VSG28 OP t1_is7fmke wrote on October 13, 2022 at 9:07 PM

My own purchased unit of the Focal Bathys arrived late last week and I spent the weekend tinkering with the various operating modes (ANC soft/ANC silent/Transparency) in addition to testing out Bluetooth on SBC vs. LDAC as well as wired in USB DAC mode. The Bathys drivers are excellent for the use case but really need to be wired to make the most of them, and even so tonality is definitely skewed towards the lower frequencies. The mobile app + 5-band EQ comes in handy here as the profiles can be saved on the headphone so the only thing left to mention to users is the ANC is maybe on par with 3 year-older flagships in that they do decently on continuous droning noises but not so much with intermittent and irregular sounds. Think airplanes more than lawn movers to get the idea. The build quality is excellent and these also have the largest and most comfortable ear pads of any Bluetooth headphones I've tested to date. So far I am certainly inclined to keep them for personal use and will do a detailed review sooner than later.

But then, earlier today, came in the Focal headphones flagship in the form of the Utopia (2022). I immediately dropped everything I was doing to photograph, listen to, and finally measure these but had to take this photo because I thought it was funny. There's a lot to like and dislilke about the Utopia in general because, at this price range, you better know exactly what your preferences are. I can tell immediately that I need to either EQ down the ~1.5 kHz region a bit and also have a treble shelf upwards too, and also that solid state amps are probably not the way to go. I'll pull out tube amps over the weekend to see as, based on suggestions and reviews from others I trust, Utopia + tube amps seems to be the way to go.

blorg t1_is8wagj wrote on October 14, 2022 at 3:42 AM

The old one is fine on solid state, it's a very detailed technical headphone and I think it sounds better on solid state. You can EQ in a bass shelf if you want that, that's the most significant audible difference you'll get from a tube amp.

Like many dynamic drivers the OG Utopia has an uneven impedance curve that peaks in the bass region, this results in a boost in the bass if used with an amp with a high output impedance, like many tube amps have.

Unlike Sennheisers though, where due to the high impedance the boost is subtle, with the lower impedance Focals it's quite a lot, and it's a mid-bass boost rather than a sub-bass boost. This is very audible, but can be leaning towards boomy, as it's mid-bass then with a sharp roll off into the sub bass. If you just EQ it yourself, you can get the bass rise but with less boomy mid-bass and better sub-bass extension.

The 1-1.5kHz rise is a feature of many Focals, that region is identical in the old Utopia and it's also there in the Clear. You can EQ it down, or alternately, smooth it out the other way by EQing up around 2kHz, this is what Amir did with his EQ of the OG Utopia and I think it works well. The new Utopia does seem to have smoothed over that dip at 2k a bit though. I think maybe you get a bit more soundstage if you bring it down, but also a certain thinness, while it has that more typically Focal forward character if you leave it in but smooth it out at 2kHz. Worth trying it both ways.

Interesting that you feel it needs more treble, this was the major change from the old one, they cut the treble, similar to what they did moving from the Clear to the Clear MG.

VSG28 OP t1_is9d0dp wrote on October 14, 2022 at 6:49 AM

Yeah, I'll do some EQ first either way and see. Thanks for the feedback!

crazeman t1_is8auho wrote on October 14, 2022 at 12:54 AM

How's the ANC on the Bathys?

ShrodingersElephant t1_is95490 wrote on October 14, 2022 at 5:13 AM

It's not as good as Bose or Sony. But it's good enough for most applications. They focused on not upsetting the sound quality in any of the ANC modes over killing the background.