Hmmm. Which RME would you be using? So the interfaces would most likely be able to get it going in volume, but for a quality sound, I would really recommend a nice headphone amp. For bang for the buck I think a rupert neve rnhp is great for what it can offer and really nice for studio work. A violectric hpa-200a is also a great pairing, as well as a lake people g111, real solid for neutral accurate sound.
I never thought that the Neumanns would be known as dark and wooly headphones!
To me they sound soft but extremely revealing from top to bottom. I also have Neumann KH120a speakers in a treated room that i love very much; they are extremely flat (measured and heard) and true to the source. The headphones have much more prominent highend and extended lows, so with more highs it would just be too much. They canāt beat the pro monitors but they can give me the missing part in which good headphones can provide over almost any speaker and thatās micro details. The headphones are a bit recessed in the higher mid area but that doesnāt make them less accurate at all IF you listen to the sound as a whole. In sound design and later, in mixing they somehow compensate the lack of mids with very high clarity in that same area. I tried to āfixā them with Sonarworks but they just sounded worse, with less clarity and with more unbalanced sound overall, even when setting the software to 50% wet, I didnāt like them in longer sessions.
If the Neumanns have more highs than my flat monitors but less than the Focals, now i wonder how much of the highs the Focals have?
So from my experience the ndh20 is a bit warmer neutral, with a tad bit more prominent treble. My main issue with them is the slightly exaggerated bass hump, but otherwise solid imo. The clear is pretty dang neutral to the ear, but the ndh20 might have a tad bit better timbre, but the clear is a different tier of performer here, better extension, more control, much better spatial recreation, and imo just really high performers
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I have the RME Babyface Pro and so far itās good enough. Thanks for the recommendation but no way id buy such expensive amps. Not for my ears because i just couldnāt hear any worthwhile differences between a mid level RME and a several thousand of dollars worth DACs and amps in blind tests. Maybe my ears still havenāt got to that point, yet (will it ever bc Iām 37, making music since 15), probably will never. 
I mean, once you get to headphones like the clear, itās easily apparent. Also imo, a blind test wonāt really be effective unless you have weeks of experience with the two products beforehand, you have to spend time and learn the nuances of the sound. I mean you could most likely do it with your ndh20 as well tbh
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So, okā¦ the Focals are better. Now the problem is, how much better? Theyāre about 2,5 times more expensive. Are they at least 25% better in clarity and overall balance?
Iāve read that the Focals have āmetallic soundā. Is that the case? Also, Iāve read here and elsewhere that theyāre not true to the source bc of inaccurate timbre. Are the Neumanns better in this? That matters to me bc thatās a very important feature in sound design.
Thatās something thatās up to the listener to decide lol, also it depends on what you drive them with too. All I will say is that imo the sound justifies the cost, at least it did for me, but I canāt really give an arbitrary numbers since it can vary from person to person.
So I would agree the timbre of the clear is a tad metallic compared to something like an hd600, but imo more than usable. I do think the ndh20 has a bit better timbre, but really I think the benefits of the clear outweigh the downsides in this case. Also their timbre is affected by whatās driving them, one of the reasons why I like the rnhp with it is because it really gives it a more natural timbre (and more natural overall), going out of your interface it would most likely be lacking for timbre for you (again itās amp picky). No headphones are really going to be true to the source is what Iāve found out. My main headphones I use for mastering are a warwick aperio system, and I would say they are great but still not ātrue to the sourceā imo.
I think if you get a clear, itās good to have a timbre check headphone like an hd600 or something, the ndh20 would work well for this too. For me I go through a rotation of headphones during mastering so I can get good references on how things sound and make sure a single headphone isnāt skewing my work
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Your probably right! Iāve maybe heard some smaaaaal difference but, as I said, i couldnāt hear any worthwhile differences. I could hear something but it wasnāt clear to me was it better or not.
Sometimes even better is not better. One example in Samplitude, a digital work station that i use (ok now i just saw that you probably know what it is 
), among others. That software has a playback machine that sounds better than most of others and better than any consumer based player that I know of and during mixing i have to compensate that all the time bc the music needs to sound ultra-detailed in Samplitude to sound kind-of-detailed elsewhere. Same problem can be with monitoring. The Neumann speakers have these things in balance, enough detail and flatness to be true monitors, not too much that would make me lost in the woods.
The NDH 20s are almost too detailed but i have the speakers to bring me back to reality. That being said, I wouldnāt mind better headphones!
Edit: typos
Yes, this can happen for sure, really just depends.
Heyyy I use Sequoia lol, and others
Yes lol, you really need to overdo it so it sounds good on most average equipmen
Yes, I really wouldnāt recommend the clears for monitoring, too dynamic, too open sounding, and too natural, you want a more forward sound with a bit of compression and closeness, the clear can sometimes extend too far
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Iām sold! Now i need to think about money 
I was afraid that might be the case! Im lost lol
I need to think about that a bit now! Iāll try to work more on the NDH20s in next few days and to try to find faults in them, any faults in sound design and production in general. Shall see!
Thanks everybody!
Yeah, if you feel satisfied with the ndh20, and can live with it comfort wise, you might be better off sticking with that if you arenāt ready to go to the next jump. The best headphones for audio production are the ones you know how to work with the best lol (as long as they are at least decent)
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M0N, i see that you differentiate between monitoring and mixing, as separate stages. What do you mean by monitoring? Do you mean tracking? ā¦that first stage when recording?
Because monitoring to me just means critical listening in any stage of music production, from tracking/recording to mixing and mastering.
So how I learned it, tracking is the first stage with recording, but monitoring can apply to listening in on the tracking process, and also listening in on the mixing process, but not actually doing like critical listening. But now that I think about it thatās most likely not the most widely accepted usage of that word lol
For critical listening and actual changes I would group that more into the respective process of mixing or tracking, monitoring has always meant more of a casual term to me (as in like just making sure nothing is royally fucking up, but not really listening deeply)
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Iām just asking bc you said that you wouldnāt actually recommended the Clears for monitoring so Iām trying to understand what that is.
Apologies, to really clarify now lol, I wouldnāt recommend the clears for tracking or casual listening (at least casual in terms of checking if things are ok), if you are mixing or mastering they are a great choice
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Fixing the comfort problem, cause why not.
After I had these for about a week, I felt it had way to much clamping force, I didnāt like the plastic-y/memory foam earpads and the headband sucked. So I ordered some brainwavz round earpads Brainwavz Round Earpads to start with. ( I wanted the sheepskin, but settled on the pu leather for now until sheepskin stuff starts to show up more again post global issues) Got them in and the inner ring that attaches to the headphone is way to small to fit the ndh20ās larger cup attachment ring. Easy fix, electrician scissors (they probably wonāt be strong enough for sheepskin, will cross that bridge when we get there) that problem is fixed and now the earpads both have more space since they are 30mm thick vs the 25 from the stock pads and they are just overall more comfortable.
Then I moved onto the next issue, the headband. I saw that another person on here tried using the zmf pilot Pilot Pad Link, so I looked into it and decided to do the same. So I ordered the sheepskin version of it and it came in a few days ago. Found out again that it was a little to small to fit these bad boys mostly due to the rubber tracks on both sides of the headbands (fyi, I work in I.T. on laptops and phones, so this next part may not be for everybody). So I completely disassembled the headband and in the process found out 3 things. 1. Itās pretty easy to take apart for a headphone which are in many cases kinda janky with adhesives, weird screws etcā¦, but be careful of small screws escaping you. 2. The rubber tracks on both sides of the headband cause the clamping force issue as well as the size issue for the replacement pilot headband.
3. The headband pad we all think is to thin, is actually WAY to thinā¦my god
Now, that both have been replaced, the comfort issue has been resolved as the clamping force issue is non existent and the earpads are just less hurtful over long usage. So how does it affect the sound, I do hear a very slight reduction in the mids and I do mean SLIGHT and honestly not much else, maybe a little extra in highs and lows, it really doesnāt seem to do a whole lot to these when compared to what pads do to a lot of other headphones.
Iām happy with how it went and am still waiting on my replacement cable to arrive (next week hopefully), but Iām happy with them and they will likely be my daily driver for a long while.
Extra photos:
Half re-assembled headband (where Iām going to leave it with the new headband on it, but with screws inserted back in for structural integrity)
Some Final Modded photos
Edited: Formatting issues
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Are there any major changes in sound from the pad change? Nice job 
Sorry, I buried it in the wall of text.
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Ah my bad, didnāt catch that, thanks for the info