[Music Alchemist]

Hey @dakanao. Remember that foobar2000 crossfeed DSP I mentioned earlier? I noticed that it makes some sounds less harsh and more natural. Might wanna try it out and see if it improves your experience with the FSP.

 

[maricius]

  I thought the Sennheiser Momentum headphones sounded somewhat similar to the FSP - or at least, I liked a lot of the same things about them.  They were both fairly warm and round sounding, both seemed in-your-face in terms of soundstage, both had nice closed-can bass impact that wasn't overdone.  With the newer Momentums coming onto the market I bet you could get a used pair of the first generation cans at something close to your budget.  They're also a bit more portable, which is nice.

I'd have to disagree. The Sennheiser MOMENTUM overears were my first foray into higher quality headphones and the sound is quite different. The Momentum is warmer and thicker sounding with a not so extended treble whereas the FSPl is on the darker side of neutral, not necessarily warm. Soundstage wise, the Focal has a noticeably deeper and projected soundstage with better imaging but the breadth of the Momentum's soundstage coupled with a forward midrange made vocals seem very wide instead of focused in the center. The bass of the Momentum was thick and loose but not exactly punchy. It has a softer punch compared to the tight punch of the Focal. The Focal Spirit Pro is quite a bit above the Momentum in terms of quality. The Focal Spirit Classic has a sound signature more similar to the Momentum's relative to the Pro.

 

[chailee80]

I found the momentums more congested sounding than the spirit pros. However the momentums are more comfortable and more musical sounding, the focals can sound a bit boring at times and were fairly uncomfortable out of the box.

 

[tarsonis]

Measurements of two new FSPs. Both from amazon/no reseller. The weird transient behaviour isn't that obvious through listening tests without using a reference but the missing and kind of wonky bass is. The faulty unit sounds bright/bass light. For detailed info about my rig:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/702924/best-studio-headphones/360_60#post_11513237

I may post the impulse response later on if I find the time. It may not look that drastic but the difference in sound is drastic.
I think Focal got some serious QA problems...

FSP new pair red/blue

FSP faulty pair green





 

 

[pOOB73]

   
It's funny how I decided to get rid of the FSP to try out more expensive headphones, and they ended up not sounding as good to me, even though they were better in some ways. I might buy an HD 650 soon from the same person I got an HD 700 from, so I'll have even more perspectives to offer next month, though I can't compare directly at the moment.

 
To save you some time and money: I sold my HD600 cause the FSP sounded better. More highs, lows, and detail. Better in every way. Also I will get rid of my Beoplay H6 soon. Again FSP is better.
Also I own some of the best CIEMs on the market, the 8.A built by well known Wizard and were around $1500. These have definitely more bass (not neutral IMHO), but again, the FSP excel in detail and highs.
 
You might be wanting to start looking into the direction of maybe Audeze or even STAX. Just IMHO of course.

 

[ozziecook]

   
To save you some time and money: I sold my HD600 cause the FSP sounded better. More highs, lows, and detail. Better in every way. Also I will get rid of my Beoplay H6 soon. Again FSP is better.
Also I own some of the best CIEMs on the market, the 8.A built by well known Wizard and were around $1500. These have definitely more bass (not neutral IMHO), but again, the FSP excel in detail and highs.
 
You might be wanting to start looking into the direction of maybe Audeze or even STAX. Just IMHO of course.

Hm. FSP better than HD600? Not sure about that...but not much in it admittedly. For me the HD600 has the edge. Which IEM compares best with FSP to you? I have the FX850...which is great, but not very isolating and a bit too v-shaped in comparison with FSP.
 

  I found the momentums more congested sounding than the spirit pros. However the momentums are more comfortable and more musical sounding, the focals can sound a bit boring at times and were fairly uncomfortable out of the box.

Agree with all except the boring bit. FSPs are still uncomfortable to me - and I've been leaving them stretched between books. They still pinch. Shame. As people have said, Focal need to redesign for next model.

 

[chailee80]

  Hm. FSP better than HD600? Not sure about that...but not much in it admittedly. For me the HD600 has the edge. Which IEM compares best with FSP to you? I have the FX850...which is great, but not very isolating and a bit too v-shaped in comparison with FSP.
 
Agree with all except the boring bit. FSPs are still uncomfortable to me - and I've been leaving them stretched between books. They still pinch. Shame. As people have said, Focal need to redesign for next model.

Yeh they get somewhat comfortable after a while but were never truely comfortable imo. The only iem that i found similar to the fsp is the noble 4 which might have a slight edge in clarity, detail and neutrality but they do cost more.

 

[henkie196]

  Hm. FSP better than HD600? Not sure about that...but not much in it admittedly. For me the HD600 has the edge. Which IEM compares best with FSP to you? I have the FX850...which is great, but not very isolating and a bit too v-shaped in comparison with FSP.
 
Agree with all except the boring bit. FSPs are still uncomfortable to me - and I've been leaving them stretched between books. They still pinch. Shame. As people have said, Focal need to redesign for next model.

Just compared them in a shop, would have to agree with you. The FSP sounded a bit tizzy, not very clear, though this being a shop, you never know if it was still burning in or not. Also strong clamping and pretty small earpads make me think it would not be that comfortable for me in the long run.
 
The HD600 sounded much clearer to me, more comfortable, too. A bit more bass than I'd like on some songs, though.
 
The DT770 pro (80 ohm) was comparitively more bassy than either one of the others, too much for me.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  To save you some time and money: I sold my HD600 cause the FSP sounded better. More highs, lows, and detail. Better in every way. Also I will get rid of my Beoplay H6 soon. Again FSP is better.
Also I own some of the best CIEMs on the market, the 8.A built by well known Wizard and were around $1500. These have definitely more bass (not neutral IMHO), but again, the FSP excel in detail and highs.
 
You might be wanting to start looking into the direction of maybe Audeze or even STAX. Just IMHO of course.

 
I said HD 650, not HD 600. But it's not like I'm going to not buy something just because you said so. I probably won't buy the FSP again until after I have a collection of better stuff. I want all the ultra-high-end headphones, like the STAX SR-009, Abyss AB-1266, HIFIMAN HE1000, Sennheiser Orpheus HE 90, etc.

 

[Stuff Jones]

Measurements of two new FSPs. Both from amazon/no reseller. The weird transient behaviour isn't that obvious through listening tests without using a reference but the missing and kind of wonky bass is. The faulty unit sounds bright/bass light. For detailed info about my rig:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/702924/best-studio-headphones/360_60#post_11513237

I may post the impulse response later on if I find the time. It may not look that drastic but the difference in sound is drastic.
I think Focal got some serious QA problems...
  FSP new pair red/blue
  FSP faulty pair green
 
   

 
Great now you've got me wondering if mine can sound even better. 
 
But seriously what is the typical margin of error for a headphone manufacturer?

 

[Music Alchemist]

  But seriously what is the margin of error for a typical headphone manufacturer?

 
I'd say larger than that, unfortunately.

 

[tarsonis]

Great now you've got me wondering if mine can sound even better. 

But seriously what is the typical margin of error for a headphone manufacturer?

Well u never know. Who buys two or more pairs of the same headphone? Would never made the test if there wasn't so many reviews on here and the recommendation by Tyll. I was like no way this is neutral and clean. What is wrong with this forum?

 

[Stuff Jones]

Well u never know. Who buys two or more pairs of the same headphone? Would never made the test if there wasn't so many reviews on here and the recommendation by Tyll. I was like no way this is neutral and clean. What is wrong with this forum?

 
Hmmm. Maybe I've got an off pair too. I don't find them exceptionally clean, but that could be because I'm coming from the Beoplay H6s which have a very bright sound to my ears. 

 

[Music Alchemist]

Since I've mentioned not buying the FSP again until after I have more high-end headphones, perhaps I'll just buy two or three of them and compare. lol

 

[dakanao]

   
Hmmm. Maybe I've got an off pair too. I don't find them exceptionally clean, but that could be because I'm coming from the Beoplay H6s which have a very bright sound to my ears. 

Same here. They're a bit less clear than the Creative Aurvana Live, but instead got a more forward midrange and tighter bass. But the clarity is 100% fine with me.

  Hey @dakanao. Remember that foobar2000 crossfeed DSP I mentioned earlier? I noticed that it makes some sounds less harsh and more natural. Might wanna try it out and see if it improves your experience with the FSP.

Hey, I listen to most of my music on mp3juice.to (high quality mp3 file stream site), youtube and Windows Media Player. So I can't EQ them for everything I play music on unfortanetly