The best amp for the clears would hands down be the Questyle CMA400i.
I heard many different amps at the dealer, IFI stuff, Chord stuff and the woo audio fireflies.
Something about the Questyle really drew me in. At only $700, less then half the price of the clears, it really beat the higher priced amps.
Ah, another affordable amp to consider! Geez i wish there was a ranking for these amps. I wonder how it stacks up to the Rupurt Neve amp. Buit in DAC. nice. heres the Zeos review, he really liked it:
Soo, I went to a local store to try and demo them, but they didn’t have it in store, but they did have the Utopias and the Elear, which I tried. So, spent a couple hours listening to LCDs, Audezes, Hifiman. In short, I really enjoyed the spatial quality & resolution the Utopias, but I wouldn’t spent that much on them. The Elear’s separation didn’t sound as impressive to me.
@M0N have you had a chance to compare the Utopia’s to the Clears?
Also, they put these in my ears, just wow, but pretty power hungry (pretty muddy when played off my q5s) I wouldn’t spend so much on an IEM though
I personally preferred the clear to the Utopia. The clear doesn’t have as good of technicality as the Utopia but it does have a more accurate tuning imo. I spend a week with the entire focal lineup and left with the clear and the elegia
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The only real ranking is your ears.
Take the clears to a few dealers and without knowing the price pick your top three.
Generally the price tends to bias people into thinking one product is better than another because it costs more.
Once you have your top three, pick your favorite that you can afford.
Wait… you want me to get up from my chair. get in my car. drive to some god forsaken audio dealer somewhere Ive never been before walk in and start pluging my headphones into strange amps? Not cool man. This is the age of the internet! We watch reviews and go to ranking websites with top ten lists and buy stuff off amazon and ebay! This is how we do things now in a civilized world. I havent gone shopping since the 90’s
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So @M0N time for an offical Focal Clear headphone thread? I realized that there was none.
Also, wondering if you’ve had to change the pads on your Clears yet? How do you clean them (if you do)?
I cleaned my pads with a tiny bit of shampoo and warm water, then left them to air dry overnight.
They do get dirty within a year.
Like hair shampoo? Interesting. Yeah I would imagine especially on the grey Clears the oils and gunk would show more easily.
So the pads aren’t going to wear down as quickly has the sennheisers 6 series do? I kind of need to change the pads on my 6xx every year or so. I was concerned about the pads because they go for like a ridiculous $200.
They’re pretty nice pads though.
$200 for what they are isn’t that bad.
I’ve had mine with stock pads for 10months or so and just a tiny bit of that hair shampoo did the trick. If you clean it often, it won’t end up looking disgusting.
Note, I sit in well ventilated environments and do not sweat alot.
Focal recommend a weird soap to clean them, I think I posted it in the elex thread at one point
Ah found it
Yeah pretty strange lol
Thinking about getting a pair of clear pros as they are a good price for a non factory sealed pair, my dilemma is do I even need them? Can someone please talk me out of this (or maybe talk me into?)
My gear list is in my profile, how well will these compliment my other headphones? will it sound more similar or different from what I already have? I’ll primarily be running them off of a monolith THX 788 with the occasional session on my Fiio Q5s. I have plans to sell and upgrade the 788 in the near future (next 3 months), probably will get a RNHP + SU-8 combo (or a similar balanced dac).
Trying real hard to have some self control atm lol
Get ready to #blameM0N🛡️
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Do it lol, it’s pretty worth if you think you would like the sound signature
I think you would be fine with you current gear for the most part, but in the future the rnhp + dac would be very nice
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Get it only if there is an Official Clear thread.
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Only thing I can say is that you wasted so much money in mid-fi hell.
Clears were my 2nd headphone since getting into audio a little over a year ago.
In audio its always good to save up until you can afford to upgrade, instead of wasting all your money constantly side-grading
nothing wrong with sidegrading though. if you want a different sound signature and a certain price point is all you can afford why the fuck not, his money. a good way to find the best headphone for you is to try different headphones until you find certain qualities of headphones and idealy find the qualities you enjoy the most and put them into one headphone. these days I even find myself downgrading adn trying and buying really cheap shit cause it’s just fun!
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