[paul2qute]

May I ask you the type of music you usually listen to? I do not hear any clipping on say an accoustic jazz double bass ... but definitly on synthetized ones as on Bjork's tune

Soul, dance, pop,Nordic stuff,my music taste is quite diverse.Sometimes when you have that much detail it may sound like clipping but it's just how they wanted the music to sound, but you said it doesn't do it with your other headphones so I can't help you mate

 

[Allanmarcus]

Hi all,
I have the Utopia, and although it sound fabulous, there's an issue I had and I'd like to know if it's an isolated one or not ...
The first pair of utopia I had had been returned, because there was some serious bass clipping at loud but listenable volume. I noticed it on Bjork's tune Notget; at around 2:00 there's some deep synthetic bass that made me feel the Utopia was blowing on my ears, it was clipping like crazy. I've several other headphones, and none of them is clipping at this sound level on that tune.
Short story long, the utopia was exchanged with a brand new one, put in burnin for 200 hrs, and the new one is also clipping at a relatively low volume. Appart from that, they sound great, but the bass start clipping at a volume level that I enjoy from time to time when going nuts on some tunes.
Am I that bummy to have received 2 defective Utopia, or is it a known limitation?

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your Utopia. A couples of things to note:

"2:00" on the volume doesn't really mean anything. every model of headphone has different sensitivity, so one headphone at 2:00 might sound quiet, and a different headphone at the same volume might explode.

As for us, 2:00 doesn't mean anything since we may not have the same amp, doc, or source as you. You should list all that.

Finally, it's possibly the song isn't clipping. It's possible it's just poorly recorded and you can hear the clipping in the recording with the utopia, whereas you cannot with other headphones. It would help if you told us what song, on what CD, on what pressing.

 

[x RELIC x]

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your Utopia. A couples of things to note:

"2:00" on the volume doesn't really mean anything. every model of headphone has different sensitivity, so one headphone at 2:00 might sound quiet, and a different headphone at the same volume might explode.

As for us, 2:00 doesn't mean anything since we may not have the same amp, doc, or source as you. You should list all that.

Finally, it's possibly the song isn't clipping. It's possible it's just poorly recorded and you can hear the clipping in the recording with the utopia, whereas you cannot with other headphones. It would help if you told us what song, on what CD, on what pressing.

I think he was referring to 2:00 time stamp in the song.

As for volume vs clipping it would be good to roughly measure the dB at earcup for reference to how loud the sound is when clipping is heard. We may get some sort of reference to the limits of the driver. If the clipping is in the song it should also be heard at lower volumes.

 

[GryphonGuy]

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your Utopia. A couples of things to note:

"2:00" on the volume doesn't really mean anything. every model of headphone has different sensitivity, so one headphone at 2:00 might sound quiet, and a different headphone at the same volume might explode.

As for us, 2:00 doesn't mean anything since we may not have the same amp, doc, or source as you. You should list all that.

Finally, it's possibly the song isn't clipping. It's possible it's just poorly recorded and you can hear the clipping in the recording with the utopia, whereas you cannot with other headphones. It would help if you told us what song, on what CD, on what pressing.

I think he means at the 2 minute mark written as 2:00

Cheers
GG

 

[Svatopluk]

Hi all,
I have the Utopia, and although it sound fabulous, there's an issue I had and I'd like to know if it's an isolated one or not ...
The first pair of utopia I had had been returned, because there was some serious bass clipping at loud but listenable volume. I noticed it on Bjork's tune Notget; at around 2:00 there's some deep synthetic bass that made me feel the Utopia was blowing on my ears, it was clipping like crazy. I've several other headphones, and none of them is clipping at this sound level on that tune.
Short story long, the utopia was exchanged with a brand new one, put in burnin for 200 hrs, and the new one is also clipping at a relatively low volume. Appart from that, they sound great, but the bass start clipping at a volume level that I enjoy from time to time when going nuts on some tunes.
Am I that bummy to have received 2 defective Utopia, or is it a known limitation?

From my experience, the Utopia's bass seems to be very sensitive when the amplifier impedance is to high. So the problem may not be so much with the Utopia but more to do with the pairing of the Utopia and your amp.

 

[paul2qute]

Where's the quality bass with stax? I love my utopia, it ain't second best to stax at all, give me emotion, bass, warmth and the lack of the stax fart every day of the week

 

[Makiah S]

Got the Elear demo unit today, and I must say... these are really Transparent sounding! I've got them running out of my Project Ember, and it almost sounds like I'm listening to a SS!

Tube wise what do you guys like with these? I'm using a Jan-Chs 1950 Short bottle Sylvania Chrome Dome 6sn7W,

 

[Allanmarcus]

I think he was referring to 2:00 time stamp in the song

Sorry, I missed that. He said "and none of them is clipping at this sound level on that tune", so I assumed the pronoun "this" was referring to the 2:00 sound level since that was the only reference to a sound level. I can be very literal sometimes.

 

[phaeton70]

Hi all,
I have the Utopia, and although it sound fabulous, there's an issue I had and I'd like to know if it's an isolated one or not ...
The first pair of utopia I had had been returned, because there was some serious bass clipping at loud but listenable volume. I noticed it on Bjork's tune Notget; at around 2:00 there's some deep synthetic bass that made me feel the Utopia was blowing on my ears, it was clipping like crazy. I've several other headphones, and none of them is clipping at this sound level on that tune.
Short story long, the utopia was exchanged with a brand new one, put in burnin for 200 hrs, and the new one is also clipping at a relatively low volume. Appart from that, they sound great, but the bass start clipping at a volume level that I enjoy from time to time when going nuts on some tunes.
Am I that bummy to have received 2 defective Utopia, or is it a known limitation?

I have never been able to reach a level in which Utopia start clipping, with any music (tipically acoustic jazz, prog and EDM/trance, but sometimes also rock and large classical ensemble/chorus)
few times I discovered clippings in the recording, mostly due to the "loudness war" (deep bass compression) and/or bad mixing. with Utopia the clipping in these cases were very evident, at any volume, while with other cans you must pay attention to notice it.

may I ask you which amplifier are you using and what are the other hps not showing the issue? have you tried other amplifiers? are you using eq?

 

[thegabe]

If you want a track to check clipping on deep bass, try kill Jill by big boi. Talk about sub bass in the intro... My utopia reproduce that without effort.

 

[monkkx]

Hi guys, sorry if I confused you with the 2:00 song time stamp, and usage of this/that articles ... english isn't my native language
I tried the Bjork song (24bits flac) I mentionned with 3 amps: Woo Audio WA5 (tried all the gain/impedance settings), Hugo TT, and also iBasso DX200 portable player. The 3 manage to make clipping on the 2 Utopias I had. The other headphones I have are are Ether Flow, ZMF Eikon, Fostex X00. Although I do not have any mean to measure accurately the sound level, I could push the other headphones to an uncomfortable listening volume without clipping, whereas the Utopia clipped at loud but not uncomfortable volume.
I believe the Bjork mastering is stellar, and I do not use any EQ.

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

Hello,

First of all, I'd like to say that Utopia's are awesome.

I'm sorry for "sabotaging" your thread.

I found a scratch on my headphones (2 months old - I didn't scratch it!). Nothing big but it's driving me crazy (yes, sadly I'm that kind of guy!).
I contacted Focal a month ago - no response.
I contacted the shop - ignored.

I hope Focal can replace this piece of plastic.

Is here a Focal rep?

cheers!
Adam

 

[thegabe]

Hello,

First of all, I'd like to say that Utopia's are awesome.

I'm sorry for "sabotaging" your thread.

I found a scratch on my headphones (2 months old - I didn't scratch it!). Nothing big but it's driving me crazy (yes, sadly I'm that kind of guy!).
I contacted Focal a month ago - no response.
I contacted the shop - ignored.

I hope Focal can replace this piece of plastic.

Is here a Focal rep?

cheers!
Adam

Try t.jensen@focalna.com. That is who contacted me regarding my warranty issue.

 

[yoghurtlidlicker]

Try t.jensen@focalna.com. That is who contacted me regarding my warranty issue.

Thank you!

 

[GryphonGuy]

I hope Focal can replace this piece of plastic

Don't expect a scratch to be fixed under warranty.

Cheers
GG