Bear with me because I’m not an expert but this is what I’ve gathered over the past couple months of experiencing an odd journey with Focal headphones- I mean that Focal’s ultralight drivers like Mg and Be seem to cheat on the clarity by overshooting the attack, particularly on higher frequencies. This is based off of purr1n’s measurements at SBAF. (Attached)What's agressive attack mean?
I wonder if this leads to transients being louder than they would normally be and subsequently leading to the mysterious fatigue people get listening to some Focal headphones despite the fact they’re not even bright.
I seem to be susceptible to whatever is going on, which is a shame because I love the tonality and the detail Focal offers regardless. So yeah, trying to find a solution here.
Even more interestingly, when I underpower Focal headphones (by say using a phone jack) the fatiguing effect completely disappears for me. Transients are the first thing to go when underpowering a transducer so this would seem to support this explanation of what’s happening.