[PeteSTRADAMUS]

The Elear as far as I know. The Utopia crowd probably won’t admit if their $3k headphones crackle.

When I was at Can jam NYC I didn't hear it on the Utopia, and I had the volume blasting on 4 different amps.

 

[Skyyyeman]

Why did I read the one sentence as "full-sized human".
Seems I haven't had enough coffee as it's the morning, or I'm spending way too much time in these forums

Re weight, yes the Clear is heavy, but it's all relative. Here's a comparison (without cables) in grams:
(There are 459.59 grams in a pound and of course 1,000 grams in a kilogram.)

Audeze LCD 4 650 grams (approx., if I recall correctly)
Audeze LCD X 600 .
Audeze LCD 2 570 g.
Focal Utopia 490
HE 1000 470
Focal Clear 450
Focal Elear 438
Ether Flow 400
HD 800S 380

So the Clear is only 2.7% heavier than the Elear and is 91.8% as heavy as the Utopia.

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

Why my money is going to Focal is that they listened to us, gave us 3 awesome cables and a freaking case. Now that's a business. The Utopia will be mine soon than I'll get the Clear to travel with.

 

[Whitigir]

The Elear as far as I know. The Utopia crowd probably won’t admit if their $3k headphones crackle.

Crackling as in physically cracking ? It is funny that people makes fun of the Utopia the way it is engineered without even trying to understand why.

Utopia has the most heavy and powerful Magnet ....ever on a Headphones until now. Therefore the Utopia need to be able to cramp down, and while not slipping away or drop on the floor, and that is why it yolks are not rotating. Focal made Fiber Carbon for the frame because it is the lightest and strongest materials for it purpose. A too well thought design if you ask me. I don’t care if it crack or squeals, just as long as there is no cracking or squealing when it is on my head with great comfortability and awesome performances

And whoever thought Clear will be on Par with Utopia...well...marketing aside. Beryllium is the most expensive Metal, and is also the highest Sonic velocity property, lightest. Aluminum-Magnesium alloy will not even come close. Technically speaking, Utopia is the most advanced headphones, period.

Now, everybody can say that they personally prefer Beats, or Bose, or Skull Candy, it doesn’t matter. Facts is that Utopia is the most advanced headphones in Dynamic technology yet.

Another facts is that Utopia can sing so well out of even an IPad....now, go do that with HD800. Yeah, when you put Hd800 into any expensive amplifier, preferences aside, the Hd800 “vastly scale”....so does the Utopia . See where the differences come from ? Giving both are “references, flagship”

 

[NickedWicked]

Any new review of the Clear this Saturday online or do we have to wait for more fresh reviews next week?

 

[MattTCG]

Re weight, yes the Clear is heavy, but it's all relative. Here's a comparison (without cables) in grams:
(There are 459.59 grams in a pound and of course 1,000 grams in a kilogram.)

Audeze LCD 4 650 grams (approx., if I recall correctly)
Audeze LCD X 600 .
Audeze LCD 2 570 g.
Focal Utopia 490
HE 1000 470
Focal Clear 450
Focal Elear 438
Ether Flow 400
HD 800S 380

So the Clear is only 2.7% heavier than the Elear and is 91.8% as heavy as the Utopia.

And this is why I own NO Audeze and NO he1000. And now NO Focal. But Focal did lighten the cable (rolls eyes). The Ether Flow is 380 not 400 grams according to my kitchen scale. The Ether Flow C is 400 or I'd own it also. The 800/800S are nicely comfortable at their respective sub 400 gram weights ( I own the 800 ).

There are just too many good, quality materials to offer up headphones that weigh over 400 grams. Wait till the masses get ahold of the Aeon Open and see what a truly lightweight hi end planar can do.

 

[Random Lunatic]

Crackling as in physically cracking ? It is funny that people makes fun of the Utopia the way it is engineered without even trying to understand why.

Utopia has the most heavy and powerful Magnet ....ever on a Headphones until now. Therefore the Utopia need to be able to cramp down, and while not slipping away or drop on the floor, and that is why it yolks are not rotating. Focal made Fiber Carbon for the frame because it is the lightest and strongest materials for it purpose. A too well thought design if you ask me. I don’t care if it crack or squeals, just as long as there is no cracking or squealing when it is on my head with great comfortability and awesome performances

And whoever thought Clear will be on Par with Utopia...well...marketing aside. Beryllium is the most expensive Metal, and is also the highest Sonic velocity property, lightest. Aluminum-Magnesium alloy will not even come close. Technically speaking, Utopia is the most advanced headphones, period.

Now, everybody can say that they personally prefer Beats, or Bose, or Skull Candy, it doesn’t matter. Facts is that Utopia is the most advanced headphones in Dynamic technology yet.

Another facts is that Utopia can sing so well out of even an IPad....now, go do that with HD800. Yeah, when you put Hd800 into any expensive amplifier, preferences aside, the Hd800 “vastly scale”....so does the Utopia . See where the differences come from ? Giving both are “references, flagship”

I've been doing that with my HD800's for the better part of 6 years... Used it with my iPod classic for a year or so till I got a colorfly C4, and later some portable amps. I love the HD800 out of most sources, if they arent unreasonably bad... The fact that the Utopia can pull the same thing off is good, but not news

It is advanced, yes, the most advanced on the market, that depends on how you look at it; it's not exactly new technology, its just new that it has been brought to the headphone world... Not that any of that matters, this isn't a contest of who has the flashiest materials, it's a contest of one of two things, depending on how you look at it: measurable performance (objective) and how nice it sounds (subjective). If Tyll's measurements are anything to go by, it's definitely not winning on that front (impulse response isn't looking too clean), but it does definitely sound nice to a lot of peoples ears

 

[Whitigir]

Any new review of the Clear this Saturday online or do we have to wait for more fresh reviews next week?

Wait for Tyll and Bob reviews they are the best at reviewing Focal Headphones

 

[endgame]

I've been doing that with my HD800's for the better part of 6 years... Used it with my iPod classic for a year or so till I got a colorfly C4, and later some portable amps. I love the HD800 out of most sources, if they arent unreasonably bad... The fact that the Utopia can pull the same thing off is good, but not news

It is advanced, yes, the most advanced on the market, that depends on how you look at it; it's not exactly new technology, its just new that it has been brought to the headphone world... Not that any of that matters, this isn't a contest of who has the flashiest materials, it's a contest of one of two things, depending on how you look at it: measurable performance (objective) and how nice it sounds (subjective). If Tyll's measurements are anything to go by, it's definitely not winning on that front (impulse response isn't looking too clean), but it does definitely sound nice to a lot of peoples ears

Honest and accurate. Well said.

 

[raypin]

Agree with you, however it could be a good viable option for any Utopia owners who are in the market for a quality "transportable" headphone/Dap set up as it comes with a case and 1.2 cable included in the package. Shame it isn't Lemo connections though

Mm...well for on-the-go, I’d rather wait for a closed-back Focal, perhaps in the level of a Clear or even an Elear. There’s just no clear incentive for me (at least one that I can consider as compelling) to get a Clear when I already have the Utopia. Utopia + WA 8 = transportable for me. Oh....add the Chargetech battery bank with AC (to supplement the battery life of the Woo. Still transportable. Excellent set-up for my extended outings or trips.

Like I said, the Clear appears to be an attractive option for first-time Focal headphones buyer.

 

[Imusicman]

Mm...well for on-the-go, I’d rather wait for a closed-back Focal, perhaps in the level of a Clear or even an Elear. There’s just no clear incentive for me (at least one that I can consider as compelling) to get a Clear when I already have the Utopia. Utopia + WA 8 = transportable for me. Oh....add the Chargetech battery bank with AC (to supplement the battery life of the Woo. Still transportable. Excellent set-up for my extended outings or trips.

Great transportable set up

I hear you on the closed back. Now that would be something. The Focal Classic was my 1st venture into this wonderful hobby. This time around of course

 

[inthere]

Hopefully, I had driver breakup issues with the Utopia. I think this one will be extremely close in performance to the utopia if it's better than Elear

 

[TWerk]

To break into the inevitable upcoming hype on these, Elear was one of the biggest disappointments for me in high end headphones.

I made a thread about disappointing headphones, and Elear was the "clear" winner - many others besides me felt this way too. Elear's value also dropped quite a bit on the market in a short amount of time.

Not to say that Clear isn't better, however, careful on the hype train guys. $1,500 gives you lots of options.

 

[Beagle]

To break into the inevitable upcoming hype on these, Elear was one of the biggest disappointments for me in high end headphones.

I made a thread about disappointing headphones, and Elear was the "clear" winner - many others besides me felt this way too. Elear's value also dropped quite a bit on the market in a short amount of time.

Not to say that Clear isn't better, however, careful on the hype train guys. $1,500 gives you lots of options.

I found the Elear articulate and detailed, but overall had nothing to do with music. Sound was mechanical and brittle compared to a Grado HP-2 or an original RS-1. This is not to say that other headphones in the Elear's price range do not have similar problems. IMO everybody's going for detail, big soundscape, awesomeness....and the heart and soul of music has gone out the window. Some of the less expensive offerings like the Audioquests get closer to music.

 

[Random Lunatic]

I found the Elear articulate and detailed, but overall had nothing to do with music. Sound was mechanical and brittle compared to a Grado HP-2 or an original RS-1. This is not to say that other headphones in the Elear's price range do not have similar problems. IMO everybody's going for detail, big soundscape, awesomeness....and the heart and soul of music has gone out the window. Some of the less expensive offerings like the Audioquests get closer to music.

Funnily I feel the exact opposite about headphones in general at the moment... The elears main problem is the massive hole in the middle of its response, making top and bottom sound completely disjointed.
But as a general thing pretty much nothing since the HD800 has made significant improvements on the points you mentioned, just different tonalities; none of the current hyper high class flagships have lower noisefloors, cleaner/quicker impulse responses or significantly better squarewave responses, mainly only the frequency responses have arguably improved to many's ears. Its part of what confused me when people were raving about the Utopia being more detailed and having less noise; from the measurements I can find, nothing would suggest that, the noisefloor is more or less identical to the HD800, and the impulse response has some strange uneven resonance on it... The sad truth is that even though many speak of it as though its yesterdays new and has long been passed, nothing really has passed the HD800 to this day by any significant margin, though some are more pleasant to listen to.

But that is i enough pocket philosophy or ravings of a lunatic for now, back to the topic at hand

I'll be curious to see if the Clear has solved that frequency dip of the Elear, and if it will at any point come in black... Because I'm sorry to say, but I cant stand the white/grey color of it; it reminds me of cheap car interiors and bargain bin headphones that try to look fancy, where as the Elear looked incredibly snazzy...