Focal Celestee FR impressions

[Helicopter]

I have a bid head, medium big ears, and glasses, and my Clears are fine. I guess we are all different.

 

[Zensō]

Crinacle’s review is posted. “Not flattering” would be an understatement:

https://crinacle.com/2021/03/04/cri...g4TQpslhtiKB2DkFfpfGj3-9_wDogxakmJBmDddUrGghY

 

[Hoegaardener70]

Made for people with small ears. I have a pretty big head so I think your head would have to be pretty big to interfere. I don't wear glasses but I hear that can be an issue.

I have two problems with the Focals - glasses make all a bit uncomfortable (and they are less of an issue with other headphones) and cup size - my ears seem to be bigger than their cups. May be I have a normal sized head with bigger ears, lol.

 

[Hoegaardener70]

Crinacle’s review is posted. “Not flattering” would be an understatement:

https://crinacle.com/2021/03/04/cri...g4TQpslhtiKB2DkFfpfGj3-9_wDogxakmJBmDddUrGghY

Well, the headphone I am currently listening to got a D from him (and I really enjoy it), so ...

 

[Noodles]

Well, the headphone I am currently listening to got a D from him (and I really enjoy it), so ...

Yeah ... Crinacle has his own opinions and as it is mentioned with fairly big letters on his ranking list - you are allowed to disagree (i do)
The Meze 99 Classics i'm wearing are a C in his list and i honestly could not care less.
For whatever reason a lot of "audiophile" people want to push for the most neutral headphones and they don't value/want anything else but that.
I say the whole thing is a pile of crap - once you know what you want from a headphone, you can just look at the FR and decide if it is going to sound good for you.
Btw - the only good thing i value from Crinacle's list is the tone grades - they are somewhat accurate.

 

[Helicopter]

The Focal Clear MG is released now, which means a bunch of reviews published, and available for pre order. It is more Champagne/brown/gold than I expected. It looks nice.

 

[Maes Hughes]

Got my pre-order pair in. After Crin gutted them, I was a little shaken. Luckily in the end these ended up being on of the few headphones that my taste didn't line up with his on. About a 70/30 agree/differ ratio for me personally on headphones.

I think these headphones are probably going to spark a lot of people saying they need "burn in". The pads on these are extremely soft with a foam material that easily compresses. So much so that I got my calipers out to measure it. Please note I have a very large head with average size ears. When I first got them 15mm of compression in the highest contact points. After a few wearings it was down to 10mm of compression with no overall pad size loss aka no permanent compression once removed. The headband seems pretty pliable to have that much change from standard wearing. Still too clampy for me so I adjusted the headband and they currently have 2-3mm compression at the highest points. In each compression change I heard a shift in tonality and soundstage. At maximum compression I was able to hear an audible channel imbalance likely from my head shape and uneven compression. At the current compression level that imbalance is either gone or not easily heard. I don't have a proper measurement rig so take this with a grain of salt.

All this to say if @amirm gets a chance to measure these would it be possible to get an additional measurement at a different than stock compression level? Higher or lower just to see how significant it is (think it might be interesting to see). I also wonder what focal intended as their performant compression level.

 

[Helicopter]

Got my pre-order pair in. After Crin gutted them, I was a little shaken. Luckily in the end these ended up being on of the few headphones that my taste didn't line up with his on. About a 70/30 agree/differ ratio for me personally on headphones.

I think these headphones are probably going to spark a lot of people saying they need "burn in". The pads on these are extremely soft with a foam material that easily compresses. So much so that I got my calipers out to measure it. Please note I have a very large head with average size ears. When I first got them 15mm of compression in the highest contact points. After a few wearings it was down to 10mm of compression with no overall pad size loss aka no permanent compression once removed. The headband seems pretty pliable to have that much change from standard wearing. Still too clampy for me so I adjusted the headband and they currently have 2-3mm compression at the highest points. In each compression change I heard a shift in tonality and soundstage. At maximum compression I was able to hear an audible channel imbalance likely from my head shape and uneven compression. At the current compression level that imbalance is either gone or not easily heard. I don't have a proper measurement rig so take this with a grain of salt.

All this to say if @amirm gets a chance to measure these would it be possible to get an additional measurement at a different than stock compression level? Higher or lower just to see how significant it is (think it might be interesting to see). I also wonder what focal intended as their performant compression level.

Amir has a pair in-house for measurement.

 

[amirm]

My review of celestee just posted: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/focal-celestee-review-headphone.21917/

 

[amirm]

All this to say if @amirm gets a chance to measure these would it be possible to get an additional measurement at a different than stock compression level? Higher or lower just to see how significant it is (think it might be interesting to see). I also wonder what focal intended as their performant compression level.

In the process of getting the one channel to do better in bass, I did play around with it some but could not make it produce a different response.

 

[Maes Hughes]

In the process of getting the one channel to do better in bass, I did play around with it some but could not make it produce a different response.

Thank you for giving it a look. Must have been an issue with how these things fit on my large head.

 

[ShiZo]

Why cant i find a closed headphone im comfortable with purchasing?