Great disappointment.

Never never never buy headphones based on reviews, especially don't trust the major headphone reviewers, the "stars" of the headphones review world on Youtube. They are mostly just pushing gear, reviewing headphones on loan - snake oil salesmen, that is what they are.

I fell for them. And ordered the Clears.

Tonal balance:
There is a lot of blabla about how clear they sound and balanced etc etc etc .... How in the world do headphone reviewrs forget to talk about sensitivity to the placement? Yes headphone are to some degree sensitive to placement but these... these ...
You want to know about their tonal balance (frequency response)?
They don't have one - in that they have many. Especially upwards from the mids.
So there is no use talking about the tonal balance of these headphones.

Unless you screw some docking mechanism in your skull and jawbones so that they can be attached to the exactly same place on your head.... there is no point talking about tonal balance with these.

So how's the sound? Watch/read reviews and you'll get to know how these CAN sound with a caviat (placement, see above)

Cables:
Unacceptable for headphone that cost a tenth of the price.

Microphonic cable connections:
Unacceptable for headphone that cost a tenth of the price.


PS: sorry for not writing many many paragraphs about how I perceive their sound detailing mids, lows, highs, and imaging and all that stuff - I am just a mastering engineer that does not care for hi-fi folklore and the negative points I made above just make these headphones useless as a reference tool in the studio. And that is what I am looking for in headphones.

Focals, never again, no headphones, no studio monitors, nothing, never never never.

I intended it to be a tool in the studio but only after a couple of hours of use I need to send them back...
The cable is not replaceable under warranty, the whole package needs to be sent back to the regional Focal service facility (I've been told that for central Europe it is somewhere in Poland)

Heapdhones that you paid for but are not spending their time with you are like headphones you don't own at all.

This is a product for the consumer market- made to spend most of its time on a headphone collectors shelf among other headphones that get very little playing time.

Another thing to add... there is a strange micro reverb in these cans - I have not heard this in other closed headphones. Granted I don't have much experience with closed headphones. This subtle reverb matches the material of the cans - sounds plasticky.