Okay SO. It's been a busy week trying to figure out what the heck happened. I wanted to post here because many of you tried to help and it's useful for everyone to know what I learned. My journey with the Clear MGs seems mostly concluded with some remaining questions along with a bittersweet ending which was me returning them to the vendor.
However I returned them not because of the original problem I posted here about. The source of that problem was that the headphones sounded absolutely grating because they were not burned-in enough. I'm fairly certain that every review I've seen so far that complained the headphones seriously attack the ears is likely because they were brand new when reviewed and/or burn in was not done properly. Actually the thing that tipped me off to idea of incomplete burn-in was the first several pages of this very thread and particularly Nomax's video of the driver visibly moving with the volume. I realized that my driver at the time did not stretch out nearly that much under bass.
In the Focal manual that comes with the Clear MGs, it clearly states to burn these in for 48 hours before use. I did this, however I realized that I did not do this loud enough. I totally underestimated the amount of volume and bass that these drivers need to break in which is to say, louder than I would ever listen to music and scary with the reputation of the fragility of the previous Clears' drivers.
After I burned them in properly this time, it totally transformed the sound. Then I encountered a new problem- it was no longer the headphone I thought I was buying and has a particular vocal warmness and centeredness? that just doesn't work with my ears. It wasn't grating anymore but hilariously, it lost detail that it had before the break in. Particularly, the newfound punchy and slammy bass was masking that detail just a bit too much for me. Also it had a vocals/mids-straight-down-the-ear-canal that is uncomfortable for me as warm as they may be. This may be because I already fried my ears testing and troubleshooting this while it was grating in various ways over the past week but regardless I gave up. I also still can't rule out that some of the things that still felt off to me afterwards were because of my particular unit. Alas, I'm washing my hands of it.
When someone else in the future comes in here and complains about how unpleasant and fatiguing this headphone is- definitely tell them to burn it all the way in.
Anyway, I'm glad this headphone works for other people and I respect the sound it makes. It's beautiful in its own way but unfortunately I have to continue my search.
Maybe I'll look at the Aryas again.
Or straight to Utopia?
