Talk about entry level that does not look or sound remotely entry level!
Focal Celestee delivers style and punch way beyond its price
Ever had the itch to try headphones, but wondered where to start? Focal is well-known in the speaker arena for fantastic products, but is also a respected manufacturer of some very fine headphones. Let’s take a look at the line.
We start at the entry level with the Celestee, a closed-back option with a shorter single-ended cable and a great introduction to the Focal house sound. Much like their speakers, the sound is fast and extremely punchy, with an open and brilliant midrange and treble. If you haven’t listened to a pair of state-of-the-art headphones recently, these will wow you with their resolution and speed.
Moving up, we have the first serious open-back of the Focal lineup, the Clear MG. These come with a longer cable terminated in an XLR jack. That’s just one indication of the main difference between the Celestee and Clears. While the Celestee is a great headphone to take on the go, the Clear MG asks for a more stationary experience with a desktop headphone amplifier. Something like the Naim Uniti Atom HE makes a perfect pairing. This headphone has an extremely balanced signature and will portray a wide variety of music in an exciting way.
However, don’t let this fool you into thinking the Clear MG is necessarily a difficult-to-drive headphone, see box below.
|
|
| Easy to Drive, Hard to Resist
All of the Focal headphones boast moderate impedances and very high sensitivities, which means that from the Celestee to the flagship Utopia, they can all be driven by even a modest receiver or laptop output. However, they will demonstrate clear gains provided by better amplification and digital-to-analog converters. In fact, they can be particularly revealing of all the addictive qualities found in great source gear, such as the Pathos Aurium or Chord Hugo. |
Moving up the line we have the flagship closed-back, the Stellia. With a modest impedance and a short single-ended cable supplied, one might be tempted to think the Stellia is an expensive proposition for travel. Take another glance, however, and you’ll see that the long XLR cable also provided says otherwise. The tuning on the Stellia is known for being an almost perfect match for the Olive-Welti Harman over-ear tuning curve (see box below). This curve is a bit like the headphone equivalent to the famous B&K speaker curve, and in my experience the Stellia provides a very balanced sound as result, with very satisfying bass, smooth treble that’s never harsh, and a present, clear midrange. Used with a high-end amplifier like a Ferrum or SPL, this is a joy to listen to.
Finally we come to the open-back flagship of the line, the Utopia. Both the Utopia and Stellia are completely handmade in France, and produced in small batches, with usually not more than a dozen leaving the factory each day. As you might expect, the Utopia comes with both single-ended and XLR terminated cables and yields a step up in detail and transparency even when compared to the Stellia.
In fact, while the tonality is quite balanced, the Utopia is so transparent that unlike some of the other Focal headphones, it demands great amplification. A Pathos Inpol Ear is my choice of top-end amplification, and this combination is smooth, punchy, and just dripping in musicality. If you prefer something all-tube the Feliks Envy is surprisingly linear with just a touch of romance and an enormous soundstage… whereas on the solid-state end a Ferrum OOR+Hypsos would be a fantastic, neutral reference.
The combinations are endless, and if your curiosity is piqued, give us a call or send us a chat or email to find out if a Focal headphone is about to take you on your next steps in your audio journey.
|
|
| The Olive-What Curve?
The Harman Headphone Target Curve is an industry gold standard for the frequency response of headphones. It was developed by Dr. Sean E. Olive, acoustic research fellow, and Todd Welti, distinguished engineer, Harman International, hence the other term, Olive-Welti curve. The curve is based on a study that had subjects pick the most preferred in-room response curve of test loudspeakers. The curve applies slightly elevated bass and treble response, and is considered the most preferred sonic quality of headphones, as it mimics the sound of perfectly set up loudspeakers in a treated room. However, what most listeners prefer, may not be what you prefer, so consider headphones that follow the Harman Curve a good baseline for your headphone auditions. Here, the Focal Stellia! |