I couldn't understand why Focal charged $129 for the hard shell carrying case until bought one myself. They could easily charge $20 for the packaging alone. The carrying case came with a nice plastic-wrapped thick beautiful cardboard case with shape-fitting foam inside. The case for carrying case (pun intended) is more practical than the original "rigid carrying case with magnetic locking system"
I only heard with the Meze Elite at CanJam and it sounded wonderful.
And yes, the Naim HE is a wonderful pairing. I even prefer it over the Chord Dave/mscaler. Not quite as technical but great weight, rhythm and flow. I recently moved on from the og Utopia to the Expanse, but have kept the Naim HE and it still makes a wonderful paring. With the Expanse, it actually sounds much better than the $30k DCS Lina stack.
I have the WA8 and it's a great pairing with the OG Utopia, 2022 Utopia, and Meze Elite as well. It adds just the right amount of tube warmth, bloom, and opens up a stage a bit compared to a slightly more punchy solid state. I use it mainly with it's line-in, but the DAC on it isn't bad either.
I've been listening to the Utopia with the new Topping G5. Wow, this is a great DAC Amp combo. Incredible level of detail, not harsh at all to my ears. Resolution is spectacular. And it's $299.
The utopia is said to have a small stage, but that stage can actually get pretty big with certain gear, especially nicer tube amps with high end tubes.
What pads measure the closest to the stock pads? Seems like Clear pads from measurements with some presence and some brilliance loss save for the 6k, but I'd like some more measurements if possible including the new ZMF pads.
I can’t figure out which one I prefer in terms of aesthetics and build quality. They are both so well designed and well built. Of all the headphones I’ve owned in the past these two are a class above.
unfortunately you can't have the ab1266's sound without its cumbersome design. i reacquainted myself with the ab1266 while auditioning the diana v2 earlier this year and i think that the utopia distinguishes itself in more than looks and comfort alone.
I insist on pretending that they never released the 2022 model, because I’ve always loved the 2020 model I have, and until this mess every review on the planet assured me that I had one of the best headphones ever designed. The only reason for me to revisit that confidence is FOMO in my book.
I still haven’t seen any evidence that this “improvement” was intended to benefit anyone other than Focal, so they won’t have to fix any more failed voice coils—and my coils still seem to be working just fine. The initial marketing materials for the 2022 version didn’t say anything about a better sounding headphone, they said a more reliable headphone. It’s only of late that folks are talking about “better bass” and other vague improvements—and it is mainly corporate-funded reviewers claiming this, not the manufacturer themselves.
It’s funny to me that folks are debating which model looks better aesthetically, since I strongly believe that Focal made those superficial changes to further justify calling this an “upgrade”. I imagine somewhat cynically that they’d have had a much harder time moving units for an extra grand if the cans looked exactly the same, and only had a manufacturing flaw fixed that they should have offered existing owners for free to begin with. We did part ways with four thousand dollars for these things after all, and Focal sure loves to coast on the reputation of their build quality.
Anyway, since the voice coil issue is so established at this point, I’m banking on that if one of mine fails, I’m more than justified to pitch an absolute fit until they repair it! We shall see…
What pads measure the closest to the stock pads? Seems like Clear pads from measurements with some presence and some brilliance loss save for the 6k, but I'd like some more measurements if possible including the new ZMF pads.
I actually rolled my stock Utopia pads with Stellia versions right after I bought them, and this has allowed me to completely forgo any further PEQ bass shelf. Something about the solid leather Stellia pads vs the fenestrated, squishy stock pads seems to provide much less leakage of low frequencies, and they solved my bass issues without any demonstrable effect on soundstage. Plus the chocolate leather pads look fantastic on the black Utopia frame!
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