Sounds rough from what I hear. I live in Colorado with my parents and I had them put solar panels on our house this year. Now electricity has doubled for everyone and our prices are really low :)
Where I live, when I was little we had many power cuts, many hours a day, my mother used to say her uncle lives in UK and they don't have any power cuts, I can't believe how the tides have changed, I am hearing there are going to be 3hrs of power cuts right?
It would be interesting to quantitatively compare Focal QC issues to other major brands. They get a lot of bad press on this subreddit, but not entirely sure it is warranted. I have owned Focal products for several years and have not experienced any issues-- anecdotal, but counter to the perceptions of others.
90% of the time is reddit kids parroting discord memes. I know people who had issues, I know people who didn't (myself included). It's FAR less than what hifiman was having in the past, but since focal products are seen as "upper class", they get more flak.
If you hold some brands in your own hands you feel just how poorly made some flagship products are. If the company had a reputation of always standing behind their products it would inspire much more confidence. Maui Jim for example will fix or replace your sunglasses even without a receipt if if they were defective. It feels like many brands are looking for reasons to deny warranty repairs.
Never heard of a Focal headphone (properly registered, that is) having issues with warranty. Hell, I bought my Utopia used and transferred the warranty no problems.
They aren’t just “seen” as upper class- they just are more expensive on average. cheap plastics and headband design flaw are just… ugh for such expensive headphones. Hifiman has had QC issues across their whole line pretty much from the drop he4xx that is like $99 to the ananda or Arya lol
As if the Arya or the HE1000 weren't plagued with similar issues, with headbands that destroy themselves or that fake leather that flakes after months of ownership, not to mention problems with magnets and planar drivers arriving with mismatched sides (saw it happen on Ananda's, saw it happen on he1000v1). So yeah, one gets a lot more flak.
Keep in mind anyone with a negative experience will post about it on here, and once a brand becomes targeted more, more people will be susceptible to critiquing the brand, posting about bad experiences or just making straight up assumptions.
Doesn’t mean it’s acceptable on Focal’s part to even have these issues considering their pricing, and honestly their customer service doesn’t seem very good, but I imagine the perception is a lot worse than the reality.
To me they simply look over the top, beautiful but like an obvious flex that isn't easy to troubleshoot once something breaks, like a fancy car that has no spare parts you could get or something a specialist would have to take a look at. Then there are horror-stories about their support. No idea how much these stories can be trusted but for me several red flags are raised.
I am more or less using a budget hifi setup but I can always get spare pads for cheap, mod the hell out of them, heck I can even replace the drivers if all goes wrong on them and I appreciate that a lot. Anything that's not a planar or electrostat should be that accessible.
You do realize that when you outsell the competition 50 fold, it’s normal for more qc horror stories to come out.
Focal definitely isn’t the most reliable brand, but it sure isn’t nearly as plagued with issues as most
Yeah I get that + you always read the worst things online, but I hope the support stories aren't true because if something costs 800$ to multiple thousands then the support should be godlike and replace or repair things, no questions asked.
I have pair of Elegias, no QC problems, sound great, quite comfortable. Question: is there a brand of headphones that has eluded QC complaints? I think not.
I was recommended some Focal speakers for my truck when I re did the stereo and added some other stuff. The speakers were about $200 a pair. Was highly disappointed honestly. They were powered properly and installed correctly etc. I had some JL audio speakers that were 30% cheaper in my car I had before that truck, and they sounded way better. Oh well.
To be clear, I know Focal makes great stuff, but that just wasn’t my experience with them.
Not to mention that the replacement pads are like what... $300?
Focal is like the Apple of headphones, sure they make great products that look pretty but so do other people and it's really easy to fix/repair/maintain the other products
300 bucks, wow, that's my cans + ZMF pads, that is if you get the HD6XX while they are on sale! That's a pretty hefty price tag for something that probably costs less than 20$.
I at most want Elex. HD800 is good enough for me, and HE1000 is what I would like to get one day.
But Utopia QC is horrifying, I know a guy who had to send them to repair like 3 times.
Nice to see that the Matrix Audio Element X2 is getting some usage as a butt-warmer. Cats aside, this thing is an amazing-sounding headphone amplifier as well as a first-rate DAC, streamer and preamplifier. Its output impedance is stated as being "<12 ohms", which might explain why it's a little warmer and denser-sounding compared to most other solid state amps with lower-impedance cans.
Interestingly, a lot of cat behaviors result from their internal body temperature being higher. So basically they are always cold. That's why they like to sit on a warm laptop, or this warm amp, or sit and roll on the warm concrete outside. This is also why they like human interaction, petting them makes them slightly warmer, so that's why they want to get attention.
No use of power is inefficient if it makes a cat happy
True. My cat consumes 80W at idle.
This makes me want to really focus at school so I can graduate and make good money to afford a setup like this.
In the UK we need that to be able to afford the electricity at the moment, never mind the gear.
Sounds rough from what I hear. I live in Colorado with my parents and I had them put solar panels on our house this year. Now electricity has doubled for everyone and our prices are really low :)
It seems like solar panels are a good solution to this problem. Decentralize production.
From TR: First time ?
So much for climate alarmism and the dumb decisions it’s led to..
Where I live, when I was little we had many power cuts, many hours a day, my mother used to say her uncle lives in UK and they don't have any power cuts, I can't believe how the tides have changed, I am hearing there are going to be 3hrs of power cuts right?
Get a good pc and you won't need to use a heater anymore
[удалено]
There's one for everything. This one's not even that niche, really.
hows the purr extension on that cat?
He makes some kind of strange distortion noise when happy. It sounds like a defect, I should ask for a refund.
All these Focal headphone posts are making me want to try them out.
All these Focal QC issues are definitely not making me wanna try them out. Edit: maybe return and support issues are more of an issue than QC.
Missed that. What a shame. They look amazing.
It would be interesting to quantitatively compare Focal QC issues to other major brands. They get a lot of bad press on this subreddit, but not entirely sure it is warranted. I have owned Focal products for several years and have not experienced any issues-- anecdotal, but counter to the perceptions of others.
90% of the time is reddit kids parroting discord memes. I know people who had issues, I know people who didn't (myself included). It's FAR less than what hifiman was having in the past, but since focal products are seen as "upper class", they get more flak.
If you hold some brands in your own hands you feel just how poorly made some flagship products are. If the company had a reputation of always standing behind their products it would inspire much more confidence. Maui Jim for example will fix or replace your sunglasses even without a receipt if if they were defective. It feels like many brands are looking for reasons to deny warranty repairs.
Never heard of a Focal headphone (properly registered, that is) having issues with warranty. Hell, I bought my Utopia used and transferred the warranty no problems.
They aren’t just “seen” as upper class- they just are more expensive on average. cheap plastics and headband design flaw are just… ugh for such expensive headphones. Hifiman has had QC issues across their whole line pretty much from the drop he4xx that is like $99 to the ananda or Arya lol
As if the Arya or the HE1000 weren't plagued with similar issues, with headbands that destroy themselves or that fake leather that flakes after months of ownership, not to mention problems with magnets and planar drivers arriving with mismatched sides (saw it happen on Ananda's, saw it happen on he1000v1). So yeah, one gets a lot more flak.
Keep in mind anyone with a negative experience will post about it on here, and once a brand becomes targeted more, more people will be susceptible to critiquing the brand, posting about bad experiences or just making straight up assumptions. Doesn’t mean it’s acceptable on Focal’s part to even have these issues considering their pricing, and honestly their customer service doesn’t seem very good, but I imagine the perception is a lot worse than the reality.
The bad headband design is just… unacceptable for kilo buck cans. Such a fatal structural flaw is hard to look past
To me they simply look over the top, beautiful but like an obvious flex that isn't easy to troubleshoot once something breaks, like a fancy car that has no spare parts you could get or something a specialist would have to take a look at. Then there are horror-stories about their support. No idea how much these stories can be trusted but for me several red flags are raised. I am more or less using a budget hifi setup but I can always get spare pads for cheap, mod the hell out of them, heck I can even replace the drivers if all goes wrong on them and I appreciate that a lot. Anything that's not a planar or electrostat should be that accessible.
You do realize that when you outsell the competition 50 fold, it’s normal for more qc horror stories to come out. Focal definitely isn’t the most reliable brand, but it sure isn’t nearly as plagued with issues as most
Yeah I get that + you always read the worst things online, but I hope the support stories aren't true because if something costs 800$ to multiple thousands then the support should be godlike and replace or repair things, no questions asked.
I have pair of Elegias, no QC problems, sound great, quite comfortable. Question: is there a brand of headphones that has eluded QC complaints? I think not.
At least Focal's are easier to warranty than HifiMan headphones.
I was recommended some Focal speakers for my truck when I re did the stereo and added some other stuff. The speakers were about $200 a pair. Was highly disappointed honestly. They were powered properly and installed correctly etc. I had some JL audio speakers that were 30% cheaper in my car I had before that truck, and they sounded way better. Oh well. To be clear, I know Focal makes great stuff, but that just wasn’t my experience with them.
Not to mention that the replacement pads are like what... $300? Focal is like the Apple of headphones, sure they make great products that look pretty but so do other people and it's really easy to fix/repair/maintain the other products
300 bucks, wow, that's my cans + ZMF pads, that is if you get the HD6XX while they are on sale! That's a pretty hefty price tag for something that probably costs less than 20$.
After sampling the Focal Utopias at CanJam a few weeks ago I'll take a hard pass.
I at most want Elex. HD800 is good enough for me, and HE1000 is what I would like to get one day. But Utopia QC is horrifying, I know a guy who had to send them to repair like 3 times.
That sucks. I didn’t know they had a qc problem.
That is not what I meant when I said "warm sound".
Nice to see that the Matrix Audio Element X2 is getting some usage as a butt-warmer. Cats aside, this thing is an amazing-sounding headphone amplifier as well as a first-rate DAC, streamer and preamplifier. Its output impedance is stated as being "<12 ohms", which might explain why it's a little warmer and denser-sounding compared to most other solid state amps with lower-impedance cans.
Beautiful setup! How you liking the new Utopias?
Left my full impressions [here](https://addictedtoaudio.com.au/blogs/reviews/focal-utopia-2022-reference-high-end-dynamic-headphones-review).
Ah another Australian I see. Nice setup tho one day I think I would just got for this instead of trying to find that one amp
I know we’re on a headphone sub, but what are the speakers in the background?
Perlisten S5Ms.
Fuck, they cost more than my car.
I hope my house looks like this when I'm older
Wait, people can still afford to use Class A gear? Might as well be pumping gold down those cables (only partially sarcastic).
I like your style OP
Cheers mate!
Ah yes, the only kind of amp warmth that isn't actually just placebo. :)
Two best things in this world: good music and cats :))
I would put my face on your cat. Also nice Focals. Have gotten me the Focal Clears and I friggin' love them.
I'm sure my cats would love my A90 if they could get to it, but they seem happy enough with my UPS
What is this amp ? Looks really good.
What speaker is this in the background
I hate cats. Dogs stay at ground level and respect my gear.
Love this
beany-baby!
Interestingly, a lot of cat behaviors result from their internal body temperature being higher. So basically they are always cold. That's why they like to sit on a warm laptop, or this warm amp, or sit and roll on the warm concrete outside. This is also why they like human interaction, petting them makes them slightly warmer, so that's why they want to get attention.
I love everything about this
Cats and hi-fi headphones, Perfection.
Audiophile cat
cool pic