[Ryouta Sasaki]

How does utopia compar to d8000?

 

[superjohny]

I had a received my utopia yesterday after auditioning at a local store when comparing with my Mark Lawton Mod D7000 with cups,pads change and jena labs cable in 3pin dual xlr. The utopia was using moon audio black cable xlr into a IFI amp. Source was AK SPK.

for the 1 hour listen at store, it feels to me the difference between Utopia and LA7000 is really a personal preference. Utopia is certainly much more dynamic high energy and almost feel like pushing micro details into your ears and mids,focal voices are much clear and forward.

But LA7000 sounded to me wasn't falling behind. Certainly much more bass quantity much wider sound stage, mids are little laid back but still focal voices were VERY VERY surprisingly clean and separated well from bass,I could almost feel the layers. Separation is fantastic.

To me, Utopia gave me a WOW emotion and make you hold your breath but LA7000 was more balanced as a whole and more enjoyable. With LA7000 you can still hear micro detail if you pay attention to look for but mostly just dissolved in music.

Really hard to pick either so I decided to keep both. I went to the store under the assumption that Utopia would trash my LA7000 but no, not really.... (but again, if i recall correct, LA7000 almost costed me USD$2000 with all the mods and pads, connector, cable and cups change.and it was almost 8 years ago)

While received Utopia yesterday but the Dana cable is still in the makes, I noticed the connector pin on Utopia was so much look like the Tralucent Ref1 which I had this crazy idea to slot my Uber cable into UTOPIA. AND IT WORKED!

UTOPIA->uber cable 2.5mmTRRS->SPK vs UTOPIA ->moon audio black cable -> IFI DSD -> SPK

Comparing my listening experience last weekend at the store, for uber cable, even cleaner, fuller bodied,but bass only came out when is there. the store setup seemed to have consistent more bass slam and quantity, not sure if it was because of the existence of the amp. For uber cable, bass slam was still there and equally good for some songs but not all consistent like i heard with store setup.

 

[superjohny]

pics of uber with utopia.

 

[joshuachew]

Listening to the Utopia and the Stellia via Sony WM-1Z -> Hugo2 at a private hire office space with some very fine cables from DHC Cables. Its a Beryllium partyy!

 

[GreenBow]

Since shooting the Focal Stellia video, my enthusiasm for this headphone has only grown. The Stellia is my favorite of all of Focal's headphones. And while the closed-back Stellia unquestionably (and unsurprisingly) gives way to its open-back siblings like the Clear and Utopia in terms of pure technical performance, resolution, and imaging, its tonal balance is strong enough (for my preferences) to push it well to the front of Focal's now quite-complete family of headphones. (Again, this is relative to my preferences and priorities, and those who rank all of these factors differently may (of course) come to different conclusions.)

I copied this quote of yours over from the Stellia Measurements thread. I was drawn to the comment you made saying, "The Stellia is my favorite of all of Focal's headphones.".

With reference to the tonal balance, however I came across a cable review recently that claims to improve the Utopia. I don't have an opinion of the Utopia, as I have never heard one. Although I would very much like to. I'd like to hear the Stellia too. Anyway, sorry, on to the cable.

This is page two of the review, for the 'Moon Audio Black Dragon Premium Focal Utopia v2' review. https://www.hifiplus.com/articles/moon-audio-black-dragon-premium-v2-headphone-cable/?page=2

I just wondered if you had come across this cable. Or if you ever do review the Utopia with on, it would be fun to see you ideas. (By the way, I don't work for Moon-Audio, or Focal. I am just passing on something that I thought was interesting.) The review doesn't so much say that it alters the balance per-se. More that it takes the Utopia to the next level. Although they do say the cable addressed any 'perceived' Utopia bass leanness.

In fact the sections describing the sound quality change with this cable, are simply excellent. It makes the kind of reading that makes me want to make sure I did not miss a word or idea.​

 

[swedishpat]

Quote:



Well that reminds me of messages like this nuclear reactor is safe so shut up about being worried that we're installing it in your back yard, or that fracking doesn't cause ground water contamination. Point being is that this isn't going to be effective at dispelling these kinds of concerns, research, experimentation, data, official legal statements from the vendor, etc would do this. I don't see any reason not to ask these questions. Someone is spending a lot of money on a toy. I find the points MooMooMoooo raises very interesting. They could be the greatest sounding headphones ever but your health is always worth more than the latest fad or gadget.




+1

Here's another contrived scenario. You're driving in a car with your new fancy headphones and get in a wreck. What if you're headphones are destroyed and you're trapped in your vehicle waiting on rescue... Or the kid or the dog gets a hold of them and tries to tear them up. I'm not saying it will happen but consider the possibility. I know nobody wants to find fault in the headphones but trying to shush people up on it is the wrong approach IMO. If you're not at all concerned about any potential risk you've either put in an order or you're saving to place your order soon.

I still haven’t bought a Stellia for years because of these beryllium concerns. Now many years later are there any beryllium injuries reported?

 

[Netforce]

Given the Utopia and Stellia have sold thousands of units and there haven't been reports of injury it should be fine. Heck more than a few companies are making beryllium based driver IEMs/headphones without issues as well.

ZMF has a pretty good part on the FAQ about beryllium: