Music Alchemist
Pokémon trainer of headphones
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
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The glue isn't that strong and the Focal ear pads use a plate at the back which disconnects from the cup. I tried it with the V-Moda XL pads and it removed the bass response by double-sided taping from the plate from the back of the Focal ear pads on to the XL pads. It didn't work so I put it back together. Terrible design overall from Focal regardless of how good it sounds. Everyone in France must have tiny ears or a high tolerance for pain.
The plastic feels cheap and snappable. The metal headband squeaks and is heavy which shifts the center of mass too high on the head. If you look at the ground then the headband will slip and if you have hair over your ears then ear pads will also slide off. The comfort is awful and the clamp is tight. The pads do not encircle the ear and an average mans ear will not fit inside. The padding on the top of the headband is too thin and isn't wide enough which causes a pressure point that is also made worse by the weight. The styling looks ugly when worn because it doesn't follow the form of the head (look at the Momentum and Urbanite headbands).
It's frustrating that they sound so good when everything else is so wrong. It just seems a lot of speaker manufacturers don't put much thought into ergonomics, comfort and styling or don't consider anyone with a different sized head and ears than their own. The only possible time I would ever recommend someone to buy their headphones is if they only intend to wear them for 10 minutes as no headphone sounds good when all you can think about is how sore your ears are. The real worst thing though is that Focal are unlikely to ever change the design because they spent so much money on the tooling.
The comfort and fit were perfect for me, even after hours of use. And the ear pads totally surrounded my ears. Guess I'm lucky!
I also like the aesthetics very much -- especially that raindrop texture paint!