[DrLunaDjangoRex]

Have you settled on which filter setting to use on the H2? I'm curious to try H2 with Utopia as well.

I've only been using the default filter because that's what is recommended by Rob Watts.

I love both those headphones and have a hard time choosing a favorite. HD800S wins for weight and comfort for me too, and sometimes even SQ, as it seems to smooth over harshness present on certain recordings, which the Utopias expose. On the right, good quality recording, I'd surely grab the Utopias, but I'm a 70s prog rock fan and I'm often dismayed at how many of my very good albums were recorded very poorly.

I agree. This headphone is more transparent than the HD800S and can make terrible recording sound unpleasant.

 

[TSAVJason]

Without the full data, everything else is anecdotal. I've had my pair since almost their release and they have been rock solid. So all we have are 2 data points out of how many sold worldwide. All my point was that there are other companies who only offer warranty to the initial buyer and we're ok with that generally. Personally I prefer warranty coverage of the product (as long as it wasn't "grey market").

That’s AWESOME! I totally agree.

My point was neither of you have that data so either way it can be named by many names. “Perception” is certainly one I’m sure you agree. It sort of makes things moot.

 

[Allanmarcus]

Please take the context on my statement into account. I was responding to a question about why one vendor doesn’t get negative remarks about the same original purchaser only warranty. My remark had to do with perceptions of failure rates vs negative comments.

 

[MacedonianHero]

That’s AWESOME! I totally agree.

My point was neither of you have that data so either way it can be named by many names. “Perception” is certainly one I’m sure you agree. It sort of makes things moot.

Please take the context on my statement into account. I was responding to a question about why one vendor doesn’t get negative remarks about the same original purchaser only warranty. My remark had to do with perceptions of failure rates vs negative comments.

To confirm, so did mine .

 

[FLTWS]

Makes me wonder, even if we had a completely accurate count by owner of the failures here on Head-Fi (and other well known websites) if that would even be a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of units in use around the world?

Folks with issues tend to post a lot, those with no issues...

 

[wldcohso]

Hi,

Ok. I would like to volunteer to say that my Utopia had driver failure 2X.
So, that is
2 counts.
Anyone here had their driver fails, please add in to see how many driver fails so far.

Just to confirm, did you do anything out of the ordinary that would cause the driver to fail like high listening volumes. I wonder if there’s a bad batch that were sold and if it can be correlated by serial number.

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

After all this fun I would love to jump in with a new discussion about Focal driver failures. Pick a group and think about it your head, you don't need to respond (I don't want to derail the thread any longer, if thats possible lol)

1. make a comment on the thread if your driver failed.

2. If your drivers have not failed and you represent the remaining population of Elear and Utopia owners then say nothing on this thread.

Weird.... 5 people back to back talked about their drivers failing. I am thankful that all car companies don't have problems like Focal. If they did, I would buy stock in Schwinn!


Seriously though I hope this helps keep perspective. I would honestly feel bad if the driver talk would keep someone from experiencing the Utopia...

 

[meomap]

Just to confirm, did you do anything out of the ordinary that would cause the driver to fail like high listening volumes. I wonder if there’s a bad batch that were sold and if it can be correlated by serial number.

My answer is no high volume.
Still very much enjoying 3rd pair with moderate volume.

 

[bflat]

After all this fun I would love to jump in with a new discussion about Focal driver failures. Pick a group and think about it your head, you don't need to respond (I don't want to derail the thread any longer, if thats possible lol)

1. make a comment on the thread if your driver failed.

2. If your drivers have not failed and you represent the remaining population of Elear and Utopia owners then say nothing on this thread.

Weird.... 5 people back to back talked about their drivers failing. I am thankful that all car companies don't have problems like Focal. If they did, I would buy stock in Schwinn!


Seriously though I hope this helps keep perspective. I would honestly feel bad if the driver talk would keep someone from experiencing the Utopia...

How is this helpful to current and future Focal headphone owners?

You have no idea how many units were sold or what percentage of owners even bother to socialize here. I expect those few who have had problems want to vent publicly (they should) and this is a good place to do that. You are only going to create a biased perception and nothing close to actual statistics and facts. This is no different than the histogram they show at a roulette wheel. The probability of driver failure for one owner has no correlation to somebody else's failure unless there is an inherent design flaw or a specific range of serial numbers connected to a bad batch.

 

[TSAVJason]

How is this helpful to current and future Focal headphone owners?

You have no idea how many units were sold or what percentage of owners even bother to socialize here. I expect those few who have had problems want to vent publicly (they should) and this is a good place to do that. You are only going to create a biased perception and nothing close to actual statistics and facts. This is no different than the histogram they show at a roulette wheel. The probability of driver failure for one owner has no correlation to somebody else's failure unless there is an inherent design flaw or a specific range of serial numbers connected to a bad batch.

I believe MTMECraig was trying to expose that the issue is much smaller than it appears from posts here on headfi. The complaints are often redundant posters so it makes the issue seem much larger than it really is. The report as I’ve been told is under .5% in in-field failures. If you compare to more mainstream products you’ll find product failures that reach up to 15%. I believe we can surmise from this that Focal is doing a pretty good job of quality control lately. I do understand the angst people feel when they are inconvenienced by a failure but to proliferate the same complaint a gozillion times doesn’t do anyone any good in terms of how to deal with issues that might arise properly

 

[wldcohso]

I believe MTMECraig was trying to expose that the issue is much smaller than it appears from posts here on headfi. The complaints are often redundant posters so it makes the issue seem much larger than it really is. The report as I’ve been told is under .5% in in-field failures. If you compare to more mainstream products you’ll find product failures that reach up to 15%. I believe we can surmise from this that Focal is doing a pretty good job of quality control lately. I do understand the angst people feel when they are inconvenienced by a failure but to proliferate the same complaint a gozillion times doesn’t do anyone any good in terms of how to deal with issues that might arise properly

Well said, this should conclude this topic *for now*...

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

I believe MTMECraig was trying to expose that the issue is much smaller than it appears from posts here on headfi. The complaints are often redundant posters so it makes the issue seem much larger than it really is. The report as I’ve been told is under .5% in in-field failures. If you compare to more mainstream products you’ll find product failures that reach up to 15%. I believe we can surmise from this that Focal is doing a pretty good job of quality control lately. I do understand the angst people feel when they are inconvenienced by a failure but to proliferate the same complaint a gozillion times doesn’t do anyone any good in terms of how to deal with issues that might arise properly

This is all I was saying. I would hope that the community by now would know that I don’t dismiss when people have problems. I was trying to help perception as a whole. Nothing negative...

 

[bflat]

This is all I was saying. I would hope that the community by now would know that I don’t dismiss when people have problems. I was trying to help perception as a whole. Nothing negative...

Yeah, I understand that, but using any kind of numbers to try to approximate one's chances of failure is not helpful in absence of actual numbers. You probably think 5 reported failures is low, but some people get all out of whack when there are 8 reported iPhone 8s coming apart without even thinking about the total sold quantity of 15 million. Even then it's pretty meaningless because for an owner who needs warranty service, their failure rate is 100%. My suggestion is not even go there and keep the discussion to what are the best options in case of failures or if there is evidence of a design flaw, then let's start talking numbers.

If people want to see more of this for entertainment value and drama, just visit a Chord thread, especially the Hugo 2 that recently launched. There you have the Chord representatives actually accusing customers of nit picking and outright lying, all the while forgetting about the case fiasco of the Hugo 1 V1.

 

[TSAVJason]

Yeah, I understand that, but using any kind of numbers to try to approximate one's chances of failure is not helpful in absence of actual numbers. You probably think 5 reported failures is low, but some people get all out of whack when there are 8 reported iPhone 8s coming apart without even thinking about the total sold quantity of 15 million. Even then it's pretty meaningless because for an owner who needs warranty service, their failure rate is 100%. My suggestion is not even go there and keep the discussion to what are the best options in case of failures or if there is evidence of a design flaw, then let's start talking numbers.

If people want to see more of this for entertainment value and drama, just visit a Chord thread, especially the Hugo 2 that recently launched. There you have the Chord representatives actually accusing customers of nit picking and outright lying, all the while forgetting about the case fiasco of the Hugo 1 V1.

Hey we had our demo H2 take a dump after 3 days on display. It doesn’t happen often but it happens

 

[kingkikapu]

I’d totally buy Utopia again. Such a fun headphone. All I want to do is feed them better source material to really make them show the goods.