This is an over-flow from
Focal Clear Headphones.
A little background:
A while ago I managed to get a pair of Focal Clear's at a reasonable price (new they are £1k+), I eagerly plugged them into my trusted Mojo, and hey presto . . .
They Sucked!
Well maybe not suck, but failed to impress and at that price I call it Suck. To cut the long story short, the
Focal Clear Fan Club (afore mentioned thread) had a go at me, that your Mojo is not good enough for such a
beast, that I would need a Hugo2 at least (or better!) for these phones. And when a trusted member, said that although Mojo is good, I really need a Hugo2 to make the Clears sing.
What did I do? I got myself a Hugo2!
Got it today and eagerly plugged things in . . .
- Hugo2 is good, specially on orchestral Classical. Separation of instruments, 3D sound, 3D bass that goes deep and wide, indeed everything goes wide, sound stage is really wide. Did it make the Clears sing? yes to some degree, the Focals were too dark on Mojo, on Hugo2 they get their sparkle up.
But ultimately the Clears are still a failure to me! because of the price! if they were £400/500 I would not have grumbled, but ultimate sound quality, even on Hugo2 is not good enough to justify the price.
At this point I had given up on Clears, packed them up for re-sale soon.
So I got my current favourite headphones out (Sundara) to check the Hugo2 out.
Sundaras were better than Clears, better sound stage, more open sound - much less
shouty than the Clears, bass in a different league, blah blah.
But you know something! on non-classical music Mojo can sound so wonderful against Hugo2!
Sometimes even preferable - I am not saying better, but preferable.
Mojo can sound more intimate on vocals. At times, Hugo2 can sound like listening to a very clear Mix off the console, everything is there, but you know it is not live music, it is a Mix!
on Mojo, the same thing can sound like being in a small venue, like a small Jazz club - sound stage is not Stadium size, but Club size, vocals are there in the room,
Mojo sounds like a top class Valve amp (Tube), in contrast Hugo2 is a top class Solid state amp.
All this made me fall in love with my Mojo once again!
With the advent of Mojo2 on the horizon, Chord are gambling big - Mojo2 has very very big shoes to fill.
At over four times the price of the Mojo, on sound quality alone, Hugo2 ain't worth it!
A very big statement, but my impression tonight.