Based on reviews of the Focal Radiance this headphone is right up my ally in terms of both sound and aesthetics. I cannot wait for opening that box up and listening to it.
I am by no means trying to devalue the Radiance to anyone here. I would agree itās the best in their line up, Iāve heard most of them as aside, again, from the Utopia. Itās exactly what I pictured it to sound like. Its an easy listening laid back but still detail oriented headphone. It is exactly what the Bentley of headphones would be. tās well designed, very comfortable especially with that plush leather. Was a tad disappointed that the grill is plastic and not aluminum but thatās a very very small factor. Everything else is just great. Just knowing I had a rarity as someone else said was i nice touch. But given how much I like these, I guess Iām not too surprised how well they were received and why they continued production.
It was apparently a post on Moon Audio where I read itās run production, 200 was the number.
Ahh ok interesting. Well that article was in Oct 2020. My guess is it was received so well that they decided to do more. I suppose I should see if there is a edition number on mineā¦but I donāt remember seeing that.
One thing I will say about the Radiance is that I would describe them as a relaxed soundā¦usually. Because they are closed backs and have the great dynamic sound, I do find they can at times get intense.
I would say I find that mostly when listening to harder music such as Metal, Hard Rock, Hiphop/rap and some movie classical scores (think Hanz here).
Also, the vocals on a pretty common known song of āDonāt Know Whyā by Norah Jones, can at times be a tad on the shouty side. Especially when she starts a new verse, that first word is very in your ear. Now, this definitely can happen on other headphones dependingā¦but noticeable on the Radiance.
Itās a minor nitpick on an altogether fantastic sounding closed back to me.
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Yea it was basically when they were first announced I believe so that makes sense.
I have found similar slightly shorty times on the Radiance as well but itās extremely rare in my case. To the point that I hardly even notice it any more. Could be burn in as Iāve had them for almost two years now. So you may just have to wait till they break themselves in. Otherwise I agree, fabulous cans.
They really are. Liked them more than the Celestee. Shame there wasnāt a more mass-produced version. It would be cool to have a co-entry model to the Celestee.
See, that was what my initial thought was for the limited run of the Radiance. Make a limited edition model, test out some new tuning and materials, then make a less expensive mass production model. Thatās what I though the Celestee was supposed to be when it came out, the consumer mass produced version of the Radiance.
The Celestee is anything but that. It is a much brighter headphone than the Radiance or Stellia honestly.
Yea I heard itās an entirely different animal all together. Being as bright as people have said it is turned me off from it completely. I canāt do bright headphones. Aside from the very rare occurrence of shoutiness in which I believe is not longer and issue anymore, the radiance is beautifully tuned laid back behemoth.
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As far as I am aware one of the main appealing factors about the Focal Celestee for a lot of people is how they react to tubes. Apparently of all the Focal headphones those sound the best on tube amps.
I definitely agree with this. The Celestee did sound great on tubes, but it was not enough for me to keep it.
Thatās one thing I have yet to do is tube the radiance. Need to get myself a decent desk too tube.
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Well, the Feliks Audio Elise MKII and Dragon Inspire IHA-1 on Moon Audio with the tube upgrade add-ons are fantastic options. I highly recommend those.
I was looking into the Cayin HA-1A mkII. The Dragon and Feliks are alittle out of my price range atm. Maybe afew years down the road when I get a decent raise haha. Iāve been eyeing the Euphoria for years, trust me haha.
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Well the Schiit Valhalla 2 was my first desktop tube amp. It performed way above itās price point.
I did enjoy the Celestee and Radiance very much using tube mode on our Pro iCAN Signature - they were made for tubes, if youāre a fan of that kind of sound. Warm gooey goodness all around!
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Looks like a tube amp is gonna be my next big purchase then!
Pardon if this is too pedantic or you already know, some future readers may not, though.
IMO pure tube amps, at least the OTL variety, are not good matches to Focals or other low-impedance headphones. Most of the pure tube amps in the price range youāre talking will be OTL. I see the Cayin HA-1AMK2 mentioned, itās transformer coupled but still most at home with hi-Z dynamics and some current-hungry planars.
In the price range youāre looking, I would advise a hybrid tube amp for Focals. Those have a tube preamp stage with a solid state amplifier. They can strike a good balance of giving you the drive flexibility of solid state with a tube flavor.
I recommend checking out the Schiit Lyr 3, Monolith Liquid Platinum, or Garage 1217 Project Ember. The iFi Pro iCAN is an option if you find a good used deal. New price might be out of your range.
The reason for all this is output impedance. OTL tube amps inherently have high output impedance. Low-Z and high efficiency dynamics, as Focals usually are, often get overly thick, bloated, and sloppy in the bass on amps with high output impedance. They also can become oversmoothed in their detail retrieval. You are absolutely allowed to like this and are welcome to it if you like that sound. I just thought you should be aware before dropping multiple hundreds of $$$.
I explain the output impedance here:
Whatever you decide, please let us know how it goes 