Yeah, he's fine. Could learn to be a bit less dry. His personality is definitely in desperate need of some psychedelics lol.

P.s. I think we have the same taste as I originally had a HE1000SE in my case, upgraded to a Susvara and complimented that with the Utopia 2022. I absolutley loved the education in this video man. Amazing job. I hope Focal and Hifiman actually sponsor you somehow haha.

I use a knitted handband cover with 2 small pieces of foam underneath. Makes it really comfortable.

The OG Utopia can be an end game combo with the Euforia AE, trust

this m9 should sound killer with lessfox, but currently its at very bad state

cant score it just yet

Planar has better resolution, stages, separation and more spacious presentation. Imo, generally for classical music Planar will do better. As for music that need more speed I would go for dynamics.

​@@megadoodoo5088 Have to agree in most points. But speed - Hifiman planars Arya upwards are blazingly fast!

Susvura .. the headphone itself is $$$ and I have to invest in a separate amp as I heard Chord TT2 alone cannot drive it properly. Thinking about the latest He1000 V2 Stealth edition 🤔

I steered clear of statements like "(amp type) is what you need." The reason being is that there isn't a magic bullet here. Can OTLs sound great with Utopia? Definitely. Do all of them? No. The same is true of other amp types as well. My best recommendation is to peruse the Head-Fi thread for Utopia. There is rich source gear conversation in there.

I don't see OTL as the magic bullet for FU (hilarious abbreviation I probably can't be trusted with 🤣). Can Some OTL tube amps pair well? Absolutely! All? No. The same can be said for both transformer coupled tube amps and solid state amps as well. So I steered clear of saying things like "(type of amp) is what you need."

@@wavetheorysound I would have to strongly disagree with your approach to OTL. To be specific I use Feliks Audio Esspresivo for my (FC og) and sennheiser 650's and 6xx(those are not the same, cable makes a big difference) this amp makes sennheiser headphones magical (specially for the vocals) I suppose more expensive Feliks gear will sound even better. But make no mistake for high impedance headphones OTL IS the best way to go about it. Thanks for your videos, great job.

@@blejzerosamigos6115 You're welcome! I enjoy doing this work. I 100% get where you're coming from with the OTL thing. I agree with you that many OTL amps improve the performance of many hi-Z headphones; the Senn HD600/650/6xx being great examples. To my ear those benefits are most heard in the entry-level and mid-fi ranges. My HD6XX (and I'll throw my 600 ohm Beyerdynamic DT880 in here too) sound good on a budget-enthusiast solid state amp like a Schiit Asgard 3, but they sound GREAT on an OTL like a Bottlehead Crack. However, it is also true that the 6XX and DT880 sound just as or even more spectacular on solid state amps that can handle their voltage demands. The Violectric HPA V2?? series is a key example, and has models that can be had in the low $1000 range. They also sound great on a hybrid like the Monolith Liquid Platinum which drives headphones with a solid state amp stage. Furthermore, I've heard other hi-Z headphones, like about half of ZMF's line for example, that don't experience nearly as big of changes as the Senns when moving from solid state to OTL. These experiences have discouraged me from making blanket claims of the form 'amp type x is the best match for headphone y'. To me it comes down to the synergy of individual pairings. That is especially true of something hugely picky like Utopia. I'm even less confident in saying anything like 'amp type x is amp type for Utopia' because of how hard it is to satisfy. Make sense? Thanks for watching and for commenting!

@@wavetheorysound yes that's fair. Cheers.

Frequency response graphs for headphones & IEMs only tell you part of a story. Definitely not the full one. There are more sonic attributes we cannot measure than the ones we can. Here are some qualities we cannot measure as there are no metrics for them: Engagement Sound stage width Timbre Sound stage depth Resolution Sound stage height Physicality Image size Separation Punch impact & slam Mid range body Airiness Bass texture Musicality Sub bass rumble Vocal realism Layering Decay Cohesion Attack Pitch definition Clarity Tonal density Accuracy (this depends if you’re a musician or singer) Etc.

I'll add one more layer of complexity to your question: how much money do I have at the time? In my '22 review I state the 22 is better and I had a slight preference for it overall. If cost were no object I'd likely take 22. But for me since cost is an object I went for the OG. And honestly I have no regrets.

@@wavetheorysound Thanks! I just recently watched your comparison between the OG and 2022 Utopias. I own the Focal Clear OG and agree that the MG just did not improved it. It's good to see they didn't falter with the new Utopia. I can't afford either of the Utopias right now, but if i'm going to have an unaffordable wish list, then i think i'm putting the 2022 Utopia on it.