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Focal Utopia Review (Headphone)

Jimbob54

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Looks like the delta between measured and target response to me. Which is probably what he means by "compensated".
Yes, I don't believe he re measures after eq. I may be wrong on that.
 

Bow_Wazoo

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His answer:
"it's calculated by adding the transfer function of all filters combined to the transfer function of the headphone.
Since their behaviour is deterministic, this is a valid approach."
 

Bow_Wazoo

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4K for headphones is of course pretty crazy...
Matter of opinion.
I think it's crazy to spend $20,000 on a kitchen or $30,000 to renovate a bathroom.

Be that as it may.
Who runs his hobby with reason, is with me down through...
 

Bow_Wazoo

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image_30660.jpg


A few hours of listening later:

First of all, looks and touch quality.
The Utopia clearly has the edge here.
If I spend 4000 € on a headphone,
i expect to be able to feel and see that in some way.
That is given with the Focal, not with the Stax.

Before i come to my sound impressions,
i must mention again that both KH are set according to Oratory's EQ settings (Harman target).

Without this, the 009, would be completely unusable for me.
Very bright, strongly mid-emphasized, and extremely low bass.
So I would describe the 009
"stock" describe.
In other words: my personal nightmare.

Adjusted according to Harmann, both headphones are on par.
Both are a hi-fi revelation in my opinion.

The Stax completely stress-free, extremely high-resolution, and indescribably musical.
The Focal equally stress-free, incredibly dynamic and energetic, and almost as finely resolving.

The biggest surprise for me was that the Utopia showed the 009 what to do with female and male voices.
These sounded more harmonious, more present, more engaged, and above all more emotional on the Utopia.
In addition, the Utopia has a better "grip" on S-sounds.

The decisive factor for me is ultimately which HP can convey more emotion,
and there the Utopia is my personal winner.
Whether Mark Knopfler or Xavier Naidoo, they "had" more feeling on the Utopia.

But as I said, actually, both are on par.

image_30679.jpg


Each track brings new insights.

The trumpet on track #3 sounds sharp (almost squeaky) and unnatural on the 009, despite EQ.
Quite different on the Utopia.
Here it sounds much more natural, balanced, with a pound more substance.
 
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AyeYoYoYO

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The Utopia is perhaps the greatest combination yet, of relative neutrality, while still pleasing to the ears of some audiophiles who don’t want overly revealing treble. It’s a definite “best of its time” peak, in the linear history of headphones timeline. No doubt.

I think Focal’s future in the high end headphone world for audiophiles, and also for professionals, is incredibly bright.

In every connotation.

I, for one, cannot wait until they take all that they learned with the Clear, Elex, and Utopia, and create what will likely be their brightest, most neutral headphone, to date, which becomes the greatest reference headphone of all time.

Just a little more from 1.5k-5.5K, and a little more air, with a slightly wider soundstage, and the three aforementioned models cumulative strong points can yield an all time classic reference headphone for the ages. Focal has the knowledge and experience to hit maybe the highest peaks ever. Godspeed to them.
 
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Bow_Wazoo

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Yes, i agree with that.
After a long journey, i ended up back at the Utopia.
For these money, you expect magic,
and you get it!

I also had the Clear MG here.
This is also damn good...
 
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AyeYoYoYO

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Yes, ivagree with that.
After a long journey, i ended up back at the Utopia.
For these money, you expect magic,
and you get it!

I also had the Clear MG here.
This is also damn good...
Every headphone I’ve heard from Focal has has had some degree of truly beautiful “magic”, and when coupled with their treble and upper mid attenuation, this camouflaging gorgeous sonic beauty kept them from being universally able to be used for professional work.

Even when they bring forth their most bright/crisp/neautral reference phone… their identity and relatively consistent “house sound”, leads me to believe they will not dare make it too sterile, like the HD800. Focal will smartly occupy the market for professionals who still want to enjoy the emotive harmonic magic of what they’re working on throughout the process, with lower impedance to use them directly from our MacBookPro’s, like the AKG K812. Many of the pickiest professionals will still want a true Reference focal for at home/travel with MacBookPro, perhaps after utilizing our more sterile phones/monitor-speakers, at the desk.

Focal’s near future potential has me truly excited more than anytime in the last 7-8yrs
 

ZolaIII

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@AyeYoYoYO I really advise you to historically see the "old school" tuning which I prefer to call Japanese (Onkyo [institute in first place] - Foster - Fostex) regarding hedaphones - earphones before getting into haiku again.
 

Robbo99999

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View attachment 181016

A few hours of listening later:

First of all, looks and touch quality.
The Utopia clearly has the edge here.
If I spend 4000 € on a headphone,
i expect to be able to feel and see that in some way.
That is given with the Focal, not with the Stax.

Before i come to my sound impressions,
i must mention again that both KH are set according to Oratory's EQ settings (Harman target).

Without this, the 009, would be completely unusable for me.
Very bright, strongly mid-emphasized, and extremely low bass.
So I would describe the 009
"stock" describe.
In other words: my personal nightmare.

Adjusted according to Harmann, both headphones are on par.
Both are a hi-fi revelation in my opinion.

The Stax completely stress-free, extremely high-resolution, and indescribably musical.
The Focal equally stress-free, incredibly dynamic and energetic, and almost as finely resolving.

The biggest surprise for me was that the Utopia showed the 009 what to do with female and male voices.
These sounded more harmonious, more present, more engaged, and above all more emotional on the Utopia.
In addition, the Utopia has a better "grip" on S-sounds.

The decisive factor for me is ultimately which HP can convey more emotion,
and there the Utopia is my personal winner.
Whether Mark Knopfler or Xavier Naidoo, they "had" more feeling on the Utopia.

But as I said, actually, both are on par.

View attachment 181017

Each track brings new insights.

The trumpet on track #3 sounds sharp (almost squeaky) and unnatural on the 009, despite EQ.
Quite different on the Utopia.
Here it sounds much more natural, balanced, with a pound more substance.
Re the Stax and your impressions that it doesn't emphasise "S" sounds enough you might want to try adding in a broad Peak Filter at around 7kHz, say Q1.2 (I looked in REW and think Q1.2 would be quite optimal), and then increase the dB on the filter whilst listening to your vocals to see if you can solve the lack of resolution in that area. It's quite possible that unit to unit variation could mean that your Stax is not delivering the same frequency response that Oratory has listed on his site, so you could try to make the Stax sound better with that filter I mentioned. It's quite possible that the only reason you like the Focal more than the Stax in this area is because the frequency responses are different even though they're EQ'd to the same curve from Oratory measurements.
 

Bow_Wazoo

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I rather had the impression,
that this was a basic character issue,
or let's say rather that the technical capabilities of the 009s,
would be the limiting factor to reproduce "s" sounds.
Likewise with the trumpet of the track in question.
Highlighting these points, the Utopia is in my opinion, more Hi-Fi.

Nevertheless, the 009s has its charms.
However, I would never buy it.
Because the build quality is an outrage in my opinion....
Everything rattles and wobbles...
Each 100€ AKG, or Beyerdynamic feels much more valuable.
 

Robbo99999

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I rather had the impression,
that this was a basic character issue,
or let's say rather that the technical capabilities of the 009s,
would be the limiting factor to reproduce "s" sounds.
Likewise with the trumpet of the track in question.
Highlighting these points, the Utopia is in my opinion, more Hi-Fi.

Nevertheless, the 009s has its charms.
However, I would never buy it.
Because the build quality is an outrage in my opinion....
Everything rattles and wobbles...
Each 100€ AKG, or Beyerdynamic feels much more valuable.
I don't think it would be related to "technical capabilities", with headphones & speakers mostly you really only have frequency response & distortion with frequency response being the most important. Ah, you don't have the Stax 009 anymore then?
 

Robbo99999

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No, I only had it here for a few days.
Yeah, cool, no problem. I mean it's hard to tune headphones by ear, and it's not my go-to method, I use measurements like you did with Oratory - just I had the idea of the "S" problem you mentioned.....after spending some time listening to music and viewing the dancing of the spectrum analyser you can see which frequencies you might want to adjust to tweak some areas when you've identified the frequency response area that the sound deficiency is coming from. Unit to unit variance is a real thing, that's been brought home to me by owning two units of K702 and also two units of HD560s, whilst also seeing the measurements of these model of headphones in terms of unit to unit variation.
 

Luke Lemke

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After EQ, significantly different to the Clear? Or similar sounding but none of the driver issues?

Put another way, should a cash rich Clear fan think about these? Or not enough difference to bother?
Has anybody answered your question? I'm guessing the clear will sound VERY similar after proper EQ...
 

SimoF

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Has anybody answered your question? I'm guessing the clear will sound VERY similar after proper EQ...
I did test them both side by side. The clear OG has a really good tonality even without EQ and I find it to be a very well rounded headphone, particularly at their price point. Still the difference with the Utopia is easily noticeable, they are way faster with more precise imaging and better overall resolution. Soundstage is meh in both cases, like with all Focals. Clear OG have better value, but if you just want the best go with the Utopia.
 

Robbo99999

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Jeriko

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They said they improved the sound at that link you gave. Do you know what they changed in the frequency response or elsewhere? They didn't seem to say, although I only gave it a quick skim.

No I have no details.. I just watched some reviews.. looks more like a design and material improvement and maybe this affect the sound? (Drivers are the same as far as I understand) But the price here in german shops is at 5000€ o_O (1000€ more than the “old” version)

Here is a pretty detail review from moon-audio:
 
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