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Focal Utopia vs Sennheiser HD800S

Posted by John C. - Aussie (A) on August 24, 2017 at 18:40:16

In general terms, as an owner of both, I would recommend the Sennheiser is a better fit for most people. Yes, the Focals are slightly better and more revealing BUT this will only be apparent in an optimised system. Here are my reasons -

1. The Focals are NOT twice as good as the price difference might suggest.
2. The Sennies weigh less and are more comfortable.
3. The Sennies have a 2 year guarantee while the Focals have only one. This is more important than you might first think as I've never had to have Sennies repaired but currently have my Focals in for repair at a (most likely high) cost, yet to be determined.
4. The Sennies do have a superior soundstage and are delight to listen to (mostly classical in my case) music.

My advice would be that the extra dollars required for the Focals over the Sennies would yield better results if spent elsewhere, in particular on the DAC.

Getting to where I am now has been a long, long and often wasteful road. I cut my teeth on the first audio delight with headphones listening to AM radio on a constructed crystal set back in the 1950's. Yes, this audio idiot is pretty old at 82 next month!!! And I've trodden the vinyl path with fancy Linn Sondel tables, Koetsu cartridges etc etc and initially hated CDs. And that dislike was well founded as the conversion from digital to analog was pretty bad in those days with jitter fouling up the audio.

But technology has moved on so I sold my vinyl collection, then a few years later sold the CD collection and moved on to the expensive Meridian Sooloos server system. Even that is now abandoned in favour of Roon so the headphone setup now is:

Music files (around 16,000) on a 6TB HDD in this drive, processed by Roon, hardwired by a LAN connection to an Aurilac Aries streaming bridge -> AES balanced digital out via Canare DA206 115 ohm cabling -> Schiit Yggdrasil DAC -> bal;anced analog audio -> Auralic Tausus MkII amp -> balanced headphone.

A footnote to the above is that it is only recently I woke up to the importance of the quality of the digital cable thanks to responses to queries on the digital board on AA. If not chosen with care it can be responsible for nasty jitter which can make a mockery of the best DAC etc.

So I've actually come full circle, starting off his cheap headphones on a crystal set, ending up with a nice music system still listening on headphones!!! And I'm not expecting sympathy about having to use the Sennies while the Focals are being repaired because none would be appropriate. The AQ is currently VERY nice thank you!

What can be more subjective than music? It reflects our personal tastes and preferences.

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