So I've auditioned the Focal Clear before and spent some time with them in the past. I've spent some time with 3 Focal headphones - Elear, Clear, Utopia.
Honestly, I like all of Focal's headphones that I've tried, each has their strengths and I think all 3 are excellent.
I originally bought the Elear because I think it presents the best value of the 3, especially at it's current price. I live in Canada so the break down currently looks like this (prices in Canadian dollars)
Elear - $648
Clear - $1899
Utopia - $3999
The Elear is a killer value right now, it has great dynamics and a very pleasant warm signature. It has a couple of faults like a somewhat uneven upper mid range and treble.
The Clear takes what the Elear does and improves it across the board. It loses the elevated bass warmth and is much smoother sounding across the mid range and treble with just a bit of brightness. It's more detailed sounding because of the more even treble presentation. To my ears the Clear also has a bit more width to the sound stage then the Elear. It's not a huge sound stage by any means, but a bit wider.
The Utopia takes what the Clear does and gets hyper detailed and even a bit brighter. The Utopia is bit too expensive and also just a little bit bright sounding for my personal taste. It's a very revealing headphone.
As for the Clear specifically - It's a great headphone and I don't anticipate even looking at anything else for quite some time.
The build quality on Focal headphones is second to none in my opinion. The line up looks incredible and all of them scream high end. The headphones are super comfortable and feel incredibly well built, best in the business. Comfort is really on point, they aren't super light but have nice distribution. The pads are soft and nicer feeling then the Elear pads. There's some concern with the color of the pads and headphone being light grey where some staining is possible. I have a cheap headband cover from Amazon on order, but something to think about for long term care.
The Clear comes with so many accessories, which is amazon. They come with 3 different cables (a short 3.5mm cable, and long balanced and a long 6.5mm). The cables are really nice looking and feel sturdy and well built. The Focal logos on them in particular look really nice. The cables are a little stiff which I don't love, but I don't really see any need to look at anything custom at this time.
I'm listening to the Clear off of the new Schiit Asgard 3 (Multibit DAC included). This is my only amp/DAC for comparison. I lost most of my gear recently in a condo fire (water damage) which is sad, but it's just stuff that can be replaced, right? In fact, I replaced my damaged Elear with the Clear and my Asgard 2 with the Asgard 3.
Sound: There really isn't much fault to find with the Clear. They are a pretty neutral sounding headphone with just a touch of brightness in the treble (maybe a small peak around 6k). The bass is pretty flat sounding without any real elevation and they are very smooth across the mid range. The Elear by comparison has some elevation in the bass that gives them a bit more warmth. The smoothness across the mids and highs is really where these improve over the Elear. By comparison to the Utopia I don't hear much difference with the Clear until you get to the treble where the Utopia gets very detailed and slightly brighter.
Overall I think the Clear is a brilliant headphone and well worth the asking price.
Listening through Foobar Wasapi Event output to my own FLAC files exclusively
