[Mediahound]

Thanks @


Thanks @MTMECraig, your description sounds exactly what I am looking for. Can’t wait to to get them and have a listen.

One more thing I’d like to ask. I don’t think I’ve read anyone mentioning this. Is the clear musical and natural sounding? From what I have read, I understand the clear bring a lot of detail, but to me detail without a natural tone and musicality don’t do much for me. Would you mind telling me about the Clear’s naturalness or lack of it, if that’s the case?

IMO the 40 mm drivers are a bit small for naturalness, warmth, and also bass bloom. They could stand to be larger.

 

[Paulo Abreu]

IMO the 40 mm drivers are a bit small for naturalness, warmth, and also bass bloom. They could stand to be larger.

I guess there are too many variables to account for other than driver "absolute" size - not a fair comparison but sennheiser ie800s is capable of a better bass with its 7mm tiny driver than some headphones with 40mm drivers; Such as with home speakers, woofer size is not a synonym of a good bass, the whole thing combining driver, enclosure, pads/eartips on headphones and surely many more things I'm not aware are part of the formula.

 

[Mediahound]

I guess there are too many variables to account for other than driver "absolute" size - not a fair comparison but sennheiser ie800s is capable of a better bass with its 7mm tiny driver than some headphones with 40mm drivers; Such as with home speakers, woofer size is not a synonym of a good bass, the whole thing combining driver, enclosure, pads/eartips on headphones and surely many more things I'm not aware are part of the formula.

We’re talking about over ear headphones not in ears. I’ve never heard an over ear headphones with a driver size of 40 mm or under that to me sounded natural enough or had enough overall oomph in the mids and bass for my liking.

 

[ribosradagast]

We’re talking about over ear headphones not in ears. I’ve never heard an over ear headphones with a driver size of 40 mm or under that to me sounded natural enough or had enough overall oomph in the mids and bass for my liking.

the thought of an inear with 40mm drivers... lol. So uncomfortable

 

[manishex]

Anyone able to report on the soundstage size comparison with the Utopia?

 

[bgbkt]

IMO the 40 mm drivers are a bit small for naturalness, warmth, and also bass bloom. They could stand to be larger.

Headphone designers at Focal must be really really stupid to choose 40 mm drivers then.

 

[bidn]

IMO the 40 mm drivers are a bit small for naturalness, warmth, and also bass bloom. They could stand to be larger.

The soundwaves produced by drivers are not a function of a single variable (driver size).
There are actually also function of many other variables: motion speed of driver (moves more air as it pushes it harder), driver stiffness (no deformation --> more details, better imaging), etc.
What made the Utopia and its smaller brothers revolutionary as dynamic headphones is that they precisely went against this idea that bigger is better,
and turned it over by going for smaller drivers with instead :
- breaking through the use of world class, unmatched stiffness of Berylium for the Utopia, and second in class for the Elear and Clear: this top stiffeness, combined with smaller driver size leads to less deformation and thus to higher accuracy
- less driver weight due to the materials and the smaller driver size
- highly enhanced driver mobility not only because of the lower weight but also using unusual parts around the driver, taking advantage of the space saved by the smaller drivers
and that's how they revolutionized and improved what was possible with dynamic headphones, precisely because using smaller drivers.
This all was well documented and discussed when the Utopia and the Elear were officially introduced.

Addition : I don't mean that the drivers should be as small as possible, but that their optimum size for the best possible sound doesn't have to be very large (over 50 mm) and may be instead smaller (e.g. 40 mm).

 

[Mediahound]

Anyone able to report on the soundstage size comparison with the Utopia?

Not quite as wide, close, however Utopias themselves are not that wide a soundstage at least when comparing to HD800.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

IMO the 40 mm drivers are a bit small for naturalness, warmth, and also bass bloom. They could stand to be larger.

Have you heard the Clear yet? Not to be a broken record, but IMO the are superior to the 800/800s in “naturalness, warmth, and bass bloom,” though I would also love to see what Focal could do with a larger driver (plus a closed can).

 

[Mediahound]

Have you heard the Clear yet? Not to be a broken record, but IMO the are superior to the 800/800s in “naturalness, warmth, and bass bloom,” though I would also love to see what Focal could do with a larger driver (plus a closed can).

Why would I even post about them if I had not? That's the 'norm' around here I guess.

See my review of them here:

 

[dontfeedphils]

Why would I even post about them if I had not? That's the 'norm' around here I guess.

See my review of them here:

You're that guy. lol, ok

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I love it when people bitch about soundstage in comparison to the HD800, the headphone with literally the biggest soundstage of them all.

 

[SaddleSC]

I love it when people bitch about soundstage in comparison to the HD800, the headphone with literally the biggest soundstage of them all.

I agree...I tend to try to appreciate each headphone's characteristics as a sum total rather than just looking at single aspects of the sound, like soundstage. I think the Focal Clear has a really great soundstage. But there is no arguing the fact that when I switch back to the HD800S, it is quite noticeable that it is the biggest of them all...sometimes maybe a bit too big

 

[Matro5]

Saw a great video on YouTube about the making of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" which prompted me to seek out the album on on my Clears. Chain is Tidal --> Modi Uber --> Lyr 2 --> Clear. Delightful.

 

[donlin]

I agree...I tend to try to appreciate each headphone's characteristics as a sum total rather than just looking at single aspects of the sound, like soundstage. I think the Focal Clear has a really great soundstage. But there is no arguing the fact that when I switch back to the HD800S, it is quite noticeable that it is the biggest of them all...sometimes maybe a bit too big

That’s the problem with the HD800. The soundstage is artificially wide and pulls everything too far apart with coherence lost. Wider doesn’t always mean better. Soundstage should serve the music not the other way around.