[zazex]

Well,

there are serious issues with respect to working with beryllium -
notably when the metal is being machined - producing beryllium
particulate matter.

In fact, the issue is serious enough that several governments
and universities around the world have issued advisory
papers, bulletins, guidance and the like.

These include, but are not limited to:

The US Dept of Labor - Occupational Health
and Safety Administration
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/beryllium/

the eu's 8 element Beryllium Safety Model (Belgium)
http://beryllium.eu/product-stewardship/beryllium-safety-model-2/

Fermilab (USA)
https://www-esh.fnal.gov/CourseHandout_Mat/BeVideo1.pdf

MIT (USA)
Beryllium Policy and Procedures
https://ehs.mit.edu/site/beryllium-policy-and-procedures

the Ontario Ministry of Labour
https://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/pubs/alerts/a21.php

iter (France)
https://www.iter.org/doc/www/conten...Attachments/49/SummaryWorkshoponBeryllium.pdf

Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA)
https://www.lanl.gov/safety/videos/beryllium/

Health and Safety Executive (UK)
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg311.pdf

Generally, the essential hazards lie with breathing or touching beryllium salts,
breathing any "dust" generated in machining or otherwise "working" the metal itself,
and even coming into contact with the metal is considered potentially hazardous,
doing so is to be avoided.

Just posting this to hopefully shed some extra light on OP's question,
and hoping as well that it might provide some potentially useful information
on the subject to the Head-Fi community.
It does seem interesting that Focal has not responded at all to 6 emails,
although there could be many legitimate reasons why OP has not
yet received a response.
If I might, I would certainly suggest phone contact with Focal regarding
the emails which have evidently gone unanswered to date.

Cheers,

 

[Currawong]

This thought has crossed my mind before as well. It would be nice to have an official response from Focal about the precautions they have taken to protect headphone users in particular as the driver is right next to the face.

For it to be dangerous, the driver would somehow have to be vaporised. I'd say, offhand, that circumstances that could possibly cause that would be incredibly unlikely. Just about everything you do daily is more dangerous. You live in a house powered with a high voltage, walk down streets with numerous heavy cars traveling at high speed any one of which could very easily swerve and kill you and if you eat processed food, smoke, get drunk or any other of a number of things you are risking severe harm far more.

 

[up late]

@zazex - beryllium is a toxic substance and that has already been acknowledged in this thread. it is unlikely that the op will find the assurances that he is seeking from focal by raising his concerns here. the utopia is already "in the wild" and folks, myself included, have bought one knowing the hazardous nature of the material from which the drivers are made. i decided based on the information available to me that it was a risk worth taking but i don't know the magnitude of the risk, and i doubt that focal does either. i assume that the risk is negligible if i handle the headphone sensibly but would increase considerably if i didn't. that said, the utopia does come with a pamphlet about beryllium and precautions for its use. perhaps the op could avail himself of a copy from focal or one of its dealers if focal remains unresponsive. in the end, the op is faced with the same choice as the rest of us regarding the purchase of a utopia.

 

[headr]

I think people are being way too tough on this guy for simply asking a question. It seems to me there is no harm about an individual (who has previously purchased beryllium Focal speakers) asking a company about the safeguards in place with a known toxic substance used in an application that is much more susceptible to bangs, dings, and other damage as it is constantly being moved around.

He reached out to Focal, they said they would give him an answer, and then proceeded to ignore him. At the very least you have to admit that is absolutely terrible customer service for a company to provide a loyal customer (who previously bought speakers) who has some concerns about the safety of their products.

Demanding answers to questions are how consumer protections move forward. You might all laugh at this guy now, but we live in a world where mercury was used as a treatment for syphilis. We live in a world which currently sees companies selling leaded gasoline which increases the lead concentration in the atmosphere, at the expense of all of our health. It's possible in 100 years future humans will laugh at how in 2017 rich individuals with more money than sense bought beryllium drivers because they thought they sounded better.

It's not too much to ask to get reassurances from the company itself regarding the safety of their products which use known toxic substances, and furthermore what safeguards are in place from the consumer side. I wouldn't have a problem if he asked Sennheiser regarding the dioxins and furans used in their plastic either. Why would I or anyone else have a problem with that?

And furthermore, why should anyone trust the arm chair experts on an online discussion forum for these answers? they should be coming directly from the company responsible for distributing the toxic chemicals themselves.

And pretending the guy is an idiot for even asking the question is absurd.

 

[up late]

^ the op originally asked: "I have been writing Focal a few times in regards to Beryllium being toxic and should there be any concern about having this strapped around your head for hours at a time"; and "Does anyone know for certain if there should be any concern about having Beryllium in a headphone?" i think it's fair to say that it is impossible for anyone here to answer his questions factually beyond saying that beryllium is toxic, and that it would be absurd to try, which explains the nature of some of the responses. i doubt that focal will be able to either. the op's latest question was answered in my previous post, however.

ps i may have (had) "more money than sense" for buying an expensive headphone with beryllium drivers because i think it's exceptional, but if you are assuming that i and every other person who has purchased a utopia is "rich", then you are very mistaken - just sayin'

 

[atarione]

my plan is to wait some years to see if the more affluent early adopters have died from these headphones.. if they have hardly died at all.. I will buy them cheap when they have moved on to "stabilized uranium drivers" or whatever and grown tired of the pedestrian beryllium ...???

I think it is a solid plan on my part...

It is a fair point that many dangerous products have been on the market and then removed as they proved harmful / deadly to the users.. ??? It would be nice if Focal could clarify what safety testing if any was conducted.

 

[zazex]

@zazex - beryllium is a toxic substance and that has already been acknowledged in this thread. it is unlikely that the op will find the assurances that he is seeking from focal by raising his concerns here. the utopia is already "in the wild" and folks, myself included, have bought one knowing the hazardous nature of the material from which the drivers are made. i decided based on the information available to me that it was a risk worth taking but i don't know the magnitude of the risk, and i doubt that focal does either. i assume that the risk is negligible if i handle the headphone sensibly but would increase considerably if i didn't. that said, the utopia does come with a pamphlet about beryllium and precautions for its use. perhaps the op could avail himself of a copy from focal or one of its dealers if focal remains unresponsive. in the end, the op is faced with the same choice as the rest of us regarding the purchase of a utopia.

Yes, and fair enough.

(Still, though, as noted earlier in this thread, Focal's complete non response to several emails
is an odd sort of "customer service", especially from an outfit calling itself the "world leader
in the manufacture of high fidelity solutions".)

 

[up late]

yes, it is poor customer service that they haven't provided a further response to the op's initial enquiry as they undertook to do

 

[Whazzzup]

I’m not surprised by focal non response. In a way it would acknowledge a problem with it’s composition when they’re might not be any.

 

[Brahmsian]

On the ESP950 thread, I noticed somebody concerned about health issues possibly associated with dynamic and planar headphones in general (electro-magnetic fields, magnetic energy entering the head because of the close proximity of the magnets). There are some warnings about this on the Internet but mostly regarding the cumulative effects of electro-magnetic radiation in general (headphones as contributing to the cumulative effect, with the added danger of the headphones being right on one's head next to the brain). Anyway, here is a screenshot of the post:

And here is something I found on the Internet about headphones and EMF:

 

[sperandeo]

On the ESP950 thread, I noticed somebody concerned about health issues possibly associated with dynamic and planar headphones in general (electro-magnetic fields, magnetic energy entering the head because of the close proximity of the magnets). There are some warnings about this on the Internet but mostly regarding the cumulative effects of electro-magnetic radiation in general (headphones as contributing to the cumulative effect, with the added danger of the headphones being right on one's head next to the brain). Anyway, here is a screenshot of the post:



And here is something I found on the Internet about headphones and EMF:

You are correct. I just tested all of my headphones with my EMF meter. All my headphones showed levels of EMF's including my Audeze LCD 2 (planar magnetic). They all registered EMF's even if the headphone is unplugged from any source.

The only headphone that I own that did not register any EMF's on the meter were my Koss ESP 950's (electrostatic).

So I guess electrostatics would be the safest of the bunch.

 

[up late]

if you're also concerned about the effect of electromagnetic fields then your headphone choices are going to be limited to electrostatic models

 

[davide256]

On the ESP950 thread, I noticed somebody concerned about health issues possibly associated with dynamic and planar headphones in general (electro-magnetic fields, magnetic energy entering the head because of the close proximity of the magnets). There are some warnings about this on the Internet but mostly regarding the cumulative effects of electro-magnetic radiation in general (headphones as contributing to the cumulative effect, with the added danger of the headphones being right on one's head next to the brain). Anyway, here is a screenshot of the post:



And here is something I found on the Internet about headphones and EMF:

Can someone kill this thread and shoo the hypochondriacs over to a conspiracy site where they belong? You live in a world full of EMF both natural and man made. if you want to worry about EMF, worry about microwaves, not frequencies that can't ionize without massive voltage such as high voltage overhead power lines.

 

[ruhenheiM]

not sure about the utopia. but i think this in their be tweeter speaker manual. someone at utopia thread posted this

little bit assurance from focal would be nice though, the dude just asking some question, if there is no problem, they could easily say it. what's the harm.

 

[up late]

^ i think this has already been covered