[jlbrach]

I've been listening with my SolP ever since I got it. new toy syndrome..

Swapped to my Utopia last night and yep the Utopia are definitely not going anywhere. I would say comparatively less low end, but somehow at the same time exactly just the right amount to make for an extremely balanced and coherent presentation. smaller staging but not claustrophobic at all, and more than made up for by the crazy good layering and pinpoint imaging.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.. the utopia just seem to disappear and I end up just enjoying the music.

using it with a Primaluna pre and a 250w (into 8ohm) power amp which is super overkill but man, the utopia scale so well. hot damn I love these headphones..

my goodness, overkill is understating it

 

[joseph69]

Would be nice if they can improve power handling... It sounds incredible, but guys who designed have no clue how to design proper headphones, cause its impossible to listen it loud whihtout its driver runing out of gas.

You're doing something wrong, that's for sure.

give it a bigger sound stage and more bass and you have some combo of the lcd-5 or soltaire p

Good thing I didn't buy either the LCD-5 or the Sp because I'm not missing any soundstage or bass, literally.

yeah, sure, they have no clue and i'd be trying to preserve the little hearing i have left if i were you

This make me laugh out loud!

 

[joseph69]

PS: Also, no need for a new Utopia because this one is just fine the way it is too me.

 

[up late]

it will be six years in June since the utopia was launched so the release of a new model is inevitable i guess. i appreciate that focal hasn't introduced several iterations of its flagship headphone along with price increases during this time - unlike another high-end headphone manufacturer that springs to mind.

 

[hakunamakaka]

For Utopias driver to run out of gas you would need to jack the volume to ear damaging levels.

Actually one of the biggest traits of this heapdhone is that it grabs you by the balls even on low volumes. Switching to other dynamics like HD650 is so boring now and makes me want to go to bed instead

 

[TheMiddleSky]

For Utopias driver to run out of gas you would need to jack the volume to ear damaging levels.

Or if you play song with strong presence of sub bass. No need to ear damaging level actually.

Stellia doesn't have this problem even if you running below 20Hz bass test. So I'm sure the next iteration of Utopia will not suffer the same thing.

 

[Arniesb]

For Utopias driver to run out of gas you would need to jack the volume to ear damaging levels.

Actually one of the biggest traits of this heapdhone is that it grabs you by the balls even on low volumes. Switching to other dynamics like HD650 is so boring now and makes me want to go to bed instead

Dont make me laugh... HD650, hd800S, almost all planars can handle way more wolume before they clip while you can play any bass heavy content and Utopia gonna crap the bed. Pls dont cry, because im saying truth about your toy.
I liked Beyerdynamic dt990 for gaming, but i sold it for same issue.
You have to tell it how it is so manufacturers can improve.

 

[up late]

the iq of this thread has just plummeted

 

[dontfeedphils]

Dont make me laugh... HD650, hd800S, almost all planars can handle way more wolume before they clip while you can play any bass heavy content and Utopia gonna crap the bed. Pls dont cry, because im saying truth about your toy.
I liked Beyerdynamic dt990 for gaming, but i sold it for same issue.
You have to tell it how it is so manufacturers can improve.

No reason to be so aggressive, my dude.

 

[Arniesb]

No reason to be so aggressive, my dude.

Im not aggressive, but I like Focal Sound the most so im hoping they hear me out. If they rework their driver power handling i will buy it asap. Dont want to offend anyone at all.

 

[r343]

Next Utopia must be hard to tune. Treble cut and bass boost might work for neutral solid state amplifier but for tubes it could be resulting bloaty sound compared to OG version.

 

[dontfeedphils]

Im not aggressive, but I like Focal Sound the most so im hoping they hear me out. If they rework their driver power handling i will buy it asap. Dont want to offend anyone at all.

I never had a problem driving my pair of Utopia to higher than safe levels on lots of different kids of music without an issue.

If yours exhibits issues at volumes lower than acceptable I suggest you make a warranty claim and have them swapped as it's been shown that some clip at lower volumes than others.

 

[hakunamakaka]

Dont make me laugh... HD650, hd800S, almost all planars can handle way more wolume before they clip while you can play any bass heavy content and Utopia gonna crap the bed. Pls dont cry, because im saying truth about your toy.
I liked Beyerdynamic dt990 for gaming, but i sold it for same issue.
You have to tell it how it is so manufacturers can improve.

Planars has totally different transducers which plays in favor bass reproduction...If you want that ooomph you should focus on closed back hp or even better save money for good speaker setup.

No dynamic openback will blow your socks off with bass and it's not the purpose for such headphones. Utopia is superior in other areas and is aiming towards certain audiophile market. Good bass is actually not hard to reproduce, but you can't squeeze much from such a tiny driver in Utopias

 

[Saturday]

Im not aggressive, but I like Focal Sound the most so im hoping they hear me out. If they rework their driver power handling i will buy it asap. Dont want to offend anyone at all.

Out of curiosity what manufacturing year is your Utopias?

 

[Infoseeker]

Out of curiosity what manufacturing year is your Utopias?

Is there a way to check? (and if I didn't keep the old version box)