Been a silent viewer of Zeos and DMS for the past couple of years, and been rocking the K7XX with a FiiO E10K through university since 2015. The K7XX’s band is finally showing some wear, so i’m looking to update, and have a better budget now. Overall, I’m willing to spend upto 2000CAD for headphones, an amp (or two), and a dac as my endgame setup; not looking to go past this.
Use case for this is music and gaming. I listen mainly to electronic music, and music with plenty of vocals.
My starting point was looking at the Focal Clear’s, the Arya’s and the HD8XX’s. From this, I think the Focal’s interested me the most.
I see that many reviews put the Focal Clear’s at S-Tier and amazing headphones, meanwhile Zeos sees them pretty badly (but loves the Focal Clear MG, which others seems to dislike in comparison).
I myself am torn between the Focal Elex at Drop, or going for the Clear’s. In Canada, the Elex would run me around 1000CAD, meanwhile headphones.ca has a sale for the clear’s at 1250CAD - Focal Clear Open-Back Audiophile Headphones - headphones.ca
Given this, I think the Clear’s are the solid winner, but would love to hear some feedback on this. Also not sure if its worth spending an extra 400-500 CAD to get the Clear MG’s over the old Clear’s.
I also was considering the Hifiman Edition XS, but figure if I’m willing to spend for the Focal Clear’s its probably the better choice.
For Amp and DAC, I was eyeing the Topping E50/L50 stack, but figured I might also want to get a tube amp as well just for a different sound signature, but dont really have any ideas of good choices.
I’m here to learn more and for any suggestions and feedback.
I would definitely try the XS over the focal. It has great energy when powered properly and has great staging. Elex has driver issues that I don’t recommend taking a chance on.
If you want a great single ended stack I can’t recommend the JDS labs EL stack enough.
If you want a balanced setup I’d look to geshelli.
The Focals will not demand as much from your amp as others mentioned.
The 8xx’s, I feel, require EQ. That may or may not make them workable for you.
Clears offer midrange prominence with good bass extension for a dynamic with excellent punch to that low-end. They image well, but will present a smaller overall soundstage than most of the others listed.
Whether Elex or Clear, I wouldn’t recommend dialing in a lot more low-end via EQ. They have good technical performance and I think separate and image well for a dynamic. I would (and did) pay a similar premium for Clear vs Elex for exactly the reasons you mention.
How important is the gaming element?
After a long history with your AKG, what would you like to change about the sound you have currently?
“I would definitely try the XS over the focal.” I’m mainly looking at the clear’s right now, and while I am a bit of a basshead (which is why I was looking towards planars), having good clarity and imaging is something I do enjoy with my K7XX’s, and something that it seems like the Clear’s will knock out of the park. My K7XX’s do have an extremely large soundstage, but I am definitely okay with bringing it in.
“If you want a balanced setup I’d look to geshelli.” - any reason for these over topping’s?
For everything you mentioned about Focals and 8XX, this is what drove me to choose the Focals. Gaming element isnt too important, overall music is. I’m fine with my K7XX’s for gaming, even though that might change as my understanding of audio expands.
“After a long history with your AKG, what would you like to change about the sound you have currently?” This is a hard question to answer as I dont know if I have an answer. With my E10k DAC+AMP, I do have the bass-boost enabled at all times as I feel they dont provide too much low end, which is why I was looking either at Focal’s or Planars to help solve that without needing an EQ. I’m looking for headphones that are enjoyable to listen to - K7XX’s are very much studio monitors and I do enjoy them, but having something else would be nice to have. I haven’t listened to much else (other than some HD598’s that I got for my girlfriend a couple years back, and I do enjoy as well).
Unfortunately, the Fostex does not insulate well, even if it passes for a closed back.
As a bass head I would have suggested the Denon D7200 and with a Zen Dac maybe even a Zen Dac Signature if budget allows.
The planar headphones are quite flat looking compared to the dynamic driver.
And it takes a lot of time to get used to them.
I can say that as an ex-basshead.
I would still look for a headphone where the pads are not so expensive.
Focal Denon are quite expensive they want 160$ for a new set of pads.
Considering you’ll be using them every day, they’ll probably be off after a year.
Spontaneously I would have a look at the Zmf Atticus, which is the bass loudest of the series, also beautiful, and maybe the sound is more what you are looking for, even above the Focal.
The pads are not too expensive either.
Well as an update, I went to a local shop where I could try all the headphones (HD800s, Focal Clear MG’s, LCD-X, Hifiman Edition XS), on a decent variety of DACs and AMPs, and I ended up choosing the FiiO K9 Pro ESS with the Hifiman Edition XS. Honestly I loved the LCD-X, but for the extra 1kCAD over the Hifiman’s XS and the fact that they were much heavier steered me away for now. No telling where I may go in the future, and the reason for the K9 PRO ESS was to never have to worry again about the DAC/AMP.
As for my general feedback listening to the headphones.
Focal Clear MG’s have a none existent soundstage and almost sound like closed back headphones. They are amazingly clear and punchy, and have great imaging, but you can tell the sound is much closer to your head.
HD800s were fantastic for soundstage and mid+high end, but had a non existent low end. I didn’t have the chance to EQ them, and I figure they can probably be fixed by it, but its it truly non existent for stock.
Audeze LCD-X were fantastic - extremely clear, wide soundstage (not as wide as the HD800s’, but I would say 80% of the way there), very prominent bass
Hifiman Edition XS sound like 90% of the Audeze’s - I think the big difference comes from the clamp force being lighter, and the headphones being physically lighter. This results in reduced bass, but overall the soundstage and clarity compared to the LCD-X was almost indistinguishable to me.