[Delta9K]

Your enthusiasm is real, that is awesome! Good to see you're having fun with your gear.

 

[Shane D]

Your enthusiasm is real, that is awesome! Good to see you're having fun with your gear.

I may be a little overboard two days in, but I find nothing that I don't like. These are going to replace four sets of closed backs for me.

It makes even more curious to see/hear the differences between Elex's and OG Clears.

 

[Hyde00]

I may be a little overboard two days in, but I find nothing that I don't like. These are going to replace four sets of closed backs for me.

It makes even more curious to see/hear the differences between Elex's and OG Clears.

Damn........ I was thinking to buy Sundara Closed but now I wonder if I should go for this instead.......... lol.

 

[WaveTheory]

I may be a little overboard two days in, but I find nothing that I don't like. These are going to replace four sets of closed backs for me.

It makes even more curious to see/hear the differences between Elex's and OG Clears.

LOL. Now you see what I've been on about with the Radiance. It's great. Glad you're enjoying!

Damn........ I was thinking to buy Sundara Closed but now I wonder if I should go for this instead.......... lol.

I have a review of Sundara closed coming very soon. It has its strengths but is no Radiance. If you can afford the Radiance, I recommend that route.

 

[Shane D]

Damn........ I was thinking to buy Sundara Closed but now I wonder if I should go for this instead.......... lol.

Big difference in price though. But, they are awesome.

 

[chaz_flhr]

Second day of listening and I will try to not to gush too much. But, MAN am I loving these headphones!
I have gone through a pretty wide selection of music and I am currently in the midst of my RHCP collection. Rock, pop, blues, jazz, etc. It all sounds great.
Yesterday I started on my iFi Pro iCAN with no sound effects enabled. Good, but a little too sterile for me. With the iCAN, even "tube mode" is a little neutral for me sometimes. I switched over to my Violectric V220 and the Radiance really came to life. Bassier, fuller, just more fun. Went on for hours. Today I started with the V220 and things were hopping. Then I decided to go back to the iCAN, but just give it 10hz of bass boost. Wow! They were banging hard. Lot of fun, but I ended up taking it off after a while. It was sounding just a bit exaggerated. Now tube mode sounded pretty damn good.
I have another amp in the system that I haven't touched in more than a month. I turned on my Little Dot MK9. I left it running for half an hour to forty five minutes, but it was just OK. I left it on for a few hours while I played with the others. I came back to it about an hour ago and it sounds awesome! I am currently running through 35 RHCP's songs and the head is bobbing and the feet are moving.

The mids are very present. Great for a guy that Loves vocals. The bass is strong and fills out the music wonderfully. The treble is just as much as I need. Florence and the Machine along with horn jazz sounds Very good. It doesn't and never will match the upper mids and above of my Grado's, but they could never dream of having this kind of bass presence.

Unlike the Elegia's, these remind me very much of my Elex's. Nothing is missing. That is probably the best compliment I can give a headphone. I don't think I will even bother trying the Dekoni Stellia pads that I have here.

I sold my LSA HP-2's this afternoon. My Argon T60's are on CAM now. The Elegia's will be going up this weekend. Then I will keep the Cascades or HiFiman RE-R9's for those times when I want exaggerated bass, just for fun.

For my tastes, this feels and sounds like a very well balanced headphone. Very much like my Elex's.

So much for not gushing!

The Radiance doesn't have the standard Focal house sound / tuning.
Have you tried tube + and experimented with the bass+ settings on the ican and are you running them balanced?
A dx 312 is a great sounding dap with them as well if you are interested in a dap. I think I am going to give the ifi gryphon a try for travel as well with them for those long trips.

 

[Shane D]

The Radiance doesn't have the standard Focal house sound / tuning.
Have you tried tube + and experimented with the bass+ settings on the ican and are you running them balanced?
A dx 312 is a great sounding dap with them as well if you are interested in a dap. I think I am going to give the ifi gryphon a try for travel as well with them for those long trips.

I don't really go much for tube+. I used bass boost for a bit, but it was a little too much for me.
The Violectric V220 was a ton of fun and very bassy.

I also tried them on my cheapie tube amp (LD MK9) and they were surprisingly good.

My DAP is a Sony NW-ZX300 and good power out of 4.4mm port.

 

[Mhog55]

I don't really go much for tube+. I used bass boost for a bit, but it was a little too much for me.
The Violectric V220 was a ton of fun and very bassy.

I also tried them on my cheapie tube amp (LD MK9) and they were surprisingly good.

My DAP is a Sony NW-ZX300 and good power out of 4.4mm port.

Perhaps after you've spent more time with the Radiance, you can access and compare them with the SR2?

 

[Shane D]

Perhaps after you've spent more time with the Radiance, you can access and compare them with the SR2?

Actually when the Radiance arrived I was comparing the SR2's to the Focal Elex's. (And I was Very surprised!)

As I mentioned, I think, earlier the Radiance will be replacing about four sets of closed backs. I have already sold the LSA HP-2's and traded the Elegia's with more to go.

I don't think I will be comparing the SR2's against the Radiance for quite a while. Next up will be all the open back headphones.

 

[Pashmeister]

Choosing between Radiance or Stellia, I had to pick the Radiance.

Radiance’s overall tonality is more pleasing and engaging to me even if Stellia has higher technical performance. And I can’t get over the metallic sound. In testing “Bubbles” by Yosi Horikawa, I couldn’t get past the bouncing ping pong balls sounding like they were made of steel.

 

[Shane D]

Perhaps after you've spent more time with the Radiance, you can access and compare them with the SR2?

I am just finishing up with my closed backs before the baseball game. I noticed that my SR2's are still in my audio rack.
Tomorrow I will do a Radiance vs SR2's comparo before I start going through all the opens on Tuesday.

 

[chaz_flhr]

Choosing between Radiance or Stellia, I had to pick the Radiance.

Radiance’s overall tonality is more pleasing and engaging to me even if Stellia has higher technical performance. And I can’t get over the metallic sound. In testing “Bubbles” by Yosi Horikawa, I couldn’t get past the bouncing ping pong balls sounding like they were made of steel.

Interesting, I will have to try that song to see what it sounds like to me.
Update
I know we all hear differently but at what point do the ping pong balls sound metallic to you? The Radiance definitely has a warmer tuning overall and in the very beginning I hear a ping pong ball bouncing on a metal surface but not a steel ball.

 

[Shane D]

Perhaps after you've spent more time with the Radiance, you can access and compare them with the SR2?

Well i spent yesterday and today comparing these two. I like both headphones very much. IMO, an open back will always best a closed back.

While the Radiance sounded more open than the majority of my closed backs, they of course, could not compete with the SR2's.

(Off topic) when the Radiance arrived last week, I was comparing the SR2's to the Elex's, and the SR2's were faring very well (/Off topic).

The SR2's have great bass, great mids and a pretty wide soundstage, IMO. They sound great out of my Violectric. Full, bassy and a bit noisey. On the iFi Pro iCAN they sound more precise and controlled even with a touch of bass boost. The sound on the Pro never sounds quite as exciting though.

The Radiance on the other hand are amp-agnostic. They sound good on all my amps. They have such a nice clean, clear sound.

My preferences swung back and forth depending on the music. When I had a song on repeat and I changed headphones the first reaction was often "this doesn't sound as good". And then one minute into the song, my head is bobbing and my feet are tapping.

These are both very good headphones, IMO.
The SR2's have great bass, mids and they are very easy to drive. Downside is the sound becomes a little sloppy with messy music (think Deftones, Nine Inch Nails, etc.) And the headband feels really flimsy and I have to keep adjusting. I will have to tighten the set screws.

The Radiance are beautiful, sound great (although really closed in with this comparo). The bass is great, the mids are smooth and they just have a great range.

This test has me just itching to get to the open back shoot out! Starting tomorrow, SR2's vs Focal Elex's vs Grado GH2's vs Grado Hemps vs HiFiman HE6se V2's.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Mhog55]

Well i spent yesterday and today comparing these two. I like both headphones very much. IMO, an open back will always best a closed back.

While the Radiance sounded more open than the majority of my closed backs, they of course, could not compete with the SR2's.

(Off topic) when the Radiance arrived last week, I was comparing the SR2's to the Elex's, and the SR2's were faring very well (/Off topic).

The SR2's have great bass, great mids and a pretty wide soundstage, IMO. They sound great out of my Violectric. Full, bassy and a bit noisey. On the iFi Pro iCAN they sound more precise and controlled even with a touch of bass boost. The sound on the Pro never sounds quite as exciting though.

The Radiance on the other hand are amp-agnostic. They sound good on all my amps. They have such a nice clean, clear sound.

My preferences swung back and forth depending on the music. When I had a song on repeat and I changed headphones the first reaction was often "this doesn't sound as good". And then one minute into the song, my head is bobbing and my feet are tapping.

These are both very good headphones, IMO.
The SR2's have great bass, mids and they are very easy to drive. Downside is the sound becomes a little sloppy with messy music (think Deftones, Nine Inch Nails, etc.) And the headband feels really flimsy and I have to keep adjusting. I will have to tighten the set screws.

The Radiance are beautiful, sound great (although really closed in with this comparo). The bass is great, the mids are smooth and they just have a great range.

This test has me just itching to get to the open back shoot out! Starting tomorrow, SR2's vs Focal Elex's vs Grado GH2's vs Grado Hemps vs HiFiman HE6se V2's.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Is the timbre/tonality similar between the SR2 and Radiance, or are they miles apart? I'm assuming that the Radiance has a little more energy in the upper frequencies?

 

[Shane D]

Is the timbre/tonality similar between the SR2 and Radiance, or are they miles apart? I'm assuming that the Radiance has a little more energy in the upper frequencies?

The Radiance has full range including the upper frequencies. And it is all clean sound. The SR2's are a bigger, wider sound. Maybe also sloppier.
It was comparing two very different kinds of sound signatures.

The Radiance are a keeper!

Next up, I start seeing where the SR2's fit in.