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I tried the Stealth, LCD5, Susvara and the Utopia at home. I only kept the Utopia

Please try the Focal Utopia and let us know how it compares to the Stealth in terms of listening enjoyment. I’d be interested in your impressions

Thanks for the reply! Hmmm I was sure the Utopia would be more with its beryllium drivers, carbon fibre yokes and fancy pittards leather. The Hifiman driver seems to be protected by mosquito net material and the wood veneer looks incredibly cheap.

Nice photo! I have the 2022 as well and enjoy the tuning using only one band of EQ ( a 5.5 db bass shelf below 100hz) Utopia was slightly more enjoyable than a Susvara I borrowed from a dealer.

Great write up. Would love your thoughts on the following: The Susvara is $6000 and made in China. The Focal Utopia is $5000 and made in France. If you have to guess the COGS for them what would it be? My uneducated guess is that the Utopia probably costs 2 to 3 times more to manufacture but...

Law of diminishing returns… The price of the stealth and other TOTLs is 90% marketing . Beyer has plastic cups, Stealth has carbon fibre and LCD5 has magnesium cups. Doesn’t make any difference to the sound quality. I’m sure many people prefer the 880. With EQ the difference between totls and...

Please take this hyperbole back to Headfi where it belongs These kinds of ridiculously over the top statements don’t help anyone. I’m glad you like your 4000 euro toy , you never need to buy headphones again , congrats

We can agree to disagree, it’s only audio equipment after all. Cheers.

Subjective evaluations of high end audio gear are all thin ice posts. Does anybody know the hearing abilities of prominent headphone reviewers? They may be half deaf from all their testing.

I’m just sharing my subjective experience that has been shared by reviewers who have heard everything. Unlike Jude at Headfi @Resolve is a reviewer who doesn’t subscribe to the “everything is awesome “ philosophy to maximise advertising money. Stealth and Expanse don’t feature in his list of...

They are multiple reviewers who have experienced the same lack of dynamics and overdamped sound with DCA products. Reviewers who work with companies that sell DCA products. How do you explain that? We’re not talking about THD here. The Stealth is not some magical breakthrough in headphone...

I agree about the “over damped “ sound and I can definitely hear it compared to other more lively headphones. A few years ago I bought a lightly used Aeon Closed in mint condition at 50% off. I was thrilled at getting a great deal but within 10 minutes of listening to it I found it boring...

I’ve chatted with Oratory about this. The scores are meant to be viewed in ranges. 90 to 100 means excellent. Doesn’t mean that 95 is better than 93. The calculation isn’t that accurate….. Also the scores can’t exactly translate to how good a headphone sounds on your head. I prefer a number of...

I've owned pretty much every flagship except Hifiman so I won't comment on them. I refuse to buy their headphones as I think they're manufactured as cheaply as possible. Live music is punchy, dynamic and makes you want to tap your toes. The DCA Stealth loaner that I had at home was a very...

All these companies are owned by Shenzenaudio right? Like Topping and SMSL? They just keep churning out products every few weeks? I don’t understand this marketing strategy but personally I couldn’t care less about these brands as all their products are anonymous and “obsolete “ in a few...

Doesn’t headphones.com have a 365 return policy?

This is similar to when Audeze would never publish headphone weights cause they were all damn heavy I guess they don’t want to boast about how inefficient they are…. Can’t think of any other reason to leave out such basic specs

Thanks for the hype free impressions. I spent a month comparing the Utopia to the SR009S ( both EQed to the harman target) and my feelings were exactly the same. Stax does bring some magic to classical and female vocals but the Utopia was superior as an all rounder. I sold both and now I...

I wanted to test this for myself so I bought an Audeze LCD-5 and a DCA Stealth and used both with an RME ADI 2 DAC. Both headphones were more than loud enough for me from the RME. The DCA Stealth have a lot more bass than the LCD5 according to the measurements but on my head, the Audezes just...

You are using an amp for which the Susvara and Expanse should be a piece of cake. 14 watts into 16 Ohms is ridiculous power, far beyond what either of these headphones can draw. The problem is not the amp or the headphones, something doesn't add up here. Do you have less exotic headphones...