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Focal Clear Review (headphone)

Maki

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I have had the Elear, the Clear, (both have been sold) and the Elegia (still own these). The Elegias are the only ones that did not exhibit the clipping problem for me and I'm wondering if Focal silently addressed the issue since the Elegia is a newer model. To confirm, my experiences with clipping were at tolerable and safe levels, albeit only when there were very heavy bass tracks/moments in a song. I have never encountered any other headphone that clipped like these did. I'm also wondering how much variation there is within a model range; perhaps some Clears are more problematic than others. In any case, I'm happy with my Elegias other than the terrible stock cable.

I think the way they designed the closed headphones requires less excursion for the same SPL. The open Focals look like they have more permeable baffles than regular open back headphones, which means additional excursion is required for bass frequencies.
 

CtheArgie

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Oh, by the way, I replaced the stock cables for something much more practical and without spending a fortune. The stock were very inconvenient as everyone knows.
 

Rock Rabbit

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Here is one my speaker killer tracks that sends the Focal Clear into a ditch: Pascal Gaigne - Un espejo en el cielo (From "Kamandú, un espejo en el cielo")

It does this with no EQ and with youtube clip:

Deep bass starts at 2:45 (none before that time) and it easily causes crackles at volume level of -18 dB on RME ADI-2 DAC headphone out (1/4 inch - high gain).
Beautiful music...but extremely clipped in every note at 29 Hz (but not detectable by my ear). Oversampling at 176.4 detects many overs
 
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amirm

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Beautiful music...but extremely clipped in every note at 29 Hz (but not detectable by my ear). Oversampling at 176.4 detects many overs
You are talking about youtube or the original track? I test using the original track, not youtube although in this instance youtube shows this problem.
 

richard12511

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If it is this track:

https://soundcloud.com/tkrism%2Fjellyfish
It creates nasty sequence of driver bottoming out! This is with RME ADI-2 Pro DAC headphone out in high gain and set to -17 dB. Happens around 3:48 or so. While I was getting single pulses of driver, with this track it repeats to the tune of 2 to 4 per second. I had to immediately stop it! And this is with NO EQ. RME spectrum analyzer shows a peak at 25 Hz well above the rest of the spectrum!

Same track at even higher elevated playback has no effect on Sennheiser HD650. Or HEDD headphone I have under test right now.

For those of you who have Clear headphones, give the above a try and report back.

All my headphones are at my office, but this was a blast to blast on my main loudspeaker + subs setup :). You can kinda feel the pulses.

A few other songs I know of that are good for testing super low bass:

"Blinded by Bass" - DJ Deep
"3 kinds of Bass" - Bass Outlaws

Neither are good songs(imo), but for those simply wishing to hear the sounds Amir is talking about, they'd probably be good for that.
 
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pwjazz

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I test using the original track, not youtube

My whole experiment in reproducing your listening level assumed you were using the YouTube track. Guess we can throw out that result!
 

Helicopter

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Thanks Amir. I love my Clears. I always understood the issue with the drivers bottoming out to be a design issue, rather than a defect, but I have never pushed mine hard enough to experience it. They are my favorite headphone.

Also, thanks @solderdude for the detailed response. This made me feel less crazy about loving my Clears.
 
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amirm

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My whole experiment in reproducing your listening level assumed you were using the YouTube track. Guess we can throw out that result!
To be absolutely clear: I got the youtube track to clip the Clears as well. I was just commenting on the recording issues member found that may not apply to the original.
 

MC_RME

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Three examples of music with extreme low bass of different genres:




Bass below 40 Hz with no overtones, so you won't hear it on a standard loudspeaker setup, is pretty normal these days. But with the right headphones and EQ you can.
 

Rock Rabbit

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But then what is the SPL max of the Clear without bottoming clipping clicking?
At 1kHz and 20 Hz
 

richard12511

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There's gotta be something wrong with his Clears. They do have QC issues if you just look at the Elex board on Mass. Otherwise all this review will do is make people miss out on a great headphone. I do think that the Elex at the very recent price of $550 is a farrrrrr better deal though.

I had this headphone for a few months and had this problem several times while listening to music at my normal louder listening levels. Honestly didn't bother me that much after searching and finding other people saying the same thing, but it did alarm me the first time it happened.

I honestly don't think it's a bad sample issue, as I also experienced it, as have many others. Also, Focal has come out and said that it's an intentional design choice to make the speakers distort this way when playing low bass content at high levels. Focal wouldn't say that if it were simply a bad sample or QC issue.
 

Rottmannash

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View attachment 100450
Hi @amirm , what exactly is the measurement group delay in terms of "the physical structure"(what's happening) of the measurement, and also what it represents? My intuition tells me it's showing interference & cancellations, non minimum phase areas that can't be EQ'd, but I wanted to know about the actual measurement, because I don't really know anything about it. Also, are you looking for a certain threshold in the measurement to indicate unEQ'able parts, how do you interpret it? EDIT: after reading the comments I can see you've answered this to some extent, but I'm still after knowing more about it, and what exactly it is.

I think there's a typo/mistake in your review when you say you lower the peak at 11.3kHz, but in your EQ you show you're actually boosting that area rather than cutting?
View attachment 100451

My most significant impression of this headphone based on this review - I'm surprised to hear about static & crackling sound after the bass EQ, which also occurs in stock format at louder volumes....that's quite an obvious deficiency, quite a drawback for an expensive ($1490) headphone, going against it's "Focal Clear" namesake, gotta say I was suspicious of the high price and obvious use of the word "Clear" as part of the main name of the headphone, it does scream "[uninformed] audiophile buy me"! EDIT: after reading the comments to this review, then this static/clipping could be a QC Issue, still it's not the confidence you want, nor the hassle.

I'm scratching my head a bit- I've never once got my Elex to clip, at super loud volumes. Not refuting the results, just curious. As someone pointed out before, is the unit defective?
Same here. I have listened to ear bleeding levels and have never encountered distortion of the type described here. Several members on the Drop site did report this type of break-up but they were replaced with new drivers and no issue since. The consensus is this was an issue with early batches that has been corrected.
 

hmscott

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I had this headphone for a few months and had this problem several times while listening to music at my normal louder listening levels. Honestly didn't bother me that much after searching and finding other people saying the same thing, but it did alarm me the first time it happened.

I honestly don't think it's a bad sample issue, as I also experienced it, as have many others. Also, Focal has come out and said that it's an intentional design choice to make the speakers distort this way when playing low bass content at high levels. Focal wouldn't say that if it were simply a bad sample or QC issue.
Yes, what was once considered a physical mistake, with software it is now a "feature" actually a "mis-feature" until it's documented in the manual, but with physical devices like headphones - it's still a design or production mistake. :)

'It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature.' Trite—or Just Right?
https://www.wired.com/story/its-not-a-bug-its-a-feature/

"A standard joke is that a bug can be turned into a feature simply by documenting it (then theoretically no one can complain about it because it’s in the manual), or even by simply declaring it to be good. “That’s not a bug, that’s a feature!” is a common catchphrase."
Same here. I have listened to ear bleeding levels and have never encountered distortion of the type described here. Several members on the Drop site did report this type of break-up but they were replaced with new drivers and no issue since. The consensus is this was an issue with early batches that has been corrected.
Hey a new spin on an old adage, "It'll be fixed in the next release!!", now "It must have been a bad batch!!" - since 2017 (at least)

If Focal could produce a known good unit that passed testing and quality assurance - that really didn't boom!!-Click!!, I might be interested, but then Focal still needs to get the headbands squared away.
 
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617

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I hate to say this; I think @amirm shot down the idea in regard to speakers, but in addition to testing left/right variability, testing sample variability would be helpful as well. His reasons were pragmatic with speakers; speakers are bigger and presumably take a lot longer to test, but seeing 5 different samples tested (10 drivers) would be helpful to see what kind of QC we are getting from these companies.

In speaker design, one of the things you get when you buy a $200 ScanSpeak woofer, compared to a $80 Dayton Audio unit, is very close unit matching. If I buy a new Scanspeak 8535 woofer, I can be reasonably sure it has the same compliance, frequency response and so on of a unit made in the 90s (they keep reference samples in an environmentally controlled space.)
 

Rottmannash

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Beautiful music...but extremely clipped in every note at 29 Hz (but not detectable by my ear). Oversampling at 176.4 detects many overs
Ah- this track did produce this popping noise but only on the R. And not terribly loud volume either. I guess the music I tend to listen to has very little information at this frequency.
 
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