Focal Utopia General Discussion
Sep 5, 2016 at 3:16 AM Post #271 of 20,433
   
First off I would like to say Happy 2nd Anniversary for Headphone.Guru.  I am a huge fan of your reviews and your overall level of humor, detail, and passion.
 
Are you going to be conducting your review with both the stock cable and the DHC cables mentioned above?  I know most reviews are always conducted with the stock cable as a baseline, but if other cables are used they are often noted in a small sub section.  I'm a huge fan of Peter's cables, so I would be excited to know your opinions.


Firstly, thank you for your kind sentiments, I am sure the rest of the team will appreciate any positive comments on the work we do. We do it for love, so its nice to receive good feedback.
 
I am doing a few major reviews:
 
I am doing a standalone review of Peter's new flagship cable the Prion4S and will be comparing that to stock cables for a number of flagship Headphones. I will also be comparing it some other TOTL cables as well as his previous Flagship the Silver Spore4. That should cover all bases. I will say that his ability to offer adapters for most Headphones is a great concept and lessons the pain of the initial outlay for the cable, knowing that you can use the same cables with a variety of Headphones.
 
It is always useful to know how any aftermarket compare with the Stock offering, as we have seen with Audeze and JPS Labs the quality of their stock cables test a high bar to begin with.
 
I hope to have the reviews out in a couple of months. I have just received the updated LCD-4 200 ohm today and once it has some time on it I will be comparing to the original 100 ohm version. Fortunately my original pair are still in good working order.
 
I am told to expect big things from the Utopia's and I suspect this is just the start of seeing major loudspeaker manufacturers enter the Headphone market. 
 
Sep 5, 2016 at 4:46 AM Post #272 of 20,433
Sep 5, 2016 at 4:04 PM Post #273 of 20,433
I have a question about the cost of the Focal and Sony's availabel through dealers in relation to Audeze's which are pretty much sold direct with the LCD4's.  I would think that that the Aud's would be much more expensive if sold through a dealer network.  And does that mean we will see discounts on the Focal and Sony's eventually?
 
Sep 5, 2016 at 4:21 PM Post #274 of 20,433
I have a question about the cost of the Focal and Sony's availabel through dealers in relation to Audeze's which are pretty much sold direct with the LCD4's.  I would think that that the Aud's would be much more expensive if sold through a dealer network.  And does that mean we will see discounts on the Focal and Sony's eventually?
Dealers authorized to sell Audeze are the same price as Audeze. There should be no difference between them. With Focal, Sony & MrSpeakers it should be the same way. There are dealers that risk remaining authorized dealers for discounting but if it's great product, fewer dealers take that risk.
 
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Sep 5, 2016 at 4:41 PM Post #275 of 20,433
Firstly, thank you for your kind sentiments, I am sure the rest of the team will appreciate any positive comments on the work we do. We do it for love, so its nice to receive good feedback.

I am doing a few major reviews:

I am doing a standalone review of Peter's new flagship cable the Prion4S and will be comparing that to stock cables for a number of flagship Headphones. I will also be comparing it some other TOTL cables as well as his previous Flagship the Silver Spore4. That should cover all bases. I will say that his ability to offer adapters for most Headphones is a great concept and lessons the pain of the initial outlay for the cable, knowing that you can use the same cables with a variety of Headphones.

It is always useful to know how any aftermarket compare with the Stock offering, as we have seen with Audeze and JPS Labs the quality of their stock cables test a high bar to begin with.

 
I hope to have the reviews out in a couple of months. I have just received the updated LCD-4 200 ohm today and once it has some time on it I will be comparing to the original 100 ohm version. Fortunately my original pair are still in good working order.

I am told to expect big things from the Utopia's and I suspect this is just the start of seeing major loudspeaker manufacturers enter the Headphone market. 

Hi isquirrel. I look forward to reading your cable reviews. I don't suppose the DHC Silver Complement will be among the cables you are going to review. This is the one I am thinking of going for to use with my HE1000 and Chord Dave, and with the Utopia, which I fully expect add to my headphone collection very shortly. I have the Silver Dragon, which at times is great with the HE1000 but at other times delivers with just a little too much energy. I'm hoping to learn that the Silver Spore offers only a minimal improvement over the Complement, and the Prion only a minimal improvement over the Silver Spore. Otherwise I might have to spend far more money than I had been planning to. Cheers
 
Sep 5, 2016 at 6:24 PM Post #276 of 20,433
Dealers authorized to sell Audeze are the same price as Audeze. There should be no difference between them. With Focal, Sony & MrSpeakers it should be the same way. There are dealers that risk remaining authorized dealers for discounting but if it's great product, fewer dealers take that risk.

I hope that you have an unfortunate way of expressing your point because from your words it sounds like price fixing may be in place in the Audeze supply chain in the USA.
 
Sep 5, 2016 at 6:56 PM Post #277 of 20,433
I hope that you have an unfortunate way of expressing your point because from your words it sounds like price fixing may be in place in the Audeze supply chain in the USA.
It's called UMAP or UPP. These are totally legal programs that manufacturers can implement. With that said in certain states it cannot be enforced if you are inside a store front. Look up BOSE v FTC
 
The Source AV TSAVJason Stay updated on The Source AV at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com./pages/The-Source-AV-Design-Group/153623164648713 http://www.twitter.com/TheSourceAV http://www.instagram.com/Thesourceavdesign http://thesourceav.com/ Products@TheSourceAV.com
Sep 5, 2016 at 8:02 PM Post #278 of 20,433
From what Tmoney has told me recently I think I'm going to purchase the Utopia's...but a black Friday deal would be sweet. It happened to me with the Lcd-4 last year I just did not have the $3k then...
 
Sep 6, 2016 at 4:12 PM Post #279 of 20,433
Firstly, thank you for your kind sentiments, I am sure the rest of the team will appreciate any positive comments on the work we do. We do it for love, so its nice to receive good feedback.

I am doing a few major reviews:

I am doing a standalone review of Peter's new flagship cable the Prion4S and will be comparing that to stock cables for a number of flagship Headphones. I will also be comparing it some other TOTL cables as well as his previous Flagship the Silver Spore4. That should cover all bases. I will say that his ability to offer adapters for most Headphones is a great concept and lessons the pain of the initial outlay for the cable, knowing that you can use the same cables with a variety of Headphones.

It is always useful to know how any aftermarket compare with the Stock offering, as we have seen with Audeze and JPS Labs the quality of their stock cables test a high bar to begin with.

 
I hope to have the reviews out in a couple of months. I have just received the updated LCD-4 200 ohm today and once it has some time on it I will be comparing to the original 100 ohm version. Fortunately my original pair are still in good working order.

I am told to expect big things from the Utopia's and I suspect this is just the start of seeing major loudspeaker manufacturers enter the Headphone market. 

Hi isquirrel. I look forward to reading your cable reviews. I don't suppose the DHC Silver Complement will be among the cables you are going to review. This is the one I am thinking of going for to use with my HE1000 and Chord Dave, and with the Utopia, which I fully expect add to my headphone collection very shortly. I have the Silver Dragon, which at times is great with the HE1000 but at other times delivers with just a little too much energy. I'm hoping to learn that the Silver Spore offers only a minimal improvement over the Complement, and the Prion only a minimal improvement over the Silver Spore. Otherwise I might have to spend far more money than I had been planning to. Cheers


C4 is a fine cable, have it for my hd800S. Use dhc exclusively for all cables and interconnects. Have chaparone 3 xlr and RCA interconnects coming for my new amp.
 
Sep 7, 2016 at 9:16 AM Post #281 of 20,433
Is the Elear the best overall headphone for under 1000 Dollars?


By costing $999 the Elear is the closest headphone to $1000. Best is relative and totally dependent on what you like.
 
In other words, there is no "best". Anyone telling you there is full of crap.
 
Sep 7, 2016 at 10:08 AM Post #283 of 20,433
Is the Elear the best overall headphone for under 1000 Dollars?



By costing $999 the Elear is the closest headphone to $1000. Best is relative and totally dependent on what you like.

In other words, there is no "best". Anyone telling you there is full of crap.


Here is an Application Scenario:

What if you like a wide variety of Music Genre and use them for Music / Movies and Gaming. And if you only want one headphone.

Would the Elear be a good contender for the above Application Scenario. I guess one could purchase 3 different headphones to address specific application usage, but in this Scenario they just want 1 single headphone.
 
Sep 7, 2016 at 10:12 AM Post #284 of 20,433
Well said!
What is an impression? Isn't it a persons expression of their individual experience? It may be different from your impression. So why be so harsh just because you don't agree?
 
The Source AV TSAVJason Stay updated on The Source AV at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
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Sep 7, 2016 at 10:30 AM Post #285 of 20,433
I think that when somebody refers to a headphone as being the best, they are talking about their own opinion. The headphone is the best to them. I don't see how that is bs.
 

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