[Allanmarcus]

Regarding the overall gear set up, and less with the utopia, but might be relevant. On another a board, a friend discovered a very subtle power issue he was having. When using his Mjolnir 2; he experienced fatigue after 30-60 minutes. Once he added a power conditioner to the Mj2, he said he no longer experienced the fatigue, and the amp sounded better in subtle ways. I will not go into the details as you can read them by googling "mjolnir 2 thread power conditioner" snd clicking on the first link (that site cannot be linked to on this this site). There was lots of discussions of power conditioners there, as I'm sure there are on this site, so we don't need to go into which so work better on this thread. Suffice it to say, they go from from $150 (emotiva) to hundreds and thousands of dollars.

If after a break in period if 100 hours (200 might be needed for that last 5% of break-in, but 100 should be sufficient to hear the wonder of the Utopia) and you have a generally warm sounding chain and you are still getting fatigue, you might want to try a power conditioner.

 

[timztunz]

After all, when it gets to these levels of cost/quality, it's all a matter of preference.

This.

 

[meomap]

Hi,

Does anyone here have trouble with Utopia for the 3rd time yet, driver problem. Or will be 4th new one?

1st was right driver had pop sound.
2nd was left driver stop having sound.
3rd was rattling sound on right side from first day of receiving. Thought burn in would help to get rid of the problem, but worse. Shipped to Focal Rep for evaluation. Waiting for them to respond back. My dealer said Focal Rep has to get involved this time due to 4th time.

So far, I have no luck with this 4k hobby yet.

 

[Rakan]

Impressive. Maybe it's just me going based on memory as I've only owned the STAX setup for a good 2 months. If I had them side by side I'm sure It would be easy to spot.
I was doing some listening sessions lately with an HE-1000V2. While the HiFiMAN does sound more expanded, it's a tad slow in comparison and has this softness to it that I didn't like. I much prefer the aggressive nature on these Utopia's over the laid back signature that some headphones have. Probably why I liked the HD800S once before due to it's forwardness and revealing nature. Those however revealed so much that it even showed how naturally hot on the treble it was. Even the revision HD800S sounded sharp. The original HD800 being extra sharp. I can't say enough, but the Utopia's are the most balanced piece of equipment I have ever heard..

How long did it take you until you were sure that you wanted to keep the Utopia's over the SR-009 and for what main reasons?

Actually, i don't like Planar Headphones (Audeze and Hifiman). Very uncomfortable for long listening session and the way they render human voice is not to my taste, feel like "paper", Not have a full body and texture like hi-end dynamic headphones, not airy like the Electrostatic headphones and very picky regarding amplification.

I like the SR-009 quite a lot especially its transparency. However, i find it quite troublesome using the SR-009. My place is quite humid and dusty. I have to put the headphone back into the box after each listening session and also quite afraid that it may get channel imbalance unexpectedly. That's why after several months using, i sold the SR-009 and KGSSHV to my friend to try the Utopia. Later, my friend which is a local master regarding tube amp designed an HeadAmp that can drive both dynamic and electrostatic headphone wonderfully. Using the same setup at his place, same amp, we compared and the transient speed of Utopia is a little better than SR-009. You can check the amp in the STAX thread, i think my friend already posted the internal and schematics there.

Even though i pretty much like the Utopia but it also have a short-coming that bothered me a lot which is the soundstage is quite small compared to other top of the line headphones. If your setup is not good enough it sounds quite narrow and congested. I had to invest a lot to improve this weakness and now i think my setup is complete

 

[Rakan]

Regarding the overall gear set up, and less with the utopia, but might be relevant. On another a board, a friend discovered a very subtle power issue he was having. When using his Mjolnir 2; he experienced fatigue after 30-60 minutes. Once he added a power conditioner to the Mj2, he said he no longer experienced the fatigue, and the amp sounded better in subtle ways. I will not go into the details as you can read them by googling "mjolnir 2 thread power conditioner" snd clicking on the first link (that site cannot be linked to on this this site). There was lots of discussions of power conditioners there, as I'm sure there are on this site, so we don't need to go into which so work better on this thread. Suffice it to say, they go from from $150 (emotiva) to hundreds and thousands of dollars.

If after a break in period if 100 hours (200 might be needed for that last 5% of break-in, but 100 should be sufficient to hear the wonder of the Utopia) and you have a generally warm sounding chain and you are still getting fatigue, you might want to try a power conditioner.

Your friend is on the right track. In the hi-end and ultra hi-end audio realm, 1st thing to evaluate a setup is the "silence" which means we have to reduce the noisefloor as much as possible. The reason is that our audio conponents are getting more and more detailed and sensitive. If your system is noisy than all the noise will be recreated with the music also. You may not hear it but it will make you feel fatigue. Also it contributes a lot to something called "sibilance". This can be improved using power conditioner and some other things. However, your friend need to be careful when choosing power conditioner because some poorly design ones give you some "silence" in the background but i will also kill the dynamic and speed of the setup.

 

[Svatopluk]

Hi,

Does anyone here have trouble with Utopia for the 3rd time yet, driver problem. Or will be 4th new one?

1st was right driver had pop sound.
2nd was left driver stop having sound.
3rd was rattling sound on right side from first day of receiving. Thought burn in would help to get rid of the problem, but worse. Shipped to Focal Rep for evaluation. Waiting for them to respond back. My dealer said Focal Rep has to get involved this time due to 4th time.

So far, I have no luck with this 4k hobby yet.

Knock on wood, I'm going on six months of use with no problems what so ever. My condolences go out to you.

Out of curiosity. did the Utopia ever function properly and for how many hours did it do so? And if you do not mind, what is the serial number? Example: ( A1BEHF0005XX )

 

[meomap]

Knock on wood, I'm going on six months of use with no problems what so ever. My condolences go out to you.

Out of curiosity. did the Utopia ever function properly and for how many hours did it do so? And if you do not mind, what is the serial number? Example: ( A1BEHF0005XX )

I did not pay attention to the two first one. I wrote down the 3rd box this time but forgot at home. Currently working. Will get back this evening.

 

[Svatopluk]

I did not pay attention to the two first one. I wrote down the 3rd box this time but forgot at home. Currently working. Will get back this evening.

Thanks. Did not realize it involved multiple units.

 

[TSAVJason]

Well, I just took a break and now they're sounding a lot better, must be my ears weren't "acclimated" to their sound signature. I also think they probably didn't get very many hours at the shop. How many hours do you think they need, Jason?

Full voice typically happens at about 200 hours. They begin to open up at about 75 hours

 

[paradoxper]

I've had my utopias for a while now and am completely thrilled by it.
So many people have told me that SR009/BHSE combo is on another level and quite possibly my next endeavor...
From listening to those with experience, I guess the difference is not as drastic?! In fact, many stax owners are down-sizing to these.
Do you think it is worth the experience or waste of money, not to bother?

JUMP

 

[Whitigir]

I've had my utopias for a while now and am completely thrilled by it.
So many people have told me that SR009/BHSE combo is on another level and quite possibly my next endeavor...
From listening to those with experience, I guess the difference is not as drastic?! In fact, many stax owners are down-sizing to these.
Do you think it is worth the experience or waste of money, not to bother?

Both Stax 009 + Kg and Utopia are worth keeping....not cheap, but worth it for sure I wouldn't downsize my Stax to Utopia...No...Nope....

 

[GryphonGuy]

Definitely going to do that, just moved another amp in to a room where I don't sleep, but I will continue to listen.
How many hours, 200 at least?

I haven't noticed any changes after about 50 hours or so according to my listening notes. In the first 10 or so hours, track by track changes were occurring and replaying the same track from 8 hours or so revealed much more detail and much better sound-staging. Some days your brain is better engaged or ready for critical listening and that is when they excel. I have had the unexplained and unrepeatable sibilance on two occasions between 50 hours and the current 124 hours of listening. I put that down to something in the chain other than the Utopias but maybe it is a part of the running-in process for the moving parts in the Utopias.

Cheers
GG

 

[meomap]

Knock on wood, I'm going on six months of use with no problems what so ever. My condolences go out to you.

Out of curiosity. did the Utopia ever function properly and for how many hours did it do so? And if you do not mind, what is the serial number? Example: ( A1BEHF0005XX )

1st = OK until pop sound started for certain sub-bass for right driver.
2nd = Actually best sound going through 200 hrs then left driver just stopped working one day.
3rd = Arrived 1st day with a light rattle sound on right driver for certain sub-bass sound, not popping sound. Tried to burn-in for couple days but did not help.

Always tested it with my trio jazz album from Japan ( Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio - Gentle Blues album, SACD ).

@ Svatopluk.
Mine is #A1BEHG001295

I was wondering if FOCAL has any QC problem in France but did not let anybody know about it.

 

[AnakChan]

As for the transient speed, my Utopia setup is even faster than the 009. Especially, when testing with tracks like Diablo Rojo above and another track that i like is The Dark colossus destroys all from Nier soundtracks

Varies from individual to individual's tastes. I wrote a review of the Utopia last year and as good as I love it and is my primary home go-to rig, to my preference the SR-009/Electra has a slighter edge over the Utopia, however the SR-007Mk1/Electra has a larger edge over the Utopia. The only reason why I listen to my Utopia's more than my Staxes is convenience.

P.S. I pretty much ditched all my other dynamic driver headphones in favour of the Utopia though.

 

[Rakan]

Varies from individual to individual's tastes. I wrote a review of the Utopia last year and as good as I love it and is my primary home go-to rig, to my preference the SR-009/Electra has a slighter edge over the Utopia, however the SR-007Mk1/Electra has a larger edge over the Utopia. The only reason why I listen to my Utopia's more than my Staxes is convenience.

P.S. I pretty much ditched all my other dynamic driver headphones in favour of the Utopia though.

Sure, it varies depending on individual setup. In my case, we tried both headphones using 1 headamp to minimize the variable regarding Amplification.

I love the SR-009 sound and comfort also but using it is such a hassle.