Hey man, how would you compare / contrast the upper mids, lower and upper treble of these against the Clear MG? I owned the MG, and liked it quite a bit with the exception of a few things. I felt that lead vocalists, male and female, sat a little further back in the mix than I prefer. Do they come across any more forward or level with the Radiance? I thought electric guitars sounded really nice on the MG, but the rhythm guitar definitely took a back seat to the lead. Is this the same with the Radiance? How would you compare guitars between the MG and Radiance? Do the mids, lower and mid mids have a little more weight on the Radiance? Any other thoughts and comparisons would be most appreciated.
I'm a bit hesitant to answer this simply because I don't own the MG Pro's any longer and it's been about a year since I did. Audio memory is very difficult to gauge...but since you asked I will give it my best shot:
I'm surprised you thought the MG was a bit pushed back in vocals. I thought just the opposite that the MG was very vocal present. The stage of the MG Pro was also much more closed in and more of an intimate sound.
The Radiance, to me, is not a very vocal present headphone. Vocalists, depending on who and what track, can sound great or a bit underwhelming. It's a headphone that I have learned pairs very well with pretty clean amps. Since it already has a good amount of bass and oomph to the midrange, I would think tubes or something more colored would detract from the enjoyment. I know, that's not something you asked but I'm getting to my point here ha.
Guitars do sound very good on the Radiance. I also found them to sound good on the MG Pro from what I remember too. So, that probably doesn't help you there. The only reason I don't own the MG Pro any longer was because I had discomfort wearing the pads...the fenestrated pads of Focal don't agree with my oily skin. This is where the Radiance is much better being leather with 0 issues.
I felt the weight of the mids to be great on both headphones when I listened. Funny enough I actually think the stage is wider on the Radiance then on the MG. So hard to compare though when going off of memory.
I'm going to
@WaveTheory to this response because I believe he still owns both headphones and is much more fluent with his terminology and experiences with this. He is the one that convinced me my balanced Jot2 was the better sound pair instead of the SE on the jot2.
I personally feel the Radiance was made for rock and harder rock type music with the caveat that at times you can get some shout out of it...but I've never had it bad enough to hate. Really is track dependent too.
I really feel like there are many similarities between the two headphones mentioned here, but remember one is closed and the other is open. Closed back by nature will be more aggressive too.
If I didn't address things here you wanted me to just hit me back up on it. I'm sure between myself and other's here we can help you make a somewhat informative decision!
