a very common thing at least. Have had to that prob with these Q40 headphones 3 times in like a half year or a little less already, then again I use it with a ZO2 bass boost amp that strengthens bass quite a bit too so it raises the chances greatly for hearing vibrating piece of hair issue.
 
Also what's the bassiest headphone you've got experience with and how does Focal headphones compare like with those to get a better idea of the bass strength.

It happens all the time. I'll check it out, but I noticed it right away when I played the first song on them. Other thing that's odd is a little kink in the headband pad.



edit: Earpads appear to be taped/glued in place so I can't check the driver area for stray fibers/hairs. Looks like these are going back for sure.

I was having a chat with my local focal distributor just after hearing the stella utopia em speakers. It seems that their headphone line is gonna be a stepped one going all the way up to audiophile models. Focal Spirit Utopia anyone? I'd love to see a relatively large audio company like focal give their best shot at a reference headphone, should have great build going by their spirit one.

I hope they make an ortho. 

I'm very skeptic. Who knows.

The last time I was in a room with a pair of anything that had a Focal logo on them, the Focal Diablo Utopias, they sounded very underwhelming even with expectation bias being clearly on Focal's side (I was absolutely DYING to hear the most beautiful speakers I've seen and they HAD to be great because they cost a lot). What I heard was something on the low-frequencies, and a horribly shrill and fatiguing upper high frequencies, nothing else. Even CDs I'm very familiar with sounded very off, artificially sharp and lifeless. I usually enjoy the AKG and Genelec sound (neutral), so saying my tastes are on the overly smooth side would be wrong too.
Anyway, I'm not buying into their marketing, even for just $200 which doesn't even sound something they'd bother manufacturing (OEM?)

Also, the speaker owner blamed the cables which had only been burnt in for 100 hours

Here's my review of the HD600, HD598, Fidelio L1 and Focal Spirit One.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/601061/mid-fi-shootout-hd600-hd598-focal-spirit-one-philips-fidelio-l1#post_8226062

All the silver portions in the photo are plastic instead of metal?  That's a bummer. 

after using it for awhile, i actually don't really like them as much as when they first arrived somehow >< just wondering if anyone will be interested to buy it off me?

Met with this sight at a local electronics store. 

The demo unit for focal, after just 1-2 months of use.
 
The entire right hinge holding the ear cups to the headband have popped out. It doesn't look like its been abused, the metal finish has only little scratches, whereas the plastic part (which holds the joint in place) has severe wear and tear uncommon for a headphone with such a new exterior if you ask me. Left side's didn't look any better off
 
Frankly even the other bose headphones on display near the focal, which seemed to have had been there for longer periods of time, were better off

Thanks for the in-the-field report. 

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Originally Posted by Leynar /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Frankly even the other bose headphones on display near the focal, which seemed to have had been there for longer periods of time, were better off

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...the ears

I reached out to Focal and they will send me a review pair soon. Stay tuned for my video.

P5 is a great little headphone. Perhaps the best midrange/top end blend there is.

Cross-posted from my diary thread:
 
 
First off these things smell amazing. When I was a little girl, I used to go to this store in town that sold sea shells, rocks, and minerals. These smell like that store. Kind of a stuffy, indoor recycled air smell. Like a new office building. Or a museum. It's wonderful. Build quality is what I've come to expect for headphones in this price bracket: it's slightly ahead of the Shure SRH940 but behind the K550. Packaging is straight forward. You get a zippered hard case similar to Shure's, a cloth travel bag, and a detachable fabric cable with an inline remote and 1/8" to 1/4" adapter. A few nitpicks: the adjustment sliders don't seem to go very far down, and I could see that being a problem with larger sized heads. Clamping pressure and on-ear design makes these a bit uncomfortable as well. Also, for some weird reason, someone at the factory decided to grease up the metal sliders inside the adjustment housing, so there's a nasty film covering it. I've tried to wipe it off with a wet paper towel, but every time they slide back up into the housings, it re-greases them. What the hell, Focal? I don't want that stuff in my hair and on my hands. In terms of sound, these are pretty nice! They're fairly well balanced tonally, and thankfully they lack that overly bright "high-fi sparkle" up top and bloated, intrusive bass down below. Mids are fleshed out if unremarkable, neither too laid back nor too aggressive, and as a whole the sound signature is non-fatiguing. Presentation isn't particularly expansive or open and seems to suffer a bit from the "left - center - right blob" effect, but these do a really good job isolating IMO. I certainly think these are a better alternative than the K550 for someone who wants a closed, truly-isolating pair of full sized headphones.

I got mine last week.  Initial impression is good (comfortable in terms of wearing and listening).  On the built quality, it matches with its price!!!
 
But I notice an issue today.  When I play music at certain level, the left side has clipping and vibration sounds coming with the bass.  Not highly irritating, but definitely the driver cannot sustain the bass or with some quality issue.