Well for one the Clear will have more clarity. i never liked the wooly sound of the Neuman. it would also have more detail. its a nuetral headphone and it was made for production. I have the elex and its very comfortable
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Define wooly please
Woolly adjective
wool¡âly | \ ËwuĚ-lÄ
variants: or less commonly wooly
woollier; woolliest
Definition of woolly (Entry 1 of 2)
2a : lacking in clearness or sharpness of outline.
âa woolly TV pictureâ
Wow I never thought weâd have NDH20 vâs Clear off 
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Well they definitely lack sharpness Iâll give you that, which is exactly why I love them. Sharp is not enjoyable to me.
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It is a strange comparison
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Everyone has different tastes. But sometimes i wonder if our actual hearing is different. Maybe some have their ears tuned already high so that the Nuemann headphones sound right? while some have their ears tuned low so that they need that clarity? 
Sometimes i think that people who like the nueman or dark headphone secretly just dont like music. 
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Often times I think people who prefer âbrightâ headphones suffer from hearing loss.
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Everyone is certainly different. Ear canals are different which can lead to different resonating frequencies and things of that nature. Also age plays into it.
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I personally use the clear for mastering an itâs pretty dang great imo. I would easily prefer the clear for mixing and mastering, but for monitoring I would prefer the ndh20. What amp are you currently using?
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Well that doesnât make much sense now does it.
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yeah i know. dark headphones have a strong effect on me.
Eh? What??!?
Speak up Sonny!!!
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I donât have a dedicated amp; I use Roland and RME interfaces.
P.s. this forum is something special! Iâve never seen such a prompt help on any forum! When i ask a question, any question, on hifihead forum i get 1 or 2 answers, after a week 
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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 canât beat the pro monitors but they can give me the missing part in which good headphones can provide over almost any speaker and thatâs micro details. The headphones are a bit recessed in the higher mid area but that doesnât 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 âfixâ 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 didnât 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 itâs good enough. Thanks for the recommendation but no way id buy such expensive amps. Not for my ears because i just couldnât 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 havenât got to that point, yet (will it ever bc Iâm 37, making music since 15), probably will never. 
I mean, once you get to headphones like the clear, itâs easily apparent. Also imo, a blind test wonât 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, ok⌠the Focals are better. Now the problem is, how much better? Theyâre about 2,5 times more expensive. Are they at least 25% better in clarity and overall balance?
Iâve read that the Focals have âmetallic soundâ. Is that the case? Also, Iâve read here and elsewhere that theyâre not true to the source bc of inaccurate timbre. Are the Neumanns better in this? That matters to me bc thatâs a very important feature in sound design.