[MacedonianHero]

I have maintained for some time that my Utopia was brighter than my LCD-4 and have been ridiculed by some..when i was at the canjam in NYC recently i had a long discussion with a person at one of the exhibits about this and when i told him the Utopia was a great HP that sounded a bit bright to my ears out of my Dave he basically told me i was crazy and that it was simply the best HP there is etc....

I wouldn't disagree that the LCD-4 is warmer/darker than the Utopia. I found both a tad brighter out of the DAVE FWIW.

 

[paul2qute]

All joking aside I'm really happy with my utopias just hope everyone else is too and they test a bigger sample of utopias for comparison, I got mine in Dec but ordered them in September and I can't hear no issues

 

[drbobbybones]

I also think that it is safe to assume that there are no serious unit variations within to most recent production batches of the Utopia.

I don't think that's safe to assume at all. Right now, all we know is that there is a significant variation between one headphone and two others that are similar. You need a much bigger sample size to assume that the most recent production batches are similar--not just one newer production headphone that matches one that Bob used.

Right now, we have no idea how many headphones came from each batch or what changed in the production process between batches. There are a lot of questions here that need answering that may not even be attributable to production runs. What if there are two people who do the final quality control assessments that have been doing different final tunings?

 

[ubs28]

Very true, and the Utopia is even less bright and much less sibilant than the HD800S. The Utopia is the most neutral headphone that I ever had the chance to listen to, imho. It may well be brighter than the LCD-4, but to me all Audeze headphones are rather on the dark side of neutral.

I also think that it is safe to assume that there are no serious unit variations within to most recent production batches of the Utopia.

The AKG 240 S is even brighter than the original HD 800 and that is / was a very popular studio headphone producers use .

I would say the only way to know if a headphone is too bright is by simply recording something that you can reproduce (like hitting a key on the piano) with a super neutral microphone and then compare the output of the headphone on a super neutral and transparent equipment against the original sound.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

To my ears, the brilliance of Utopia is its tolerance of less than ideal upstream gear. Out of a Rag/Yggy stack it is of course better than a Magni/Modi stack, but the latter sounds great, whereas HD800 sounds only acceptable, and then only if you've installed Sonarworks.

 

[thyname]

Did you guys read the most recent Innerfidelity article?

http://www.innerfidelity.com/conten...nt-measurements-and-plans#LdoUSQQ5rwkxkwhE.97

It seems like the current batch of Utopias is brighter in the 3K - 10K area, but no imbalances and no variations between the various new units. Not a big deal in my opinion.

On another note , I still cannot wrap my arms around the finding that Utopia would benefit by using Elear pads...

 

[lovethatsound]

IT would only benefit if you think your utopia need abit more bass,personal as far as I'm concerned my utopia don't.Too many headphones get over bass nowadays in my opinion.If you look at the reviews of the utopia on u-tube,there happy with the bass on some recording and not others,that's because the ones their not happy with ,don't have the bass their in the 1st place ,it's as simple that.

 

[paul2qute]

IT would only benefit if you think your utopia need abit more bass,personal as far as I'm concerned my utopia don't.Too many headphones get over bass nowadays in my opinion.If you look at the reviews of the utopia on u-tube,there happy with the bass on some recording and not others,that's because the ones their not happy with ,don't have the bass their in the 1st place ,it's as simple that.

I agree mate, I don't hear banging bass all the time but when some music goes really low it comes through on the utopias, I think they are balanced

 

[FLTWS]

I find the bass just right with mine after 60 days. The one thing missing when I listen to my Utopia is depth, the sound stage is very flat (by comparison with my HD800). I wonder if some elevation in frequency response from 3kHz on up might account for that? Otherwise I find every other aspect of my Utopia about perfect.

I expect Utopia owners are going to want a quick response from Focal but it's going to take time for them to gather data and evaluate it.

In the meantime I'll continue to enjoy listening to mine.

 

[buzzlulu]

I find the bass just right with mine after 60 days. The one thing missing when I listen to my Utopia is depth, the sound stage is very flat (by comparison with my HD800.

Try using Kimber Axios cables - PLENTY of three dimensional sound stage and plenty of air around the instruments

 

[FLTWS]

Try using Kimber Axios cables - PLENTY of three dimensional sound stage and plenty of air around the instruments

That's been one on my shortlist to look into.

 

[buzzlulu]

I have the Copper version which was balanced and terminated XLR - 3 meters.

I just took delivery of the Copper/Silver hybrid 1 meter terminated with a Pentacon 4.4 for use with the Sony Walkmans and I m presently burning it in. One note on its construction - it is not copper with silver coating etc. but rather individual pure copper wires and individual pure silver wires which are woven together.

Initial impressions are quite impressive - dramatically lower noise floor and ink black background

 

[paul2qute]

Try using Kimber Axios cables - PLENTY of three dimensional sound stage and plenty of air around the instruments

Maybe I need to get my ears de waxed but I didn't like them cables I thought my nordost sounded better, it's weird to me how it's not night and day for everyone but maybe our brains work in mysterious ways

 

[buzzlulu]

different cables different flavors - chocolate or vanilla

I go through the same thing on my two channel Naim forum - everyone likes something different.
There is one consistent opinion though - the majority agree that cables definitely improve upon the stock versions.

 

[buzzlulu]

My understanding is also that the Focal guys use Kimber.
When I was at CanJam NY I had a long talk with them (due to the Naim connection). When I inquired about cables one of them walked me directly to the Kimber booth and said to talk to them

For what it is worth.....