Name: Focal Utopia
Brand: Focal
SKU: 6374fe02afbaff5dabcf9075
Rating: 3.4 (120 reviews)

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Utopia are the reference pair of headphones from Focal. As a world first, it features the only full-range and fully openback loudspeaker, built within a pair of headphones, using pure Beryllium formed in the brand new 'M' shape dome. The acoustic quality of this exclusive solution allowed Focal to avoid the use of any crossover or passive filtering process to achieve a frequency response from 5Hz to 50kHz The listening experience is outstanding in terms of realism, natural sound reproduction, dynamics and clarity. When listening to them, the headphones virtually disappear and the audio signal is revealed with a level of precision never achieved until Utopia. Design is also a key point, be it in regards to the way of using the headphones, comfort, as well as the aesthetic. The true lambskin leather, used on the cushions, reinforces the character of classically elegant lines, as well as the expression of comfort and overall performances

amazon.com

theverge.com

The HEADPHONE Show

Z Reviews

r/headphones

r/HeadphoneAdvice

r/audiophile

 The result of this highly-excursive quality is that the Utopia makes for one of the most engaging and lively listening experiences, which also helps in more realistically delineating the way in which music is performed. Very briefly, before heading into the conclusion of this video, I just wanted to talk about EQ. Now, the Utopia has an outstanding tonal balance right out of the box, which I think most listeners will find highly enjoyable, though I still like to tweak it just to bring it a little closer to my personal preference. As I mentioned earlier, I like adding a bass upshelf under 100Hz just to round out the lower region a little bit, and I also like to make some slight changes to the upper midrange to make the timbre sound a bit more natural

 It's remarkably well put together, and it looks gorgeous with its sporty but elegant look. For comfort, the Utopia isn't the greatest I've tried, but I'd still say that it's a pretty easy wear. Its 490 gram weight is definitely a little on the heavier side, but I find that the headband, the pads, and clamp force help in evenly distributing the weight, making it an unlikely source of fatigue. That being said though, the inner area of the pads makes for a snug fit, and I do occasionally feel my ears touching the inner sides of the pads, which could be discomforting for some users

 The design is a blend of outstanding material work and craftsmanship, with the result being a headphone that feels and looks the part. Unless you take into account the cables, there is no component of this headphone's build that I can flaw. It's remarkably well put together, and it looks gorgeous with its sporty but elegant look. For comfort, the Utopia isn't the greatest I've tried, but I'd still say that it's a pretty easy wear

 Now, the Utopia has an outstanding tonal balance right out of the box, which I think most listeners will find highly enjoyable, though I still like to tweak it just to bring it a little closer to my personal preference. As I mentioned earlier, I like adding a bass upshelf under 100Hz just to round out the lower region a little bit, and I also like to make some slight changes to the upper midrange to make the timbre sound a bit more natural. So if you'd like to try out my EQ preset for the Utopia, or any other headphone that I've reviewed, there will be a link in the description down below to a post I made on the headphones community forums, which is basically just a list of all my EQ presets. Okay, so now to wrap up this review

Focal Utopia Review - Still the best dynamic driver headphone in 2021?

 They lack a lot of the midbass dynamics that the 6xx have and instead trade it for something people call "slam, dumbass." Regardless, I don't find the utopia to be objectively any better than the 6xx and therefore should be disregarded in the setup altogether. Usually I use the tubes to listen to music through the harmonics.   

  To my ears, the Diablo measures greater if not equally as good as the critically acclaimed apple dongle. 

[Audioquest Evergreen rca, Amps and Sound Forge, iFi IDSD Diablo, Focal utopia, ]([URL REMOVED] Kind strangers! This is my Dankpods inspired setup! This is my first setup ever so please don't judge me too harshly. I bought everything with my mommy's credit card (don't tell!). My setup consists of high quality audioquest cables and only the highest quality (and highest performing) dac, the ifi iDSD Diablo. To me, the dac makes up 99% of the sound quality coming from your chain, behind the dc power cable and the alps potentiometer

~~the Amps and Sound Forge is objectively the best subjectively performing black painted, kt88, 6sl7 utilizing triode strapped tube amp that runs an 8 ohm and 100 ohm tap respectively. Again, to my ears, this measures better than the diablo on it's own, which is currently only running as a dac, to decode the bits from my roon server. I am connecting the two together using a custom red accented usb-3.0 cable which allows for greater resistance to packet loss; the leading cause of aging in sound

 Also, I had no idea how prominent and persistent the tambourine was in the entire Relationship of Command album. The simplest way to define the Utopia difference is that every sound is given its own space and definition. It’s like there are a million little speaker drivers to account for all the various instruments in a composition so that you hear each and every one of them distinctly.

Sound balance on both Focal pairs is basically beyond reproach. Bass is full, rich, and precise: it’s a winner on both quantity and quality. Mids are as present as they need to be, never overwhelming or being overwhelmed, and the treble is crystalline in its definition. The major differences between these two pairs come down to their resolution, imaging, and soundstage

If there’s anything negative to be said about the Utopia or Elear’s sound reproduction, it’s the classic problem of really good audio equipment exposing really bad recordings. You’ll quickly start to hate low-quality streaming services and look for something of higher fidelity. That being said, I’m not pushing you into the snake-oil world of high-res audio and crazy formats: all of my listening and adoration of these headphones took place with 320kbps MP3s. I tried a few FLAC files, I even listened on a Pono Player and an Astell & Kern player, and whatever difference there might be, I didn’t notice it

 That being said, I’m not pushing you into the snake-oil world of high-res audio and crazy formats: all of my listening and adoration of these headphones took place with 320kbps MP3s. I tried a few FLAC files, I even listened on a Pono Player and an Astell & Kern player, and whatever difference there might be, I didn’t notice it. The Utopia and Elear sound just as good with well-recorded compressed files as they do with the super-duper lossless varieties.

And the $999 Elear aren’t too bad either

 I think that's only something you can really figure out with EQ. That being said though, the Utopia is of course still a headphone that belongs in the Summit 5 tier, and I dare say that to this day, it does continue to deliver the most impressive performance I've heard from a dynamic driver headphone. So just like I said in my original review, if what you're looking for is the very best of what dynamic driver headphones have to offer, then look no further than the Utopia, but now it's available in a slightly warmer flavor. Anyways, that is all for me today

 As is the case with many of Focal's headphones, the new Utopia has a bump at around 1500Hz in an excess of about 4dB, which when you combine it with the slight peak that is around 4000Hz, that makes for an upper mid-range that feels a little bit nasally or boxy sounding. For the most part, I'd say that the mid-range tuning here is solid, but if you're a mid-centric listener and are sensitive to timbral changes, then this is something to keep in mind. Lastly, in the treble, there's again a peak at 6k that introduces a bit of glare and the slightest bit of low treble silence, but aside from that, I think that the treble tuning here is great. It's got plenty of sparkle on the mid-treble one, it's got really good upper treble extension

 It's become pretty much a legendary headphone at this point. It's, you know, beloved by audio enthusiasts. Like its predecessor, the 2022 Utopia is powered by Focal's Pure Brilliant M-shaped dome speaker driver, and it shares pretty much identical specs to the original model when it comes to impedance, sensitivity, and total harmonic distortion. While both headphones are indeed similar, there are a few differences between the two models, and that's what I will be discussing and highlighting into today's video

 Let's talk about it. Okay, so the 2022 Utopia is, as suggested by the name, a new iteration or addition of Focal's beloved flagship model, of course the Utopia. It's become pretty much a legendary headphone at this point. It's, you know, beloved by audio enthusiasts

Focal Utopia 2022 Review - Same... but Different?

Focal Utopia: Basically a Focal Clear on steroids with better technicalities and tonality around the board. Very good. 

PhilPhone: Incredibly dynamic and fluid with but some minor peaks in the upper-treble. The dark horse of the show for me.

DCA Stealth: Remarkable tonality for a closed-back headphone, but suffers from flat dynamics and doesn't seem able to resolve more than surface-level detail. 

HiFiMAN Susvara and Shangri-La Jr: Both are very well-tuned; the Shangri-La Jr. comes off more vanilla to my ears, but circumvents some of the traditional limitations of electrostatic headphones. Susvara was instantly impressive. 

The LCD-5 and Stealth are at the top of my list to hear if I can make it to the NYC event.  Interesting you mention that you find planars to be ‘dry’.  I’m assuming it’s the quick decay you’re talking about?  I think that’s one of the things I most like about the planar sound - very little resonance or decay, it lets the music shine through with no molestation and keeps everything sounding nice and precise.

<div class="md"><p>The LCD-5 and Stealth are at the top of my list to hear if I can make it to the NYC event.  Interesting you mention that you find planars to be ‘dry’.  I’m assuming it’s the quick decay you’re talking about?  I think that’s one of the things I most like about the planar sound - very little resonance or decay, it lets the music shine through with no molestation and keeps everything sounding nice and precise.</p>
</div>

Impressions of all the headphones I heard at CanJam SoCal 2021

Full disclosure, I don't own these headphones, never ...

 Why? Why are you heavier? Why go to carbon fiber if you're not going to make it lighter? So maybe they made something else heavier, maybe the build is different somewhere else and we could look at least at these and I could just go, not really. You don't blast these. They're not headphones you crank up to a million and you listen to fucking Metallica. These are Jeff Buckley, Born Again, The Grace Outtakes, Born Again from the Rhythm, it's these just headphones and I can respect them for that

 They're not headphones you crank up to a million and you listen to fucking Metallica. These are Jeff Buckley, Born Again, The Grace Outtakes, Born Again from the Rhythm, it's these just headphones and I can respect them for that. I would respect them more at like $1500, $2000, $4000 is sort of like, respect me motherfucker and my bills. I'm not going to say they're bad, I'm just going to say they're overpriced

 So that's my review of the Utopias, they're really good, they're really good, have bullet points, Zoc Reviews 2018, they're really good, they're overpriced. That wallpaper is in the description, link to the sound demo for these and I should also have released a sound demo for them today. Tomorrow the clears come out and I have some issues, so grab some tissues, mostly the issues of the clears are that those exist, but that's day 3, enjoy these daily videos, damn it. So in a wallpaper in the description, Patreon, upper right in the description and if you join the $5 tier you get the yard sales, nothing here is in the yard sale unfortunately, if you join the $10 tier you get into a Patreon, a channel, where right now people are asking me, oh you're doing the Utopias, what do you think and I have to give them my opinion today, tonight, no delay, you paid for it, you paid for my knowledge and you paid for my questions and you paid for my insight before any review was even filmed and you get to see these reviews a little bit early and you get in the yard sales at that level as well, so there you go

 Focal let's just get it over with because if you go to Amazon there's a couple sets on there and they're either $4,000 or $3,000 or anywhere in between that I've seen them for $32,000, $35,000, you name it, you fucking name it. And the thing is, I don't think they're $4,000 headphones. Now $3,000, no they're still not that either. They're very pretty

FOCAL UTOPIA _ (Z Reviews)

 Fortunately this did not happen. While they tend to be lean, the bass is controlled, richly layered, and extends better than the Elex let me to believe was possible for Focal. The iFi Pro iCan that I use has an analog bass boosting feature called XBass. It is not the "bass boost" you find that destroys music

The big thing for me with the LCD-4 was how laid back they are. The Utopia taught me that I did not like this, but the LCD-4 did something that---for lack of a less overused term---blew my mind. It was dark \***and** \*detailed. I found most dark headphones did not give me what I wanted in terms of detail and separation, but the LCD-4 did so while doing it better than most in ANY class

 They sounded good (though to be fair I was a n00b and everything did), and looked more amazing than anything I had seen to that point. The knowledge I gained from that experience led to me chatting with other people about headphones, then getting dragged down the rabbit hole.

 Zach---I was not aware at the time he was the man behind it all---took the time to go over everything about how they viewed sound. The headphones were stunning. They sounded good (though to be fair I was a n00b and everything did), and looked more amazing than anything I had seen to that point. The knowledge I gained from that experience led to me chatting with other people about headphones, then getting dragged down the rabbit hole

I look forward to seeing your eventual photo session with the new DCA Stealth headphones

<div class="md"><p>I look forward to seeing your eventual photo session with the new DCA Stealth headphones</p>
</div>

What cool pictures you have on your site! Saw the link from metal571 on Twitter.

All this beauty makes my setup look like a pair of KSC75 with a Fiio BTR3... :D

<div class="md"><p>What cool pictures you have on your site! Saw the link from metal571 on Twitter.</p>

<p>All this beauty makes my setup look like a pair of KSC75 with a Fiio BTR3... :D</p>
</div>

Sounds like you're at the "it's about the music, now" phase, den-fi.  

You may look back and miss the initial excitement of, say, listening to a h/p with a different driver type for the first time.  

I sometimes do. (I don't miss the confusion when everything was new.  And where so many different impressions posts seemed to contradict one another, at times.)  But, I do miss the excitement when so much was left to discover.  It was frustrating, at times.  But, on the whole, it's been fun.   

But, the music was the most important thing all along, though, right?  That was the goal from the start.  To find gear that delivers the music in a way that we like best.  (Compared to other gear combinations we've heard.)      

Discovering that "just right" combo of gear is the trick.  (And what makes all the trial-and-error more than worth it.) 

I've gone from MB Quart, to Grado, to the AKG K 7-Series, to an Audeze LCD 3 (and have ended up with the Audio Technica ADX-5000 headphones.)    

Experimenting with a few different amps here and there has also led to its' own area of discovering certain differences at times, between some of them.   

For me personally, I'll have to disagree with you a bit when you said "nothing surprises me anymore." 

I'm leaving the door open to possibly future, pleasant surprises.  (I've never tried electrostatic headphones, nor have I tried an OTL tube amp with my ADX-5000s.)  Both of those areas are uncharted territory for me.   

You can't help but wonder, right?  Sometimes the comparative listening experiments pay off, and sometimes they don't.  But, my curiosity has payed-off, overall, during my years of h/p listening. So who knows what I might think (or how other gear combos might strike my ears.)     

But, even considering how attractive-looking some of this gear is...to me, the gear is ultimately a means to an end.   

Enjoy the music (and yes, the gear, too) OP !

<div class="md"><p>Sounds like you&#39;re at the &quot;it&#39;s about the music, now&quot; phase, den-fi.  </p>

<p>You may look back and miss the initial excitement of, say, listening to a h/p with a different driver type for the first time.  </p>

<p>I sometimes do. (I don&#39;t miss the confusion when everything was new.  And where so many different impressions posts seemed to contradict one another, at times.)  But, I do miss the excitement when so much was left to discover.  It was frustrating, at times.  But, on the whole, it&#39;s been fun.   </p>

<p>But, the music was the most important thing all along, though, right?  That was the goal from the start.  To find gear that delivers the music in a way that we like best.  (Compared to other gear combinations we&#39;ve heard.)      </p>

<p>Discovering that &quot;just right&quot; combo of gear is the trick.  (And what makes all the trial-and-error more than worth it.) </p>

<p>I&#39;ve gone from MB Quart, to Grado, to the AKG K 7-Series, to an Audeze LCD 3 (and have ended up with the Audio Technica ADX-5000 headphones.)    </p>

<p>Experimenting with a few different amps here and there has also led to its&#39; own area of discovering certain differences at times, between some of them.   </p>

<p>For me personally, I&#39;ll have to disagree with you a bit when you said &quot;nothing surprises me anymore.&quot; </p>

<p>I&#39;m leaving the door open to possibly future, pleasant surprises.  (I&#39;ve never tried electrostatic headphones, nor have I tried an OTL tube amp with my ADX-5000s.)  Both of those areas are uncharted territory for me.   </p>

<p>You can&#39;t help but wonder, right?  Sometimes the comparative listening experiments pay off, and sometimes they don&#39;t.  But, my curiosity has payed-off, overall, during my years of h/p listening. So who knows what I might think (or how other gear combos might strike my ears.)     </p>

<p>But, even considering how attractive-looking some of this gear is...to me, the gear is ultimately a means to an end.   </p>

<p>Enjoy the music (and yes, the gear, too) OP !</p>
</div>

Den-Fi's Third Year in the Audiophile Hobby

 But is it worth 4,000? Only the buyer can say. It also does a good job of getting out of the way of the music The music is effortless. The Dynamics and clarity are probably the best I heard in a headphone. Tonally, the midrange is very similar to my DT48

 I don't believe they do one sonic area you can consider best. The Utopias seem to do everything very good. That isn't enough for a 4,000 headphone.

 I believe there is a noticeable improvement . I believe the Utopias sound like a 2,500-3,000 headphone in balanced mode. Honestly, I have a problem with a 4,000 headphone. IMO, a 4,000 headphone should do more then the Utopias

 The DT48 are my reference headphones when it comes to the midrange. I believe the bass is punchy, detailed, and well textured, but is a bit light for my preference. Are these the worlds best headphones? I have not heard enough headphones to say, but, I would say they are one of the best you can buy. I currently own the LCD X, Sony MDR ZR1, Focal Utopia, and DT48

A unique headphone

 Timbre is also a little better than the Beyers. Personally, I would like it to be a little bit warmer, but overall this is a fabulous headphone for the money. My personal favourite in the 150€ range. I still own a pair as my main gaming headphone

Beyerdynamic T70: I actually still own these and eq 8k down by 10db. They sound like a closed 1990 without the midrange haze and slightly better resolution.

Focal Utopia: I have only heard this one in a store. It sounds like a slightly brighter and more resolving Clear.

Beyerdynamic DT 770 80 Ohm: A little less sibilant, a little less resolving, and a bit too much bass, but in general similar to the 250 Ohm. (4,5/10) 

Focal Utopia

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