Zagreus Posted July 23, 2024 Posted July 23, 2024 Hello everyone, I own a pair of the Focal Clears and I've been thoroughly enjoying them. Recently, I have been reading about upgrading the stock cables, as I have heard that they can make a difference, but I'm unsure which ones to go for and whether the investment is truly worth it. Has anyone had experience with this? What headphone cables would you recommend for the Focal Clears? Or what cables do you use for your own pair of headphones? Is there a particular type of cable (e.g., balanced vs. unbalanced) that pairs especially well with the Focal Clears?
Bengineer Posted July 23, 2024 Posted July 23, 2024 No, not worth it for a sonic upgrade for a Focal clear. Yes, worth it for a functional and aesthetic upgrade. The stock cable is a janky mess. If you can go balanced, do that. How much it improves depends on what amp it is connected to. 2
elmura Posted August 20, 2024 Posted August 20, 2024 Whilst not tested, I believe going XLR balanced to the Clear could improve the soundstage, opening it up. That was my biggest drawback when I had the Clear - a closed in sound - relative the Senn HD800. Make sure you do this with a good headamp
Bengineer Posted August 22, 2024 Posted August 22, 2024 On 20/08/2024 at 7:00 PM, elmura said: Whilst not tested, I believe going XLR balanced to the Clear could improve the soundstage, opening it up. That was my biggest drawback when I had the Clear - a closed in sound - relative the Senn HD800. Make sure you do this with a good headamp The clear is below average on the soundstage width. As with all Focal. The HD800 is on the very very top handful with that regards. You can't make any Focal sound big and wide.
elmura Posted August 22, 2024 Posted August 22, 2024 3 hours ago, Bengineer said: You can't make any Focal sound big and wide. You can if you use spatialising software plug ins / DSP . This is something I've been experimenting with lately and some work very well. 1
SonicArt Posted December 5, 2024 Posted December 5, 2024 I have built a few custom headphone cables in the past, usually for friends who have bought decent phones and want to experiment. Last month I needed to do a headphone cable for some Utopias, so I tracked down the strange but very cool plugs that Focal uses on these phones, seemed to be decent quality with gold plated copper pins, looked identical to the factory ones. Got the plugs, they are very nicely made, very logical construction making it easy to create a good cable loom that has decent support inside the plug. My headphone cable is not braided wires or molded twin core etc, not all pretty colours and/or fancy sheathing, I chose to use my Silver Line cable, two individual runs 3m long that come together in a custom machined joiner. Now the Silver Line has a PTFE outer jacket, its stiff, too stiff for headphone use, so I carefully strip off the outer teflon, leaving me with the MilSpec silver/copper alloy conductors surrounded by a braided shield in the same materials. This unprotected cable is now quite limp and flexible, not as limp as copper with pvc etc over it, but its quite manageable on headphones. I cover the cable with woven PE sheath, individual sheathing for the first 20-30cm into the joiner, then larger single sheath down to the 3.5mm plug. Yes just like any other headphone cable! But most handmade HP cables dont use MilSpec silver copper wiring, they dont use pressure cast teflon dielectrics, and the shield is usually tinned copper (if it has one) not silver copper alloy. I cant put the cable on the burner (yet) as I neglected to order some female sockets to match the little LEMO style connectors. So I hooked it up to the phones and have been running music through it on and off for the last few days. It sounds good! I have the original Focal cable here so I can do some A/B listening once the new cable has some time on it. Here is what it looks like: I am going to do a writeup in Sonic Art dealer forum, and will add it to the website sometime this week. I can build them with most style of plug if anyone is interested. 6
SonicArt Posted December 21, 2024 Posted December 21, 2024 This week I updated my headphone cable with a very soft Cotton PE sheath, it has been running on the Utopias for 150h or so and is well settled in. A very detailed transparent sound, leading edges are really well defined, decay sounds very natural, the timbre of instruments is more real vs the factory cable. Subtle microdetail in the background creates a more realistic stage. Bass is tighter and faster. Even though the cable is properly shielded and the conductors are PTFE insulated the flexibility with the Cotton PE is very acceptable. Cable is now up on the website in the cable section and can be ordered with pretty much any plug combo you might need.
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