[Eslaron]

So... I pulled the trigger on Radiance without knowing that there is Celestee... And they're considerably cheaper, so now I'm wondering if I will not regret buying the "warmest" Focal headphone xD

Had any of you experienced both Celestee and Radiance, and can tell if the Radiance are "too warm" or the bass is too much?

 

[inseconds99]

So... I pulled the trigger on Radiance without knowing that there is Celestee... And they're considerably cheaper, so now I'm wondering if I will not regret buying the "warmest" Focal headphone xD

Had any of you experienced both Celestee and Radiance, and can tell if the Radiance are "too warm" or the bass is too much?

Where did you find a radiance? Used?

 

[Mhog55]

So... I pulled the trigger on Radiance without knowing that there is Celestee... And they're considerably cheaper, so now I'm wondering if I will not regret buying the "warmest" Focal headphone xD

Had any of you experienced both Celestee and Radiance, and can tell if the Radiance are "too warm" or the bass is too much?

Are you in need of a closed back only?

 

[Eslaron]

Where did you find a radiance? Used?

Brand new, at one of HiFi stores located in my country. It's still available in a few stores

Are you in need of a closed back only?

Yes, I was looking for a closed-back since I own HD600 and Clear Mg, and I wanted a headphone that would cut off the surrounding noise

 

[inseconds99]

Brand new, at one of HiFi stores located in my country. It's still available in a few stores

Congrats, I can’t seem to find it anywhere in the New York area, new from a retail store. If it was available for MSRP, I’d buy immediately.

 

[skeeb23]

Congrats, I can’t seem to find it anywhere in the New York area, new from a retail store. If it was available for MSRP, I’d buy immediately.

I actually got mine new from bentleymotors_dot_com online store. They are in Europe so after the currency conversion to U.S. I actually got it for just under MSRP if you can believe that. The only thing I was worried about was buying a high end HP from a non audio store...but it worked out for me at least. Shipping was also pretty quick considering going through customs.

 

[inseconds99]

I actually got mine new from bentleymotors_dot_com online store. They are in Europe so after the currency conversion to U.S. I actually got it for just under MSRP if you can believe that. The only thing I was worried about was buying a high end HP from a non audio store...but it worked out for me at least. Shipping was also pretty quick considering going through customs.

Only concern I’d have is if the unit was damaged or defective. Other then that, it seems like a good deal.

 

[Eslaron]

So they have arrived! First minutes of impressions:

1. Clamp force is noticeable
2. They seal my ears quite tightly
3. Powerful sub-bass, very powerful I might say
4. Powerful slam, they hit hard

I don't have any other closed-back, so I will compare apples to oranges - to Clear Mg

Also, they need the Focal advised "at least 24 hours" of burn-in.

 

[Francisco Evangelista]

Just joined the club! I personally don't like Focal headphones, I had the Utopia, Stellia and Clear in the past and they were the only headhones I put back into the box after 10 minutes of listening. The radiance is really different. Quite exciting, mild v-shaped sound and less warm than what I expected from reading all the comments. I am really enjoying these.

Can you share this cable model and brand? Love it! Thanks in advance

 

[Dynamo5561]

Can you share this cable model and brand? Love it! Thanks in advance

I made it by myself. It''s my signature design I have it for 1266, Susvara and Utopia.

 

[Francisco Evangelista]

I made it by myself. It''s my signature design I have it for 1266, Susvara and Utopia.

Top Love it!

 

[Eslaron]

Beautiful <3

 

[skeeb23]

Comparison's...soon...

 

[Eslaron]

Okay, so another batch of impressions after about 9 hours of burn-in and a few hours of listening.

This headphone punches hard, not like in a friendly sparring, it comes at you like Rocky Balboa or Mike Tyson. Combined with it's elevated bass it can start to get unpleasant, because it's a closed-back and the sound doesn't disperse as much, so it might feel like your ears are trapped in a pulsating pressure chamber. Of course it depends on the track, album etc. I tried Daft Punk's Discovery and Random Access Memories. On Aerodynamic my ears were whooped. And the all time champ One More Time was noticeably bassier, by a considerable margin.

I applied Crinacle's Parametric EQ (https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/crinacle/gras_43ag-7_harman_over-ear_2018/Focal Radiance/Focal Radiance ParametricEQ.txt) and the bass became colder, less thumpy. You can still feel the kick and slam, but it's not so overwhelming anymore.

Also please take my impressions with a grain of salt. This is my first closed-back, mid-fi/hi-fi (for me it's high-end Hi-Fi) headphone and coming from the open-back Clear Mg and the venerable HD600, my ears might be experiencing a little bit of a shock

 

[Eslaron]

Wow, these headphones made me discover that Spotify's compressed music cannot handle bass in Daft Punk's album... the bass is boomy. When I tried the same song on Deezer/Tidal, the bass didn't have that boomy extension up into the lower mids and was more defined.