Focal Clear Review (headphone)

[Robbo99999]

Nah, I don't believe it. I think you are a troll.

But your rants are somewhat amusing, I give you that. And there is small chance that you are actually serious. If that is the case then we have something special here.

Looking forward to your next post!

(I think he's being serious, but of course it doesn't make him anymore right!)

 

[WickedInsignia]

Thank for your specification. I am a psychologist, audio engineer, performer on stage and a passionate listener of every genre.

Regardless, you are not above the research. You are subject to it, like everyone else here regardless of background.
Unless you can back up your claims with something objective that’s as rigorously studied as the target you take so much issue with, you’re simply expending hot air in favour of an extremely personal position.

You are not making any friends here nor changing any minds, in case that wasn’t obvious.
Having no respect for the intelligence of your fellow audio enthusiasts will continue to ensure that.
Not much of a psychologist if you can’t work that one out!

 

[Merkurio]

Paradoxically, I bought a Focal Clear a couple of months ago with the possibility of being able to sell them to a friend at the same price they cost me (within the same week), so I took it as a way to try them for free and keep them if I liked them enough.

I really liked the comfort of their pads and I think the sound is far from being offensive, I found it quite nice and engaging, but with some room for improvement accustomed to what I consider a neutral target (Harman, in this case).

The thing is that once equalized to Harman, with the pertinent personal adjustments, the sound improved to a quite considerable degree, but I didn't find them a huge upgrade to the humble EQ’d Koss KPH40 I had been using so far, being quite lighter and more comfortable in comparison. In fact, I'd say I liked the sound of the Koss better, except for the bass (which isn't great on the Focal either, as my unit also had clipping with heavy sub-bass content).

As such, I couldn't justify keeping them (even though aesthetically I really liked them and the pads were like a pair of luxurious pillows) and sold them to my friend just two days later, but it was definitely an interesting experience.

I'm not much of an over-ear guy mainly because of comfort issues (years ago I had things like the LCD2, HD600, K701, DT1990, etc.) but recently I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy the HE400se for $89? from AliExpress and these not only respond great to bass EQ, but I like them a lot more than the Clears overall, so I've finally stuck with them.

In the end I guess I'm not worthy of masterpieces of French engineering, I just value a good sound, God knows if there’s a psychiatrist that might assess my illness.

 

[roskodan]

Nah, I don't believe it. I think you are a troll.

But your rants are somewhat amusing, I give you that. And there is small chance that you are actually serious. If that is the case then we have something special here.

Looking forward to your next post!

(I think he's being serious, but of course it doesn't make him anymore right!)

The more I'm uneducated and/or ignorant, the more I'm serious about being right about...

... everything!

Different records benefit from different response curves as much or even more than different ears / brains do... don't expect it to be a huge deviation from the harman standard, and it will probably mostly be limited to the bass region and the region human hearing is most sensible to. BBC deeps and other features implemented in response tuning did not become 'wrong' when harman came out with it's own feature curve...

... the moment someone starts 'painting black and white' arguments... is time to move past them...

... bye!

 

[Galliardist]

Thank for your specification. I am a psychologist, audio engineer, performer on stage and a passionate listener of every genre. I bless the choices of every guy who wants to align their taste to the masses, but simply don't describe every other perpective as flawed, because we all know that the mass wants pleasure without sacrifice and lettong decide the market drive us to an inevitable loss of quality in every aspect of our life. People need to be guided. We must be more trained that randomly picked people in a room to really understand masterpieces like unequalized Focal Clear OG or Hifiman Arya, or the perfection of stax 9000x or the fabulous Susvara, c'mon. In the beginning of my audio journey I also was in search of something capable of an harman like signature. It was a decade before that theories, but sennheiser really knew what hi fi was. The hd600 teached me a more refined way to listen to music. They means fidelity even today, but reading a review from amir that wants 10 db more bass from a 26 years old 38mm mylar driver is hilarious. There must be another reference in the forum, an harman combined like resolve at the famous shop, or crinacle's ief target can be better solution than... harman. C'mon, harman... used as a weapon to destroy the perfect tools for really trained ears?

You deserve a proper, and better, response to this than I gave you.
On targets, you may find useful:

A Deep Dive Into Harman Curves - The Long Way Round (Part 3)

In this last part of the Harman curve series, we compares the Harman curves with alternative solutions proposed in Part 2, as well as other correction curves.

www.headphonesty.com

The author @Ilkless is a member here.

If you use HD600 as a base you can get the different equalisations including the alternative ones you mention (their originators are here also, but will probably respond to PMs rather than in public threads). Try them out. You may surprise yourself. You'll be able to make more sense to us if you know what you prefer, and can back that up, rather than just grasping at "what most people prefer must be wrong".

Come here with a proper spirit of inquiry on the matter and people will help you.

On “masterpieces”, that approach really leaves you listening to equipment rather than music. If you find headphones aesthetically pleasing, collect them for what they are. Why not? It doesn't make you a superior listener, just someone with an interesting collection of headphones.

On snobbery: I'm probably not the right person to throw that particular insult at anyone...

 

[lordhumungous]

This headphone was so heavy on the crown of my head I think i have a permanent dent is my skull.

 

[roskodan]

This headphone was so heavy on the crown of my head I think i have a permanent dent is my skull.

Photo, or it didn't happen.

 

[lordhumungous]

Photo, or it didn't happen.

 

[RustyGates]

When I owned the original Clears back in 2017-18, they sounded great out of the box but quickly realized how easily they start to distort and clip at higher SPLs. Focal has done well with the new '22 Utopia, I had drive that HP hard and won't hear it distort at all, unless maybe if I EQ the bass up too much.

 

[roskodan]

I went for the Clear first, I remember paying $800 for those, and only later got a pair of Elear, second hand, for like under $300. It's crazy how subjective it is which one is the "better" headphone. The Clear are more tonally balanced and maybe more nuanced but the Elear have the better dynamics. The og Utopia is quite a different experience, another level of performance.

Idk what do folks do with their Focals to make them clip, but if it's test tones and not music listening, then the problem is their audio nervosa and not the headphone performance.

Said that, some units were more prone to clipping then others, but it was always something that was covered by warranty.

p.s. more likely retailers, that had units returned to them for replacement, because of the clipping issue, just put them back on sale hoping the next customer won't play them to loud to notice the issue...

 

[Slothang]

Hello,
I'm looking for a amp for my Clears. I actually listen out of my laptop and it's pretty nice but I think I can improve my listening : i don't know the world of hifi so...i just want to discover, learn and enjoy :

• Low volume listening
• All kind of musics
• Maybe a little bit more of soundstage
• Maybe a little bit warmer
• Small device or elegant (the headphones are in my living room...which belongs to my wife).
• <300$.

Thanks for your suggestions !

 

[staticV3]

Hello,
I'm looking for a amp for my Clears. I actually listen out of my laptop and it's pretty nice but I think I can improve my listening : i don't know the world of hifi so...i just want to discover, learn and enjoy :

• Low volume listening
• All kind of musics
• Maybe a little bit more of soundstage
• Maybe a little bit warmer
• Small device or elegant (the headphones are in my living room...which belongs to my wife).
• <300$.

Thanks for your suggestions !

Hi @Slothang! Welcome to ASR.

The Focal Clear is a very efficient headphone and needs barely any power to get really loud.

As such, I would recommend you take a look at these DAC+Amps:

-Topping DX1: completely neutral and clean reference. No extra features.
-iFi Uno: has a few sound modes to play around with
-FiiO New K3: built-in bass boost that you can switch on/off.
-iFi Zen Air DAC: similar bass boost as the FiiO.

Out of these, I would choose the Topping since I don't see much value in built-in sound modes. I'd rather customize the sound using software like Equalizer APO or SoundSource.

Also, iFi has some rather distasteful marketing targeted at the pseudoscience-y, "everything matters" side of audiophiles, so I don't like them. But one could just ignore that and look at their products for what they are.

All of these will be more than powerful enough, so feel free to choose based on features, aesthetics, price, warranty, etc.

 

[Slothang]

-Topping DX1: completely neutral and clean reference. No extra features.

It looks great.
The main benefit will be the use of a better quality DAC than the one on the computer... and that's fine by me (at this price).
Especially if I can use the 6.35 jack (I don't know if it's 'better' but it sounds more solid).

So, an amp is not really necessary with these headphones.

 

[staticV3]

It looks great.
The main benefit will be the use of a better quality DAC than the one on the computer... and that's fine by me (at this price).
Especially if I can use the 6.35 jack (I don't know if it's 'better' but it sounds more solid).

So, an amp is not really necessary with these headphones.

An Amp is necessary. Just not a very powerful one.

Such an Amp is built into the Topping DX1, as well as into the other devices on my list.

 

[Slothang]

An Amp is necessary. Just not a very powerful one.

What do you think about the Little Dot MK2 ; is it worth it or the Topping is a better choice ? I'm really blind in this category but pretty curious.

 

[staticV3]

What do you think about the Little Dot MK2 ; is it worth it or the Topping is a better choice ? I'm really blind in this category but pretty curious.

Amir measured the MKIII a while back and the results were expectedly poor:

Review and Measurements of Little Dot MK III Tube Headphone Amplifier

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Little Dot MK III Tube Headphone amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member. It costs US $289 including Prime shipping. The unit has been sitting for a while (my apologies to its owner) so please excuse a bit of dust in the pictures below. I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I would expect more of the same from the MKII.

 

[Slothang]

Okay, it's just "nice to see" so.

 

[Slothang]

Such an Amp is built into the Topping DX1, as well as into the other devices on my list.

So, I've bought the Topping DX1 ; it's usb-powered but I guess it's enough. It works well on Linux but i got less bass than on my laptop. Is is "normal" ? I can't say the Clears have a lot a bass but with the Topping DX1, it's even less than before.
What is exactly the "gain" ? Can the Topping be powered by a smartphone (with a micro-usb > usb-b or usbc > usb-b) ? Thanks.

 

[staticV3]

It works well on Linux but i got less bass than on my laptop. Is is "normal" ?

If your laptop has high output impedance, then yes.

That will have resulted in a very audible bass boost in line with the Clear's impedance resonance:

Source

With the DX1, you should now be hearing the Clear "as intended" by Focal's engineers.

If you're missing the bass that you've had before, then you can add it back in using CamillaDSP.

Or, you could use impedance adapters available on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress to artificially raise the DX1's output impedance.

But really, DSP is the way to go.

What is exactly the "gain" ?

The gain dictates how much the DX1's Amp amplifies the DAC's output.

Can the Topping be powered by a smartphone (with a micro-usb > usb-b or usbc > usb-b) ? Thanks.

Yes, as long as the smartphone can supply enough current to the DX1.

 

[Slothang]

If your laptop has high output impedance, then yes.

I guess I cannot really know that ?

If you're missing the bass that you've had before, then you can add it back in using CamillaDSP.

Only at the beginning! I'll forget about a few hours. The bass are not really the point of the Clear.

The gain dictates how much the DX1's Amp amplifies the DAC's output.

Is it only the volume ?

Yes, as long as the smartphone can supply enough current to the DX1.

I tried with a USBC > USB-A adapter > USB-B and it worked pretty well.