[bcaulf17]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I found this one that looks like it should work. Seems a little taller than the other one I got.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B094NRPWT5/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Daniel Johnston]

14 usd to 25 usd hp stands should be fine with Utopia.
Seeing people using 200 usd to 300 usd hp stands for their hp. Everyone can have their own preferences.

You don't have to buy expensive stand.....

The only reason I suggest the Woo stand is you can't replace weight. The small, cheap stands I own (and are similar to the ones suggested) are pretty wobbly. I combat that with sticky gel to keep them planted The Woo stands are sturdy and don't want to topple over when you grab the headphones. The omega style stands have the same issue. It's easy to topple over if you aren't careful.

As with everything, you can go cheaper and be okay, but paying a bit extra for a well designed, sturdy, and attractive headphone stand isn't a bad idea. I agree that $200+ headphone stands are a bit excessive.

 

[bcaulf17]

The only reason I suggest the Woo stand is you can't replace weight. The small, cheap stands I own (and are similar to the ones suggested) are pretty wobbly. I combat that with sticky gel to keep them planted The Woo stands are sturdy and don't want to topple over when you grab the headphones. The omega style stands have the same issue. It's easy to topple over if you aren't careful.

As with everything, you can go cheaper and be okay, but paying a bit extra for a well designed, sturdy, and attractive headphone stand isn't a bad idea. I agree that $200+ headphone stands are a bit excessive.

Yeah, I was actually considering going with Audioquest one, similar price to the Woo stand. I can see the value in having a really nice stand like that but I couldn’t quite commit to a $100 price tag for a stand. Some of the cheaper ones I’ve gotten in the past have been great, others not so much. If I don’t like this one I’ll just return and shell out for the Audioquest one.

 

[meomap]

The only reason I suggest the Woo stand is you can't replace weight. The small, cheap stands I own (and are similar to the ones suggested) are pretty wobbly. I combat that with sticky gel to keep them planted The Woo stands are sturdy and don't want to topple over when you grab the headphones. The omega style stands have the same issue. It's easy to topple over if you aren't careful.

As with everything, you can go cheaper and be okay, but paying a bit extra for a well designed, sturdy, and attractive headphone stand isn't a bad idea. I agree that $200+ headphone stands are a bit excessive.

I have the Woo T model as well.
Love it. Too expensive.
Got the ZMF wood hp stand also, Expensive too. Double hp.
Use the WOO as a WEAPON instead just in case the person grab my Utopia will get a Ding....
Need to buy more Stax plastic bag covers.

 

[ColdsnapBry]

For Focal the suspension type headphone stands always make me a bit nervous about wearing out the foam inside the headband over time with 500g weight of the headphone putting pressure on the foam constantly. Which is why I lay my down when not using.

I guess the ROOMs one is the closest I've seen to even weight distribution. But still makes me pause just a bit.

 

[BrainSalat]

What about some wooden stand that don't break the bank

 

[Musicophilesblog]

I use the original Focal stand over my RoomsAudio simply because of the looks.

 

[Donald D]

I received the Clear Beyond balanced headphone cable yesterday evening and couldn’t wait to plug it into the Focal Utopia 2022 attached to the Violectric V590 Mk2 PRO DAC/Amp which I both bought only about four weeks ago, as I had posted earlier in this thread. I was amazed by how that combo sounded with the balanced stock cable but was intrigued by claims that a third party headphone cable may add something more to it. In a YouTube video a tester had stated that the Cardas headphone cable was the only one where he could hear a difference to the stock cable. I had mixed feelings about ordering it but took the plunge, mainly out of curiosity.

I chose three songs to evaluate it against the stock cable: Prince Purple Rain, Put Your Lights On (feat. Everlast) on Carlos Santana’s Supernatural (Remastered) album, and Simply Red Money’s Too Tight (To Mendion) on the Picture Book album. After the first strokes of the electric guitar in Purple Rain, I could already tell, better reverb than the stock cable, same with the drum hits. Nice, I thought. But when the singing set it, the voice of Prince sounded a bit more anaemic, as if his presence had moved to the back and the voice didn't touch one anymore. Bummer, I thought. I moved on to the Carlos Santana piece. Same thing, Everlast's voice makes that song and it was less present with the Cardas cable. Needless to say, the same disappoint with the Simply Red song.

There was one thing that struck me as different with the Clear Beyond, however, and I decided to explore it further before I threw the cable in the dumpster - there was noway I could sell it, people would suspect it's a dud, I figured. While with the stock cable the soundstage was around my head as if I was sitting on the stage, the soundstage with Cardas cable was now in front of me, it was much bigger, it was deeper, and there wasn't only more reverb - the instruments sounded more real - there was also more micro-detail resolved and it all flowed nicely together in one big harmonious whole.

I decided to listen to some songs in my classical music playlist which isn't very long. I only listen to classical music occasionally, mainly on the radio. I started out with Palladio: I. Allegretto (arr. for Strings Orchestra), Karl Jenkins, Carmine Lauri, David Alberman & London Symphony Orchestra and was blown away. I had a front row seat in a symphony hall with perfect acoustics. The string instruments penetrated deep into my body and gave me goosebumps.

I moved on to the next one on the list, Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, Recomposed by Max Richter, Max Richter, Daniel Hope, Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin & André de Ridder. It took my breadth away. I proceeded with the Violin Concertos, Op.8 "Il cimento dell'armonia e dell' invenzione" / Concerto No. 2 in G minor for solo violin, Janine Jansen, Candida Thompson, Henk Rubingh, Julian Rachlin, Maarten Jansen, Stacey Watton, Liz Kenny & Jan Jansen. All of a sudden, I couldn't get enough of that Cardas cable on the Utopia22 with the V590 Mk2 PRO - the Violectric has an excellent DAC BTW, same as in the V380 Mk2 which was reviewed by Ichos.

String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima" (Arr. P. Kuusisto for String Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto & Norwegian Chamber Orchestra;

Toccata and Fugue In D Minor, BWV 565 (arr. L. Stokowski for Orchestra), José Serebrier & Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra;

Suite for Orchestra No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068: II. Air, Ross Pople & London Festival Orchestra

I could hardly sleep last night out of excitement and impatience to get up in the morning to listen to more. Today I listened to some Jazz and Vocal Jazz with the Clear Beyond which I never do at home, only in the car. In Dotschy Reinhardt’s album Chaplin's Secret the voices are so well mixed in that it sounds absolutely fabulous with the Cardas cable. BTW, no EQing whatsoever the Clear Beyond on that setup for classical music. Any fiddling around with an equalizer will butcher the sound. Jazz and Vocal Jazz require, for my taste, the same treble boost preset that is necessary with the stock cable for for Pop, Rock, Soul, R&B, Reggae, etc.

Conclusion: IMO, the balanced stock cable is the best for music where the lyrics and the way they are delivered take on a prominent role in a song, where the presence of the center stage is important, which is the case for popular music. Don't waste your money on the Cardas Clear Beyond headphone cable. If you do "waste"your money on it, that cable will open up a whole new music world for you to explore.

 

[whitedragem]

@Donald D ;Brilliant, and thankyou for linking me to this...

with regards to these statements;

Nice, I thought. But when the singing set it, the voice of Prince sounded a bit more anaemic, as if his presence had moved to the back and the voice didn't touch one anymore. Bummer, I thought. I moved on to the Carlos Santana piece. Same thing, Everlast's voice makes that song and it was less present with the Cardas cable. Needless to say, the same disappoint with the Simply Red song.

For me THAT is the big benefit that was gained when moving to a high quality LadderDAC (/'R2R')...
When I used a Topping D90 it sounded 'technically accurate' to the audio that was recorded ,but the biggest deficit vs the cheapest AudioGd DAC from over a decade ago (dual Wolfson 8741 DAC chips) (or an iFi Diablo(dual BurrBrown 1793s) et al), was completely to do with stage setup (no depth) and vocals..

Whilst the Delta/Sigma designs by other manufacturers (and circuit topologies) seems to flog the D90 for musicality, it was the R2R designs ('Ladder DACs') that returned HONESTY to vocal playback. It actually starts to swing the 'other way' with supreme clarity to vocals (and proper wavering of intimate throat techniques really coming to the forefront...)

Now that you have a reference system that would reveal those differences, I suppose we find ourselves in the place that other equipment rotations can lead too.. kit swapping for perfect matching... (a system being the sum of its parts).
I personally have had multiple times where something as innocuous as a digital cable changeover brought such better delivery of zeros and ones (remember it is analogue wavelength by which they transmit, and 'eyelets' need to match up, and 'error correction'/'guesswork' techniques generally clean up the 'misreads', that when changing in a part that improves the feed (noticably) the resultant bass waves (hard to do as they need many many many more reads for a full wavelength rise and fall... ) actually requires me to down tune a subwoofers volume. (this is super obvious to anyone that tunes rooms or engineers as we become hyper sensitive to a half dB of volume boost or cut... )..

Many people swear all DACs sound the same..
of course many of us might argue about output stages and 'more to a DAC (component) than just the DAC CHIP itself', but with regards to having the vocal range, something us humans are naturally hyper sensitive towards... the biggest benefits of EVERY R2R/ladder DAC in system setups, for me at least,.. has always been in the natural vocal rendition.

I feel that with the Cardas cable in place on the clearly revealing headphone rig, might net further benefits, by having a feed that actually gives out what we are seeking.. (and that previously the 'mish mash' sent down a cable made without consideration to audio (based on the notion that three or four spec sheet measurements tells us EVERYTHING about audio) is of course a likely possibility.

I whole heartedly agree that many many companies make cables due to the associated 'blind leading the blind' and Gear Acquisitions Syndrome crowds (who justify their purchases with glowing reviews of kit that may offer little for the price outlayed...).. but then some parts make a difference.
To be fair to the much cheaper Focals I toyed with (a set of 'Clear's), they sounded to me like they desperately needed TWO things..
a)breakin
b)a half decent cable upgrade

I put 800 hours on them and that made them massively better, sure...
but vs most kit of that tier (or higher), they come across to me as confused and 'a hard listen' to sit through...
Based on my previous experience with some Nordost/Cardas and an ALO cable; they would likely improve substantially, but I cannot be bothered to waste my time further on 'trying to make those headphones something I am unsure they are even capable of being'...

Certainly a chance for a 'night/day' difference in audio via a simple upgrade.. but I am thinking that the manufacturer themselves are not believers in cable quality at all.. (beyond making them 'tough'/'durable' I bought the Clear for the 2x long cables that they came with.. as they added perceived value to that sale in my eyes... but placing the Focal included cables on 'other' headwear (eg some Sony MDR Z7 over ears), those cables killed the sound vs the cables that Sony included... (Sony engineers trialed around 50 solder recipes when lead based solder left the market as the replacement solder 'didn't sound right'), I am guessing Sony knows that cables contribute to sound quality and the included cables are a step up...

The Sony cable on the Focal Clear ? =better imaging and stage setup TRUE..
We can argue ad nauseum about 'science and theory' (we seem to be in the 'dark ages')..
but real world application reveals there certainly IS something more to all this...
sadly humans are not really consistent in our findings, hence any notion of 'science' (requires 100% repeatability) goes right out the door..

Once we get to summit-fi setups (whole chain), sidegrading parts (or attempting to 'upgrade' to higher tiers) gets pretty expensive.. (scaling returns)
Cables start to be a 'cheap upgrades' and great system tuners, if we can sort the wheat from the chaff with regards to the cable companies that actually know what they are doing.

I once bought an expensive interconnect set that claimed to add 'air' to the setup..

Some Bowers and Wilkins DM1 (domestic monitors from the sixties that even have supertweeters) via a lowly NAD 3020 amp (early eighties success in the budget arena) clearly showed up those interconnects as being ARRRGH for actual hifi setups..
however if used into a surround amp that was posing it could do 'stereo music', probably added an almost undetectable sense of air.. (different strokes for different,.erm, 'setups')

Vocals and valve amps and vocals and ladder DACs are a 'given' to me.
Class D amps (majority) and/or 'spec sheet warfare DACs are absolute butchers when it comes to honest HUMAN vocals. Focals sans a cable mod probably would mask the differences. (this stuff is super subtle, until it isn't... )

A cable upgrade can EASILY reveal more details and nuances (that master musicians spend a lifetime to make apart of their accomplished repertoire).. whilst I fully agree "your mileage MAY vary'; the fact remains many pundits find much success and hence joy, in the resultant sound.
Focal (Clear) needs something done to it, and I have trialled via some 'nice kit' and having rotated a Grace m903/Burson Conductor V2 and an AudioGdR28 (and others like a an iFi Diablo/Sony PHA3 etc); they change with equipment matching, but are far inferior to most other headwear in similar pricepoint or 'tier'.
I believe they are held back by their included cables.

Cables don't matter; just ask any AI Bot and anyone who believes that spec sheets matter more than your personal listening experience.

I am not here to argue and 'apologies' to anyone who thinks a long winded post is an agenda.
Lets just let the grain of sand exist for those who want some 'food for thunk'.
(I do not need an education with regards to cables altering sound.. my background is scientific in process and includes many years of tertiary psychology education- I concur that simply being relaxed when listening is worth more to the resultant HEARD sound that the kit that delivers the music) (and... cables DO matter, erm, to 'me' at least.. hope this viewpoint helps someone trying to absolutely LOVE their Focal hi-end headwear).

 

[ColSaulTigh]

Woo Audio makes an excellent aluminum stand. I don't know what an arm and a leg is to you, but it's worth the $130. I have both the single and the double. The double has the Utopia and Stellia on it without issues.

 

[ColSaulTigh]

What about some wooden stand that don't break the bank

Go on....

 

[joseph69]

For Focal the suspension type headphone stands always make me a bit nervous about wearing out the foam inside the headband over time with 500g weight of the headphone putting pressure on the foam constantly. Which is why I lay my down when not using.

I've also been laying my Utopia down when not in use since new from '18 without any discomfort issues from the headband.

What about some wooden stand that don't break the bank

I used to use these stands--but didn't like the fact that the pads are being compressed.

 

[ColSaulTigh]

Does anyone have experience with the Utopia & Ampsandsound Red October (or Nautilus) tube ampifiers?

(Or general opinions on using powerful 300B tube amps like WA33/etc. with the Utopias?)

I'm concerned that the Red October might have too much gain for the Utopia. The input tube can be rolled to reduce gain, but even using a low gain tube like the 12au7 (gain factor: 20), I'm not sure if it's too much gain.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to calculate the input signal Vrms to achieve a desired volume, with a specific input tube gain factor (assuming no volume control in the amp).

Woo Audio WA5-LE with the Utopias are fantastic. Plus you have Hi-Lo gain output, Hi-Lo Power output, and Hi-Lo level output. Basically, you can adjust it to fit whatever headphones you connect to it. Plus the big round knob in the middle is quite helpful...

 

[chesebert]

I received the Clear Beyond balanced headphone cable yesterday evening and couldn’t wait to plug it into the Focal Utopia 2022 attached to the Violectric V590 Mk2 PRO DAC/Amp which I both bought only about four weeks ago, as I had posted earlier in this thread. I was amazed by how that combo sounded with the balanced stock cable but was intrigued by claims that a third party headphone cable may add something more to it. In a YouTube video a tester had stated that the Cardas headphone cable was the only one where he could hear a difference to the stock cable. I had mixed feelings about ordering it but took the plunge, mainly out of curiosity.

I chose three songs to evaluate it against the stock cable: Prince Purple Rain, Put Your Lights On (feat. Everlast) on Carlos Santana’s Supernatural (Remastered) album, and Simply Red Money’s Too Tight (To Mendion) on the Picture Book album. After the first strokes of the electric guitar in Purple Rain, I could already tell, better reverb than the stock cable, same with the drum hits. Nice, I thought. But when the singing set it, the voice of Prince sounded a bit more anaemic, as if his presence had moved to the back and the voice didn't touch one anymore. Bummer, I thought. I moved on to the Carlos Santana piece. Same thing, Everlast's voice makes that song and it was less present with the Cardas cable. Needless to say, the same disappoint with the Simply Red song.

There was one thing that struck me as different with the Clear Beyond, however, and I decided to explore it further before I threw the cable in the dumpster - there was noway I could sell it, people would suspect it's a dud, I figured. While with the stock cable the soundstage was around my head as if I was sitting on the stage, the soundstage with Cardas cable was now in front of me, it was much bigger, it was deeper, and there wasn't only more reverb - the instruments sounded more real - there was also more micro-detail resolved and it all flowed nicely together in one big harmonious whole.

I decided to listen to some songs in my classical music playlist which isn't very long. I only listen to classical music occasionally, mainly on the radio. I started out with Palladio: I. Allegretto (arr. for Strings Orchestra), Karl Jenkins, Carmine Lauri, David Alberman & London Symphony Orchestra and was blown away. I had a front row seat in a symphony hall with perfect acoustics. The string instruments penetrated deep into my body and gave me goosebumps.

I moved on to the next one on the list, Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, Recomposed by Max Richter, Max Richter, Daniel Hope, Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin & André de Ridder. It took my breadth away. I proceeded with the Violin Concertos, Op.8 "Il cimento dell'armonia e dell' invenzione" / Concerto No. 2 in G minor for solo violin, Janine Jansen, Candida Thompson, Henk Rubingh, Julian Rachlin, Maarten Jansen, Stacey Watton, Liz Kenny & Jan Jansen. All of a sudden, I couldn't get enough of that Cardas cable on the Utopia22 with the V590 Mk2 PRO - the Violectric has an excellent DAC BTW, same as in the V380 Mk2 which was reviewed by Ichos.

String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima" (Arr. P. Kuusisto for String Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto & Norwegian Chamber Orchestra;

Toccata and Fugue In D Minor, BWV 565 (arr. L. Stokowski for Orchestra), José Serebrier & Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra;

Suite for Orchestra No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068: II. Air, Ross Pople & London Festival Orchestra

I could hardly sleep last night out of excitement and impatience to get up in the morning to listen to more. Today I listened to some Jazz and Vocal Jazz with the Clear Beyond which I never do at home, only in the car. In Dotschy Reinhardt’s album Chaplin's Secret the voices are so well mixed in that it sounds absolutely fabulous with the Cardas cable. BTW, no EQing whatsoever the Clear Beyond on that setup for classical music. Any fiddling around with an equalizer will butcher the sound. Jazz and Vocal Jazz require, for my taste, the same treble boost preset that is necessary with the stock cable for for Pop, Rock, Soul, R&B, Reggae, etc.

Conclusion: IMO, the balanced stock cable is the best for music where the lyrics and the way they are delivered take on a prominent role in a song, where the presence of the center stage is important, which is the case for popular music. Don't waste your money on the Cardas Clear Beyond headphone cable. If you do "waste"your money on it, that cable will open up a whole new music world for you to explore.

Looks like you are trying too hard to justify the cable purchase. If your gear dictates your music choice you are not doing it right. In any case $2k cable on mid fi electronics is not the right approach IMHO.

 

[xiled10]

Looks like you are trying too hard to justify the cable purchase. If your gear dictates your music choice you are not doing it right. In any case $2k cable on mid fi electronics is not the right approach IMHO.

hold up... $4k headphones, $2k cable, and $4k dac/amp is considered mid-fi???