Phronesis
Headphoneus Supremus
A good album to showcase what the Clear can do: "Mediterraneamente" by Gianluigi Trovesi. Setting aside the question of how the Clear compares with the Elear and Utopia, it's an incredibly good headphone.
Cadenze orfiche, Tammurriata nera, and Materiali were my favorites. It was so enjoyable listening to those tracks on the Clear and then on HD800. Both presentations were sublime.A good album to showcase what the Clear can do: "Mediterraneamente" by Gianluigi Trovesi. Setting aside the question of how the Clear compares with the Elear and Utopia, it's an incredibly good headphone.
Such a long journey and I am delighted to reach the Focal Clear as my final desitnation.
Can you name a few in each category (too little, just right, too much)? Would like to try them out with my Elear (which has more bass than the Clear) to hear what you’re hearing, just out of interest.On the question of whether the Clear has an appropriate amount of bass, IMO it needs to be emphasized that it really depends on which tracks are being listened to, since there's so much variability there. I find that the Clear could use more bass for some tracks, is perfect for others, and is actually a bit bass heavy for some. On average, for the tracks I've been listening to for the past several days, I find the amount of bass to be about right.
Elear might have more (mid)bass, Clear has a more 'quality' bass. More detailed, more controlled, cleaner. And extends deeper. I love my bass a lot, and prefer the Clear's presentation to the Elear even with more bass heavy music.Can you name a few in each category (too little, just right, too much)? Would like to try them out with my Elear (which has more bass than the Clear) to hear what you’re hearing, just out of interest.
Can you name a few in each category (too little, just right, too much)? Would like to try them out with my Elear (which has more bass than the Clear) to hear what you’re hearing, just out of interest.
"Bad Asteroid" and "Flatlands" by The Aristocrats are examples of tracks where I wouldn't want the Clear to have more bass.
Is that because of the terrible dynamic range in those tracks?
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/75803
I don't see the connection. Regardless of dynamic range, we can evaluate the tonal balance. Moreover, this type of music inherently isn't going to have a wide dynamic range, but that doesn't mean anything as far as sound quality or music quality.
I only asked because IME when the dynamic range is terrible there is usually audible distortion as well. Of course this isn’t always the case which is why I asked.
Both the tracks you listed should have no trouble scoring well in dynamic range if mastered well. Again, I’m only asking if that may be the reason why you wouldn’t want more bass with them listening to the Clear, or if it’s just personal preference. Just curious.
The recording quality sounds good to me. I think the reason the dynamic range isn't high is because the volume level of the instruments isn't changing much over the duration of the tracks, simply because that's how the music is. So I set the volume level where I like it, and can judge the bass. I hear other tracks from other artists with a similar style of music, but the bass is lacking, so I think it just comes down to variability in how the recordings were mixed.
'Old' depends on what you are prioritising. The CMA400i and CMA600i both use a newer AK chip (so support DSD256 and PCM 384kHz), they also sport more connectivity - balanced outputs and optical in, which the CMA800i does not have, only SPDIF and SE output. However, on pure sound quality the CMA800i is actually quite a lot better. If you can live with DSD64 and 192kHz support and don't need optical or balanced outputs then you can have 80-90% on the CMA800R/CAS192D performance (which cost almost £4k combined) for a lot less. In fact PM me if you want to know how much less.How about the CMA800i? Is that as good with Focal headphones as the 600i and the 400i? Is the 800i not too old in 2018?