Looking to upgrade from the hd 660s

I currently own the hd 660s for overall music and x2hrs for gaming. Amps are the Mayflower arc and the q5(will be upgrading to the q5s shortly). Now that being said i have a budget for under 1500 dollars for new/used headphones an. I would like to get a headphones that just better in every way over the hd 660s and must be open back. Since those are really the only 2 audiophile headphones i have owned i dont know if i have a preference for dark, bright etc but i can say i care most about vocals and bass isnt a super big deal to me.I mostly listen to Japanese pop, rock , some metal and even less edm music with kpop as well. There are a few stores that i can try some of the more prominent headphones like the sennheisers and the lcds.

Maybe focal clear or elex might be up your alley

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Focal Elex (600 bucks), or if you don’t wanna use Drop, Focal Clear (1100 bucks)
They sounds very similar to each other and definitely better than the 660s

Focal Elex vs Focal Clear:

Focal Elex vs Sennheiser HD 650:

They should be basically a very improved version of the Sennheiser 600 range.

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

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Forgot to add that i can try the focals . Also looking at ethers line as well.

The Focal Elex/Clear seem absolutely amazing tbh.
You get:

  • amazing bass extension
  • amazing mids
  • amazing treble, not fatiguing or painful
  • good soundstage
    … what else can you want !!

I am also considering the Beyerdynamic DT1990’s and the Hifiman Edition XX for my expensive headphones purchase but the Focal’s just seems so good, like so good!!

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Have you looked into anything else besides the focals like the hd800 and hd800s, the lcd2c , ether line? Why would you recommend the focal clears over those?

The HD800/800s have a 6k peak which enhances details also the subbass is rather subdued which I am not a fan of, the Focals have proper bass extension but the HD800 series has amazing soundstage if that’s what you’re after you might enjoy those more, the also sound pretty warm.

Here’s a FR graph:

The LCD2C has pretty proper bass extension like the Focals but it has alot of mids (200hz-1k) and the low treble (4k) is rather reduced, its not a natural frequency response its more of a specific sound that you either love or hate take a look for yourself:

Please note that the Focal graphs are not directly comparable to these graphs unless you know how the 650 measures on these graphs which I do.

I see thank you. I dont really understand alot of the graphs but i appreciate it. I hope more people chime in so far i got two for the focal clear. Would saying that i like acoustic music as well change up your recommendations?

I like the LCD 2c honestly not the biggest fans of the 800s or 820 both are a too bright for my taste

No really maybe look into planars like a hifiman. I find they particularly shine in that front. It most cans do well if we’ll tuned for most music

Was hoping i could ask zeos directly because he also listens to weeb music.

Yeah good luck you can tag him and see if he responds… what type of weeb music do you listen to?

weebs smh

But in all seriousness don’t put your trust in Zeos so much, he didn’t even review the Clear properly cuz he used a bad amp for them.

I recommend you rather watch more reviews from other people like metal571, Resolve reviews, DMS, Joshua Valour and such, to get as many opinions and info as possible

Can you even review something properly? Z reviews things his way everyone has a style and with his style that review is what resulted.

If you wanna watch a Zeos review for the Focal’s watch the Elex one and then imagine 1-2db more subbass and 1-2db less treble for the Clear’s, but they are incredibly similar sounding

Its all over the place from kenshi yonezu , clowd , union square garden , utada , man with a mission , gackt , lisa , coldrain , scandal , and mucc. The list goes on.

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I wonder tho if it’s worth getting the Clear when the Elex is so cheap in comparison :thinking:

Yeah honestly I would say give the clears and elex a try

Based on what you prefer, I think the elex or the Arya would be up your alley. I wouldn’t recommend the hd 800s as with what you listen to may be too much at times, and vocals can be improperly placed at times.

Something else I think you would really enjoy would be the ADX5000, as it works very very well for vocals and I really enjoy listening to weeb stuff on there (but it might not have the low end oomph for edm at times)

Only really go for the clear if you have a really good amp (above a thx) and want more neutrality. I feel like lots of people will end up preferring the w shape of the elex to the more neutral clear

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