Focal Celestee (New Closed-Back Headphone)
Apr 5, 2021 at 11:13 PM Post #391 of 634
Reading these post makes me wonder what’s going on with my order. I ordered the Celestee a month ago from HiFi Buys in Atlanta Georgia they keep telling me they’re not available yet. Many of you seem to have had them for a while...
 
Apr 5, 2021 at 11:48 PM Post #392 of 634
Reading these post makes me wonder what’s going on with my order. I ordered the Celestee a month ago from HiFi Buys in Atlanta Georgia they keep telling me they’re not available yet. Many of you seem to have had them for a while...

Most of us got them from the very first shipment from headphones.com. Then they went out of stock most places.
 
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Apr 8, 2021 at 3:42 PM Post #394 of 634
Does anyone in the thread have both the Celestee and the Elegia. I have the Elegia and absolutely adore it, trying to find out more info before i make that leap.
Most of us got them from the very first shipment from headphones.com. Then they went out of stock most places.
Yep I guess that’s true I just heard from Focal they indicated they’re not even going to ship until sometime in May so they must not of shipped any to Georgia first orders probably went to headphone.com
 
Apr 8, 2021 at 4:24 PM Post #395 of 634
Here's a question... For those that *did* receive the Celestee, what are your thoughts after having listened to it for a while? Has it changed? Did you keep them? Did you send them back?

For me, I have decided to keep them. While they do have a couple faults (soundstage existing within the width of my head being the primary one), they do check off a lot of boxes for me. Besides, if I wanted a monstrous soundstage...I would have gone open back. I needed closed back for sound isolation for work, and these do have passable sound isolation in my opinion while being an enjoyable listen to a lot of different types of music.

Speaking of which, I don't know if they inject Focal kool-aid into my ears (perhaps that is why the clamp force is so tight), but the sound signature has definitely grown on me.

And they still look damn sexy. :)
 
Apr 8, 2021 at 8:52 PM Post #396 of 634
I kept mine too. I wasn't sure for a few weeks there. But they grew on me and I am quite happy with them. Same use case, work isolation. Best looking headphone that I own. I just wish Focal would take a page out of the Audeze cable book.
 
Apr 9, 2021 at 8:09 AM Post #397 of 634
I am also keeping mine. I’ve been EQing them from the start, although the non-EQ’d tonality is fine as well. They are really good for working from home isolation and will be when we return to the office as well. The soundstage size I find is only relevant for certain tracks — they wouldn’t be my headphones of choice for live music, but I avoid live music on headphones anyway. For portable use, they pair well with the ifi xcan, where you can adjust the bass, lower mids, and the soundstage to a certain degree without having to digitally EQ.
 
Apr 27, 2021 at 10:02 PM Post #401 of 634
How does these sound with electronic music?
Do you have some tracks that you want me to describe to you? Electronic music is such a wide genre that it's difficult to get at exactly what you are after...but I'm happy to listen to a few reference songs if that would be helpful?
 
Apr 27, 2021 at 11:06 PM Post #402 of 634
Do you have some tracks that you want me to describe to you? Electronic music is such a wide genre that it's difficult to get at exactly what you are after...but I'm happy to listen to a few reference songs if that would be helpful?
the midnignt-levitate, boris brejcha- never loock back, røyksopp- what else is there, astrix-deep jungle walk, dagny-somebody.

If you would test these,it would really help.Not all of the above is electronica 😊 .I listen to all kind of music.From classical to sometimes black metal :p But mostly all kind of electronica and rock/metall.
 
Apr 29, 2021 at 10:17 AM Post #404 of 634
the midnignt-levitate, boris brejcha- never loock back, røyksopp- what else is there, astrix-deep jungle walk, dagny-somebody.

If you would test these,it would really help.Not all of the above is electronica 😊 .I listen to all kind of music.From classical to sometimes black metal :p But mostly all kind of electronica and rock/metall.
Okay, I couldn't find the first one with a quick Google search, but the rest came up on Youtube, so that is my source for listening (in case audio quality comes into question)

Boris Brejcha - Never Look Back - Nice strong primary beat. Definitely ricochet's inside my inner ear. I don't know what this song sounds like on other headphones, but in my opinion it does have nice balance with the backing sounds. I could easily listen to this while I worked and be satisfied. It has the slap, but not as full of a thud as a "basshead" headphone probably has.

Röyksopp - What else is there - I don't know if the upload to Youtube was at a low volume, but I had to crank up the listening volume in order to get this to not sound "hollow". Honestly this was probably the worst performing song for me in your list. Not because I didn't like the song, she has a great voice, it's just that it sounded very ... meh/average. Nothing jumped out at me.

Astrix - Deep Jungle Walk - WOW. The beginning of the song I can definitely hear the sound travel back and forth between my ears. Since the Celestee has a smaller soundstage, the width of this travel was equal to the size of my head. So it felt like someone was moving the music source from one side of my head to the other which I think was the intended goal. With larger soundstage headphones this would probably feel even more immersive. This song is where the Celestee excels in my opinion. It effortlessly kept up with the pace keeping notes sharp and not muddied. The beat starts slapping and there is no degradation. Then when the other layers start appearing, everything still sounds crisp and separated. Even at around 3:54 in the track where the voice travels back and forth with other layers playing I can still notice that detail. At 4:45 where the pace takes a few seconds to change...hits in a very pleasing way for me. The buildup/transition at around 6:22 was nice as well. Fantastic progression. Really, really enjoyed listening to this one.

Dagny - Somebody - This song is more in the pop category, which is fine, but I think with pop music the Celestee just sounds like most headphones. But again, most pop songs don't have a lot of complexity which is where the Celestee can start to separate itself from other headphones in critical listening. Honestly, this song probably sounds the same in a $200 pair of headphones (and maybe even better) than it does on the Celestee. I would liken this to having a F1 race car, and driving it on a normal highway. It's able to do that, sure, but you don't really feel like it's doing anything special even though you know it can.

So, these are just my opinion and I'm sure others that have this headphone may weigh in and feel differently, but I have found the Celestee to excel where there is a lot going on in songs. So, classical music where you want to hear the highs and the lows of the orchestra it is well balanced and really, really enjoyable. With electronic music, the more layers that are happening I have found the the Celestee has allowed me to pick up a few details I didn't notice when listening on some other headphones without having to try as hard. But the downside to this detail retrieval is that it makes songs that don't have a lot going on sound pedestrian. Does that make sense? Anyhow. Just my opinion. Also remember that these are closed back and generally not the warmest headphones. So keep that in mind.

Hope this helps!
 
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Apr 29, 2021 at 11:00 AM Post #405 of 634
Okay, I couldn't find the first one with a quick Google search, but the rest came up on Youtube, so that is my source for listening (in case audio quality comes into question)

Boris Brejcha - Never Look Back - Nice strong primary beat. Definitely ricochet's inside my inner ear. I don't know what this song sounds like on other headphones, but in my opinion it does have nice balance with the backing sounds. I could easily listen to this while I worked and be satisfied. It has the slap, but not as full of a thud as a "basshead" headphone probably has.

Röyksopp - What else is there - I don't know if the upload to Youtube was at a low volume, but I had to crank up the listening volume in order to get this to not sound "hollow". Honestly this was probably the worst performing song for me in your list. Not because I didn't like the song, she has a great voice, it's just that it sounded very ... meh/average. Nothing jumped out at me.

Astrix - Deep Jungle Walk - WOW. The beginning of the song I can definitely hear the sound travel back and forth between my ears. Since the Celestee has a smaller soundstage, the width of this travel was equal to the size of my head. So it felt like someone was moving the music source from one side of my head to the other which I think was the intended goal. With larger soundstage headphones this would probably feel even more immersive. This song is where the Celestee excels in my opinion. It effortlessly kept up with the pace keeping notes sharp and not muddied. The beat starts slapping and there is no degradation. Then when the other layers start appearing, everything still sounds crisp and separated. Even at around 3:54 in the track where the voice travels back and forth with other layers playing I can still notice that detail. At 4:45 where the pace takes a few seconds to change...hits in a very pleasing way for me. The buildup/transition at around 6:22 was nice as well. Fantastic progression. Really, really enjoyed listening to this one.

Dagny - Somebody - This song is more in the pop category, which is fine, but I think with pop music the Celestee just sounds like most headphones. But again, most pop songs don't have a lot of complexity which is where the Celestee can start to separate itself from other headphones in critical listening. Honestly, this song probably sounds the same in a $200 pair of headphones (and maybe even better) than it does on the Celestee. I would liken this to having a F1 race car, and driving it on a normal highway. It's able to do that, sure, but you don't really feel like it's doing anything special even though you know it can.

So, these are just my opinion and I'm sure others that have this headphone may weigh in and feel differently, but I have found the Celestee to excel where there is a lot going on in songs. So, classical music where you want to hear the highs and the lows of the orchestra it is well balanced and really, really enjoyable. With electronic music, the more layers that are happening I have found the the Celestee has allowed me to pick up a few details I didn't notice when listening on some other headphones without having to try as hard. But the downside to this detail retrieval is that it makes songs that don't have a lot going on sound pedestrian. Does that make sense? Anyhow. Just my opinion. Also remember that these are closed back and generally not the warmest headphones. So keep that in mind.

Hope this helps!

Okay, I couldn't find the first one with a quick Google search, but the rest came up on Youtube, so that is my source for listening (in case audio quality comes into question)

Boris Brejcha - Never Look Back - Nice strong primary beat. Definitely ricochet's inside my inner ear. I don't know what this song sounds like on other headphones, but in my opinion it does have nice balance with the backing sounds. I could easily listen to this while I worked and be satisfied. It has the slap, but not as full of a thud as a "basshead" headphone probably has.

Röyksopp - What else is there - I don't know if the upload to Youtube was at a low volume, but I had to crank up the listening volume in order to get this to not sound "hollow". Honestly this was probably the worst performing song for me in your list. Not because I didn't like the song, she has a great voice, it's just that it sounded very ... meh/average. Nothing jumped out at me.

Astrix - Deep Jungle Walk - WOW. The beginning of the song I can definitely hear the sound travel back and forth between my ears. Since the Celestee has a smaller soundstage, the width of this travel was equal to the size of my head. So it felt like someone was moving the music source from one side of my head to the other which I think was the intended goal. With larger soundstage headphones this would probably feel even more immersive. This song is where the Celestee excels in my opinion. It effortlessly kept up with the pace keeping notes sharp and not muddied. The beat starts slapping and there is no degradation. Then when the other layers start appearing, everything still sounds crisp and separated. Even at around 3:54 in the track where the voice travels back and forth with other layers playing I can still notice that detail. At 4:45 where the pace takes a few seconds to change...hits in a very pleasing way for me. The buildup/transition at around 6:22 was nice as well. Fantastic progression. Really, really enjoyed listening to this one.

Dagny - Somebody - This song is more in the pop category, which is fine, but I think with pop music the Celestee just sounds like most headphones. But again, most pop songs don't have a lot of complexity which is where the Celestee can start to separate itself from other headphones in critical listening. Honestly, this song probably sounds the same in a $200 pair of headphones (and maybe even better) than it does on the Celestee. I would liken this to having a F1 race car, and driving it on a normal highway. It's able to do that, sure, but you don't really feel like it's doing anything special even though you know it can.

So, these are just my opinion and I'm sure others that have this headphone may weigh in and feel differently, but I have found the Celestee to excel where there is a lot going on in songs. So, classical music where you want to hear the highs and the lows of the orchestra it is well balanced and really, really enjoyable. With electronic music, the more layers that are happening I have found the the Celestee has allowed me to pick up a few details I didn't notice when listening on some other headphones without having to try as hard. But the downside to this detail retrieval is that it makes songs that don't have a lot going on sound pedestrian. Does that make sense? Anyhow. Just my opinion. Also remember that these are closed back and generally not the warmest headphones. So keep that in mind.

Hope this helps!
A big thank you for your help 😊👍 This helps a lot.After reading your toughts,im countinuing the search 😊 Next stop,denon ah a9200.Once again,tnx 😊 I dont have the option to test headphones in hifi stores at the time.Covid 19 and the fact that i live in an small country place in norway,forces me to do an blind buy.So you testing some tracks for me,helps a lot 😁
 

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