[reeltime]

I joined the club.

 

[tomwoo]

I just shipped mine off to Focal Naim in New York where they get bundled with others needing repair and then shipped off to their repair facilities in Canada somewhere. I was told the current turn around time is 3-4 weeks

But you will have brand new drivers when they come back, probably less prone to failures. Look at the bright side

 

[TheMiddleSky]

I've found the latest post 3 years ago saying its $960 for the repair cost.

Well to repair driver failure for LCD-4 is more than that in 2020. I'm not sure how much Focal will charge nowadays though.

 

[Gadget67]

I just shipped mine off to Focal Naim in New York where they get bundled with others needing repair and then shipped off to their repair facilities in Canada somewhere. I was told the current turn around time is 3-4 weeks

That would make me think they have more repairs than they’d like us to know about. NOT encouraging!

 

[tomwoo]

That would make me think they have more repairs than they’d like us to know about. NOT encouraging!

Hopefully this situation will force them to improve the design of their drivers. I'm sure Focal does not enjoy repairing the drivers for free

 

[bfreedma]

That would make me think they have more repairs than they’d like us to know about. NOT encouraging!

Hopefully this situation will force them to improve the design of their drivers. I'm sure Focal does not enjoy repairing the drivers for free

Are we going to do this again? More baseless speculation on failure rates and driver design issues.

I (almost) miss the thousands of questions on which cable is “best”.

As for the periodic shipping, it’s highly likely that the US Service depot is sending all Focal items needing repair to Canada, not just Utopia headphones. No need to let common sense get in the way of Focal Utopia repair rate conspiracy theories though...

 

[paradoxper]

Are we going to do this again? More baseless speculation on failure rates and driver design issues.

I (almost) miss the thousands of questions on which cable is “best”.

As for the periodic shipping, it’s highly likely that the US Service depot is sending all Focal items needing repair to Canada, not just Utopia headphones. No need to let common sense get in the way of Focal Utopia repair rate conspiracy theories though...

Uhm. What serial numbers have the lowest no-ist, ish failure rates??

 

[Gadget67]

Are we going to do this again? More baseless speculation on failure rates and driver design issues.

I (almost) miss the thousands of questions on which cable is “best”.

As for the periodic shipping, it’s highly likely that the US Service depot is sending all Focal items needing repair to Canada, not just Utopia headphones. No need to let common sense get in the way of Focal Utopia repair rate conspiracy theories though...

Well, to be clear I obviously wasn’t speculating on failure rates or driver design but simply observing that the time frame seemed to indicate there potentially were lots of repairs. I’m definitely not familiar with Focal’s internal repair protocols nor am I suggesting, implying (or inferring) there is a conspiracy of any kind. We can always take the common sense approach of simply asking @FocalOfficial (Marine) if this is unusual or concerning.

I also have no firm opinion on the best cable, but I do like my Moon Audio Silver Dragon FWIW.

 

[tomwoo]

Are we going to do this again? More baseless speculation on failure rates and driver design issues.

I (almost) miss the thousands of questions on which cable is “best”.

As for the periodic shipping, it’s highly likely that the US Service depot is sending all Focal items needing repair to Canada, not just Utopia headphones. No need to let common sense get in the way of Focal Utopia repair rate conspiracy theories though...

I agree 'baseless speculation' won't help with the situation. But the truth is nobody except Focal knows the real failure rate. IMHO Focal did the best they could by offering the transferrable 5-year warranty. I think most Utopia owners here appreciate that.

 

[thecrow]

Uhm. What serial numbers have the lowest no-ist, ish failure rates??

It has to be a prime number or divisible by 17

i think i need to unsubscribe from this thread for a while. recent conversations on failures are too negative for my liking and the amount of these are frankly giving me the schiits

for those of us with utopias and/or who have been here for a while have heard these conversations before and have already weighed up the pros and cons of it all

i’ll go wait in the lobby and go find an old audeze thread to discuss their driver failures

all the best

 

[SuperBurrito]

I bought mine new in 2017 and had a driver failure replaced under warranty within the first month of use. After that, no problems ever. Excellent headphones!

 

[KC2020]

Are we going to do this again? More baseless speculation on failure rates and driver design issues.

It is odd to me to worry about things you can't change but that is the state of the world isn't it.

I have 4 pairs of Focal HPs, 2 are Uptopias bought over 3 years ago. They're all used in a Pro environment, meaning they're pushed hard every day, and they've never skipped a beat. No need for worrying based on my experience.

 

[up late]

Well, to be clear I obviously wasn’t speculating on failure rates or driver design but simply observing that the time frame seemed to indicate there potentially were lots of repairs. I’m definitely not familiar with Focal’s internal repair protocols nor am I suggesting, implying (or inferring) there is a conspiracy of any kind. We can always take the common sense approach of simply asking @FocalOfficial (Marine) if this is unusual or concerning.

I also have no firm opinion on the best cable, but I do like my Moon Audio Silver Dragon FWIW.

posting that focal has "more repairs than they'd like us to know about" comes off as more than just an observation - it's alarmist. and suggesting that the turn-around time for the repair of an unspecified number of units is indicative of potentially "lots of repairs" is speculative at best. you also raised your concern over a few reports of driver failures in this thread with marine not that long ago.

 

[ubs28]

I had to get my pads replaced for the HD 800 and the AFC 1. For the Focal Utopia, nothing needs to be replaced it seems. The pads still look like new. So I’d say it has the best build quality by far.

It is definetly better than the Focal Clear also as it has already started to change colour despite never using it.

So not sure why were this data comes from that people reach out to customer support more for Focal Utopia headphones, because my experience is actually the opposite.

 

[claud W]

So, yesterday, I set up my break in chain for my new Utopias and my new secret , no name Norne cable. Tidal off Mac computer to Matrix Sabra Pro MQA DAC to SPL Phonitor E to headphones. I very seldom listen to equipment that I am breaking in. They usually have issues that you can hear. After I got everything up and going, I decided to briefly check out the sound to make sure every thing was running. After an hour and a half, I took them off reluctantly. They sounded great right out of the box. I think 200 hours is the specified amount of break in. About 2 weeks 24/7. Tidal is a great source for break in as it has several 20 plus hour play lists.
EDM is my choice of break in music.