Why no love for Focal Utopia owners

Do you feel disappointed with Focals decision to bundle accessories with Clear and not Utopia?


  • Total voters
    61
Oct 10, 2017 at 10:36 AM Post #31 of 40
You call it whining, I call it providing feedback as a Utopia OWNER.

Feedback is what others provided that lead to the newly included accessories bundled with the Clear. What you're doing now is asking for free accessories and discounts, that's complaining/whining. There's most certainly a difference.

You don't need to be an owner of these headphones to understand this concept. I bought an Elear about a month before they dropped the price and now the Clear is coming out with all this great stuff bundled with it. The difference between yourself and I is that I realize it's not their fault, it's not mine either. Sometimes that's just how it goes. I paid for what was advertised, as did others later down the road, they just happened to get it at a better price.

I say "good for them, I'm a little jealous, but I got what I paid for", you say "they got this stuff that I wanted even though it clearly wasn't part of the deal from the beginning".
 
Oct 10, 2017 at 12:48 PM Post #32 of 40
I thought there might be some useful Utopia content here as i am considering them, at the promo price of $3k, (sorry) :wink: not to light the fire, lol, but as a retail owner, life gives you a deal once in a while, then there are those moments when you know something is producing reference sound and you pull the trigger. Don't look back.
You might be able to do better than the promo price right now. You might be able to hit about 2500 if you look around.
 
Oct 10, 2017 at 1:36 PM Post #33 of 40
Sorry, having trouble understanding. Isn't the Clear a different headphone at a different price point? Not sure what that even has to do with the price drop on the Utopia. They could have also thrown in a portable amp and I still wouldn't understand how that is relevant to what Utopia owners think should be included with the Utopia. As someone else mentioned with the cars, because a lower end model may come with snow tires doesn't really speak to any relative unfairness when a higher end model does not.
 
Oct 10, 2017 at 6:25 PM Post #35 of 40
You might be able to do better than the promo price right now. You might be able to hit about 2500 if you look around.

After reading the Utopia thread with 12% of owners in repair, many more with warranty issues, i think I'll pass. The LCD-X are so satisfying $$$ can be spent elsewhere in the system, until another game changing technology arrives. Adorama had some open box pairs at $2300 supposedly.
 
Nov 7, 2017 at 11:17 AM Post #36 of 40
Well, I think it's great that they (Focal) listened to feedback and included all this awesome stuff. Every purchase is different and that was their first hurra into the high-end market. I think they are doing a good job improving on their mistakes.
 
Dec 21, 2017 at 4:33 PM Post #38 of 40
People who chose to buy the Utopia knew the price, and they knew what accessories were included. So it's difficult to empathize with the OP on this. Product offerings change over time.
 
Dec 26, 2017 at 3:26 PM Post #40 of 40
I finally got to sit down and hear all 3 last week, in a quiet room with the same upstream (3.5K Naim integrated's headphone jack; nothing special). The Utopia easily justifies its price premium over the Clear and Elear by its performance alone. Sure the package on the Clear was nice, but I don't think it's a big deal that it's not included with the Utopia. You buy the Utopia for its performance. It sounds like a true top-tier headphone; the Clear doesn't (though it is very pleasant sounding), and the Elear wasn't even pleasant sounding (yuck). I don't see why Utopia owners would be pining for the extra mediocre cables and silly purse.

But Utopias are now available at significant discount from the original $4K list -- that's the early adopter's price. Honestly at these prices the Utopia is a great way to break into high-end listening, without having to approach a 5-figure system total: $3K Utopia, 1K DAC, 1-2K amp. Doesn't look like that total would get you far enough up the Stax chain to beat it yet, though I'd have to have the Utopias in home for a while to decide that for sure.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top