Focal Clear

@gLer I wouldn't use that word. I actually don't find the clear to be painfully sibilant. The amplitude of the high frequencies is more or less fine almost all of the time. I described it that way to emphasize that it actually kind of seems to overshadow the rest of the mix in choice instances while not necessarily being "too much treble". It's smeary and but only a little sharp. It strikes me more as a limit to the technicalities of the driver, the nature of the treble response, or the resolution of treble. I associate the word sibilance with tuning issues.

 

HD650M was my daily driver and I found the bass a bit lacking at first, mainly I think due to the difference in mid-bass response which was exacerbated by having old mushy pads on the Senns. But after some brain burn in, the bass is now there when it's there (and deep), and not intrusive as you say.

I found the quantity of the treble to be a bit too much and have a layer of HD650 front foam, a few mm of melamine, and half a ply of TP over the driver secured using @Hands "tiny pieces of velcro" trick. I know what you mean about the quality of the treble. Most of the time cymbals etc. sound fine, but occasionally a particular cymbal hit will be really metallic and a bit "SSSSSSSSsssss" as you describe. It's very recording dependent.

Switching to Elex pads has made the treble smoother so I'm considering removing 1 layer of the front damping. They still sound super clear compared to HD650M, so I cbf'd so far.

 

Just ordered a set of Clears! So happy, cannot wait for them to arrive. Thanks for the posts and insight.

 

Hi Scapeinator, about the treble "problem" did you tryed the utopia pads with the clear ?
Thank you

 

Mine just arrived. Heavy but comfortable so far, No serious listening yet but like what I hear to date in terms of resolution, retrieval of spatial cues in classical recordings and tonality. Picked them up on sale for only a bit more than what it would have cost to import the Elex. The earcup/headband arrangement does seem to be a bit creaky -- does that pass?

 

Glad you got a good deal. You will hear that as a somewhat common complaint from Focal Elear and Clear owners ... the squeaky headband. Had it on my Elears also. Sold the Elears because I preferred the SQ of the HD800S and the 120 gram lighter weight. Much more comfy I can wear the HD800S for eight hours no problem.

 

New here and just my clears. I ran the audicheck bass shaker and didn't here anything, but when I ran the Twisted wiring test, I did hear some popping on the left driver, which I didn't hear on my 8 yrs old DT880. Also, on the Driver Matching test, there's panning happening on higher frequencies, which again is not the case on the DT880. Last thing, I notices there some weird high pitched metallic sheen (I don't really know how to describe the sound lol) on female vocals. I noticed this especially when listening to Sia cheap thrills. I'm running them on Schiit Jot, but I've never heard this sound on all of my other headphones. I don't know if this is normal with all Clears or is there something wrong with my pair.

 

This all sounds very normal, not just with the Clear but all the Focals. The 'metallic sheen' is a trait of the metallic drivers. Much less apparent in the Utopia I believe, but it's still there. This is also very amp and cable dependent - I find listening to my Elex on a more neutral/slightly warm of neutral amp (whereas Jot is bright of neutral) with a NOS R2R dac and a balanced cable mitigates most of the sheen you're hearing, but it's definitely still there compared to headphones with PET or biocellulose drivers. It's part of the Focal 'house sound' if you will, and appears on their metallic tweeter speakers as well, if I recall correctly.

 

Awesome thanks. I have a liquid platinum coming on the way so hopefully it will help

 

Been listening to them through liquid platinum for few days now. They are really good on some music, but they are painful to listen to on some other music. They kinda remind me of my old ultrasone pro 900 (I hated them so much), but not quite as bassy

 

Yep, well, the Clear is not wholly free from treble fuckery. So very few cans are.

You can try to roll warmer tubes or DAC or amp, try a cable swap, get a complimentary headphone ... they'll never be kind to badly mastered music, imo.

You might also just flat be sensitive to one of its treble peak frequencies.

 

It's been a few weeks for me using the clear every day. What I will say in its defense is that I did manage to fix the issue imo. I got a "premium" copper litz cable for it, and I will say that this kind of solved the sibilance issue for me. It tuned down the treble ever so slightly and I have never looked back. I was genuinely surprised by how much of a difference the cable made.

 

I'm using a Yggdrasil A2 so that's not going anywhere, but I'll start with warmer tubes and if they don't help I might consider getting into cables. Or maybe I should just eq them instead lol

 

Maybe you should just eq them instead

OR, perhaps a little eq might be the ticket... lol!

edit: not what I usually listen to these days, but I was in a nostalgic mood and I put on my the Indigo Girls first album the other day with my Clears and ouch! Talk about revealing the source. I thought about it for about 1.5 seconds and then BAM! it hit me, I should try a little eq with this....

 

go here https://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.ph
There are different headphones tests. I saw someone posted that the bass shaker test caused driver break up. However, for me when I tried the twisted wiring test I heard small pops on the left side

 

One thin ply of TP plus HD650 foam does the trick for me.

 

Lyr 3 with Tung sol tube made them fit my preferences well enough.

 

Thanksss! I removed the foam from my HD58x and punched holes in them to fit the pads then cut kleenex tissues to fit the shape and installed them back. Now they are slightly less detailed but No sibilance whatsoever. I will experiment later with thin TP to bring some of the details back