Haven't listened to the Focal utopia headphones yet. Anyone get a chance to compare these to the HEK??
I thought my quest was over with the HEKs.
Check out these impressions by
@moedawg140
He owns the HEK and has an excellent ear for headphones and IEMs in my opinion.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/811270/focal-elear-and-utopia-launch-with-impressions-head-fi-tv/555#post_12664939
Here is the quote:
Focal Headphone Lineup Impressions
The Utopia's strong points are the clarity, and the speaker-like presentation. The music doesn't sound tall or wholly expansive like the HE1000. The music doesn't sound very wide like the HD 800 or HD 800 S. What the Utopia is able to present is music with an intimate surround sound feel, mimicking 5 channel speakers, not 5.1 as that would mean there is a lot of quantity bass/vehicle subwoofer-esque presentation to the headphone, which in my opinion it doesn't, especially when compared to the HE1000 when I listened back to back.
Doesn't sound like an HEK killer to me.
Does sound like a possible HD800 killer.
Mostly just an alternative choice.
I find the HEK to have the largest and most coherent Soundstage, even if it is labeled a bit laid back in comparison to an HD 800,
which uses treble resonance to its advantage in producing large Soundstage.
With the HD800,
I was able to reduce this resonance thru both popular mods and thru damping.
What I have found with the HD800 is that more pin-point accuracy is attained at the expense of Soundstage.
******
HD800 (and HE800S) is just a strident piece of schitt to my ears when you compare it with well driven and well sourced HE1000.
Almost everyone mods their HD800 because of this, and makes them better than a HD800S.
The HE1000 takes times to reveal it's abilities. No 15 min audition is really going to show you what it's capable of no matter what the gear. It's not something as immediately visceral as an Audeze headphone for example. But give it time and it will blow you away.
These HEK Excell at extended listening to a wider range of music genre's.
I auditioned HE1K yesterday, with a WA5-LE, and I wasn't blown away. I listened to solo piano (Emil Gilels playing the finale to the moonlight sonata) as well as several excerpts from Solti's Ring Cycle, and although the sound had a very laid-back feeling to it, vs the dynamism of my HE-6 or airy clarity of HD800...
I agree with your statement that the HEK's soundstage is not as wide as the HD800. Disagree on the accuracy. I have both headphones and the HEK has a much better sense of instrumentation in 3D space, to my ears. The soundstage on the HD800 is a bit soupy for me. The instruments seem to come from everywhere, which is really cool in certain situations. I also prefer the bass on the HEK to the HD800 for both quantity and precision..
I can agree as well.
To me the HE6 impact and the HD800 airy clarity are "one trick ponies"...
They do not offer more rounded package the HEK can give.
The HEK Soundstage is, to me, more precise,
and as for impact, all LCD models I have tried, have exaggerated impact,
$2000ish was my breaking point for a new pair, considering many of the driver issues/failures that have been reported...
What driver failures? I haven't heard of any. I read most of the threads on the HE1000. The only complaint I've heard about -- was the jack on some of the cans was loose and some wood veneer issues. But I think those were cleared up, or so I've been led to believe.
I believe there were never any real driver failures.
My experience has lead to the ** socket.
Edit: (redacted)
"TMI" (too much info)
) a guy here made some mod, his own headband and he told it much better now, if somebody has information for comnercial headbands..
