[up late]

The question was how much would you pay for an used Utopia that’s out of warranty. I said $500 max given the $2k all-in repair cost.

If you are buying from a dealer with full warranty coverage it’s not an issue.

and this was your original reply to the question:

it depends. Without warranty - $0. With a few years of warranty - $2k

i'm not sure what your motivation is for posting here but it comes off as thread crapping

 

[thecrow]

Unexpected but nice combo, Utopia with Meze silver plated PCUHD cable

Not a huge surprise. I (and some others) use (and have settled on) the nordost heimdall 2 which is also silver plated copper.

pretty much brings out everything i’m seeking in the sound

 

[BassicScience]

Just to clarify, my Utopia failure had nothing to do with "driver reliability". It was caused by the infamous ear pad gunk seepage problem, which I believe Focal has fixed at this point. Given that, I think $2600 is a reasonable price for a brand new Utopia with essentially no warranty, as long as one doesn't abuse the headphone. YMMV.

 

[KelFab]

Not a huge surprise. I (and some others) use (and have settled on) the nordost heimdall 2 which is also silver plated copper.

pretty much brings out everything i’m seeking in the sound

The “unexpected” fact was more related to the adaptation of the cable for the Utopia than using a silver plated copper, because PCUHD from Meze are only available with mini XLR4 terminations on headphone side as initially they are made for the Elites / Empyreans. But it’s good to know that the nordost heimdall 2 also woks well with Utopia, I missed that info

 

[bluecar]

I've been doing some informal analysis, and it's hard to see a fail rate in Utopias that is distinctly higher than other brands. For any high-end Headphone, repair costs are going to be savage, especially for drivers where the bulk of the actual manufacturing costs lie. The risk is broadly the same for any pre-used TOTL can. this is why I buy new for HiFiMan

You can see this in used prices - if the fail rate was high enough to impact a broad user base, the used prices would crash (and they are highly visible through listings, auction sites etc) - they have'nt. Utopias still see for between $2300 and $2800 depending on age and accessories - so the market still has confidence in their value.

In common with buying anything used - cars, amps, speakers, there's always that chance you'll get gubbed for repair costs. If you can't eat it, buy new.

On a final point- there are some albums I listen to with the Utopias becaue it sounds amazing - if the headphones failed tomorrow, and I could never replace them, I'd die happy having had the experience, and it was totally worth the cost

 

[Roasty]

my Susvara failed with L channel dead. sent back, got a new set, and that replacement failed with R channel dead after a month. Sold the 2nd replacement set.

my Utopia hasn't missed a beat.

 

[MACyaner]

I wouldn't sell my Grand Utopia for less than €10,000 and actually not more than that - I've heard/owned everything there is in terms of high-end headphones - there's nothing better in my setup.
God forbid if mine dies I would buy another 10 Utopia and hope for a Grand Utopia

 

[jasonaberger]

Not looking to buy one quite yet but based on what I’ve read, I think this will be my next headphone purchase. Great balance, great punch, great detail, and they look amazing.

 

[caustic386]

It's cool if you want something to do for fun, and to each their own. But I still don't really get the point using the Utopia in this way. Bluetooth adapters would gimp their quality so much that it largely wouldn't matter that they're Utopia.

I'd argue this for the IER-Z1R as well, but at least you're not spending money to adapt them.

I use my Qudelix 5K for both the IER-Z1R and Utopia. In what way(s), specifically, is their quality being gimped? I'll try to listen for it, whatever it may be

 

[okjellno]

Bluetooth can be complete garbage from older and low power devices like watches (hello Garmin), but the Qudelix and UTWS5s offer a SQ where the difference between them and a cable is in the area of critical listening, imho.

 

[Rayon]

Pro tip: try high pass filter @ 20Hz. I'm using 36dB/Octave. Bass intensive music opened up with Hugo 2 -> Phonitor e -> Utopia. I have a feeling that Utopia's driver is struggling at very low frequencies that should be below human hearing range. At least I'm quite confident it's not Phonitor that would be struggling as it was able to run HE6se v2 with ease. It was counter intuitive, but I got more bass after adding high pass filter. Now the driver isn't trying to produce sounds below human hearing range and is freed to produce sounds that are in human hearing range. I feel like it became a new headphone

I found this out as it felt weird that adding low shelf decreased the amount of bass I was hearing. I though it must be because it also tried then to spend more effort on those very low frequencies.

 

[Clear Water]

Pro tip: try low pass filter @ 20Hz. I'm using 72dB/Octave. Bass intensive music opened up with Hugo 2 -> Phonitor e -> Utopia. I have a feeling that Utopia's driver is struggling at very low frequencies that should be below human hearing range. At least I'm quite confident it's not Phonitor that would be struggling as it was able to run HE6se v2 with ease. It was counter intuitive, but I got more bass after adding low pass filter. Now the driver isn't trying to produce sounds below human hearing range and is freed to produce sounds that are in human hearing range. I feel like it became a new headphone

I found this out as it felt weird that adding low shelf decreased the amount of bass I was hearing. I though it must be because it also tried then to spend more effort on those very low frequencies.

Do you mean a high pass filter?

 

[chesebert]

Do you mean a high pass filter?

Yes, he meant negative bass shelf or HPF. He is decreasing subbass to even lower level than where it started at.

 

[Rayon]

Correct, edited. And to clarify, I was first trying positive low shelf, which made things even muddier. Removed the shelf and replaced with high pass filter. Now I feel like I don't need to do anything else (like boosting bass) because the bass is hitting much better when the element is reserved only for those sounds that I can hear. I also tried with 2x36db/octave originally, but then I noticed it's not the same as 1x72db/octave and 20hz would already be -6db with 2x36db. I just left it with one 36db/octave band. Now the sound of Utopia is pretty much perfect to my ear. Just beautiful.

 

[KelFab]

Arrival of the day