Hey guys, I'm happy to be part of the club now. I was today bestowed with the chance to try these gem / beasts of a headphone! And the circumstances they were tried in grant them high favor. Check it out: So I'm actually visiting Japan for sightseeing and while shopping for portable speakers at Bic Camera (which also has mounds of IEMs and headphones on display for trying), I was recommended a place called Earphone Store Osaka (link
here in Japanese). This place has 4 stores of home hi-fi goodness including Osaka and Tokyo.
My main goal was to find a better closed-back 'can for studio monitoring or normal enjoyment... actually my full appreciation on closed cans go to the Mr. Speakers Ether C Flow, but they're multi-thousand dollars. So I ended up spending a full 8 hours at Earphone Store Osaka trying a RIDICULOUS amount of headphones, both open / closed and smaller on-ear alike, probably somewhere close to 250 different headphones. All this was using my portable DAP source with lossless well-mastered headphone test songs (mostly electronic and some pop & rock) double amped with the Onkyo DAP X1A + FiiO E6 for better dynamics & realism. At first I just couldn't believe how well the Audio Technica ATH ESW 950 (on-ears) sounded. But later I realised their not as detailed and punchy as the Sennheiser HD-25 II (mid-range vesion with red band around cups)... several comparisons later I discovered these are too dark for me and lacking in details.
Moving on to full'size closed-backs I was struck at the goodness of the Sennheiser HD-569, which to me sounded snappy, balanced, crisp, fluidic, well detailed but not analytical, but a few comparisons later revealed a moderately fatiguing sound with both bass that's
somewhat boomy / lacking control and
somewhat hyper detailed treble. Next great find was the Focal Spirit Classic. To me this sounded tonally correct, neutral / flat but in a very good and proper way, non-fatiguing, fantastic snap to the dynamics, and just the right amount of vivid-ness and lushness without being overdone. And THAT BASS... wow, to me this must be the most proper, controlled, true to life bass I've ever heard from a closed back (still with the exception of the multi-thousand dollar Mr. Speakers above). The bass is absolutely flawless and not overdone in any way, and presents especially electronic music in a way that IMHO can be done best only with closed-backs. Not to mention other genres such as rock sound sublime as well.
What's the point of mentioning all those other headphones before the Focal Spirit Classic, you may ask? Simple: all others before it had fault in some way, until the Classic came along. To me, it is
perfection in the making. Absolutely nothing amiss, nothing 'off', nothing overdone, and frankly the only thing that could be missing may be the soundstage of an open 'can like LCD 2, HD 600 or 800, or the details of an electrostat setup... but for a closed can, this really knocks things out of the park on a consistent basis, sounding so right with every song and amp I've tried it with.
I get a very authoritative, robust, proper, correct sound that does nothing wrong. (IMO of course).
Speaking of amping, I also took their demo unit of the Classic upstairs to a try it with two professional solid state amp / DAC systems. Though I don't recall the name of the first amp system, I did a face-off between the Classic vs. B&O Beoplay H6, Denon AH-D 7000 (IIRC), Neu HX-6000 and Senn. HD-600 for reference. Firstly I was impressed that these 'cans scale so well with better source chain + amp. Then one by one, I found fault with other headphones, mostly others being too bright, too boomy or overtly flat / lifeless in the case of the H6. I actually preferred the HD-600 with more acoustic genres, being open cans they naturally have ability to yield a bigger soundstage or realism. But these Classic headphones give a more full bodied presentation with better heft to the bass and very full mids with pleasing treble, making them much preferable for most electronic / pop songs. A rookie saleswoman who I let audition both the HD-600 vs. Classics said she actually preferred the Classics for both the rock and electronic songs I let her demo them with, to my surprise. Finally I demoed those two again with the Chord Hugo 2 - the brand new DAP + amp that's got what I consider to be future-proof sound and perhaps the best DAC I've ever tried,
comparable to the Holo Audio Spring level 3, DAVE and Yggy DACs (though have not done a side-by-side). And out of the Hugo 2 I attest to getting the best sound out of both headphones (more organic and detailed), even more than the full size SS amp system.
Overall the Focal Classic leaves me very satisfied that my (now 10 year) search for the perfect closed can has come to an end - at least for mid-tier range anyway. Not only was I able to notice these 'cans scaling nicely with upstream gear, but I was also able to do an A/B between 2 separate Classic headphone units on the better amps, confirming I heard no variation which is good for consistency between units. Needless to say I'll be scooping up one of these ASAP! ... another one perplexed at why these aren't more popular!
Granted, I haven't heard the Elear, but honestly I don't have much desire to-- the Spirit Classic is satisfying enough for me.
