[doraymon]

as you are probably aware, tyll hertsen announced his retirement this week. although he controversially changed his opinion of the utopia and removed it from his wall of fame, i still think he nailed it in this review like no one else has:
https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/worlds-best-headphone-focal-utopia

Tyll has been one of my reference reviewers for years but I always suspected that the value for money proposition has heavily influenced his reviews.
For example he knocked out the Ether C Flow / Ether Flow for the cheaper AEON and so he did with the Utopia in favour of the Clear.
I owned or tested all of the above if you forget about the cost there is no way the AEON are better than the Ether or the Clear better than the Utopias in absolute terms.

 

[up late]

i posted tyll's review of the utopia because i think it's an excellent review - that's all

 

[doraymon]

Yes I agree it is. It just made me think of his style and wall of fame decisions and thought to share with you guys.

 

[doraymon]

On a different note I sent 2 contact requests to Focal to ask questions about my issue with the Utopia and they never replied.
For a $4k headphone I would have expected much much better.

 

[SilverEars]

Tyll has been one of my reference reviewers for years but I always suspected that the value for money proposition has heavily influenced his reviews.
For example he knocked out the Ether C Flow / Ether Flow for the cheaper AEON and so he did with the Utopia in favour of the Clear.
I owned or tested all of the above if you forget about the cost there is no way the AEON are better than the Ether or the Clear better than the Utopias in absolute terms.

Well, his WOF isn't 'cost no object.' In his criteria, price matters as well. So, he has headphones in various price ranges. He bumps off headphones if another headphone comes that performs better in the price bracket.

My philosophy is more expensive the headphone, more critical one should be of it, especially if it's retailed at $4k. I think his thinking within the same lines.

 

[up late]

Yes I agree it is. It just made me think of his style and wall of fame decisions and thought to share with you guys.

i've been an innerfidelity reader from its beginning. suffice to say, i respect tyll's reviews. that doesn't mean that i always agree with his opinions, however. back to the utopia... i hope.

 

[cooldude211986]

i suspect that we are the biggest variables when it comes to perceived changes in a headphone's sound

So true!!

 

[cooldude211986]

I’m not yet out of the tunnel but in my brain at least the bass has tightened and the clarity of the Utopia is fantastic.
I still have a kind of MEH in regards to the presentation which is very “in your face” as opposed to the airy, fresh and spacious presentation of the Clear.
I am starting to believe that after a long time with relatively bright and bass light headphones I had a shock with the powerful and full bass of the Utopia.
This, together with maybe the need of at least a few hours of burn in to settle and tighten the bass, created that sensation of congestion.
One thing that still puzzles me is the distortion I was hearing in the highs and mids of tracks with high dynamic range, which seems to have disappeared now.
I never had a similar experience in any of the maybe 20 pairs of cans I owned in the last ten years.
Today I’m bringing the Utopias to the shop to test them against their demo unit and make sure there is no technical issue.

How do you feel about soundstage when pairing Utopia's with DAVE?

 

[doraymon]

How do you feel about soundstage when pairing Utopia's with DAVE?

Can’t say it’s the pairing’s stronger point...

 

[cooldude211986]

Can’t say it’s the pairing’s stronger point...

That's what my experience goes as well. Utopia's soundstage doesn't vary too much with the change of dac/amp.

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

Goodbye my fellow Utopian's. I will be blasting away with the 4z later today

 

[llamaluv]

On the topic of a DAC's influence on soundstage, I hear a noticeable improvement in the Utopia's soundstage on the Pavane Level 3 compared to the Holo Spring Level 3. Very happy with this change...

Edit: This switch also included moving from a Matrix X-SPDIF 2 connected to the Spring via I2S to a Singxer SU-1 KTE Edition connected to the Pavane via AES.

 

[Slim1970]

Goodbye my fellow Utopian's. I will be blasting away with the 4z later today

You're not keeping both?

 

[LCMusicLover]

That's what my experience goes as well. Utopia's soundstage doesn't vary too much with the change of dac/amp.

I've been playing around with other parts of my chain to try to improve this, as well as 'softening' the sound just a bit. Different DACs (Sonica DAC --> Denafrips Ares --> Denafrips Pontus). Different amps (Violectric V280 --> Bryston BHA-1 --> Soundaware P1 as a loaner). None of these changes made much difference to the soundstage. Pontus does 'soften' the sound a bit vs the (9038-based) Sonica DAC, while the Sonica emphasizes the hyper-detail of the Utopia.

It turns out the biggest soundstage change I've heard came when I replaced my Schiit Eitr with a Singxer SU-1 to feed my Pontus via AES/EBU instead of via coax. It was a pretty striking change. The Sonica only has coax and USB (...and optical, but the Singxer doesn't do that...), and I didn't hear much change there -- near the limits of '...I'm not sure whether that sounds better...' So I suspect that the source of the improvement is moving from the coax input to the AES/EBU input on the Pontus.

Whatever the source of the change, the soundstage did get noticeably bigger without losing any of the precision. To me, that is one of the most striking features of the Utopia -- literally 'Wow, the soundstage on these is so amazing! I can tell exactly where each instrument and and each voice is located.'

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

You're not keeping both?

I traded in my Utopia. I'm going back to bassland.