OK some further impressions:
A month or so into these, I have to say they rate up there among the best closed cans. As is the Head-Fi way, the Spirit Pro have become the FOTM and the Classic have been somewhat overshadowed, but they are superb headphones and deserve recognition as such.
They have largely been compared against the very-similar Spirit Pro, and the fact that they are “slightly warm” in direct comparison has led to some silly “veiled” comments. They are only “slighty warm” in direct comparison to the Pros – compared to most closed cans they are pretty close to linear, just slightly relaxed from the upper mids onwards. Everything is clear though, including the treble, and it is a LONG way from being treble shy or having "rolled off" treble. The treble is all there, all clear, just a couple of db down. The mids are smooth and natural sounding and it’s worth noting just how clean and crisp the bass is while remaining extended and powerful – not an easy thing to achieve in any headphones. The sound is overwhelmingly natural, smooth, but very detailed and clear. If you think of neutral as white, then this is an off-white. Not coloured, but quite white, a neutral with a warm twist.
Time for that old cliché – “Good soundstage for a closed can” – obviously these do not convince you they are an open can, it's not a huge soundstage by any means, but they have a good sense of space and separation that stops music from seeming boxed in and claustrophobic as it can with many closed back models.
The general quality of the accessories and packaging is pretty high end. The thick box has a hidden magnetic clasp and very nice foam cut out, and “soundproofing” in the lid as an aesthetic touch. You’ll only ever look at the thing once, but these little touches do add to the feeling of consumer satisfaction. The soft carrying bag is microfiber and keeps the headphones naturally polished. The portable cable is a good length, and the mic a sensible distance from the mouth. The home listening cable is really great in terms of flexibility, ruggedness and length. It’s absolutely perfect for crossing my room from my amplifier to watch films or TV when my girlfriend is doing some work in the room and needs quiet.
Style is great, the bronze and brown theme looks very classy and overall they look like they are worth their price. Many headphones in this bracket - “entry level” for headphone enthusiasts “expensive” for the average punter – fall short of appearing to the average person that they are of a suitable finish for the money. These clearly are. Other welcome design choices include an easily removable cable, and folding earcups to make the unused headphones in their soft fabric bag easily stashed in a bag or even a large outside coat pocket.
The design is far from perfect though. The headband padding is soft – but the metal strips that form the internal headband appear to run over, not under the padding. Maybe there is a light layer of foam over but it very much feels like you have two metal bands pressed against your skull. This is a really odd design decision – to have obvious high quality memory foam headband padding and then negate its effect entirely in this way. I would stop short of saying it’s uncomfortable, it’s not, but it is an unnecessary irritant.
The ear pads, while extremely soft in the choice of memory foam and protein leather, are very small in terms of the opening. I have fairly big ears so it’s rare for me to find circumaural headphones that don’t touch or press some part of my ear so I am resigned to “over ear” headphones being party “on-ear”, but these go a bit too far. I don’t know whose ears these were made for. They won’t fit a child’s skull but the openings seem designed for a child’s ears. The pads really need not be so wide in the width of the “ring” and it would have been easy to make the opening larger on the same sized headphone. I guess creating the smaller space helped them achieve the natural sound with the low bass, but it’s a bit of a shame that they can get a bit irritating after an hour or so of use.
A final complaint is that the ball joint that allows cup rotation squeaked a bit on purchase. I sorted this out with a drop of olive oil worked into each ball joint (WD40 would be more orthodox but I didn’t have any to hand), but Focal could have done better in their design to avoid the problem in the first place.
So, a few design flaws here and there, but not enough to ruin the party. These are not just one of the best closed headphones for their very reasonable price; they are simply one of the best closed headphones available. Between this, the Spirit Pro and the NAD Visio HP50, for the first time we have affordable closed headphones that dip a toe into the high end while being conveniently portable and efficient.
Highly recommended.
So yeah, maybe I'll try to order in some weeks if they come into stock again, I won't bother right now..
