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Focal Utopia General Discussion
Oct 12, 2017 at 1:37 PM Post #4,861 of 20,550
wldcohso said:
Agreed, lol .. I’ve returned stuff before and stated I found better pricing and never had an issue. Heck, now a days when you return something 99% of the time they have “lower price” as an option when selecting why you’re returning an item. With all the price matching going around between stores and vendors I didn’t think it would be an issue. Lesson learned, I’m still rocking with them.
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So will you keep two pairs of these awesome headphones, or try to sell one?

It's a shame that there's no formal warranty for 2nd-hand Utopias. I read that one anecdotal example on this thread where Focal did honor a second-hand warranty, but still, that's not something you can really advertise on eBay if it doesn't formally exist. I think anybody that sells these headphones second hand has to expect a sizeable depreciation. Also, you're running the risk that the buyer might not like them (or might find a lower price elsewhere) and want to return them... :wink:
 
Oct 12, 2017 at 5:55 PM Post #4,862 of 20,550
I just thought I would share my listening experience so far. I've used Utopia exclusively out of Hugo 2 (fed by NUC running Roon/ROCK through SOtM tx-USBUltra) for the last month. Last night, I decided to listen to them from the headphone out on my Hegel H160 integrated amp (also fed by same NUC and tx-USBUltra) but this time via my 2Qute. I have to say that I feel like I preferred the 2Qute to Hegel experience over the direct from Hugo 2 experience. I'll have to do a little more testing, but I was honestly blown away by the combo. I'm a little stunned to be perfectly honest. I was constantly playing with Roon EQ using the Hugo 2 and haven't found the combo particularly enjoyable, yet. The Hegel H160 seems under powered for my Aeons, but perfectly matched for the Utopias. I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure if it is meant to be a compliment to the Hegel integrated or the 2Qute. Maybe both. All I know is that the Utopias haven't sounded better.
 
Oct 12, 2017 at 6:11 PM Post #4,863 of 20,550
Anybody have a site to buy LEMO connectors off that ships to Canada? Allied Canada doesn't stock them, and other sites are painfully expensive (about 50$ per connector).

Jesus
 
Oct 13, 2017 at 12:01 AM Post #4,865 of 20,550
kingkikapu said:
Anybody have a site to buy LEMO connectors off that ships to Canada? Allied Canada doesn't stock them, and other sites are painfully expensive (about 50$ per connector).

Jesus
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You can get clones from AliExpress too.
 
Oct 13, 2017 at 6:51 PM Post #4,867 of 20,550
TSAVJason said:
I don’t know where they are coming from but there are some clones that truly suck hard
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That is wise advice. Looking at these LEMO connectors, they are like fish hooks. If the spring loaded barbs are off by just a fraction of 1 mm, you might end up with permanent cables.
 
Oct 13, 2017 at 6:59 PM Post #4,868 of 20,550
sort of a lame choice: either pay 9$ for clones using brass(?) and 1-2 months lead time or 40+$ for legit gold plated connectors and short lead time.

Remind me to avoid LEMO connectors on future cans. If I can buy a furutech 1/4" rhodium plated CNC work of art jack for the same price as ONE LEMO then they need to give their head a shake.
 
Oct 13, 2017 at 7:23 PM Post #4,869 of 20,550
I actually have both, and the only one that has failed was one genuine Lemo. It took a lot of phone calls to Allied, but I finally got a replacement. The process was not fun. Lead time from Allied was longer than from AliExpress!

If you are in the US, Markertek may have them, but not on their web site. You have to call and ask for them. I document some of this on my site on the Suppliers page.

Also, it appears there are many Allied stores, but not all are easy to find. Turns out there is one in New Mexico. Next time I will call them so I can at least have a local person to deal with. in general, I much prefer Markertek.

As for not using Lemos, the wonderful about standards is there are so many to choose from :)

On a side note, I showed my DIY 16 strand braided Utopia cable to the braid guy at the Kimber room at RMAF, and he was impressed. Made me feel validated :) I also listened to one of theirs and mine, and I could not tell the difference. Theirs was way softer due to a looser braid (mine is ridiculously tight, which is not necessarily better) and softer wire insulation. Theirs is an extremely nice cable. I spent a while talking to the guy. He designed their braiding machine. Very impressive.
 
Oct 13, 2017 at 7:30 PM Post #4,870 of 20,550
Oct 13, 2017 at 7:42 PM Post #4,872 of 20,550
Oct 13, 2017 at 10:02 PM Post #4,873 of 20,550
kingkikapu said:
Anybody have a site to buy LEMO connectors off that ships to Canada? Allied Canada doesn't stock them, and other sites are painfully expensive (about 50$ per connector).

Jesus
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When I was in grad school, the NIM bin for the instrument I worked on had all BNC and LEMO connections. It is interesting that there are now gold-plated audiophile LEMO connectors, used to be that only nuclear physicists had them....... I wish I would have grabbed some of the spares for DIY Utopia cabling projects 15 years later. :L3000:
 
Oct 13, 2017 at 10:46 PM Post #4,874 of 20,550
doggiemom said:
When I was in grad school, the NIM bin for the instrument I worked on had all BNC and LEMO connections. It is interesting that there are now gold-plated audiophile LEMO connectors, used to be that only nuclear physicists had them....... I wish I would have grabbed some of the spares for DIY Utopia cabling projects 15 years later. :L3000:
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Man you're taking me down memory lane.

I vividly remember my class protesting the grades we got in our nuclear physics midterm because we all thought the prof had made an error in how he graded our allegedly failed proofs. I'm pretty sure he deliberately baited us with this problem to see who he could catch on a technicality (the best kind of correctness as per Futurama). Normally we weren't ones to protest, but this specific example was borderline questionable on his part. To this day I still remember his response to a now hostile class.

"You're free to believe what you want...........but you're also free to be wrong" (said with a smirking prick-like authority) Yeah. Physics mic dropped out asses. What an ass.

That was pretty much the harshest thing anyone ever said in my studies. Also, I switched to astrophysics after that.

Remember lots of BNC's, but no LEMO's back then. If I saw a batch of them now I would go full blown Gollum.

the-precious-2.jpg
 
Oct 14, 2017 at 1:30 AM Post #4,875 of 20,550
kingkikapu said:
Anybody have a site to buy LEMO connectors off that ships to Canada? Allied Canada doesn't stock them, and other sites are painfully expensive (about 50$ per connector).

Jesus
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RS Components has them - this is the link from the Australian site:
http://au.rs-online.com/web/p/industrial-automation-circular-connectors/1732398/
I actually used the part below which is for slightly slimmer cable diameters:
http://au.rs-online.com/web/p/industrial-automation-circular-connectors/1732382/

Now the interesting thing is that these are currently listing at A$35.77 ea.
When I ordered some a few months back they were A$22.52 ea.
Are audiophiles pushing up the price?
 
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