Excellent purchase
"Great headphones.very clear!"
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Focal Clear Open-Back Dynamic Headphones
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With a sound signature closer to the Utopia than the darker Elear, the Clear is an excellent choice for people who love that intimate, dynamic, forward sound.
Ships in USA
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The Focal Clear delivers a revealing and exciting listening experience.
Includes three cables for portable, home, and balanced connection use.
Best paired with an amplifier like our HeadAmp GS-X mk2 or Gilmore Lite mk2.
Focal's top-of-the-range open back Clear headphones offer listening pleasure worthy of the best speakers. Made in France in Focal’s workshops, Clear take inspiration from the best of the technologies and developments made for our Utopia headphones. This means that Clear have exceptional performance with exclusive full-range speakers, revealing the tiniest details of musical creation. With their design even surpassing Elear in terms of openness, Clear simply makes you forget that you are wearing headphones. The widely held impression that headphone reduce listening space disappears, with Clear’s innovative design. The technologies chosen, paired with the inverted aluminium/magnesium alloy M-profile dome, preserve breadth and dynamics worthy of the best high-fidelity speakers. This thoughtful design also preserves the realism of the sound reproduction: micro-perforated ear cushions and the shape of the headband make them light and comfortable. The sound is characterized by unparalleled uniformity, guaranteeing the best performance. With their new reference headphones, Focal continues the quest for absolute sound.
Overall rating: 5.0 / 5 from 6 reviews.
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Best all around Headphone
"Out of the box, I like the design and build quality of these FOCAL headphones. Everything about these headphones screams high end, they come with great presentation box and a really nice hard case carrier. I am using the Schiit stack to run these with and the spacing of the instruments, plucking of the notes, background sounds, depth sound very intimate to my ears. The tonal quality of these headphones is very rich. The midrange is lush and smooth with a lot of micro-detail retrievable, especially in the upper range. It’s like hearing often played songs the first time. Across the entire spectrum things feel refined and clear. There’s a level of detail, and a certain class and clarity to the low end that I found refreshing. Another huge plus is because of their low impedance these can be run with your mobile device as well, which is quite rare in headphones in this range These are excellent Headphones in any price range. They're comfortable to wear for longer listening sessions. Special mention to HeadAmp for excellent customer service and super fast shipping."
Sounds very euphoric and euphonic when plugged into a good amp
"Tonality (people's preferences vary here): Smooth, possibly very smooth. Very neutral - treble might be ?slightly recessed, but I might be wrong about that. Technicalities (more is always good - no longer subjective): Quite resolving, quite microdynamical. Clear, clean, fast (the clarity is kind of related to the speed). In fact, when plugged into my Jotunheim 2 ($500-ish amp), the speed goes from wooly/muddy to being as fast as my HE-4XX (planar). In summation; *very* good technicalities, such that it is quite difficult for me to find anything that could be improved on. Maybe resolution/plankton? Not sure - also reasonably to quite possible that the DAC/amp is the culprit to less than perfect resolution. Comfort: Quite good. Once the headband padding has received some use, I can put them on a tight-ish clamp and kind of forget that there's a headphone there on my head. On that tightish clamp, it's fairly secure and doesn't move around very much. My amps/DACs: - Jotunheim 2 with the multibit DAC module installed ($400 + $200 for DAC) - Qudelix 5k (portable bluetooth DAC/amp, $100) - onboard motherboard from my PC Headphones I've owned: - HE-4XX ($200-ish planar, HifiMan) - Focal Clears - Sony WH-1000X-M3 (for about a week - returned, didn't like - $250-ish) - old $50 Sony IEM (MDR EX-50) Headphones I've listened to: - ATH-M50x ($150 dynamic driver, Audiotechnica) - Bose headphones ($200+) - Beats headphones ($200+) Would I recommend this? I think so. Am I really happy that I bought this? Yeah, I'm really happy. This is TOTL, or at least very close to it. Note that it sounds like ass when not connected to a proper DAC/amp (my HE-4XX, for comparison, sounds OK when connected to PC audio, and improves much less when connected to my Jotunheim 2). Explanation of my description of the sound quality (so, what I mean when I say that something is eg. "clear") : - Clear/clarity: The fuzz around notes, so if something is clear, there will be no fuzz, and the headphone will descend right back into sonic blackness (so no sound at all, as opposed to some kind of "white noise" or the like). So the space around/outside of the notes. - Clean: The internal clarity of the notes. Eg: does it sound grainy? Is there decent resolution? (I think this is related to resolution). Does it sound smooth and consistent. - Speed/fastness: Do the notes start and stop appropriately? Are they too slow to start and stop? It will sound muddy if it is slow. Well-articulated, controlled and tight if fast or good speed. - Resolution: How "rich" are the notes or musical information being presented. How many data points are present? - Microdynamics: How much contrast are between the data points as mentioned up above? The combination of resolution and microdynamics will generally lead to a person saying, "this headphone sounds *nuanced*". Maybe "rich" or "deep" as well."
Endgame.
"These headphones were the conclusion of my headphone journey. I had meddled in mid-fi for so many years. HD58X, HD650, HD6XX, Sundara, DT1990, while all of them sounded good, I always felt like something was missing. I honestly felt that diminishing returns would eventually happen so I convinced myself that mid-fi was the best "bargain" range. When I finally pulled the trigger on these and put them on for the first time, I was blown away at the quality as well as felt a little sad that I had waited so many years to just take the leap. No more Sennheiser veil, no more anemic bass from Hifiman, the Clears excelled at all the areas that my previous headphones lacked. The ONLY area that the Clears might be lacking is in soundstage and even that is subjective. A person who loves a large spacious sound will find this as a con while a person who loves that intimate feel will find this to be a pro. This isn't a 100% gushing review though. There are some areas that are a bit underwhelming, mostly for headphones that cost more than a $1000 dollars. These include the headband material as well as the pads. Unfortunately due to the headband AND pads being made out of microfiber, I question how long lasting and durable these will be. I have already put a headband cover on it to avoid discoloration and am already looking for replacement pads to prepare for the future. It doesn't help that Focal guards their pad sales like the grinch AND charges an arm and a leg for them ($150 at Headamp or $199 everywhere else). All in all, do I regret spending so much money on headphones? No. Music is the only thing that brings me relaxation after a long day at work. Do I regret waiting this long to jump in? 100%. Don't be like me, if you have the funds, just buy the Focals. There is a reason why the Clears come on CONSTANTLY on the top ten lists. Only way I get would rid of my Clears is....if I get the Clear MG's."
Amazing
"I was looking for a set of TOTL cans to add to my collection and purchased an open box Clear from HeadAmp after asking around online. It arrived safe and sound two days after my order. After I got my new amp/DAC setup, I plugged the Clear in and played one of my favorite tracks. My first impression upon listening? "Wow." I was simply blown away from what I was hearing. They sound, for lack of better words, exquisite. Compared to my DT 1990, the bass is a lot more punchy, treble less sibilant but still present, and the mids/vocals more present. These will be getting a lot of listening time."
They really named it well.
"I ordered my very own FOCAL Clear 2 weeks ago and Justin and co. did a great job for me. The very next day, I received a beautiful, brand-spanking new Clear headphone from insured Fedex (who got my signature, precluding delivery going amiss). I'll just say that was a real treat. Did I mention the fact that overnight was included in this deal? And if there ever is a problem, I'm know HeadAmp has my back, with their return policy and personalized customer service. The Clear is one of the finest-looking headphones on the planet. Leather over the headband and solid aluminum yokes and driver screens. All with French styling. Sweet. The cables are even better than Utopia or Elear. Lighter, fabric covered with black and white stripes. You get three cables with the Clear: A 1.2 meter with 3.5mm for portables, a three meter cable with 1/4" termination and a three meter balanced cable with XLR termination. Comes with the gorgeous FOCAL hard-shell form-fitting case, standard. Easier to drive than Utopia or Elear at 55 Ohms, but quite scalable and will definitely resolve even more with a good amplifier. The comfort is almost unbelievable for a set of over-ears, due to their innovative cushioned and pivoting headband and gently springy ear capsule design which keeps equal force around the ear, no hot spots! The ear pads are microfibre and 20mm memory foam, the most plush I've ever felt. FOCAL designed these capsules deep, with angled-forward mounted drivers, they treat the space as their 'room', employing techniques pioneered in their (legendary) loudspeakers. The critics say the Clear gives you 95% of the Utopia sound quality, just as the Elear is said to bring 90-95% of the Clear's sq. FOCAL has said they want you to forget you're wearing hp and think you're listening to loudspeakers. To my ears, I can tell you they've succeeded admirably.They have the most balanced tonality of any hp I've heard.The sound is just...open, with nothing between you and your music. Reference, resolving, yet musical. When I say the sound is simply beautiful, its an understatement. If you'd hear them you'll know why they called it the Clear. That's my prejudiced and totally biased opinion."
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