🔷 Focal Celestee

[Tommy]

I do not have a Celestee but i have an OG Clear so i want to write about it.

i feel weird because i enjoy the Noire more than my Clear, the OG Clear makes me feel molested every time i try to listen to it and im not sure how to pinpoint the cause of that.

The Clear OG being superior in every single conceivable way, except tamber and soundstage if you want to consider soundstage a technicality, i don’t know.

Anyhow thats been my experience with my own two ears, but i only own and use a single amplification chain so handful of salt to anything i may say.

thought i would enjoy the Clear more because of the Clears general superiority so i was a little surprised that i ended up enjoying the Noire so much more for much longer sessions

[Souldriver]

What do you mean by molested? Like the sound hurts your ears? Bad confort?

[Tommy]

i think that the dynamics may be too much for myself but i dont know if it actually is that, its not like the Clear OG is piercing or anything either. Now, I’ve heard people having issues with the aeon 2C as well, without the damping pads, less so with the Noire, (2C but with perforated pads) in the treble area iirc

anyhow, for me the Aeon Noire is just a more relaxing listen, i find the sound to be forgiving and easy to listen with everything whether that be good or bad recordings and maybe people feel the same about the Clear as well, you never really hear people say that’s a fatiguing headphone! And already you can tell i haven’t had a lot of eartime with the Clear but i don’t feel like having more of that because as ive expressed all this time i dont think its for me, and really it’s more that im just not a trained listener, hence why i dont know how to correlate sounds to the frequenzy response

I suspect it could be too dynamic and perhaps too closed in for me, being too dynamic for how closed in it is.

i’m left guessing because i dont know how to correlate the sounds that i am hearing with any given frequenzy response, peaks and recessed regions in particular and i dont want to be that guy correlating everything with fantasy words just because i don’t know any better.

Overall I think people would tend to agree that the Noire is a more relaxing listen relative to the OG Clear

The more i’ve gone on here the more it’s just explaining that i don’t enjoy the Clear all that much but in a very congested and confusing way.

To clear things up, I think a lot of people will enjoy this headphone and the Clear, the Clear has got a lot of clarity throughout the frequenzy response and very very good detail retrieval, it is certainly more clear than the Noire, the Clear just seems like a better headphone in all possible ways, technically. except from soundstage width, thats it, oh yeah and tamber. It’s also very-up front in it’s presentation

[Blackrao]

So now the focal elegia is on sale for $399 on adorama, is it worth the price difference to buying the focal celestee?

[Ahobaka]

Every day of the week, yes.

[Ahobaka]

So here’s my final review of the Focal Celestee after reviewing them for about a week. I’ve previously tested the Elegia before they got discontinued, but never ended up purchasing them because of my gripes with the headphone.

Ultimately my view back then was that the Elegia were not worth the €990 retail that they go for here in Sweden (with some extra margin depending on seller). If you were able to get them for the $400 USD that they’re sold for in the US at some places, they’re definitely worth it, despite their shortcomings.

Let’s begin.

Testing rig

Amplifier: Harmony Design Ear 903
DAC: Harmony Design D90
DAP: Hiby R5
Music via Qobuz or Foobar2000 in 16-bit FLAC or higher.

Listening levels at around 72dB average tested with dB-meter. Peaks at 80dB depending on music.

Compared to other headphones: Sennheiser HD700, Klipsch HP-3, Audeze LCD-2 Closed Back, Fostex T60rp (stock).

Presentation / Design / Build - 10/10

They are absolutely amazing. The choice of materials, colour, packaging. I just love the greenish-blue and copper. If I was buying a work of art, this would be it. Build quality is way above most headphones in this price range. They ooze quality and feel such when you touch and operate them, everything from the distinct clacks as you extend the headband to the spring-loaded cups. 10/10 no questions asked.

Accessories - 5/10

Here’s my first gripe with the Focal Celestee. The cable and a lack of an alternative. The provided cable is your standard 3,5mm mono split cable to 3,5mm termination with a screw-on 6,3mm adapter. The build quality and materials of it are nice. But the lenght is a measly 1,2m and it has shape memory worse than a corpse with rigor mortis. A plus though, compared to the Elegia, it has almost no microphonics from the cable. So rubbing against your desk, clothes or anything else won’t cause any issues.

However, at the suggested retail of €990 or €1200 as they are sold for here in Sweden, the fact that they lack a XLR cable or even just a longer alternative is truly criminal. They don’t even readily advertise that it exists. I had the store call up the local Focal representative and they told us that they did in fact have a Celestee themed 3m XLR cable available for around €200. I’ve tried them with a Forza Audioworks XLR cable and it is a mile wide difference in cable quality and softness. Focal has a hard sell bundling them with such a short cable for a premium price over the Elegia.

Too much in my opinion and it puts it right up close to the Focal Clear MG, which comes with both cables bundled. In Sweden, the Clear MG is priced at nearly €1800 though. So your sense of worth may vary.

Comfort - 5/10

My second gripe is with the comfort. For someone with a fairly large head, this headphone is definitely a minus. For reference, I have to run my Audeze LCD-2 Closed Back at 1-notch from max. The Celestee and Elegia (or any Focal) I have to wear at their absolute max extension.

At their max settings, they become quite angled and push very hard on your jaw and chin. For comparisons sake, take the LCD-2 Closed Back, they weigh in at around 630g (no cable) or thereabouts. The Celestee 430g (no cable). Despite the 200g difference, the perceived weight from the sheer pressure of the Celestee makes them feel heavier than the LCD-2 Closed Back. Wearing them for hours makes for a very tiring experience and you develop a sore jaw, stiff neck and sometimes a hotspot on the head. For very short durations they are quite comfortable if you divide the aspects, the pads are nice and supple, just soft enough, the headband isn’t too bad either. The material feels better against my head than the Elegia, but the clamp force is a magnitude above the Elegia.

They seal incredibly well though, no issues with glasses. In fact, they seal so well that I can hear my own heartbeat if I have no music playing. It’s a very surrealistic experience and makes me think of those medical assessment headphones you use to test your hearing.

Overall though, comfort is severely lacking for long term wear, which is one of my main reasons for looking at other headphones and potential replacements for the LCD-2 Closed Back.

Sound

Bass 8/10

The dynamic slam of these is simply breathtaking at times. It is sometimes too much though. But if you really want to feel the dynamics, these headphones are it. I would not say they’re more accurate than the LCD-2, the T60rp or the HP-3, just different emphasis on how they deliver base. I would say that they are closest to the T60rp in that they have this quick, pronounced punchy dynamic slam and it just feels fantastic on certain tracks. Heavily mixed electronic music can be either a blessing or a curse, whereas classic rock or jazz might be more to their tuning for dynamic representation.

Mids 5/10

Vocals, especially male vocals feel butchered because they have this weird metallic sheen to them, same with accoustic guitars. Some low-mid bass feels overpowering even though it shouldn’t if you look at the graphs. This is where I feel that no frequency response measurement will ever give these headphones justice in how wrong they sound at most times.

Treble 5/10

Worse in every case compared to the Elegia. I think they went overboard in trying to curb the treble. Cymbals, really high vocal resonances (opera, vocaloid etc), they all sound blunted. You have none of that zing left to it, no trailing details to notes. It doesn’t sound wrong, it just sounds like you punched someone in the face as they were trying to finish a sentence, cutting them short. The Elegia would be an 7 in comparison to these.

Soundstage 1/10

These are so in-your-head it pales in comparison to most other headphones I’ve heard in my life. All my IEM’s have greater soundstage than these. Tin T2, Blon BL-03, Moondrop Starfield. Even the Fostex T60rp, which I don’t feel have a particularly large soundstage, has more width to them than the Celestee. I think even the Elegia had a larger soundstage as I have no memory of feeling this enclosed by them. Coupled with the clamping force, the small soundstage and weird tonality, it makes for a very claustrophobic listening experience at most times.

Imaging 9/10

I thought Fostex T60rp were the imaging kings at one point. Celestee bests them at just about every point in that regard. Imagine being enclosed in a small storage cabinet, in which you can pick out every speck of audible dust with pinpoint accuracy. It’s truly marvelous at times.

The caveat, oddly enough, is that they’re absolutely horrible in games. I can’t play games with these. If you’re looking for a closed back gaming headphone, look elsewhere. The limited soundstage just kills the detailed imaging for something like games.

Timbre 3/10

I don’t know where to begin. I’ve read other reviews that call these neutral, but I feel like nobody has ever come close to describe these headphones. Listening to Chris Stapleton just feels wrong with these. Same with Ilya on her track Lean Down from Fathoms Deep. Greta van Fleet is absolutely murdered by the Celestee, it sounds shouty and offensive because of their mid-forwardness. Likewise is Pink Floyd on Time or Money. The clacking of typewriter keys, the cash register, the money dropping. The imaging is fantastic on these tracks, but it’s like everything is happening around where it should happen and it just makes all notes sound hollowed out. Coupled with the enclosed soundstage and the blunted treble, it makes for a very unpleasant experience on things like classic rock for accuracy.

Conclusions

These are a hard pass for me and will be returned. Basically anything that should sound natural, sound unnatural. Ironically enough, for most electronic or weeb music, these are absolutely fantastic. They’re ASMR gods because of the detail retrieval and the imaging. But they’re absolute no-go’s for gaming and most accoustic, classical or vocal focused tracks. However playing something like ESQUARIA’s Vapor Trail on them makes you smile with joy as the rumble just caresses your ears in the most amazing way. There are some odd female vocals that sound good, like Fujita Maiko’s Unmei no Hito or Shikata Akiko’s Luna Piena, but they still miss that little bit of extra. Both their vocals also feel overpowered by the dynamic slam of the Celestee, so it just makes their voices sound bloated or veiled.

I love aspects of them but I absolutely hate them on a whole. I want to like them, but there’s nothing in this world that will make these worth the €990-1200 that they cost, regardless of how beautiful they are. I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone to get the Elegia if they can grab it for $400 though. Sadly they’re still going for around €800-900 here in Sweden despite their discontinuation.

I want to compare these to the Dan Clark AEON 2 Noire. But Andrew’s at review at Headphones saying they have a similar tonality makes me kind of scared to just find a Celestee with larger soundstage. But maybe that’s what’s needed. If these had the soundstage and the Elegia treble, maybe it would fix their weird tonality.

EDIT: Also there’s something I just can’t get out of my head. The weird feeling that there just seems to be a channel imbalance. I feel like the right side is slightly lower in some areas. I’ve read reviews and seen graphs that pick this up in the lower sub-bass regions, but it feels like some details just have a tonal shift to one side. It’s not present everywhere, it’s just on some notes in the sub-bass and upper-mids.

Maybe Focal have a QC issue on the Celestee?

[alphamarshan]

Really enjoyed your review, especially when it’s counter to some of the other overall positive reviews out there that I’ve listened to or read.

It’s interesting you bring up that “metallic” timbre in the mids; that was something the Elegia suffered from but I had listened to multiple reviews that claimed the Celestee fixed those issues.

I would still love to try / own these and I appreciate the detail you gave about the seal with glasses since that’s one of the reasons I had to let the Elegia go.

I actually own the Aeon 2 Noire if you had any questions!

[Ahobaka]

@alphamarshan

It’s interesting you bring up that “metallic” timbre in the mids; that was something the Elegia suffered from but I had listened to multiple reviews that claimed the Celestee fixed those issues.

I never had much of an issue with the Elegia on this point, as the trailing notes and resonance were mostly left intact on the Elegia. On Celestee it feels blunted, as if they wanted to shape down a sharp edge. So they lost all of the “high-fidelity” qualities of the treble and gained none of the benefits of a less zingy sound that some people pointed out. It’s very much like DMS pointed out in his comparison of the Elegia vs Celestee.

@alphamarshan

I appreciate the detail you gave about the seal with glasses since that’s one of the reasons I had to let the Elegia go.

Also I have very thin frame glasses. Anything thicker might cause issues though, but they work just perfectly for me when it comes to seal.

[blanche]

Good review, the (dis)comfort factor of headphones is what made me a recent IEM convert. If I can’t wear the damn things for more than 30 minutes at a time without feeling like my head is stuck in a vice grip, I don’t care how good it sounds. It’s unusable.

[alphamarshan]

@Ahobaka, what are your thoughts, pros & cons, etc. on the Celestee in comparison with your LCD-2 closed-backs? I’ve been eyeing one or both of them for some time now.

I know the Celestee has a small soundstage, but the Aeon 2 Noire are really lacking in that bass impact / slam.

[Ahobaka]

@alphamarshan I would say the imaging and bass impact is much more pronounced on the Celestee, and by pronounced I mean a lot. It’s their absolute forte I would say. However, it doesn’t have the same holographic imaging or smooth transitions if you will, the LCD-2 CB just have so much greater soundstage that it’s hard to compare the two.

LCD-2 CB have a wide and spacious sound with smooth image transitions with detailed low-end. It also has a more natural timbre and nothing sticks out like a sore thumb.

Celestee has visceral impact, aggressive imaging with very little “middle point”, it’s very much a hard left/right imaging. But it is a superbly detailed imaging and the impact from the low-end can truly be felt. It can be fun for a while, but it is extremely tiring depending on the music. I’ve never had a headphone before where I felt I wanted to take a vacation from listening to something, and the Celestee made me feel like that.

If the LCD-2 CB are the soft embrace of lush notes just caressing you as you drift off into the music. The Celestee is the one that puts you in a vice grip, straps you to a chair and forces sound into your ears Clockwork Orange style.

Black Hill - Maze in the dark forest (2021) (Full Album)

This would be the LCD-2 CB if I were to describe them with an album.

With that said though, they’re not all the bliss I make them out to be. The headband could have a better design. It rests comfortably on you, but there’s discrepancies between models and the material becomes more stretched out with age and the sheer weight of the headphones. I’ve had to move my comfort strap down a notch, even making new holes in it to reposition the screws. Otherwise the strap would rest against the metal top of the headband.

But that aside, I’ve yet to this day found a headphone with more comfortable pads. If they were 200g lighter or something, then they would be perfect. You can get a feel of that if you lay down in a couch or recliner and rest the back of the earcups against the headrest. Then they just disappear from your head and you’re swallowed by the music. I think they’re fantastic headphones and severly underrated. It’s just a question of whether the weight is going to be straw that breaks the camel’s back.

[Ahobaka]

@alphamarshan

Aeon 2 Noire are really lacking in that bass impact / slam.

I do wonder how they compare to the LCD-2 CB. I kind of want to give them a try just to have done it. But that would mean spending a little bit more than a €1000 just to demo them before returning, as there are no local retailers.

How is the clamping force of the Aeon 2 Noire? Some reviews have said it’s too much and even returned them because of it.

[alphamarshan]

@Ahobaka

This would be the LCD-2 CB if I were to describe them with an album.

Haven’t heard this, listening now!

@Ahobaka

How is the clamping force of the Aeon 2 Noire? Some reviews have said it’s too much and even returned them because of it.

I think they’re excellent, but admittedly it’s not something that has ever particularly bothered me. A lot of people say with the Sennheisers that the clamping force is too much, but it’s never been an issue for me.

One reason why I’m considering the Celestee is based on your description of the LCD-2 CB, the Noire seem similar: they have wonderful detail and I would say they are the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever worn on my head. Soundstage is tough because it’s the attribute that I’m least concerned with (unless it’s just claustrophobic) and so I never expect much from closed-backs in that regard.

I’m still confused from DMS’s review of the Noire because he describes them as being bass-elevated with punchiness and slam, and it’s utterly perplexing to me as I just don’t hear it. I even made a gutsy call and replaced the stock pads (permanent change!) with the Dekoni pads to get more bass elevation and it helped a little but not a ton.

So it sounds like the Celestee could deliver that bass slam I’m looking for, but again I’m more thinking out loud because it’s definitely not something I need right now.

Edit: I have to add, since you’re looking for the Noire and I’m looking for the Celestee, maybe we could work out a trade or something before you returned them lol - just a thought!

[Ahobaka]

@alphamarshan

I have to add, since you’re looking for the Noire and I’m looking for the Celestee, maybe we could work out a trade or something before you returned them lol - just a thought!

They are a loan from a local shop for review only, not my to own unless I pay up. They’re being returned within the hour more or less.

@alphamarshan

A lot of people say with the Sennheisers that the clamping force is too much

Wait what, Sennheisers with clamp force? The only headphones I’ve ever even thought of adjusting the clamp force on from Sennheiser was the HD650 back when they first were released. Other than that I’d say Sennheiser headphones are the only ones I could wear 24/7 without any issue whatsoever. This is why HD600 and HD700 are my absolute benchmarks for comfort.

[Tommy]

this goes and will always go as some of the most beautiful pieces i have ever heard in my entire life, thanks. thank you for sharing

would you happen to have it in lossless by chance?

[Ahobaka]

@Tommy

would you happen to have it in lossless by chance?

It’s available on Qobuz if you want to stream or on bandcamp for stream / purchase in FLAC.

They’ve got some nice bundles there now I see as well.

[Tommy]

i have not listened to a full album in one sitting since cirka 13 years ago but i came really close with this one

[alphamarshan]

Well, not to be dissuaded by @Ahobaka, I did order a pair! Will post when they come in!

[Ahobaka]

I hope they’re to your liking! They certainly weren’t my cup of tea. Meanwhile I’m on cloud 9 with the FiiO FD5.

I hope people don’t read my review as if I’m completely shitting on their technicalities of the headphone. If anything that’s the best part about it. I just think the tonality is kind of fucked. But if you want a dynamic slam imaging monster with no soundstage, they’re it.

[blanche]

How you finding the fd5’s treble? Did you do something to tame it?