[HiFiHawaii808]

Damn, what's happening. I decide to go easy on the hobby to relieve my neck pain and how Focal releases an upgraded Utopia!

You mean that excuse was real? I thought you did it to clear space to buy more gear.

 

[Sajid Amit]

You mean that excuse was real? I thought you did it to clear space to buy more gear.

Lol

 

[Tubewin]

Lol

Did you prefer the zmf atrium's to the Utopia's?

 

[Sajid Amit]

Did you prefer the zmf atrium's to the Utopia's?

I think I like them almost equally.

Different strengths. The Atrium is more balanced across the FR. And it looks like an heirloom. Slightly less detailed than the Utopia.

The Utopia treble can sound rough on a lot of systems and even subbass light. On the right system, the Utopia is magnificent. Slams hard, treble smoothens, etc.

I do find the Utopia slightly more comfortable and the fact that its easy to drive can be a big plus if you want to use a DAP with it, and move around the house.

 

[mainguy]

I’m starting to take a cynical viewpoint, in that this refresh is just an excuse to raise the price to $5K. I guess the “macro-economic” environment is what it is.

It's not a price change, $400 in 2016 is equivalent to $4800 in 2022 give or take.

Why do head fiers forget inflation exists so often?

 

[Nomax]

If I was to forecast, I’d guess if there is a “Grande Utopia,” it’s probably not coming out for a while. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to revamp the Utopia and then sell a better version a few months later. It would piss off customers, like what happened with Hifiman in the past. But I guess you never know

No Grande

NOMAX

PS.lol

 

[Musicophilesblog]

I think I like them almost equally.

Different strengths. The Atrium is more balanced across the FR. And it looks like an heirloom. Slightly less detailed than the Utopia.

The Utopia treble can sound rough on a lot of systems and even subbass light. On the right system, the Utopia is magnificent. Slams hard, treble smoothens, etc.

I do find the Utopia slightly more comfortable and the fact that its easy to drive can be a big plus if you want to use a DAP with it, and move around the house.

Agree on the latter part, the combo Chord Mojo 2 and Utopia is really suprisingly good as a “sit anywhere“ setup.

On the former: so what is the “right system” for you?

 

[enragedlemon]

It's not a price range, $4400 in 2016 is equivalent to $5000 in 2022 give or take a few hundred bucks.

Why do head fiers forget inflation exists so often?

It was $4000 in 2016 and $4400 in 2020. However you’re still more or less correct for the US due to current inflation.

 

[Nomax]

@Nomax is this new Utopia what you have been talking about for a while now, or were you talking about something else?

I will comment on the new Utopia in due time

NOMAX

 

[Sajid Amit]

Agree on the latter part, the combo Chord Mojo 2 and Utopia is really suprisingly good as a “sit anywhere“ setup.

On the former: so what is the “right system” for you?

I really enjoyed the following setups among others:

Holo May on NOS > Ferrum Stack

Holo May on NOS > WA33

dCS Bartok >

dCS Bartok > WA33

Denafrips Pontus II / Terminator Plus > Cayin HA300

And on the relatively inexpensive side:

FiiO M17 >

Sony TAZH1ES >

 

[Friskyseal]

I love the look of the new Utopia except for one thing. I hate the LEMO connectors. Why? Because they stick out so far from the headphone that it looks so goofy, like you're wearing rigid earrings or something. I'm glad they moved the jacks lower on the cups but I wish they had just switched to 3.5 mm. Maybe they didn't want to alienate previous Utopia owners by switching the connectors on them.

 

[Ethereal Sound]

It's not a price range, $4400 in 2016 is equivalent to $5000 in 2022 give or take a few hundred bucks.

Why do head fiers forget inflation exists so often?

Probably because for the majority of people, their annual salary raises aren't matching inflation lolol

 

[Powermankw]

I think I like them almost equally.

Different strengths. The Atrium is more balanced across the FR. And it looks like an heirloom. Slightly less detailed than the Utopia.

The Utopia treble can sound rough on a lot of systems and even subbass light. On the right system, the Utopia is magnificent. Slams hard, treble smoothens, etc.

I do find the Utopia slightly more comfortable and the fact that its easy to drive can be a big plus if you want to use a DAP with it, and move around the house.

Yes, I finally found the right system... it took the Utopias from technically accurate to pure magic. Bass, slam, dynamics, air, space, treble... that midrange... Cant see a refresh being significantly better than perfect.

 

[up late]

It's not a price range, $4400 in 2016 is equivalent to $5000 in 2022 give or take a few hundred bucks.

Why do head fiers forget inflation exists so often?

why do you generalize?

 

[KelFab]

Ok, in it's entirety (minus specific details that might jeopardize my source):
Content was removed in response to a copyright claim by a third party.

On the pics it seems like that the cables are no more covered with braided fabrics, they look more like the new cables I found in last Clear OG revision (2022 batch), black supple rubber.
And surprisingly the lemo connector is no more black, so it catches the eyes first because of the full black design of the cans, strange choice ..