New Focal Headphones - Any Naim Involvement in Design? Any impressions?

I read about them on head hifi and watched the interview with the  engenier he did not mentioned naim at all, Hd800 is  the VFM headphone these days due to price hike of flagship headphones, I remember when it is first launched everybody was talking about its price, naim is not a very popular brand in head hifi unfortunately I can say the same about focal but with this move it may chance a little

Elenar seems to be a good option with more fun sound and decent price tag while utopia seems like a luxury item with a more detailed SQ and exotic materials, Elenar is on my "why not list"

They are both easy to drive with good looks.

I love naim brand, sound,looks and quality. It has been 15 years from my first kit, I changed 3 sets also I am a headphone guy, altough I bought everything naim in my stereo system from cd players to phono stages I never liked the headline very much there always been better options in the market for can heads unfortunately,  I was very hopefully with dac v1 but passed that as well so I will be very happy to see a Naim headphone amp/dac like moon audio 430ha

FWIW - I find it interesting that $4K HPs are being developed and sold with 32Ω impedance. Sign of the times maybe? I guess everyone assumes high end HPs will also work on their smartphone, although I have to wonder about the VFM discrepancy there. Maybe it makes demoing easier.

I'm starting to read some very promising reviews of these on other forums, especially complimenting their musicality and neutrality (things that often don't go together).  It also seems more of these are making their way into the wild with more dealers and and early adopters receiving stock.  Has anyone on this forum (who also has an appreciation for the Naim sound) had a chance to listen?  

Unfortunately, I have not found anyone local to me who plans to stock these...

Did anyone on the forum get a chance to hear these last weekend at the London CanJam?  I heard one of the amp pairings available was with the DAC-V1 and the few reports I've read have been positive.  Anyone with more of a Naim mindset heard them and have a view?

Until there are headphones that only work well actively driven via the HAXO 242 active crossover,  sparked with a Supercap DR and a minimum of 2x250DR, then you can rest assured that Naim did not contribute to the design. 

The headline was original developed  with Beyerdynamic headphones as reference

The new Focal's phones, have logically secured they match their sister's V1 output

I saw a review of them which praised them as the best out now, so that's something, the review was by the way of the utopia. You can by the way read this review on innerfidelity website...

Hi Guys,

We are just about to dash off to the National Audio show to run the headphone department and I managed to get a pair of Elear's and Utopia's from Focal to take to the show even though they are not quite available yet, I have had a good listen to both  and I have to say that that both pairs really do raise the benchmark on what is possible at both price points, I would even go as far to say that the Utopia's could be the most complete headphone I have listened to yet with a very natural balance across the whole frequency, I am seriously thinking about moving on my Stax SR-009's to replace with the Utopia's.

I have just heard from Naim though that the Utopia's are going up in price from £3250 to £3400 from the 21st September but to be fair they are worth every penny.

Cheers,

Paul.

Hi Paul

Which headphone amp did you use - have your tried them with a headline/supercap?

Thanks

Trev

Paul@HiFi Lounge posted:

Hi Guys,

We are just about to dash off to the National Audio show to run the headphone department and I managed to get a pair of Elear's and Utopia's from Focal to take to the show even though they are not quite available yet, I have had a good listen to both  and I have to say that that both pairs really do raise the benchmark on what is possible at both price points, I would even go as far to say that the Utopia's could be the most complete headphone I have listened to yet with a very natural balance across the whole frequency, I am seriously thinking about moving on my Stax SR-009's to replace with the Utopia's.

I have just heard from Naim though that the Utopia's are going up in price from £3250 to £3400 from the 21st September but to be fair they are worth every penny.

Cheers,

Paul.

Thanks for the information, Paul.  Would you mind to elaborate on any synergy with the Utopia and Elear and either the HeadLine or the DAC-V1?  Even in the US, where these launched, it has been difficult to find a dealer that also carries Naim and can comment on the combinations.  I would be very interested in your feedback.  Thanks in advance.

How's the comfort? To me that's the main thing. You can have the best sounding headphones on the planet, but if they don't feel right on the head, then they just become a nice looking object next to the hifi. Be sure to buy where one can return. Also, to the op, depending on how much and when you listen, you might want to consider budgeting in a pair of both open and closed headphones. I know I can't listen to my HD700's when the rest of the family is around. The bleed drives my wife crazy. Something to think about. FWIW, the HD700's I have sound brilliant on the DAC V1, and are the most comfortable I found other than the 800's (and wasn't going there). 

I listened to the focal headphones at a naim event at Basically sound - I don't recall the model name but they were the .c£3k ones and c£700 ones both were beautifully made and sounded fantastic - think they were played through naim DAC - if high quality headphones are in your mind I would definately demo them. 

Gary

ps comfortable too. 

You just can not beat Hd800 for comfort

I actually find, having tried both, the 700s are more comfortable and lighter than the 800s. The 700 have a more analogue presentation  than the over analytical, unforgiven 800s. Personal preference apart, whichever one chooses, they are some of the best cans on the planet. 

Sorry for the delay in replying guys, been busy trying to catch up after an extremely busy Headzone area which we run at NAS this weekend, the Focal Elears and Utopia's along with the MrSpeakers Ether Flow's were most definitely the stars of the show with nothing but universal praise for all 3 pairs.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to try either of the Focal's on a DAC-V1 or Headline at the moment, that will be my next job, for the time being I have been using a Chord DAVE on the Utopia's and a TT on the Elears and there is certainly a great synergy there.

As for comfort, when the Utopia's first came in last week I went round to our headphone shop for a quick listen and 4 hours later I had to drag myself away without the slightest sign of any discomfort, both the Elears and Utopia's are among the most comfortable headphones currently available.

To be fair both are quite difficult to criticise really.

Paul@HiFi Lounge posted:

 

I have just heard from Naim though that the Utopia's are going up in price from £3250 to £3400 from the 21st September but to be fair they are worth every penny.

Cheers,

Paul.

In my humble opinion not even real speakers should cost that lot cash

Talking headphones its quite silly, for 1/10'th the price or lower, one can get very good cans allready

However I wish you luck in selling these, there will allways be customers to silly priced audio, just thinking Super Lumina

The sound must be staggeringly good at that price.  I have Meze 99s that I occasionally run from my Hugo and they sound awesome.  These are more than ten times more expensive, the mind boggles at what they must produce 

Paul@HiFi Lounge posted:

Hi Guys,

We are just about to dash off to the National Audio show to run the headphone department and I managed to get a pair of Elear's and Utopia's from Focal to take to the show even though they are not quite available yet, I have had a good listen to both  and I have to say that that both pairs really do raise the benchmark on what is possible at both price points, I would even go as far to say that the Utopia's could be the most complete headphone I have listened to yet with a very natural balance across the whole frequency, I am seriously thinking about moving on my Stax SR-009's to replace with the Utopia's.

I have just heard from Naim though that the Utopia's are going up in price from £3250 to £3400 from the 21st September but to be fair they are worth every penny.

Cheers,

Paul.

That'll be £400 for the headphones and £3,000 for the grocer's apostrophe then. 

Investor claim high profit 

Dang! Should have picked up a pair when they were affordable. Guess I'll have to stick to my 1/10th the price 700's....

charlesphoto posted:

Dang! Should have picked up a pair when they were affordable. Guess I'll have to stick to my 1/10th the price 700's....

...and use the rest of the cash to buy more music. You know it makes sense!

we are the the naim crowd of 2 555ps connected NDS with SL cabling...... everyone his own poison... 

It's all relative I suppose. £3,400 for a pair of headphones sounds crazy, but when you compare it to two din to XLR leads for £3,000 it doesn't seem so bad. As you say, Emre, it's a different world, and once you compare it to the real world things get interesting, or morally indefensible from your point of view. A bit of wire, or feeding a family for a year  - it's a place that's hard to go. 

For me its perfectly ok for those who are in position to purchase at such prices

I am however sceptical if those cans claim to play that much better than say some Sennheiser, Beyer's or AKG's at 1/10'th price

Mind you a good matching amp cost a lot less but may be more expensive in manufacture, just guessing

Whats next ?

Statement headphoneamp $$$

Hungryhalibut posted:

It's all relative I suppose. £3,400 for a pair of headphones sounds crazy, but when you compare it to two din to XLR leads for £3,000 it doesn't seem so bad. As you say, Emre, it's a different world, and once you compare it to the real world things get interesting, or morally indefensible from your point of view. A bit of wire, or feeding a family for a year  - it's a place that's hard to go. 

and thats true for any other normal crowd but not for this forum kind of crowd