HD800 - where to go next?

[ecwl]

As someone who was looking a few years back and tried a few headphones and ended up settling on Focal Utopia simply because it fits my head best, I’m going to offer a contrarian recommendation. 
 

If the goal is a different sound, why not try Dan Clark Audio’s Aeon 2 Closed. It’s quite a bit cheaper and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. However, I did find it clamps onto my head way too hard so I never upgraded from my Aeon Flow 1 closed that I use at work. Of course, I gathered Dan Clark Audio Ether 2 also sounds great.

 

Of course for a similar amount of money, you could get a Chord Hugo 2 to pair with your existing headphones. 

[ecwl]

2 hours ago, Musicophile said:

The shop used a Hugo 2 that I was feeding from my iPad with Qobuz high-res songs (I could have asked for the Dave, but it wasn't yet connected so I didn't bother). 

 

What can I say, I fell in love with the Utopia. 

 

So, now that I've exceeded my original target budget by more than 2x...

 

In any case, the quality of all these cans is really fantastic, that said, my good old HD800 still really isn't too shabby compared to the others. 

 

I think the upgrade game is very dangerous. Good thing you also didn’t try the Chord DAVE.

 

I had at my work office a Chord Mojo and Sennheiser HD280Pro. I ended up upgrading to Aeon Flow Closed at work. And because I’m used to listening to DAVE & Focal Utopia at home, I ended up upgrading the Mojo to a Hugo 2. And just the past two weeks, having read enough from Mitch Barrett and our great leader Chris Connaker about convolution filters for room correction, I just blew a few hundred bucks on Acourate and after a lot of fiddling and listening got a filter that I’m happy with.

 

The upgrade game is never ending. I think at some point, as Jim Smith said in his book Get Better Sound, it’s just a matter of having a road map as to what upgrades you’re looking for and then deciding whether that’s the path you want to follow.

 

Regardless of your decision, I’m sure you’ll still enjoy great music. In fact, you inspired me to listen to the last movement of Mahler Symphony No. 1 - Claudio Abbado conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

[ecwl]

On 10/5/2020 at 10:57 AM, Musicophile said:

Thanks for sharing. At that price point, you'd expect some better QA...

I don't know. That Head-Fi thread has over 12,000 posts over 4 years. I don't know if a few people having issues with their Focal Utopia means necessarily there is a quality control/assurance issue.

[ecwl]

32 minutes ago, seeteeyou said:

I wish it's that simple but other sites were reporting the same stuff

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=focal+driver+failure+site%3Adrop.com

 

I didn't bother to mention these guys since most of us here couldn't understand Chinese without machine translations

 

https://post76.hk/thread-310236-1-1.html

https://lihkg.com/thread/836172/page/11?post=268

https://lihkg.com/thread/1428888/page/27?post=675

https://lihkg.com/thread/1828091/page/37?post=913

https://lihkg.com/thread/1946650/page/25?post=618

https://lihkg.com/thread/2054750/page/11?post=269

https://lihkg.com/thread/2123608/page/32?post=786

https://digital.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=28560218

 

http://www.headphoneclub.com/thread-698512-1-1.html

http://www.headphoneclub.com/thread-719381-1-1.html

http://www.headphoneclub.com/thread-722322-1-1.html

http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2099742

http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2102951

http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2111818

http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2121872

http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2122141

http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2147091&page=4#pid32400885

http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2178900

https://www.bilibili.com/s/video/BV1wZ4y1j7qy

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=551683757378

 

 

Since I grew up in Hong Kong, I skimmed all your links quickly. Good way to practise my Chinese. And to take a break from work.

Hmmm... First, a lot of them are related to Focal headphones but not specifically Utopia. Second, of the few that refers specifically to Focal Utopia, some of them is the same person complaining about the same issue on different forums. (In fact, this is true too even of your Head-Fi links). 

 

That said, obviously, a few people have faulty Focal Utopia drivers. Some people have other faulty Focal non-Utopia drivers. Whether this is more prevalent than other brands, I have no idea. Whether this is a widely prevalent problem for Utopia, I also don't know even if I suspect not. 

 

I've bought supposedly reliable products that are total lemons and I've bought supposedly unreliable products that have lasted me years and years. There is always luck of the draw involved. 

 

The sad reality is that in high-end audio, the high price never guarantees high quality, just usually high performance (and sometimes not even that). You frequently hear about people with supercars that need lots of repairs whereas Hondas and Toyotas seem to last forever.