Focal Elear and Utopia

I actually agree with Bob Katz regarding the tonal balance, but I would take probably take the Utopia over the LCD-4 anyway. I don't really get why you don't seem to be hearing as big differences between the LCD-4 and the Utopia. I found them to be very different sounding.
Bob Katz, being a mastering engineer, puts great importance in getting the tonal balance right. I would be happier with different speakers and different headphones/amps/dacs than what he uses. Just find your own preferences and take what others say with a grain of salt.

 

ouch, my english must be seriously worse than I thought.....

I actually said (or maybe only meant) the opposite : "I have extensively auditioned the LCD4 together with the Utopia before deciding which cans to buy, and I think they are really very close in terms of SQ, just a matter of "tonal" prefence, more bass-centric the LCD4, more mid-centric the Utopia."

I (wrongly) thought that SoundQuality-wise the two hps were at the same level,differing only for the sound, and one can choose based on his own "tonal" preferences.

So my original point, badly expressed due to my bad english sorry for this, was that maybe there was something wrong in the setup that Katz used for Utopia, or maybe there was something wrong when I listened to LCD4. I will have to give LCD4 a second chance, since now I'm quite convinced that my listening session was somewhat flawed (maybe a bad amp, dunno).

 

hifi-m8, iDSD micro and self-made amp from a friend. Same problem with all amps and with HD800 it was nerver a problem so I assume it is just the Elear and not the Amp.

 

Based on what I heard at the SBAF meet I more or less found myself nodding along with Katz's brekadown of the Utopia frequency response the bottom of the comparo. The Utopia were lean down low and strong everywhere else.

 

One really needs to audition both headphones to realise how abysmal the LCD4 is. Its lower treble is seriously flawed. Cymbal sounds disappear and reappear 'magically'! It sucked out the life of Bach's St Matthew's Passion. It is unreal to even compare it to Utopia/HD650/Andro (but that's me).

The Utopia ticks all the boxes as it has no major flaws of note tonally (similar to HD650 and Andromeda) and its dynamics, clarity and resolution are ridiculously good. With my Yggdrasil-Rag any reservations I had at shows, due to the sharp treble heard on other sources, are now long gone.

 

same here. after many amp-rolling, some tube-rolling, few cable-rolling, a couple of source-rolling, I have found a good equilibrium. and now the Utopia really shine..... at least until I will have my new 2A3 amplifier, and then the quest will start again

IME even if it is fairly easy to let them sound good with regards to amplifier, let them sound "special" is a completely different game.

 

Bob Katz is a tonality whore for dead inside sound. He is a headphone necrophiliac. He doesn't really care about technicalities or detail that much. The LCD-4 and PM-3 are dead inside but some of the most inoffensively voiced cans around so he loves them despite no recordings really sounding "right" on them at all. Metallic percussion in string quartet music faded into the noise floor on the LCD-4.

He only uses warm as hell and audiophile and audiofool recordings. Somebody should show him basement punk demos from the 80s or Darkthrone and have his mind explode when he learns they didn't EQ anything at all, didn't care, didnt really need to, and would just laugh at him for bitching about ridiculously overpriced headphones when speakers are at hand. They would probably laugh at his speakers too and find something wrong with his fetishistic digital crossovers and equalizations like the famous story of the U2 drummer realizing the clock was off in Brian Eno's click track only way worse and more offensive.

 

someone should lend him a code-x and a gun since he might never find a pair to own himself. lest he descend into a golum creature in his obsessive search for his precious.

it might be the fault of the cans, or it might be the fault of his overly enthusiastic application of the sbaf-approved semen mod directly onto the drivers. nobody knows.

 

Yes, we should encourage him to get more involved in reviews. Even if you disagree with him he is a nice change to headphone guru, Shillhard, Mike Mercer etc.

Someone send him a Yggdrasil, EC Studio and HD650M to see what he thinks compared to his precious Audezes. I'm ready to pitch in shipping costs.

 

Link/source? That sounds like an interesting read.

 

He's not a remarkable drummer technique wise but this is an amazing perception:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/04/25/the-possibilian

 

Very interesting read indeed.
Thank you for sharing!

 

I finally got to demo the Elears, thru a Moon Audio 430HA.
I did enjoy them, but there was some silbance or so that annoyed me.
And I did hear the not so good mids...
They do sound very live tho.
Not sure if I want to buy them.

Had a listen to HD800S aswell, too flat sounding for me.

 

Somebody please tell me via PM where I can get a Utopia for cheap.

The lowest price I've been able to negotiate so far with a dealer is 3k.

 

It will be difficult to find a new one cheaper than that in the EU.

I would say go for it!

Did you get in touch with Meier Audio BTW?

I convinced Jan to become a Focal dealer, and ended up being his first Utopian customer.

 

I did. He quoted me 10% less than the RRP which for me isn't much of a deal. 20% is my minimum acceptable discount for such products.

 

I think it is too early for such discounts as demand is still high and supply low.

You'll need to play the waiting game for a bit longer unfortunately.

 

25% off is pretty good.

 

Naah, 3K of the good ol' now overly devalued post-idiotBrexit British Pound .