[joseph69]

Ah yes, the Glutopia. Or Gootopia.

(Lets himself out)

Love it!
You're good!

Did you try the closed caption feature on Youtube? Seems to pick up the French accent fine.

No, I didnt, but I'll give it a try.

 

[Paladin79]

Just curious where you ended up on the impedance? Conventional 1/8 or some elaborate frequency dependent matching+optimization scheme?

Dumb luck?
It is an OTL amp and typically they work best at around 200 ohms up, I purposefully designed the amp to work with impedances of 50 ohms up so I could use a variety of headphones. I best not get into design here but the Utopias are an amazing match.

Friends went lower but the volume decreases below 50 ohms. 32 ohm need high current devices, this is high voltage low current most often.

 

[strojo]

Looking at a longer cable with different connector for my OG Utopia and am trying to decide between the Lazuli Reference and Reference Plus. I like the sound signature of the Utopia and am not trying to dramatically change it with a cable.

Has anyone tried them both and made a decision based on that comparison?

 

[Paladin79]

I have not tried others but I am running the Lazuli Reference and like the sound. . I spent close to 16 years working with custom cables including headphone cables and I believe the Reference is as good as anything I could build, for what that is worth.

I traded for my Utopias and the cable was given to me.

 

[Tanalasta]

Looking at a longer cable with different connector for my OG Utopia and am trying to decide between the Lazuli Reference and Reference Plus. I like the sound signature of the Utopia and am not trying to dramatically change it with a cable.

Has anyone tried them both and made a decision based on that comparison?

You can ask them directly.

I did and they recommended the plus.

 

[Paladin79]

You can ask them directly.

I did and they recommended the plus.

This is a conversation I best stay out of. I worked with enough cables to form specific opinions.

 

[strojo]

You can ask them directly.

I did and they recommended the plus.

I asked and they said “For the older Utopias, the Lazuli Reference is a very popular choice.” without really offering much of an explanation on why. That’s why I’m here trying to find get some other thoughts from folks who may have perspective to offer.

 

[strojo]

I have not tried others but I am running the Lazuli Reference and like the sound. . I spent close to 16 years working with custom cables including headphone cables and I believe the Reference is as good as anything I could build, for what that is worth.

I traded for my Utopias and the cable was given to me.

Did it do anything to the upper frequencies? I like the “bright” personality of the Utopias and don’t want to lose that.

 

[Paladin79]

Did it do anything to the upper frequencies? I like the “bright” personality of the Utopias and don’t want to lose that.

I described earlier what the Utopias did for upper frequencies for me and I have the Reference. I cannot comment on the plus. Would I pay $1400 for a headphone cable? Doubtful. I used to talk cable building with the gentleman who started this thread, I suspect he would have made his own just like I have. His knowledge off braiding certainly exceeded my own.

I should also state that all a cable can do is preserve the signal that enters it. Many quality products do that,

 

[Tobes]

Elex pads just win over me unless playing from tube-amp, sound is heftier, vocals more spotlighted, lower treble easier, bass amount and kick raised, quite surprising how much Utopia can push bass and kick with those pads

That pretty much sums it up.
What really is surprising is how closely the Elex pads measure to the Utopia pads - the frequency response changes are fairly subtle but IMO nudge the Utopia sound in the right direction.
I've posted this link before but thanks to Torq over at headphones.com for these measurements: https://forum.headphones.com/t/focal-pad-rolling-experiments-measurements/2822
There is lots of pad rolling with the different Focal models, but here is the Utopia graph:

You can see that the OE Utopia (black), Clear(pink) and Elex(red) pads all share very similar FR.
Clear and Elex have slightly more bass in the 20-35Hz region, slightly more energy from 1.5-2.5Khz and some differences in the 6-9Khz region.
Clear and Elex pads are very close except Clear dips lower around 6KHz and has more subdued peak in the 8-9KHz region. This perhaps explains why the Clear pads could present with less 'sparkle'. Elex pads are closer to the OE Utopia (than Clear) but OE Utopia has an extra dip at 7KHz while the Elex pads have a smoother rise between 6.5-7.5KHz.
Its tricky to try to interpret too much from FR plots but in any case the deviations of the Elex pads prove to be very serendipitous IMO.

 

[Arnold Schwartz]

Elex pads are hard to find (at least online).

 

[Tobes]

Elex pads are hard to find (at least online).

Unfortunately true.
Drop was selling them for $60 at one stage, which was a bargain and I should have got a spare set.
They are now sold thru but I have added my request for a further 'Drop'.
https://drop.com/buy/focal-pads-for-elex-headphones
They have 2K requests so far - hopefully they get another shipment and they are the same as the previous pads.

 

[strojo]

Looking at a longer cable with different connector for my OG Utopia and am trying to decide between the Lazuli Reference and Reference Plus. I like the sound signature of the Utopia and am not trying to dramatically change it with a cable.

Has anyone tried them both and made a decision based on that comparison?

Ended up ordering the Reference version and will report back after I've had some time with them.

 

[marcus2704]

I have a pair of 2020 Utopias which I currently run using an IFI Diablo and BlueSound Node N130. I wish to upgrade my amp & DAC setup.

I have read probably 50+ pages and can see that the Naim Unit Atom comes in as highly recommended and the all-in-one neatness appeals. I see no mention of the Auralic Altair G1 which one reviewer on YouTube claimed gave better sound quality, is the Atom just far more popular given its affiliation with Focal?

I have around GBP £5K for this but have a little flexibility, is there anything else I should really be considering? I just want something that is going to make the Utopias sing, and I dont feel the Diablo is doing them the justice they deserve.

 

[iDesign]

I have a pair of 2020 Utopias which I currently run using an IFI Diablo and BlueSound Node N130. I wish to upgrade my amp & DAC setup.

I have read probably 50+ pages and can see that the Naim Unit Atom comes in as highly recommended and the all-in-one neatness appeals. I see no mention of the Auralic Altair G1 which one reviewer on YouTube claimed gave better sound quality, is the Atom just far more popular given its affiliation with Focal?

I have around GBP £5K for this but have a little flexibility, is there anything else I should really be considering? I just want something that is going to make the Utopias sing, and I dont feel the Diablo is doing them the justice they deserve.

I would purchase the Utopia and Naim Atom and immediately delete your Head-Fi account so you don’t continue upgrading. It’s a perfectly fine system for years to come and anything more is excess.