[Paladin79]

I use DanaCable Lazuli myself, I think they are the reference series. I have also built some of my own. The Focal Utopia is a perfect match for amplifiers I designed and built.

 

[LoryWiv]

I use DanaCable Lazuli myself, I think they are the reference series. I have also built some of my own. The Focal Utopia is a perfect match for amplifiers I designed and built.

No doubt, and good to see you enjoying the excellence of your high quality built amps with Utopia!

 

[Kiats]

I had the pleasure to listen to both the OG Utopia and Utopia 2022 on an amplifier that I have been demoing from Jaben Singapore courtesy of Wilson. The SAEQ Morpheus, appropriately named after the God of Dreams.

Dragan Domanovic, the owner of SAEQ (Serbian Audio EQuipment), was telling me that the Morpheus was so named because of the pleasure the team and he wanted to bring to listeners. As he half jokingly tells me: they are not in the audio business but actually in the business of happiness.

I am working my way through the SEAQ range of headphone amplifiers that Jaben Singapore has brought in. The Morpheus is actually the most affordable in the range. I am surprised because it is a most excellent amplifier if you are looking for an amplifier that balances performance and a subtle lushness/organic signature. I also like it because it is so adaptable weather for powerful planars or easier to drive HPs like the Utopia: there are 3 input attenuations for XLR input, just as for output there are 3 attenuations as well.

With the Morpheus, I find that both Utopia have excellent note weight, bigger soundstage, and yet there is much more nuances and layering. Whilst the Utopias are undoubtedly easy to drive, they do scale up nicely with quality desktop amplification.

 

[hakunamakaka]

Very happy with my outdoor setup enjoying Mozart on my 2020 Utopia on the terrace, and one of the first nice days of late spring after a miserable April and May. I like it that don’t have to carry my Naim Atom HE around.

Sure, the Naim brings the Utopias to a different level, but the little Mojo2 fed with Qobuz highres makes it quite an enjoyable experience. Now the only thing missing is a Negroni sbagliato. Maybe later…

Utopia is surprisingly good with Mojo1....While my desktop setup is slightly superior in technical realm I've got to say I spend more time with Mojo1. It has layering capabilities of chord dacs and only needs a clean source to shine best. Mojo1 is loosing a bit of sparkle in treble, but it gives that analog feel to the sound which synergises well with Utopia. Extremely good match up for Jazz music. The only annoying thing is battery drain of M1 so will see maybe will pull the trigger for M2

 

[FiGuY1017]

Does anyone by chance know if accessories4less us a authorized focal dealer, looking to buy a og Utopia.

 

[hafzz123]

I had the pleasure to listen to both the OG Utopia and Utopia 2022 on an amplifier that I have been demoing from Jaben Singapore courtesy of Wilson. The SAEQ Morpheus, appropriately named after the God of Dreams.

Dragan Domanovic, the owner of SAEQ (Serbian Audio EQuipment), was telling me that the Morpheus was so named because of the pleasure the team and he wanted to bring to listeners. As he half jokingly tells me: they are not in the audio business but actually in the business of happiness.

I am working my way through the SEAQ range of headphone amplifiers that Jaben Singapore has brought in. The Morpheus is actually the most affordable in the range. I am surprised because it is a most excellent amplifier if you are looking for an amplifier that balances performance and a subtle lushness/organic signature. I also like it because it is so adaptable weather for powerful planars or easier to drive HPs like the Utopia: there are 3 input attenuations for XLR input, just as for output there are 3 attenuations as well.

With the Morpheus, I find that both Utopia have excellent note weight, bigger soundstage, and yet there is much more nuances and layering. Whilst the Utopias are undoubtedly easy to drive, they do scale up nicely with quality desktop amplification.

Have you compared it to other similarly priced amps like Burson Grand Tourer, Ferrum OOR or others ? Now i'm curious to try SAEQ amplifiers from your impression

 

[chesebert]

Utopia is surprisingly good with Mojo1....While my desktop setup is slightly superior in technical realm I've got to say I spend more time with Mojo1. It has layering capabilities of chord dacs and only needs a clean source to shine best. Mojo1 is loosing a bit of sparkle in treble, but it gives that analog feel to the sound which synergises well with Utopia. Extremely good match up for Jazz music. The only annoying thing is battery drain of M1 so will see maybe will pull the trigger for M2

Disconnect the battery and use external USB power.

 

[hakunamakaka]

Disconnect the battery and use external USB power.

But portability is lost in that regard, though will definitely test with ipower x. I guess mojo needs 5v feed ?

Watched a video with Rob where he stated that he tests all Chords dac’s fed directly by mscaler. This explains why some people have varying performance with these dac’s and why others sees performance increase adding lpsu even if Rob states opposite.

Will have to look for more portable desktop solution for Utopia as I have to relocate periodically and moving Luxmans amp gives me headaches

 

[musicloverca]

My impressions: as I was going up the price ladder for heaphones the Focal Elex (Elear with Clear earpads) was my favourite for a while, and I still think it's the best headphone under $1400 (now that Hifiman is lowering prices) and I tried the Utopia because I wanted the next step up, and because of the almost universal good reviews it got. I wasn't disappointed. It had everything I liked about the Elex but more. The soundstage was bigger. There was more detail. It was just better in every way, while still keeping the sound signature I liked.

I really thought it would be my endgame headphone, but this hobby can take surprising turns sometimes. I bought a Hifiman HE1000v2 because the price was lowered, and as a kind of "Ill give planars one last chance" kind of thing, like a science experiment where I thought I already knew the outcome in advance. I really went in thinking a Focal Utopia + a good tube amp would sound best to me and that I would sell the Hifiman. Instead I found the HE1000v2 sounded better (after burn in) to me on every amp I tried it on, but especially my Violectric V222 + an R2R DAC (first Ares II, then Gustard R26). I sold my Utopia not long ago because I just preferred the HE1000v2 for almost every song, to my great surprise. Maybe my experience is uncommon, but to anyone on a budget considering buying the Utopia I would say consider the HE1000v2 Stealth first. Also try out the Elex (or Clear) and see if you like it, if you don't you probably won't like the Utopia.

 

[mainguy]

Further to the post above, I've been mainlining Elex for a while now and got Utopia last week. I kind of got them expecting to sell them on, as I had the chance to purchase for 1600 I felt I may as well, but from reviews/impressions wasn't expecting much more than my Elex.

I do think a lot of the comparisons down/up are just misleading. Utopia is another experience compared to Elex, for serious listening. The detail and ability to discern different tracks within the music is mindblowing, and most importantly, it adds to the art itself. You feel more involved, and also I daresay, able to understand the music at a more sophisticated level as you can simply see more of what the artist was doing with the track. Headphones are always limited, and a pair of studio monitors an engineer is using likely outperform any headphone, and I think that's why going up the headphone chain can be so dramatic. You're getting closer to the performance of those monitors.

Another myth I've seen is that off a cheap amp Utopia is no better than Clear/Elex. Again I tested this for myself with my portable bluetooth dongle, wired in by USB-C, the iFi Go Blu. And to my suprise the Utopia remained remarkable, and a completely different experience to my Elex.

The weird thing is every aspect of audio seems dramatically different. Even watching a youtube video the voices just sound so...Real

Absolutely love these headphones. Certainly a lot more than my Stellia which was suprising.

 

[hakunamakaka]

My impressions: as I was going up the price ladder for heaphones the Focal Elex (Elear with Clear earpads) was my favourite for a while, and I still think it's the best headphone under $1400 (now that Hifiman is lowering prices) and I tried the Utopia because I wanted the next step up, and because of the almost universal good reviews it got. I wasn't disappointed. It had everything I liked about the Elex but more. The soundstage was bigger. There was more detail. It was just better in every way, while still keeping the sound signature I liked.

I really thought it would be my endgame headphone, but this hobby can take surprising turns sometimes. I bought a Hifiman HE1000v2 because the price was lowered, and as a kind of "Ill give planars one last chance" kind of thing, like a science experiment where I thought I already knew the outcome in advance. I really went in thinking a Focal Utopia + a good tube amp would sound best to me and that I would sell the Hifiman. Instead I found the HE1000v2 sounded better (after burn in) to me on every amp I tried it on, but especially my Violectric V222 + an R2R DAC (first Ares II, then Gustard R26). I sold my Utopia not long ago because I just preferred the HE1000v2 for almost every song, to my great surprise. Maybe my experience is uncommon, but to anyone on a budget considering buying the Utopia I would say consider the HE1000v2 Stealth first. Also try out the Elex (or Clear) and see if you like it, if you don't you probably won't like the Utopia.

I tried nearly all hifiman lineup (Ananda, Arya, HE1000V2) and I found that D8000/D8000 pro bested them which I actually traded for Utopia. Hifimans somehow were too laid back for me, while having slightly larger stage it lacked engagement factor of D8000. As well D8000 held obvious advantage in bass/timbre. To me soundstage size with headphones is not important as it won't match speaker setup, but precision in stage is what grabs my attention where Utopia is a clear winner, especially depth. Image size, bass quality goes in favor for planars, but Utopia is faster/more impactful headphone. To my tastes in music, especially during complex passages/buildups Utopia is better at revealing all layers of track. rnb/hip hop/pop music could go in favor for a good planar, but that rarely spins in my collection

 

[chrisnyc75]

I tried nearly all hifiman lineup (Ananda, Arya, HE1000V2) and I found that D8000/D8000 pro bested them which I actually traded for Utopia. Hifimans somehow were too laid back for me, while having slightly larger stage it lacked engagement factor of D8000. As well D8000 held obvious advantage in bass/timbre. To me soundstage size with headphones is not important as it won't match speaker setup, but precision in stage is what grabs my attention where Utopia is a clear winner, especially depth. Image size, bass quality goes in favor for planars, but Utopia is faster/more impactful headphone. To my tastes in music, especially during complex passages/buildups Utopia is better at revealing all layers of track. rnb/hip hop/pop music could go in favor for a good planar, but that rarely spins in my collection

You have to go pretty high up the planar ladder to find one that is faster or better at imaging than Utopia, and those few TOTL planars that do challenge Utopia for speed & imaging fall short in dynamic "punch" EVERY. TIME.

 

[Archlize]

You have to go pretty high up the planar ladder to find one that is faster or better at imaging than Utopia, and those few TOTL planars that do challenge Utopia for speed & imaging fall short in dynamic "punch" EVERY. TIME.

How does the utopia compare to the LCD5? I heard is a better planar version of the Utopia. I'm just looking for my end game. lol

 

[BowWazoo]

My experience:

This is the third time I have purchased the Utopia. This time the Utopia 2022.
Each time I have sold a Utopia, it was in the hope of experiencing an upgrade.
The first time was the Empyren, the believed upgrade. The second time it was the LCD 5.
In this impression of an upgrade, however, has never lasted long. The longing for the Utopia came again and again. In addition times with the 2022 model, the honeycomb grill fully strikes, and the only points of criticism, which I had at the old Utopia, eliminated. I know now exactly, I do not need to look further. The Utopia 2022 is my benchmark.

 

[Archlize]

My experience:

This is the third time I have purchased the Utopia. This time the Utopia 2022.
Each time I have sold a Utopia, it was in the hope of experiencing an upgrade.
The first time was the Empyren, the believed upgrade. The second time it was the LCD 5.
In this impression of an upgrade, however, has never lasted long. The longing for the Utopia came again and again. In addition times with the 2022 model, the honeycomb grill fully strikes, and the only points of criticism, which I had at the old Utopia, eliminated. I know now exactly, I do not need to look further. The Utopia 2022 is my benchmark.

Interesting, since I saw you I think also owned the HE1000Stealth, because I saw you from a few posts before. I like the HEK/Hifiman Presentation (Own the HEKV2), but it doesn't feel like its my end game since I really love the Clear MG (The BlackSheep of the Focal Family). I wonder if I should get the LCD5, Utopia, or the Utopia'22. Can you tell me your impressions of them? thanks!