Most people are going to be driving these headphones from their laptops/phones and most laptops/phones do not have the sufficient power required to drive headphones like these.
So then you have to start thinking about buying a DAC, AMP, or DAC/AMP combo.
Then you have to ask yourself do you only want to listen to your headphones while sitting at a desk (with a wall outlet DAC/AMP) or want to be portable (requiring a portable DAC/AMP)
Budget solutions range between $100-200 for a decent DAC/AMP combo
Now that you have that figured out you need to subscribe to a music service that actually offers music streaming at a higher bitrate. Cheapest solution right now is Apple Music HD as Tidal HiFi is ridiculously overpriced and their MQA format is snake oil at best.
Once you got that figured out you will enjoy audiophile grade headphones and be able to appreciate new subtle nuances and aspects of songs you have heard 100s of times before.
this is most definitely not a no name brand. as a matter of fact, focal is one of the most popular brands in the world of audiophiles
Super helpful comment, looks like. Cheapest price available right now is this post, but OP must be a shill then. Guess the shill helped me find a really great priced headphone to go to my collection. Damn shills.
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I think you are wrong on this. If you pay this kind of money you should have hi end equipment, not a phone,my parasound p6 has a killer dac and will make these cans sing.
Most people are going to be driving these headphones from their laptops/phones and most laptops/phones do not have the sufficient power required to drive headphones like these.
So then you have to start thinking about buying a DAC, AMP, or DAC/AMP combo.
Then you have to ask yourself do you only want to listen to your headphones while sitting at a desk (with a wall outlet DAC/AMP) or want to be portable (requiring a portable DAC/AMP)
Budget solutions range between $100-200 for a decent DAC/AMP combo
Now that you have that figured out you need to subscribe to a music service that actually offers music streaming at a higher bitrate. Cheapest solution right now is Apple Music HD as Tidal HiFi is ridiculously overpriced and their MQA format is snake oil at best.
Once you got that figured out you will enjoy audiophile grade headphones and be able to appreciate new subtle nuances and aspects of songs you have heard 100s of times before.
are these some kind of specail sauce ? as normally 35 ohm headphones are quiet easy to drive
Most people are going to be driving these headphones from their laptops/phones and most laptops/phones do not have the sufficient power required to drive headphones like these.
So then you have to start thinking about buying a DAC, AMP, or DAC/AMP combo.
Then you have to ask yourself do you only want to listen to your headphones while sitting at a desk (with a wall outlet DAC/AMP) or want to be portable (requiring a portable DAC/AMP)
Budget solutions range between $100-200 for a decent DAC/AMP combo
Now that you have that figured out you need to subscribe to a music service that actually offers music streaming at a higher bitrate. Cheapest solution right now is Apple Music HD as Tidal HiFi is ridiculously overpriced and their MQA format is snake oil at best.
Once you got that figured out you will enjoy audiophile grade headphones and be able to appreciate new subtle nuances and aspects of songs you have heard 100s of times before.
Agree on most of this, as an advice to novice. Strongly disagree on Tidal being very expensive, sure anything who would appreciate good around quality, which is possible even under $50 or 100 dollars (it's a never ending journey but 50-100 is enough to start the journey).
For amt you spend on one meal, you get for a month... 1) HiFi/cd quality for almost all of what you'll listen to. 2) no music storage issues, 3) super convenience of all music at fingertips, 4) Atmos, which sounds really good, 5) music videos with excellent audio quality (most ppl have a decent soundbars at minimum), 6) synced lyrics, 7) joy from finding new music based on decent algorithm, 8) various mixes based on your listening patterns, this saves time from managing music libraries into different categories...
must be headphones for musicians or something...damn expensive!
These are expensive? Not even close. The Focal Utopia are more than 10 times the price of this headphone. This is the cheapest headphone in Focal's lineup. In pricing, under $500 is considered budget, $500-1000 is considered mid-range, and above $1000 is considered high range.
Can someone enlighten me on what's so special about the sound signature of these headphones when RTINGS objective testing reveals it ranks lower in neutral sound and soundstage characteristics than something much more affordable like the ATH-M50X I own?
are these some kind of specail sauce ? as normally 35 ohm headphones are quiet easy to drive
Headphones have two factors to get them drive. one is the ohm and the other is sensitivity for example the Hifiman HE6 series is also 50 ohms but their sensitivity is very low so its harder to drive than most other headphones. Sure from the cellphone it sounds loud enough but they lack the bass response or other frequencies. But for this case the Focal elegia also has lower ohms and sensitivity as well so in theory it should be easy to drive, but when i connected to my galaxy S10 before it sounded not quite well, the volume was enough at even mid level but sound was way worse than the desktop AMP. I have used elegia well from the desktop soundcard and portable DAP but the smartphone was really lacking. if you are planning to use it with any other external dap even like tiny adapter ones this should be enough to drive.
Can someone enlighten me on what's so special about the sound signature of these headphones when RTINGS objective testing reveals it ranks lower in neutral sound and soundstage characteristics than something much more affordable like the ATH-M50X I own?
Neutral sound isn't necessarily the best sound. From research people like the sound that is closest to the Harmon Curve but even that's preference. I would say the most neutral headpones on the market are sometimes the most boring. These have quite a bit of slam and punch in the sound. It's hard to imagine what I mean unless you hear them and then you'd go "Oh, now that makes sense". . It's not very laid back, like a 600 series Sennheiser is. You can find headphones that have almost the same frequency response from different companies and they sound completely different from one another.
The only people that should want the most neutral headphones are people working in a studio.
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Most people are going to be driving these headphones from their laptops/phones and most laptops/phones do not have the sufficient power required to drive headphones like these.
So then you have to start thinking about buying a DAC, AMP, or DAC/AMP combo.
Then you have to ask yourself do you only want to listen to your headphones while sitting at a desk (with a wall outlet DAC/AMP) or want to be portable (requiring a portable DAC/AMP)
Budget solutions range between $100-200 for a decent DAC/AMP combo
Now that you have that figured out you need to subscribe to a music service that actually offers music streaming at a higher bitrate. Cheapest solution right now is Apple Music HD as Tidal HiFi is ridiculously overpriced and their MQA format is snake oil at best.
Once you got that figured out you will enjoy audiophile grade headphones and be able to appreciate new subtle nuances and aspects of songs you have heard 100s of times before.
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Most people are going to be driving these headphones from their laptops/phones and most laptops/phones do not have the sufficient power required to drive headphones like these.
So then you have to start thinking about buying a DAC, AMP, or DAC/AMP combo.
Then you have to ask yourself do you only want to listen to your headphones while sitting at a desk (with a wall outlet DAC/AMP) or want to be portable (requiring a portable DAC/AMP)
Budget solutions range between $100-200 for a decent DAC/AMP combo
Now that you have that figured out you need to subscribe to a music service that actually offers music streaming at a higher bitrate. Cheapest solution right now is Apple Music HD as Tidal HiFi is ridiculously overpriced and their MQA format is snake oil at best.
Once you got that figured out you will enjoy audiophile grade headphones and be able to appreciate new subtle nuances and aspects of songs you have heard 100s of times before.
Most people are going to be driving these headphones from their laptops/phones and most laptops/phones do not have the sufficient power required to drive headphones like these.
So then you have to start thinking about buying a DAC, AMP, or DAC/AMP combo.
Then you have to ask yourself do you only want to listen to your headphones while sitting at a desk (with a wall outlet DAC/AMP) or want to be portable (requiring a portable DAC/AMP)
Budget solutions range between $100-200 for a decent DAC/AMP combo
Now that you have that figured out you need to subscribe to a music service that actually offers music streaming at a higher bitrate. Cheapest solution right now is Apple Music HD as Tidal HiFi is ridiculously overpriced and their MQA format is snake oil at best.
Once you got that figured out you will enjoy audiophile grade headphones and be able to appreciate new subtle nuances and aspects of songs you have heard 100s of times before.
Agree on most of this, as an advice to novice. Strongly disagree on Tidal being very expensive, sure anything who would appreciate good around quality, which is possible even under $50 or 100 dollars (it's a never ending journey but 50-100 is enough to start the journey).
For amt you spend on one meal, you get for a month... 1) HiFi/cd quality for almost all of what you'll listen to. 2) no music storage issues, 3) super convenience of all music at fingertips, 4) Atmos, which sounds really good, 5) music videos with excellent audio quality (most ppl have a decent soundbars at minimum), 6) synced lyrics, 7) joy from finding new music based on decent algorithm, 8) various mixes based on your listening patterns, this saves time from managing music libraries into different categories...
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The only people that should want the most neutral headphones are people working in a studio.