[up late]

... I've always imagined the engineering constraints largely going in the opposite direction from what you said. I should say I can't make much comparison from experience, as I've never had a nice loudspeaker setup at home, nor am I an engineer, but part of what attracts me to headphones is seemingly fewer obstacles and constraints to overcome. For example, the room/earcup is always controlled and predictable. Also, since the volume of sound is so much more dramatically low than loudspeakers, they can use a single light weight driver to cover the whole frequency range without the need to develop crossovers, deal with multiple driver placement and phase issues, worry about amplifier headroom as much, stuff like that...

i agree with your thinking and i'm not an engineer either

 

[teknorob23]

i agree with your thinking and i'm not an engineer either

+1

 

[561007]

i will always prefer headphones, speakers couldn't give me the same experience considering im sitting at my desk quite a lot

 

[MRHiFiReviews]

Another fun Focal Video comparing two excellent headphones!

 

[DJW50]

Another fun Focal Video comparing two excellent headphones!

I have both and at times can't decide which one I prefer.

 

[Tubewin]

I have both and at times can't decide which one I prefer.

I'd choose Utopia, in a heart beat.

 

[vonBaron]

Utopia have small soundstage, ok, but Stellia soundstage is claustrophobic.

 

[BowWazoo]

I also had both.
The bass of the Stellia is completely failed. Super soft. No impact. No slam. No punch.

 

[folkguy]

I also had both.
The bass of the Stellia is completely failed. Super soft. No impact. No slam. No punch.

Agree here, could never quite understand it when people talk about Stellia's bass impact. Admittedly I had fit issues with mine but even when I pressed the cups against my head I felt that the upper mids were noticeably louder than the bass, made for kind of a clear and quick sound but I thought Verite Closed actually had much more desired decay and even texture in the bass in comparison, but VC also has the opposite FR to my hearing, more bass quantity and less upper mids... and bigger images with better staging and timbre

 

[chrisnyc75]

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

That's why most luxury manufacturers release the top of the line "summit-fi" product first, and then work down from there. The die-hards will pony up big $$ on the newest flagship as soon as it's available, then when that market is saturated they release a version that is 80% of the flagship at 50% of the price. Luxury watch marketing 101.

 

[JBOOGIE86]

New one is like Stellia hybrid in design. It doesn’t look bad to me. Otherwise it seems to look the same.

I’m not a fan huge soundstage. I mentioned in past I preferred Grado to HD650 when first got started in this hobby. I also didn’t like Grado headphones with improved soundstage when they moved to bagel pads. I don’t really listen to classical, so prefer the front row effect Utopia has. More dynamic. When I had the Chord Dave, didn’t like any of the cross-feed setting because ruined intimacy for me. So improved soundstage wouldn’t be a draw for me.

And improved bass would depend. The Naim Atom HE basically fixed anything I could find lacking in the Utopia. Has plenty of bass when the song calls for it. But does have less bass than my last headphone AT L3000. So a little more bass probably would fine with me but wouldn’t pay $5000 for that when used Utopia are half that.

It may get me to finally attend Head-Fi meet the next time it’s in LA just to see how it sounds. I assume it will just as easily be powered. That’s the big benefit of the Focals over other brands.

I just snagged a Naim HE to add a different synergy pairing for my Utopias.

I also have a Feliks Euforia and was wondering how good is the DAC on the Naim HE?

Would you recommend and it as an all in one unit only or will it work just fine as a DAC only being fed into the Euforia?


Thank you

 

[DJW50]

Interesting comments, the type of music I listen to is music I have played live myself, I'm looking for a faithful and accurate reproduction of the individual notes.

 

[KelFab]

I just snagged a Naim HE to add a different synergy pairing for my Utopias.

I also have a Feliks Euforia and was wondering how good is the DAC on the Naim HE?

Would you recommend and it as an all in one unit only or will it work just fine as a DAC only being fed into the Euforia?


Thank you

As an all in one it works well with the Utopia.
It's rather on the smooth side with a touch of warmth, with good body and bass, while still having a good resolution. It's a really "engaging" and non fatiguing sound, I frequently force myself to stop listening to it to go to bed, otherwise I could spend all night listening . But I also frequently switch between headphones, for the moment I’m listening a lot with the Elites, very entertaining combo with the Atom HE.
But the DAC of the Atom HE is not the sharpest / detail master / technical king DAC you could find like Chord ones by example, however since I have it I find myself using less my Hugo 2, being satisfied with what my Atom HE gives me, particularly the engagement into the music more than the focus to micro details I was used to with Hugo 2 and which could be distracting from the main purpose of tracks.
So it will mostly depend on what you're looking for, but if you plan to use the Atom HE only for its DAC / Stream, maybe there's cheaper / better solutions.

 

[JBOOGIE86]

As an all in one it works well with the Utopia.
It's rather on the smooth side with a touch of warmth, with good body and bass, while still having a good resolution. It's a really "engaging" and non fatiguing sound, I frequently force myself to stop listening to it to go to bed, otherwise I could spend all night listening . But I also frequently switch between headphones, for the moment I’m listening a lot with the Elites, very entertaining combo with the Atom HE.
But the DAC of the Atom HE is not the sharpest / detail master / technical king DAC you could find like Chord ones by example.
So it will mostly depend on what you're looking for, but if you plan to use the Atom HE only for its DAC / Stream, maybe there's cheaper / better solutions.

Thanks for the insight. I will be doing most of my listening as an all In one but now I'm wondering if I should add a more technical DAC and use the Atom HE as just a streamer when using my Euforia amp or who knows, perhaps after listening to the Utopias with the Atom HE, I won't be go back to the Euforia

 

[KelFab]

Thanks for the insight. I will be doing most of my listening as an all In one but now I'm wondering if I should add a more technical DAC and use the Atom HE as just a streamer when using my Euforia amp or who knows, perhaps after listening to the Utopias with the Atom HE, I won't be go back to the Euforia

I was looking at the Envy recently so i will be interrested by your feedback
Btw a (long) burn in is to be expected for best results with Atom HE.