Focal Clear

Of course, different ears and heads. I think i need to get a demo somewhere.

 

But damn fine sounding cans just the same. Worth every penny.

 

The Clear on my noggin fit and feel like the HD650 with a little more clamp to them and that will probably loosen up over time. Not hot either. More comfortable than my LCD2C.

 

Any Clear owners happen to have HE-6 also? I am curious to hear what you think about the tuning and tonality of the Clear vs. HE-6.
My Clear driven by a Woo WA22 vs HE-6 (wide open cup grill and vegan pads) off my speaker amp tabs have quite a bit in common.
So far, I am liking the Clear a lot.

 

I've always felt the He6 had a little too much treble etch for my tastes. How do they compare to the Clear on that front?

 

Out of my speaker amp tabs, HE-6 has a very tiny bit more edge in the upper 5k to 6k. The Clear is off a tube amp so its treble is smoother but by default, its treble is very polite even when driven by SS.
Did you listen to a stock or modded HE6? The high in a stock could be a touch hot for some people, especially when not fed enough power to bring out the lower end.

 

You guys. I did a bad thing.



Long story short, my insanity made me to do this. As I described a few posts back, I managed to dent the the mesh ear cup grills on both sides, so I decided to see how easy it was to remove the driver housing and try to push the dents back out, as I have done a million times with the HD600.

Turns out, the first part is easy – just pop off the ear pads, unscrew the six T6 torx screws underneath, and voilà! Out the driver housings come (just let them out slowly as the relatively delicate driver wires are still attached to the input jack, so bye-bye sound if those are yanked too hard).

I had a bit of success with pushing the dents back out from behind, but the arms of the plastic support frame were conveniently placed smack-dab behind them. I could see about 12 tabs of the mesh grill that were inserted and bent to secure the grill in place. After I straightened those out and pushed them down the grill started protruding outward, and I was able to remove it the rest of the way. The grill was out! now I could fix those pesky dents. But... wait, why does the Clear look so cool without the grill? How would it sound without the grills? Damnit.

The next obstacle that presented itself once the grill was removed was a fine mesh dust guard (same material surrounding the driver inside the earcup) which was taped to the plastic frame with some adhesive strips. I carefully removed the mesh, being careful to keep the adhesive attached to the mesh should I try to re-attach it in the future (though for all intents and purposes I considered myself into reversible mod territory).

15 some odd minutes later, I had both grills and mesh dust guards removed. I'm weirdly happy with the aesthetic; it fixes the "too pretty" look of the Clears and makes them more unapologetic and striking, like the HD800.

As for the sound? Well, I wish I could measure it for you, but since I lack the gear (and expertise) I have to rely on my ear holes. Sound is mostly the same as far as I can tell, save a bit of extra sparkle in the upper octaves (15kHz on up). It reminds me a bit of the affect of the spider cage removal on the HD650, but to a lesser extent (fortunately). For the most part I'm a fan of the change, but since I'm temporarily Gungnir Multibit-less and relying on the DS DAC in my Apollo Twin it can be a hair much on some tracks. I'm going to leave the grills off until I have the Gungnir Multibit back in the chain on Friday, then see how things fare.

This was a reckless adventure that happened to go pretty well for me, though I'm not sure under what circumstances I would recommend anyone else do the same. Another consideration is the fact that I bought this pair used and thus didn't have any warranty to worry about voiding, otherwise I doubt I've have been so foolhardy.

At least everyone knows what the Clear (and quite possibly Elear and Elex by extension) look like with their grills off now.

(Oh, and I weighed the grills to see how much weight was lost in the process. 21 grams. Ha.)

EDIT: The added treble ended up being too much unfortunately; it was fun to listen to but ultimately started to wear my ears out. I've since replaced the grills/dust barrier and the fatigue is gone. Don't be a dumdum like me and take your headphones apart. The end.

 

They look way better.

 

+1. Sexy...
I dig the look. It breaks up the "too much silver" in the Clear >> nice contrast.
For a moment there, I thought you 3D printed a new cup cover for the Clear. It will be really informative to have measurements done to see how wide open vs. somewhat open affect the sound. With the Clear, I've noticed that if I covered the cups with my hands, the sound would change but not dramatically like on my HE-6 and HD800. My HE-6 is modded to run pretty much wide open with driver dust cover removed and the stock grills replaced with big opening mesh grills. This on top of big fluffy angled vegan pads have improved the HE-6 quite a bit. I think there's a name for this mod but I couldn't think of it.

 

@westermac Where did you get that headband cover? It looks like it would feed good against my cue ball noggin.

 

The same one that was linked earlier in the thread: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01EHCE4SK/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

I mainly got it to avoid discoloration of the headband fabric, but ended up shoving in two foam strips with a gap in between (a-la-HD650 headband) to alleviate a bit of a hotspot that would form at the top of my head, and it's done the trick.

 

Just saw the Dekoni Elex/Elear/Clear pads are back up on Massdrop. Have any Clear owners experimented with pad swapping? As well-tuned as the Clear is with stock pads it's hard to imagine much improvement.

The only Dekoni pads I would think might benefit the Clear would be the velour ones (could possibly smooth out the treble a bit further, could also kill the magic though).

 

Ive got an extra I can send you. Just pay shipping.

 

The long stiff cable on the Focal Clear is driving me crazy.

Any recommendations for a shorter cable that doesn't have a nose bleed price?

 

Jerrold AKA Hivemind Cables has some cables available in all price ranges. He's a great person to do business with in my experience.

 

https://lqicables.com/
I bought a short 4ft 2.5 balanced cable to run the Clear off my DAP.
It's well built and the price of $150 is very reasonable. I bought it for form and function, not for the "sound" cuz I am not a cable believer.
So far, I am happy with it.

 

My resolve is starting to buckle and as such i have question. How do Clears fare with big heads? For reference on my 650's i need 11 clicks to have my ears centered over the driver. Maybe someone can compare the two?
I know i can audition but not for the price i found them for.

 

I don't buckle often


I think the clear is fine for large heads. Mine is above average and I had no problem. For reference, I simply can't use the hd6** line because the clamp is too tight, even after they are broken in.

 

Yeah i figured it probably would be fine, just needed some reassurance, thanks. Gonna order them tomorrow if i don't change my mind, been going back and forth all weekend haha.