Focal Utopia Review (Headphone)

[respice finem]

Not wanting to start a debate (on diminishing returns or exclusivity), but USD$4,000 for a pair of headphones is pretty much beyond ridiculous. There is simply no correlation with the cost of materials, cost of production, performance or anything else, as far as I can see.

Please educate me otherwise.

You're right of course, but people aren't 100% rational beings, even if most like to believe so. We buy luxury things all the time.
It's 2 p.m. on a 5 $ watch from a petrol station and 2 p.m. on a 50.000 $ Patek, and still some buy the latter...
I too buy new Hi-Fi stuff sometimes, though I'm probably soon too deaf for my old...
Probably this deafness makes it easier to still like my BD T1 mk2, though it blew off the panther's head.

 

[NDRQ]

I was able to compare this Utopia with the Meze Empyrean (around same price level, 3k€) and to my ears the Meze was way superior. The Meze had enough bass and it was... how to say... 'savoury'? The Utopia was straight and punchy while the Meze more relax and 'playful'. Now, I am not a specialist, I will wait for the Meze measurements and more importantly: psychologically accept to put 3k in a headphone...

"Enough bass", because the Meze's low end is heavily boosted/kinda bloated. Bleeding into the midrange and masking the whole sound, thats why it sounds relaxed and savoury.

 

[Bear123]

Why does these cost $4k? (2020 version is $4.4k)

• Beryllium drivers
• There is a little bit of carbon fiber in the frame?
• Manufactured in France
• Focal is bad at manufacturing efficiently?
• They are inflating the price substantially knowing some people will inevitably pay for a flagship headphone after enough hype

What else am I missing here?

I find it a little hard to understand how this could cost so much as well. Adding to this is the fact that my left and right tower speakers, center channel, and dual subwoofers cost right around the same(total for all five)......including shipping on a pair of 120 lb subs and the pair of tower speakers and center channel. So, two high excursion, high quality 15" aluminum cone servo controlled subwoofer drivers, two 600 watt RMS amplifiers with large, heavy toroidal transformer power supplies, a vast array of amplifier controls, very high quality well braced cabinets, then six 6.5" woofers and a pair of tweeters in my L/R towers, large, very high quality piano gloss cabinets, crossovers, another pair of 6.5" woofers, midrange, tweeter and large heavy cabinet for the center channel, all for the same price as a pair of headphones. I seriously wonder if the actual materials cost is over $100. Certainly, there is a price to be paid for the research, design, and engineering, but the same can be said about the speakers and subs.

I see what Bose is able to accomplish for under $300........

Edit: However, let me clarify. For some folks, headphones are a very important hobby. I get it. If you have the disposable income and want to spend $4,000 on headphones, I think its perfectly ok; its not like it bothers me or offends me in some way. Also, I can see that these at least have some reasonably good objective performance to go along with the high price. Just arguing both sides.....its pretty shocking to see what $4,000 can get you in audio in my comparison above.

 

[Stephen]

"Enough bass", because the Meze's low end is heavily boosted/kinda bloated. Bleeding into the midrange and masking the whole sound, thats why it sounds relaxed and savoury.

I couldn't judge precisely 'why' and 'how' but it sounded good and natural. After some research I found this mesure from a test in HCFR.... does it confirm your conclusion?

https://www.homecinema-fr.com/test-hcfr-du-casque-meze-audio-empyrean/5/

 

[Helicopter]

Not wanting to start a debate (on diminishing returns or exclusivity), but USD$4,000 for a pair of headphones is pretty much beyond ridiculous. There is simply no correlation with the cost of materials, cost of production, performance or anything else, as far as I can see.

Please educate me otherwise.

This is for the consumer who wants the best $4000 headphone. The high price itself is one of the criteria for the people who buy it. They want something scarce and exclusive. I will spare everyone another car analogy, but this is not the only luxury good that is positioned with such a strategy.

 

[A Surfer]

Sorry, anybody paying $4000 for this headphone has really, really, really overspent. Even prices such as the HD800S (which I owned and loved) are too high, but what Focal did to the market with the Utopia was egregious. My brother bought a brand new car back in 2016, a Hyundai and it has done extremely well, performs very well, has been very reliable including 5 Ontario winters now, has some nice features and looks pretty nice. He paid 16K. You lay that little headphone on the hood of his car and try to understand how it can cost a 1/4 of the price of that vehicle. There is no justification and I am not against spending money on good audio gear, but the 4K price point for any headphone is beyond ridiculous.

 

[pLudio]

Why does these cost $4k? (2020 version is $4.4k)

Because Utopia. The name demands it. Luxury goods.

 

[Nango]

Sure, but not for spatiality

This spatiality is a question of software like surround feature, crossfeed, etc., ....isn't it?

 

[respice finem]

#67: Utopia = symbolic for dreams that can never come true https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia

 

[Nango]

Sorry, anybody paying $4000 for this headphone has really, really, really overspent. Even prices such as the HD800S (which I owned and loved) are too high, but what Focal did to the market with the Utopia was egregious. My brother bought a brand new car back in 2016, a Hyundai and it has done extremely well, performs very well, has been very reliable including 5 Ontario winters now, has some nice features and looks pretty nice. He paid 16K. You lay that little headphone on the hood of his car and try to understand how it can cost a 1/4 of the price of that vehicle. There is no justification and I am not against spending money on good audio gear, but the 4K price point for any headphone is beyond ridiculous.

You are probably right on assuming that but how difficult is it being in the position of spending that huge amount to accept that a K371 (+ applying EQ for spatiality) offers the same or at least sufficient SQ?

 

[edahl]

This spatiality is a question of software like surround feature, crossfeed, etc., ....isn't it?

Not that I know, I don't think it's as simple as EQ. And cossfeed pulls the sound stage in if anything

 

[Helicopter]

Not that I know, I don't think it's as simple as EQ. And cossfeed pulls the sound stage in if anything

Agree. It has as much to do with position of drivers in the earcups as frequency response. It also has something to do with individual variations in hearing, ear shape from meatus to inner ear, and probably how your brain processes sound. For example, some people get spatial effects out front and others only get them outside the ears to the sides with Clear, HD800s, or whatever.

 

[Zensō]

Not that I know, I don't think it's as simple as EQ. And cossfeed pulls the sound stage in if anything

My experience is that crossfeed narrows the stage just a bit, but pushes it forward significantly. I suspect the effect is different for different people due to psychoacoustics.

 

[edahl]

My experience is that crossfeed narrows the stage just a bit, but pushes it forward significantly. I suspect the effect is different for different people due to psychoacoustics.

That sounds about right. The 3D sound button on the iFi Zen Can did much the same thing on the 1990, though that's not really crossfeed (I don't know what it does)

 

[Jimbob54]

My experience is that crossfeed narrows the stage just a bit, but pushes it forward significantly. I suspect the effect is different for different people due to psychoacoustics.

Yup, my experiments with crossfeed has never been good. Others swear by. For me good imagining and soundstage on cans is something in the way the cans react with my ears /brain. The hd800 without eq had almost holographic ability, eq curtailed that for me but makes them more pleasant tonally.

 

[respice finem]

Agree. It has as much to do with position of drivers in the earcups as frequency response. It also has something to do with individual variations in hearing, ear shape from meatus to inner ear, and probably how your brain processes sound. For example, some people get spatial effects out front and others only get them outside the ears to the sides with Clear, HD800s, or whatever.

And how the brain processes sound, is at least to some degree determined by "early childhood imprinting". I've been listening with headphones since age 3, today I'm listening more often without than with crossfeed. It's not that it doesn't "play in my head", the difference is, it doesn't bother me most of the time. The "full bodied" sound is more important to me than soundstage imperfections. With crossfeed, the soudstage gets more lifelike, but (Meyer crossfeed in foobar200 as an example) with turning the effect up, the sound starts getting strangely diffuse and "bloodless" to me.

 

[Ron Texas]

$4,000 is a lot of money for headphones. Thank you for another great review @amirm

 

[Rvrd90]

Sorry, anybody paying $4000 for this headphone has really, really, really overspent. Even prices such as the HD800S (which I owned and loved) are too high, but what Focal did to the market with the Utopia was egregious. My brother bought a brand new car back in 2016, a Hyundai and it has done extremely well, performs very well, has been very reliable including 5 Ontario winters now, has some nice features and looks pretty nice. He paid 16K. You lay that little headphone on the hood of his car and try to understand how it can cost a 1/4 of the price of that vehicle. There is no justification and I am not against spending money on good audio gear, but the 4K price point for any headphone is beyond ridiculous.

Incoming car analogy: Hard to wipe that smile of your face after driving a Masarati rental. Would I buy one? Only if I had the extra cash.

 

[Jimbob54]

$4,000 is a lot of money for headphones. Thank you for another great review @amirm

I'm pretty sure if I had a gun to my head and I had to spend $4k on headphones, I would buy 3 or 4 c$1000 pairs , each different. Possibly a Dan Clark closed , an HD800S and maybe a good HE6 second hand. Its too much to invest in just one pair. But then, I've never heard 'em.

 

[respice finem]

But then I'm sure the guy with the gun would make the choice for you