Batty Posted November 26, 2023 Posted November 26, 2023 20 hours ago, betty boop said: @Batty congrats... probably not aware but anything focal headphones has been picked up at some stage and stuck over to a massive focal owners thread here TY Ill get this closed.
21stcenturyquaker Posted November 26, 2023 Posted November 26, 2023 On 15/09/2023 at 4:51 PM, 21stcenturyquaker said: I bought open backed Clear; they sound great but given the ambient noise in our home I probably should've bought closed back Radiance. Anyone with Radiance interested in a trade for Clear send me a message. I thought the Clear were excellent: I really enjoyed listening to them but sold them and kept the Elegias just for the closed-back isolation. After buying Dekoni pads and a ibasso 4.4mm balanced cable I'm pretty happy with them - not as good as the Clear but much better isolation.
cazzesman Posted January 8, 2024 Posted January 8, 2024 (edited) Gents I am thinking about putting my toe in the water with some Focal 'openback' headphones. Re the Clear model, what are you folks using as ... 1, Music source material. I have a Fiio M11 pro portable device. 2, Are you using All in 1 Dac/Amp or Separates. 3, If Separates, what combos work well with the Clear. Don't worry about the pricing as such. I can sort through that later. I'm just looking for ideas from the wise. Also I am probably more SS than tube. My music genres are varied, but does not include Opera, Classical, Club Music, Death Metal. More rock guitar based, Prog, Female vocals and Jazz Fusion. Regards Cazzesman Edited January 8, 2024 by cazzesman
21stcenturyquaker Posted January 8, 2024 Posted January 8, 2024 Naim uniti atom he ( headphone edition) is superb: preamp/streamer/dac/headamp all in one. One just sold in the classifieds. Also currently heavily discounted at ATA plus there's one on Gumtree. 1
08Boss302 Posted January 8, 2024 Posted January 8, 2024 I use mostly Fiio M11plus ESS edt at my desk but if using headphones in room I use Fiio K7 which is hooked to my amp as I use it as a DAC with my bluesound node too. 1
Batty Posted January 8, 2024 Posted January 8, 2024 With my PC I use a D10 DAC and a DIY 'Noir' Class A HP amp. Works very well. 1
BadSneakers83 Posted January 8, 2024 Posted January 8, 2024 (edited) I have the Utopia OG and the Radiance. I use a Focal Arche that I bought on here for less than a 1/3 of its original RRP. It has an annoying bug with its USB port that they never fixed but if you use a streamer or a source that uses toslink or coax you’re golden. You can also preserve with USB as it can be intermittent. With the Utopia in particular it’s a stunning listen. Full of body and instrument timbre. It has presets for all of the original Focal lineup, including the original Clear. I also use a Hugo 2 on occasion, but I don’t feel the synergy is as good as it is with the Arche. Detail and resolution is off the charts but I end up valuing realistic instrument textures and dynamic weight. Edited January 8, 2024 by BadSneakers83 1
Godot Posted January 9, 2024 Posted January 9, 2024 16 hours ago, cazzesman said: Gents I am thinking about putting my toe in the water with some Focal 'openback' headphones. Re the Clear model, what are you folks using as ... 1, Music source material. I have a Fiio M11 pro portable device. 2, Are you using All in 1 Dac/Amp or Separates. 3, If Separates, what combos work well with the Clear. Don't worry about the pricing as such. I can sort through that later. I'm just looking for ideas from the wise. Also I am probably more SS than tube. My music genres are varied, but does not include Opera, Classical, Club Music, Death Metal. More rock guitar based, Prog, Female vocals and Jazz Fusion. Regards Cazzesman Using a pecanpi as Roon endpoint and dac into a Linear Tube Audio MZ3 with the Clear og (and others). Very nice for the amount of headphone listening I do. (Not much). I am sure I could do better in terms of source, but the MZ3 is very satisfying. For “portable”, (which is really just choosing the best spot around the house, I don’t wear headphones out and about), I use an iPhone or iPad as a Roon endpoint into an Earman TrAmp, but I prefer this with hifiman xs, the Clears do seem to respond well to scaling up the amplifier. 1
betty boop Posted January 9, 2024 Posted January 9, 2024 (edited) 7 hours ago, BadSneakers83 said: have the Utopia OG and the Radiance. I use a Focal Arche that I bought on here for less than a 1/3 of its original RRP. It has an annoying bug with its USB port that they never fixed but if you use a streamer or a source that uses toslink or coax you’re golden. You can also preserve with USB as it can be intermittent. not sure what the bug is .. i use arche with my focal stellia and usb feeding the arche.... no issues ive come across ? this is fed via MacBook usb-c ... if theres a bug not stumbled across it sorry... Edited January 9, 2024 by betty boop
BadSneakers83 Posted January 9, 2024 Posted January 9, 2024 29 minutes ago, betty boop said: not sure what the bug is .. i use arche with my focal stellia and usb feeding the arche.... no issues ive come across ? this is fed via MacBook usb-c ... if theres a bug not stumbled across it sorry... There’s a well known, and very frustrating, bug where it refuses to handshake with the USB connection. Unplugging and replugging a few times tends to work. On the desk with a PC this isn’t too much of a big deal. However in the hifi rack with a streamer it drove me nuts. There’s plenty of discussion online about it. Focal dropped support and discontinued the Arche when their partner Micromega went belly up. It is pretty frustrating, and not good enough for a piece of kit that Focal were charging $3799 for when it launched.
betty boop Posted January 9, 2024 Posted January 9, 2024 2 hours ago, BadSneakers83 said: There’s a well known, and very frustrating, bug where it refuses to handshake with the USB connection. Unplugging and replugging a few times tends to work. On the desk with a PC this isn’t too much of a big deal. However in the hifi rack with a streamer it drove me nuts. There’s plenty of discussion online about it. Focal dropped support and discontinued the Arche when their partner Micromega went belly up. Not found this fortunately, but am using with Mac book
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