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  #41  
Old 01-02-2018, 12:22 PM
mulveling mulveling is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greekgod View Post
I've been fighting very hard to resist the urge to buy a pair of Utopias and you are not making it easy...lol. I suggest giving the Naim Dac-V1 a try. It is the smoothest sounding solid state headphone amp I have ever heard and according to one dealer "Focal used this Dac-V1 as a reference during development of their Elear and Utopia headphones". I have seen dealers advertise discounts as much as 35% off retail on the Naim.
I recently heard the Utopia (and Clear, and Elear) out of the headphone jack of a Naim integrated amp (NAIT XS 2), and was pretty blown away (finally decided to order the Utopia). I've been into high-end headphones for a long time and never gave much thought to Naim, but they obviously have a pretty good voicing for Focal headphones. Perviously, I would've expected that level of sound to come from very substantial dedicated balanced headphone amp. That said, there was much more ground hum noise than there should've been. Not sure if that's typical, but it would get annoying after a while.

It will be interesting to see how these Utopias do out of my much more substantial HeadRoom Home Balanced amp -- it's on the warm side of neutral, but very detailed. I also have an old HeadAmp Gilmore Balanced Reference (i.e. a Kevin Gilmore dyna-mid), but that amp is a bit on the brighter side of neutral, which doesn't seem like a natural match for the Utopia.

Last edited by mulveling; 01-02-2018 at 12:28 PM.
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  #42  
Old 01-02-2018, 02:17 PM
PHC1 PHC1 is offline
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With reference grade headphone such as Utopia that is able to resolve the smallest of micro-details and capable of stunning performance, a one box solution such as the Naim with an "OK" but not "stellar" DAC and an OK but not stellar headphone amp will yield "OK" but not stellar results.

I find the Violectric V281 amp and Schiit Gungnir Multibit DAC to drive the Utopia right on the money in terms of full resolution but with a tonal balance that is neither dark nor bright but weighty, fully extended and uncompromised.

These are not romantic or lush headphones by any stretch of imagination and pairing them with anything that "colors" the sound too much by either lacking full frequency extremes and drive capability or a lesser pairing that sounds lean or grainy will not yield pleasant headphone listening experience.

The Utopia deserves and requires top notch amp, dac and cabling.
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  #43  
Old 01-02-2018, 02:22 PM
PHC1 PHC1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mulveling View Post
I recently heard the Utopia (and Clear, and Elear) out of the headphone jack of a Naim integrated amp (NAIT XS 2), and was pretty blown away (finally decided to order the Utopia). I've been into high-end headphones for a long time and never gave much thought to Naim, but they obviously have a pretty good voicing for Focal headphones. Perviously, I would've expected that level of sound to come from very substantial dedicated balanced headphone amp. That said, there was much more ground hum noise than there should've been. Not sure if that's typical, but it would get annoying after a while.

It will be interesting to see how these Utopias do out of my much more substantial HeadRoom Home Balanced amp -- it's on the warm side of neutral, but very detailed. I also have an old HeadAmp Gilmore Balanced Reference (i.e. a Kevin Gilmore dyna-mid), but that amp is a bit on the brighter side of neutral, which doesn't seem like a natural match for the Utopia.
I don't have any direct experience with those amps with Utopia but I would think it if the Headroom Home sounds on the warmer side of neutral, it is the better way to go.
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