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.
