đŸ”¶ Focal Clear

Headphones [Official] Open Back
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After having a day of listening to the new Focal Clear MG Professional here’s my initial impressions:

The gist is that they’re a warmer, smoother iteration of the original.

Comfort and build are on par with the original Clear, with and added strip of memory foam underneath the headband. They look really good, imo.

They have elevated and extended bass with a smoother tonality. Meaning I detect less peaks, especially in the treble region. They still have sufficient treble response, they’re just less peaky.

Their detail retrieval is better (from memory), and they seem ‘quicker’. They’re still punchy, but it’s not as noticeable because of the smoother FR, imo.

Timbre is very good and doesn’t display any metallic nature that I heard from time to time with the previous version.

The soundstage is larger, while still maintaining a more intimate presentation. They image very well, they seem very precise in that regard.

They leak less sound (probably due to the new dust filter), but are more open sounding.

Overall I’m very happy with them. They have a very even, articulate sound that’s transparent to the signal being fed. They extend well in both directions of the frequency range, and maintain a smooth, even nature.
Focal seems to have addressed any issues I had with the original Clear (that I parted with a few months ago), and I’m very happy with them.

Source chain: Mac Mini (2020-i7), Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 2, Chord Mojo, Airist R2-R DAC, Schiit Saga+, Rupert Neve Designs RNHP, Shiit Vali 2, and an Inverting O2.

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666

No. Stop. Don’t do this. I dont need to be even more currious about this thing

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Focal is doing the things Sennheiser should have been doing in the past decade.

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I only got the original Clear last month, so all of this is making me slightly unwell.

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i know that feel. On the other hand, i just paid 999 € for the Clears, so take that, MG! The same goes for my two OLEDs i bought last year 
 now there’s QD-OLED, Micro-LED etc. and LG has announced, that the 48" will be significantly cheaper in the future. Well - all these brands can announce and show off as much as they want - it’s gonna be plenty of time until you can get something of similar quality for the prices i paid. 1490 bucks is one and a half of my Clear Pros. For the money i’ve saved, i can buy me a better DAC or AMP.

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670

The only way to have the latest stuff is to constantly buy everything. Clear OG is a very good headphone. Enjoy it. Plus, you may not like the new tuning.

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671

I got a sweatheart deal on my Clears
 But even if they perform at 90% of the new ones I won’t ever plan on selling them. Unless you paid @ or near MSRP I don’t think you should feel any sort of envy at all on yours. The original Clears and Pros are great sets of cans.

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672

Same here
 just bought the Clears last week but, paid $990 USD new with a great return policy. FWIW I always have buyer’s remorse no matter what I get. That includes cars, bikes, or gear of any kind. That said, the money “saved” will go into a new amp and DAC or maybe DAP. Looking at the BiFrost and Lyr3 combo ATM. What are you pairing your Clears with?

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I’m pairing them with a GS-X Mini and a Spring 2 KTE/Bifrost 2. I really love them. I’m prone to buyer’s remorse too, and I haven’t had it at all with the Clear. I got them, loved them, and have found that I use them for almost everything. The frequency response is almost perfect for me - I feel like I don’t hear enough people mention that they do slightly skew towards the warm side of neutral. I find the Arya slightly on the bright and grating side, but the Clear is comparatively more pleasant to me. If I could take the bass articulation and the soundstage characteristics of the Arya and somehow apply them to the Clear, it’d be perfect. If the Clear Mg is a wider-sounding Clear, I’d be interested to try it. I’m waiting for Andrew at Headphones.com to review them, as his tastes tend to align with my own.

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To those who are interested, Major Hifi have done a direct comparison between the Clear and the Clear Professional Mg.

I’m starting to think that - unlike with the Clear and Clear Pro - the Clear Professional Mg and the Clear Mg may not have the same tuning. It sounds like the Clear Pro Mg are a much more neutral, less musical, more analytical headphone that really are meant for professional use. I always did think it was odd that the Clear and Clear Pro were (audibly) identical.

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Clear MG with normal lighting

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676

That looks more believable to me.

Focal Clear Mg (lrg)
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Looks like it’s still going to show darkening from skin and hair oils over time. Someone should make something like a form-fitting clear vinyl headband cover just for Focal headphones, lol.

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677

Looks pretty great to me.

The shop I bought my Clears from happened to call up today to see if I was happy with them (Hifonix if you’re in the UK). They mentioned that they expect to have the Clear Mg at the end of next month.

The present grey version of the Clear also is no longer on the Focal website, so the Mg (non pro) is imminent.

678

I ordered the MG Pro last week, and I should have already received it but FedEx are backed up because of the winter storm.

Anyway
 I just saw pictures of the new Clear and felt I made a big mistake ordering the Pro. The pictures I saw made the new clear appear completely black with silver accents. I loved the look of it. I did more digging and found the real pictures of its color and was relieved I bought the Pro.

It’s not black, it’s a light chocolate brown? Wtf? It’s worse than the Stellia color. Well to me anyway
 It’s all subective.

Everything I’ve heard about the new Clear driver sounds perfect to me. The original Clear was very nice, but I just did not want to spend as much as it cost with that metallic sounding timbre. I already have the Elex so I decided to just keep the Elex (metallic timbre and all). If the the magnesium driver ups the bass, warms up the treble and eliminates the timbre, this could very well be the endgame, or at least my endgame.

The old Clear is discontinued so it appears Focal believes the new version is a “clear” improvement to the original design.

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Thanks ValentineLuke, this is exactly what I want in an endgame headphone. Looking forward to getting mine.

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Thank you.

I’m looking forward to your impressions. :+1:t4:

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They are burning-in right now. On first listen, my expectations were for a “bright” headphone, yet I’m not hearing that. The mids and bass are strong and neutral. The bass sounds extended vs the original clear. I was expecting more treble. The imaging and layering is extremely good upon first listen, but that’s Focal. I’m actually hoping the upper frequencies open up a bit with more burn-in.

Every Focal I’ve heard and owned have been bright, analytical and lacking in bass extension. Kiinda shocked right now at the lack of top end.

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It’s there, it’s just not ‘peaky’, imo.

Enjoy. :+1:t4:

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Not peaky at all or it doesn’t seem to have any of that metallic timbre, which was my biggest problem with the Clear. I’m going to hold out final judgement for a few weeks of burn-in and listening of all genres.

Hope you are loving yours!

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684

Is it too soon to start hoping for an Adorama blowout sale on the discontinued Clears like the ones we saw with the Elegia? Because that would be great.

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