[omigawsh_lollercoaster]

   
It would also be nice to get a picture from someone of them wearing the headphones and looking dead center at the camera. I wonder how much the headband sticks because the photos usually try to hide this effect by taking a picture at an angle.

 
He puts them on at about 5:10
 
 

 

[AustinValentine]

  It would also be nice to get a picture from someone of them wearing the headphones and looking dead center at the camera. I wonder how much the headband sticks because the photos usually try to hide this effect by taking a picture at an angle.

 

+1 for frontface pic

 
Yeah, I'm not sure that you'll be able to tell how much the headband sticks because its too cold here right now for me to bother with a haircut. I find the headband really really flat. It's no giant rubber monstrosity like the Shure 840, that's for sure. 
 

 

  Great review Austin. I will link it on the very first page.
 

 
Thanks M-13!

 

[grizzlybeast]

  
 
Yeah, I'm not sure that you'll be able to tell how much the headband sticks because its too cold here right now for me to bother with a haircut. I find the headband really really flat. It's no giant rubber monstrosity like the Shure 840, that's for sure. 
 

 
 
Thanks M-13!

thanks man those are low profile i like it.


Just pulled the trigger. Can't wait

 

[M-13]

Just pulled the trigger. Can't wait

This should be interesting...
 

 

[dbdynsty25]

 
Just pulled the trigger. Can't wait

 
You'll still like the 7520's better.    Mark it down.  Especially the low end and comfort wise.  The FSPs aren't nearly as low profile as they look in that pic (too much hair bro), and the ear pads are tiny compared to the spacious Sonys.  I had the FSPs prior to the 7520 and I just don't see any way I could go back.

 

[xanlamin]

I just off-loaded the FSC because I can't get a gd seal which is very frustrating. I know the sound is great when I pushed the cups towards my ears. But once I released my hands, I lost the seal and most of the bass.

 

[AUserName501]

Spoiler: Quote: dbdynsty25

   
You'll still like the 7520's better.    Mark it down.  Especially the low end and comfort wise.  The FSPs aren't nearly as low profile as they look in that pic (too much hair bro), and the ear pads are tiny compared to the spacious Sonys.  I had the FSPs prior to the 7520 and I just don't see any way I could go back.

 

 
I can't find any frequency response information for the 7520 but I could for the Z1000. The =3381&graphID[1]=573&graphID[2]=&graphID[3]=&scale=20&graphType=0&buttonSelection=Update+Graph]treble and sub-bass go off a cliff on the Z1000 which isn't.

 

[M-13]

Wrong place for Z1000 vs 7520 discussion. I already compared them extensively over a year ago in the relevant Z1000 threads (twice!). Go find it if interested.
 
7520 frequency response can be found, but is harder to locate.
 
I had the 7520 for about a year and the Z1000 before then. I was praising the 7520 as my ultimate closed-can when it was pretty much being ignored on Head-Fi early last year. Now there is a much stronger following and even an active thread dedicated to it.
 
Given all this I prefer the FSP (I had them both together recently), but I would say the 7520 is no slouch either. The Spirit Pro pretty much redefined the word "neutral" for me. I hesitate to use that word now for any other headphone. I've been recently calling cans "balanced" if they have just the right amount of bass, mids, treble, instead of the word "neutral". I can still call them "linear" or "even sounding," but not "neutral" as I now know what the heck that sounds like and nothing really sounds like it other than the FSP. (2 others probably exist in the form of the Paradox and UERM, but I have yet to confirm this).

 

[AUserName501]

Spoiler: Quote: M-13

  Wrong place for Z1000 vs 7520 discussion. I already compared them extensively over a year ago in the relevant Z1000 threads (twice!). Go find it if interested.
 
7520 frequency response can be found, but is harder to locate.
 
I had the 7520 for about a year and the Z1000 before then. I was praising the 7520 as my ultimate closed-can when it was pretty much being ignored on Head-Fi early last year. Now there is a much stronger following and even an active thread dedicated to it.
 
Given all this I prefer the FSP (I had them both together recently), but I would say the 7520 is no slouch either. The Spirit Pro pretty much redefined the word "neutral" for me. I hesitate to use that word now for any other headphone. I've been recently calling cans "balanced" if they have just the right amount of bass, mids, treble, instead of the word "neutral". I can still call them "linear" or "even sounding," but not "neutral" as I now know what the heck that sounds like and nothing really sounds like it other than the FSP. (2 others probably exist in the form of the Paradox and UERM, but I have yet to confirm this).

 

 
FSP isn't neutral though according to the Olive-Welti diffuse field target curve as it has too much bass and too little treble. It might sound neutral to you but it technically isn't and it's closer to the new Harman Karden preferred listening curve. The bottom frequency response curve is the FSP and you can see the 3.5Khz is too large and drops away too quickly afterwards . The dotted green line is the Olive-Welti target curve and the black line is the Harman Karden preferred listening curve.
 

 
As you can see that from 2Khz onwards the treble is 3dB down on the HKPLC (Harman Karden Preferred Listening Curve) compared to the OWTC (Olive-Welti Target Curve). At 20Hz the HKPLC is up 5dB and deviates from OWTC from 200Hz downwards.
 
 
I have now overlayed the FSP frequency response on to the HKPLC. The alignment was at 300Hz. As you can see there is some significant differences.
 


 
 
I hesitate to call something bad but being ~8dB off the HKPLC and ~11dB off OWTC at 6Khz is bad for a studio monitor at this price. They are enjoyable headphones, they do have a great deal of clarity, but Focal is going to have to improve upon the treble region for studio monitoring purposes. It also highlights just how far off neutral many audiophiles here prefer.
 
So, general improvements that Focal can make is to use pads with more space for the ear, increase the amount of treble between 3.5Khz and 9Khz, a few dB boost between 1Khz and 3Khz and have the sub-bass boost increase at 200Hz rather than 400Hz. Focal seems to be a company that cares about their headphone line up so I hope to see they make improvements in the future.

 

[M-13]

Let me know what you think is a more neutral can then.

 

[jsblack]

Might be interesting to some...
LF's are kinda flat --- ---- --- - ---- ---- ----   ^;^
 
Wrong thread to post tho'  ?
 
 

 

[TMRaven]

The green-dashed line is actually a the response of neutral-measuring speakers while the black line is the Olive-Welti curve (which is also the listeners' preferred curve-- the whole point of doing the research was to find out a new response curve via both subjective listening and objective measurements.)
 
Treble response is very hard to measure on ear-simulators.  Treble is anywhere from 3-5khz and beyond depending on your definition.

 

[grizzlybeast]

As far as the neutral thing goes when I look at graphs and see it slope upwards it towards the bass it already doesnt look classic neutral to me on the graphs but more like real neutral. Also I will just use my ears screw a graph. I want to see if it translates to monitors in the low end well. It has its rise going almost none stop but not really steep from the mids up. That is what neutral should look like to me and I have always disagreed with the other so called neutral. The bass is said to be less than the k550 but when eq'd to have more impact than my yamaha. 
 
I have high hopes for it
Quote:

   
You'll still like the 7520's better.    Mark it down.  Especially the low end and comfort wise.  The FSPs aren't nearly as low profile as they look in that pic (too much hair bro), and the ear pads are tiny compared to the spacious Sonys.  I had the FSPs prior to the 7520 and I just don't see any way I could go back.

well to bring clarity here. I remember the 7520 very well but do not have it on hand any more. The only reason I sold it was because it was too congested in the soundstage compared to the yamaha. I prefer the yamaha a lot more now. But the 7520 is the most respected hp in its price range to date. 
 
Comfort is not an issue and I plan on getting a pair for bass and possible portable. 
 
These had to be purchased for one two factors.... sound quality and isolation. The super low leakage factor forced me to buy them to record with here and that is what i need. 
 
I probably wouldnt have bought them otherwise but i am excited none the less.

 

[AUserName501]

Spoiler: Quote: TMRaven

Quote:

  The green-dashed line is actually a the response of neutral-measuring speakers while the black line is the Olive-Welti curve (which is also the listeners' preferred curve-- the whole point of doing the research was to find out a new response curve via both subjective listening and objective measurements.)
 
Treble response is very hard to measure on ear-simulators.  Treble is anywhere from 3-5khz and beyond depending on your definition.

The Olive-Welti curve is not the listeners preferred curve. The Olive-Welti targe curve is the curve headphones should follow to have the same frequency response as neutral-measuring speakers. The Harman Karden Preferred Curve is based upon a recent study into the listeners preference in frequency response. Tyll goes into a bit of detail here.
 
The Focal Spirit Professional follows neither curve but I do wonder what Focal's own setup showed. Every measuring setup shows differences and you couldn't compare Tyll's setup to Purrin's setup.
 

 

[TMRaven]

Ok, harmon kardon preferred curve then.  Either way, Tyll is using it to demonstrate the neutrality of the Focal Pro and Classic in his latest review.  The olive-welti target curve in your visual is essentially the same as the preferred curve in tyll's visual: 12db up from 200hz to 3khz and then back down 12db at 10khz.  A bass boost starting from 200hz and eventually rising a couple db once it reaches around 80hz.