VSG28

VSG28 OP t1_is7fmke wrote

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.

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