Fantastic prices on Focal's over-ear headphones at Addicted To Audio.
Links to other products:
Focal Elear B-Stock: $600
Focal Utopia B-Stock: $3250
Focal Elegia: $600
Unfortunately the regular Focal Clear is not on sale, only the Pro model. While they're exactly the same acoustically, the in-box inclusions are slightly different and the Professionals get an objectively cooler colour scheme.
More deals on other brands as well.
Must admit I made sure my purchase had cleared before I posted this. I'm pretty impressed with my Elears, but for this price I couldn't resist.
Great prices, but would have preferred the regular Clears, as I prefer the boring grey colour design and also need a XLR balanced cable.
Might wait a bit to see if minidisc come back with an offer on the Clears.
It gets dirty very easily esp the headband. I had to cling wrap it to prevent it from looking stained.
Getting dirty easy only applies to the grey Clears or for the black/red one too?
The light grey. After 1 month of use, it became dark grey 😆
@lycos: It does get dirty. I try to clean the earpads every month. But the grey grille looks superb 😏
Clear Pros are a better deal considering they come with two sets of pads and don't fade to a disgusting grey.
You aren't wrong but that was one of the best headphone sales I've ever seen. This is still a very good price and less than what they're selling for used on gumtree
Just grabbed a pear of Clears. Hopefully a big upgrade from my infamous HD700s.
Congrats! The dynamics and tonality of Clear is excellent and an upgrade from HD700.
Cheers! I certainly hope so!
I have the grey clears. They are my endgame.
Hopefully they live up to the hype then!
They are good. Do you have a dac already? While they drive easily from a phone, the dac makes them shine. Do not go too expensive.
@Raj09: Actually running my headphones through a Scarlett 6i6 atm. For a while I've considered getting a headphone amp to run through the Scarlett. Seeing as this comes with cables for balanced, might get an amp with a balanced output. What are you running yours through?
Edit: The clear professional doesn't come with a balanced cable :(
@itsJamie: Nice. I am a gamer first and foremost. I have a creative g6 driving the focals and also an ifi zen dac which I use for music tracks. After purchasing the clears I didn't have enough budget for expensive dac. These dac do a fine job though. I still find myself in awe in some tracks I listen to on the Clears
I went to addicted and they had me sample the clears. They were so good that I was obsessed to have them for 2 months. Decided to buy them and eat ramen for 3 months after 😁
Oh I wish could buy this :(
How does Clear compare with Ananda / HD800s?
Clear = neutral warm, great dynamics, intimate, not as detailed as HD800s (a class below)
HD800s = bright, airy and big sound stage, most detailed headphone i have ever tried/had
Ananda isnt in the same class. Do you mean Arya? I havent tried it either :(
Thanks!
While my favourite headphone is my Arya for its depth, layering of even bass (didn’t think this was possible!) tallness of soundstage, width of soundstage and overall balance of sound, I bought the Clears for their dynamism and overall punch and slam. Detail retrieval on the Clear is slightly better on the Clear vs the Arya too.
I know the Arya gets recommended a lot for jazz and classical due to the sound staging and depth, but I listen to a lot of electronica, EDM and trance on them and prefer them over anything else.
Clears are for when I want the better punch and slam while still keeping perfect tonality, clarity and balance of sound. They don’t compete in soundstage, layering and depth vs the Arya.
@Lycos mate we travel in the same circles it seems!
Just too much to spend were, are people using these for professional music?
I have my old HD25s for DJing, mind you 10 years old! I have no idea how these would compare, but 2k RRP probably alot better! Hahaha
I'm actually wearing my HD25's right now - and I have my Elears next to me. You're right, the Elears are noticeably better - but that doesn't take away from the HD25's being excellent headphones in their own right. DJ's around the world have chosen them for decades!
Yeah, I assume these are more for in-studio use? I want them but atm I have to focus on getting a house built! I can relax next year LOL
No actually, they're reference headphones - so more for critical listening / enjoyment than studio monitoring.
Once that house is ready you can jump into the world of speakers!
I use the hd25s for overears (well, on ears…) Specifically due to the fact they will last 10 years, and replacement modular parts galore.
For higher quality I go IEMs. I'd say aside from soundstage, the audio quality in a set of $1k IEMs can match almost anything in over ears even 5x the price.
Really want to pick up the Elegia - but I just don't like it enough. It's been really difficult finding worthwhile high end closed backs, everything I've tried feels lacking.
Has anyone tried both Focal Elegia and Denom AH-D5200? Both have similar price ($600 amd $649) at the moment.
their black Friday this year is even worse than their rrp last year
Sony IER-M9s are also available for $999, a very high tier pair of IEMs that best/match CA Andromedas for most people. Previous low was about $1,070. IER-Z1Rs are $300 higher than the previous $1699 sale. IER-M7s are $599.
Just a plus for the Most, absolutely amazing for everything except bass response. Might be able to be fixed by eq. But for anything other than hip hop or EDM/IDM I'd say the M9s are about as good as one can possibly get for $1k.
"The Audio Technica ATH-M50x are better headphones than the Focal Elegia, and they are a fraction of the price, too. They have better and more neutral audio quality to reproduce tracks accurately. However, the price difference shows in build quality and comfort, as the Focal are superior in those categories. The cups of the Focal are bigger and deeper, which will also fit most ears better." -RTings.com
This can't be true, right?
No. RTings do good measurements, but their actual reviews are sometimes a bit weird.
Having said that, the Focal Elegia isn't universally loved.
I had these and they’re so good in everything else except bass. Quantity of bass is very very light. Everything else is perfect. They’re not bright but they’re just about 5dB shy of where bass needs to be.
A lot of people on the internet have terrible opinions. This guy, however, has managed to trump them all.
No way that's true. The m50x are a decent over ear for $150, but nothing compared to any focal model ever released.
The Focal Clears are absolutely fantastic. They are a very well rounded headphone in terms of sound and are very comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. I did talk to a rep about the crackling issue and he said it happened to people who were using underpowered amps (not sure how, these can run off of a phone) or were playing them too loud. I haven't had said issue with mine at all and I've played them off of Phones, laptops and other low powered sources. Highly recommend.
5 year warranty, can't go wrong
Do they need an Amp? If so ,any good options? Thanks
The Topping D50s and A50s is a good budget AMP/DAC stack, with the D90 and A90 stack being the best value high end AMP/DAC stack. These options are all designed to be acoustically transparent so it's a great starting point and a good match for headphones like these.
And the e30/l30 stack is an even more budget alternative that still works fine for all of these.
What is the difference between Pro clear and standard clear besides colour?
They sound the same but have different cosmetics and bundled accessories.
What are the accessories that the Pro version has such the normal doesn't?
Here's what I can surmise after watching a few unboxing videos.
Pro version:
Standard version:
@qazxswedcxzaqws: Quick price comparison:
Focal headphone pad replacements sell for about $200 US but aren't readily available in Australia
Focal Clear replacement balanced cable sells for about $250 AU (but you can get much cheaper 3rd party ones)
So close to a wash in terms of price, except that the red Professional pads aren't white so don't get dirty as easily as the normal pads.
Not sure what the stock Clear / Clear Professional cables are like. My Elear stock cable was absolutely terrible - heavy, stiff and kinked. The Clear's cables look much better in pictures, but I'll see what the Clear Professional cables are like when mine arrives. They can't be worse than the Elears!
@lostn: I wish :( Focal products sound good and feel very high quality but they do charge out the arse for everything.
@shaolinbear: $271 AUD for ear pads, and $339 for an audio cable is highway robbery. Only Monster Cable charges that kind of money, and look where they are now.
You'd think they money they made selling $2000 headphones was enough to cover the profits they wanted.
@shaolinbear: I had the Elears and the cable could be used to hang an elephant!
The clears have a decent cable but it can’t be unkinked, I sold my clears for clear pros as I find an extra set of ear pads a far better deal than a balanced cable - these really don’t benefit from a balanced cable in my opinion. But will need replacement ear pads as the memory foam loses its support over time.
I also far prefer the black/ red colour way vs the standard clears. They’re sonically the same headphone.
You might not have been noticed the difference between the utopias and the hd700 but peddling nonsense like "sounds no different to apple ear pods" isn't helpful to anyone. There is a clear distinction in audio quality between hi fi and low-mid fi consumer grade products. I've had 2 moments in my life where I hit the audio nirvana of getting goosebumps throughout my entire body. First time listening to my mojo + andromedas and the second time was when I experienced my friend's KEF reference 3s. I don't disagree that there are diminishing returns but that is only between other hi fi equipments, not between a hi fi and low fi. Shelling out for a $1000 balanced XLR cables on the other hand….
How do owners rate the comfort of the Focal Elegia or Elear?. I'm interested in getting one of these for listening to music at work and the Xbox. So, I would be using them for hours on end.
Elegias are my work headphones. They isolate well, don’t leak (which is way more important), sound brilliant and are comfortable as hell. I’m normally a a Beyer fanboy but the Elegias are so great I ended up buying a set of Clears for home. Tons of detail, great top end clarity, smooth miss and plenty of bass.
They are big headphones though. Which makes them stand out, if that’s an issue for you. And maybe if you are really slight, they could get a bit heavy? Idk. I wear them for 12 hour days no worries.
It was this or the iPhone 12 max umming and ahing, in the end Focal won…
For those that made a order for the clears, have they started shipping?
I've already received mine, but I ordered on Thursday night.
Niceee! Ordered Friday morning haven't heard anything yet.
How are you finding them?
Well, they're fantastic obviously. Stock 3.5mm cable is almost as bad as the stock elear cable, but the 6.35mm cable is nicer. Having said that, I haven't had time to test back and forth with the Elears. Initial impressions are that they have more/better bass response, and I think overall they are a step up, but I need to spend more time listening.
Also, the black and red colour scheme looks much better in real life than in the product photos. I thought it was almost pink from the photos, but it's a pretty deep red in the lighting in my room.
I ordered my Clear Pro on Sunday and also haven't heard anything. What amp and dac are you guys using? Are you going to use balanced cables?
@Muteqi: That's a nice stack. Balanced cable? I see Schiit released Jotunheim 2 so might check that out
@andy2: No but I did get in touch with A2A. They said initial batch was sold out and they would get more stock in mid Dec. I asked them to ship my pair in January as I am away from city in late Dec and don't want the package waiting for me and then get returned to sender.
Still waiting for my order, no words or update from a2a :/
That is an outrageous price for Ugly Clears. I’m jealous of whoever scores those.