[Zojokkeli]

Would Chord Mojo have enough juice to drive the Utopias? Also, how do Utopias compare against TH900's?

 

[jamato8]

  Would Chord Mojo have enough juice to drive the Utopias? Also, how do Utopias compare against TH900's?

The Mojo would without doubt, have enough power for the Utopia. I don't think enough people have them to compare to the TH900, by chance they have both. I have the TH900 and would bet, know, that they are going to sound more open sounding, I bet more dynamic and have a flatter frequency response. The won't have the fun but obvious bass hump. 

 

[Zojokkeli]

There isn't a good selection of high end headphones available in stores to test in my country, but I think Utopias will make the cut since they are made by a reputed speaker manufacturer. The price of Utopia is definitely very high, but if I replace my rig with Mojo and sell the other stuff away, I think I could afford it.
 
... I need to stop browsing Head-Fi, my wallet is dying.

 

[up late]

The Mojo would without doubt, have enough power for the Utopia. I don't think enough people have them to compare to the TH900, by chance they have both. I have the TH900 and would bet, know, that they are going to sound more open sounding, I bet more dynamic and have a flatter frequency response. The won't have the fun but obvious bass hump. 

the utopia has a flatter fr according to tyll's measurements. the th900 has a "dynamic" and visceral presentation tho.

 

[BrutalLegend]

Just heard the Elear at KL AV Festival. Gotta say, it is most definitely worth $1000. Also a heads up for metal and rock fans out there, it sounds great!

 

[Currawong]

 

I can't remember posting my impressions from the SF meet in this thread, so I'll write them here again.

Starting with the Elear, it had a wonderfully pleasant presentation with acoustic music that on the rigs I tried it, made me forget the gear and just want to listen. That I remember more than any specifics. I wasn't feeling that it offered anything specifically better or worse than any other headphones in the $1-2k range while I was listening. That's something I'd want to sit down for some time and assess. 

The Utopias were completely different -- not like any other headphones I've ever owned. The analogy I used was that Focal had literally strapped a high-end speaker driver inside a high-end speaker case-based material and put it on my head. It made everything else, except maybe Stax, sound veiled and hazy. I don't know if it was macro speed or micro speed, but it was so fast, like a top sports person who moves completely reflexively without hesitation or holding back. Totally immediate and up-front. In a way, too good. Beyond brutally revealing. Everything about the source and amp was revealed. Remember how it was when we all first heard LCD-2s and the immediacy was overwhelming at first? It was like that, but so much more so.

Probably the easiest way to look at the Utopias is: If you've heard how their Utopia speakers sound, that's what you'll get that in the Utopia headphones.

These are some incredible claims! I will listen for myself in London in a few weeks and report back

Let's see if they destroy my HD800S, ZMF BW or HD650..

Are you suggesting that these make an HD800 sound veiled and hazy?

 
I didn't directly compare my HD800s with the Utopias on the same gear, but they have a different presentation after which other headphones feel veiled when listening. Again, I don't know if that is more resolution, or mostly a factor of a different type of driver and excellent damping. With both the Utopias and MrSpeaker's Ether Flows I can clearly make out the sound signatures of the DAC and amp. With the Ethers I often tend to think about the tuning and how many pieces of foam to put in. The Utopias, even if the presentation is different, reminds me of my first Stax experience where they make regular headphones seem like a pretentious effort at sound reproduction (I had D5000s at the time I first tried a Stax rig). Nothing else has a presentation anything like them.
 
The problem I think with the Utopias is this: I wouldn't buy them unless I owned no less than something along the lines of full Rag/Yggy rig, a Chord Dave, or any completely dialled-in high-end rig. They were just TOO brutally revealing of gear, and I'm too sensitive now. Ditto LCD-4s (which I auditioned again later out of a Resonessence Mirus + Audeze King).

 

[raypin]

mmmm......that's heavy. So, a mere Chord TT wouldn't be good enough for the Focal Utopia??

 

[meomap]

I didn't directly compare my HD800s with the Utopias on the same gear, but they have a different presentation after which other headphones feel veiled when listening. Again, I don't know if that is more resolution, or mostly a factor of a different type of driver and excellent damping. With both the Utopias and MrSpeaker's Ether Flows I can clearly make out the sound signatures of the DAC and amp. With the Ethers I often tend to think about the tuning and how many pieces of foam to put in. The Utopias, even if the presentation is different, reminds me of my first Stax experience where they make regular headphones seem like a pretentious effort at sound reproduction (I had D5000s at the time I first tried a Stax rig). Nothing else has a presentation anything like them.

The problem I think with the Utopias is this: I wouldn't buy them unless I owned no less than something along the lines of full Rag/Yggy rig, a Chord Dave, or any completely dialled-in high-end rig. They were just TOO brutally revealing of gear, and I'm too sensitive now. Ditto LCD-4s (which I auditioned again later out of a Resonessence Mirus + Audeze King).

That is interesting. Does it mean when Jude brought his Chord TT over to Europe to try to listen to the Orpheus 2 and cried afterward, is he regretting he should bought the Chord Dave to test it with?
Then Utopia is not worth it to buy at $4K.

 

[Stillhart]

   
I didn't directly compare my HD800s with the Utopias on the same gear, but they have a different presentation after which other headphones feel veiled when listening. Again, I don't know if that is more resolution, or mostly a factor of a different type of driver and excellent damping. With both the Utopias and MrSpeaker's Ether Flows I can clearly make out the sound signatures of the DAC and amp. With the Ethers I often tend to think about the tuning and how many pieces of foam to put in. The Utopias, even if the presentation is different, reminds me of my first Stax experience where they make regular headphones seem like a pretentious effort at sound reproduction (I had D5000s at the time I first tried a Stax rig). Nothing else has a presentation anything like them.
 
The problem I think with the Utopias is this: I wouldn't buy them unless I owned no less than something along the lines of full Rag/Yggy rig, a Chord Dave, or any completely dialled-in high-end rig. They were just TOO brutally revealing of gear, and I'm too sensitive now. Ditto LCD-4s (which I auditioned again later out of a Resonessence Mirus + Audeze King).

 
I agree with this in essence, but rather than call it a problem, I'd phrase it a bit differently:  I'd say that unless you own really high end source gear, you're not going to be taking advantage of everything the Utopia has to offer. It hardly seems worth spending $4k on a headphone that won't be used to its full potential.  If you already have a really nice headphone like the HD800, but your source chain isn't quite TOTL yet, you might consider upping your source chain first otherwise you might be disappointed that the Utopia isn't sounding as good as people say it should.

 

[rgs9200m]

The description so far sounds similar to comments about the Hifman HE6. Is this true at all? Are the Utopias analytical? Are they too revealing of recordings of popular music with digital glare or hard-to-take highs?
(I realize that of course there are very few people who have experience with them, but the limited impressions so far seem to point in this direction it seems.)

 

[Stillhart]

  The description so far sounds similar to comments about the Hifman HE6. Is this true at all? Are the Utopias analytical? Are they too revealing of recordings of popular music with digital glare or hard-to-take highs?
(I realize that of course there are very few people who have experience with them, but the limited impressions so far seem to point in this direction it seems.)

 
I didn't find them to be too analytical.  They're super clean, fast and transparent but without going overboard and being analytical.  But that cleanliness and transparency will highlight weaknesses in your source chain if you have any.

 

[lovethatsound]

I agree with this in essence, but rather than call it a problem, I'd phrase it a bit differently:  I'd say that unless you own really high end source gear, you're not going to be taking advantage of everything the Utopia has to offer. It hardly seems worth spending $4k on a headphone that won't be used to its full potential.  If you already have a really nice headphone like the HD800, but your source chain isn't quite TOTL yet, you might consider upping your source chain first otherwise you might be disappointed that the Utopia isn't sounding as good as people say it should.

In 4 or 5 weeks time,i should have the Utopia on home demo,at the moment I'm using the hd800 unmodified with the chord Dave,which i love very much,but if i feel the Utopia is better i will buy it,I'm really looking forward to trying it out

 

[XERO1]

   
I didn't find them to be too analytical.  They're super clean, fast and transparent but without going overboard and being analytical.  But that cleanliness and transparency will highlight weaknesses in your source chain if you have any.

 
I agree with Stillhart.  I didn't find the Utopia's to be overly analytical either.  I guess I would have to disagree with Currawong about the Utopia's requiring someone to already have a super high-end rig to even be considered.
 
Actually, there is an argument to be made for first starting with the best headphones (to your ear) that you can afford, and then start upgrading your gear.  The benefit is that you will already have headphones that are high-res enough to allow you to easily hear the difference/improvement between any downstream component change that you make down the road.
 
That being said, the Elear's would still be a great place to start if the Utopia's are just to far out of your budget.

 

[rgs9200m]

Thanks for those clarifications. It's just that the phrase "brutally revealing" got my attention as a red flag since I listen to older popular music like the Beatles and such. 

 

[meomap]

I agree with Stillhart.  I didn't find the Utopia's to be overly analytical either.  I guess I would have to disagree with Currawong about the Utopia's requiring someone to already have a super high-end rig to even be considered.

Actually, there is an argument to be made for first starting with the best headphones (to your ear) that you can afford, and then start upgrading your gear.  The benefit is that you will already have headphones that are high-res enough to allow you to easily hear the difference/improvement between any downstream component change that you make down the road.

That being said, the Elear's would still be a great place to start if the Utopia's are just to far out of your budget.

Elear and DHC Silver Complement 4 are already too good for me.
No thx to Utopia.