[Korean audiophile]

Find my experience with this earlier in the thread. Mine rubbed off just by touching it - no pressure or alcohol needed.

Yea the Utopia has similar issues too with the adhesive wearing off the focal letters on the side it's a shame to have this cosmetic issues on nice expensive headphones

 

[dougms3]

I recently experienced a left side driver failure on my clears. Contacted focal support for a quote on out of warranty repair since they wont sell me the part. They were pretty quick to respond but quoted me $800 for repair. Stating that the drivers come in a pair and they have to replace both.

Anywho, i just decided to open it up and take a looksy. Probed around with my multimeter and found that theres no continuity to the voice coil. Took a good look and it appeared to be ok, coil was intact, no breaks, solder joint looked good.

I thought I'd desolder the voice coil joints and resolder with mundorf silver gold solder to make sure it wasnt the joint. While desoldering, i noticed the quality of the solder on that joint was not good. Removed all of it and carefully resoldered the voice coil with mundorf.

Driver worked fine afterwards but then i noticed it was clipping on the side i just fixed. So i opened up the headphone again . Plugged in the headphones while adjusting the magnet and the clipping disappeared.

It seems that even though the magnet is circular, it may need to be orientated in a specific position, either that or the way it was seated over the exposed voice coil wires was causing the clipping. I'm not sure which but its definitely one of the two because I'm not getting any clipping anymore.

 

[AudioDuck]

Exactly the same except for the box color (purple vs. mint green).

Very glad I jumped on getting a set once they started re-shipping these from Dekoni. They now show as back ordered on Dekoni’s page. (Retailers/resellers may have them though, I’ve not checked)

 

[ST33L]

Find my experience with this earlier in the thread. Mine rubbed off just by touching it - no pressure or alcohol needed.

Wonder if Focal would just sale the center piece. Looks like it’s attached w/three screws.

 

[ST33L]

I recently experienced a left side driver failure on my clears. Contacted focal support for a quote on out of warranty repair since they wont sell me the part. They were pretty quick to respond but quoted me $800 for repair. Stating that the drivers come in a pair and they have to replace both.

Anywho, i just decided to open it up and take a looksy. Probed around with my multimeter and found that theres no continuity to the voice coil. Took a good look and it appeared to be ok, coil was intact, no breaks, solder joint looked good.

I thought I'd desolder the voice coil joints and resolder with mundorf silver gold solder to make sure it wasnt the joint. While desoldering, i noticed the quality of the solder on that joint was not good. Removed all of it and carefully resoldered the voice coil with mundorf.

Driver worked fine afterwards but then i noticed it was clipping on the side i just fixed. So i opened up the headphone again . Plugged in the headphones while adjusting the magnet and the clipping disappeared.

It seems that even though the magnet is circular, it may need to be orientated in a specific position, either that or the way it was seated over the exposed voice coil wires was causing the clipping. I'm not sure which but its definitely one of the two because I'm not getting any clipping anymore.

Nice job remedying the problem. Certainly Focal could sell just one driver. They simply choose not to…

 

[dougms3]

Nice job remedying the problem. Certainly Focal could sell just one driver. They simply choose not to…

Yeah, its ridiculous that they refuse to sell the parts.

But really the problem is the solder they're using. It is losing conductivity for some reason, even though everything is intact.

I know the elex, elear, elegia, even heard a utopia had this issue with one or both drivers cutting out and I'm wondering if its because of that solder.

It could also be that the voice coil wire popped which in that case it would be very difficult to repair.

 

[dougms3]

Btw I bought the mounting ring for the ear pad for about $15 here.

Not as sturdy as the stock mounting ring but works well. Allows me to pad roll through my ever growing collection of earpads.

 

[itslikeboo]

Btw I bought the mounting ring for the ear pad for about $15 here.

Not as sturdy as the stock mounting ring but works well. Allows me to pad roll through my ever growing collection of earpads.

Are these 3D printed?

 

[dougms3]

Are these 3D printed?

Looks like it.

 

[itslikeboo]

Looks like it.

With the orientation those are printed, I’d be worried about longevity. How many times have you swapped pads?

 

[dougms3]

With the orientation those are printed, I’d be worried about longevity. How many times have you swapped pads?

Only a couple times but its fine as long as you're careful.

The fit is pretty close to stock. Not loose at all and fits snugly without being too tight.

I have some nice Vesper Audio leather pads coming in and I specifically wanted to test those with my focals.

 

[jriems]

Wonder if Focal would just sale the center piece. Looks like it’s attached w/three screws.

They did via headphones.com under warranty, and I switched them out myself. The replacement rings seem to be fine. I also removed all of the lettering from the original rings, and they look nice that way. I kept them to switch out down the road if I ever want to change up the appearance.

 

[Tonza]

Soon I'll need a new pair of pads on my clear as it's already 3,5 years old. The stock pads are starting to fray a bit and they're quite a bit darker in color.

The Dekoni Stellia pads seem interesting based on impressions. I briefly had the fenestrated sheepskin ones ~3 years ago and preferred the stock at that time
so I sold them. If I remember correctly they felt a bit stiff compared to stock. Another option is the velour Dekoni but that seems to have more divided opinion.

 

[roskodan]

I still use my stock pads that came with the unit when it was bought new in 2017. In the meantime I did buy a new pair of stock pads a year ago, just in case I want to sell them. Once you start using the new pads, they get ugly pretty fast. The old ones are ugly but more comfy from usage and perhaps even better sounding than when fresh.

 

[jriems]

Soon I'll need a new pair of pads on my clear as it's already 3,5 years old. The stock pads are starting to fray a bit and they're quite a bit darker in color.

The Dekoni Stellia pads seem interesting based on impressions. I briefly had the fenestrated sheepskin ones ~3 years ago and preferred the stock at that time
so I sold them. If I remember correctly they felt a bit stiff compared to stock. Another option is the velour Dekoni but that seems to have more divided opinion.

I really like the Dekoni Stellia pads a lot. Another option is the Drop Focal Elex pads. They're very close to the stock Clear pads, but they're black so dirt doesn't show.