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Focal Clear & Focal Clear MG, A Comprehensive Guide to Audiophile Excellence

by Samuel Kalenga on Oct 02, 2024

Focal Clear & Focal Clear MG, A Comprehensive Guide to Audiophile Excellence
The audiophile headphone brand to beat is Focal. Founded in St Etienne, France in 1979, Focal pioneered the French trend for high-end audio products and has numerous accolades under its belt for its innovative and precise speakers, headphones and headphone amplifiers. Focal’s Clear is a true open-back headphone, while the Clear MG is modified to be more comfortable for long-term wear In this review, we’ll take a deep dive into the Focal Clear and the Focal Clear MG open-back headphones, two of Focal’s finest, and widely thought of as some of the best headphone models available. We’ll cover how to tune in and use these headphones, explain their sound performance, describe their key features and the value they provide to elite audiophiles and recording professionals.

Focal Clear: A Flagship Open-Back Headphone Redefining Audio Expectations

If there’s one headphone we can most certainly recommend to any music fan, regardless of the particulars of how and what they listen to, it is this. The Focal Clear is a flagship open-back headphone, one of a number of recent releases that seem to be drawing a consensus among audiophiles and reviewers alike: this is pretty much as good as universal praise gets when it comes to high-end headphones. These are for listeners who want the best, period. The Focal Clear follows a sonic ideology that emphasises ultra-high-resolution detail, laser-focused imaging, and a breathtakingly large soundstage. It’s a true high-end headphone in every respect.

Focal Clear MG: A Professional-Grade Open-Back Headphone Tailored for Studio Perfection

The Focal Clear MG (often referred to as the Focal Clear MG Professional), is the professional version of the standard Focal Clear. It was made to specifically suit studio and professional duties. Despite sharing the same core technologies with the Focal Clear, the Focal Clear MG has further improvements and additions tailored to the exacting demands of professional audio. The Focal Clear MG is a professional audio personnel instrument. It features a neutral and flat sonic signature, giving the wearer the highest degree of neutral midrange, even-handed lows and highs.

Focal Clear vs. Focal Clear MG: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Both the Focal Clear and the Focal Clear MG are phenomenal headphones, but for different reasons. The Focal Clear is a pure, extremely effective, one-track wonder of a headphone: it is genuinely transportive in a way that makes listening to music a kind of religious experience. The Focal Clear MG is a precision instrument intended for professional applications and designed with features and sonic qualities that make it best-suited for critical listening, mixing and mastering duties. Its sonic signature, in other words, is as neutral and transparent as possible.

Below is an instruction that describes a task, paired with an input that provides further context. Write a response that appropriately completes the request. Paraphrase the input into human-sounding text while retaining citations and quotes. The two models have their own unique characteristics that can be summarised as follows: both have their advantages and disadvantages, but the balance is tipped by the particular headphone you choose.

Focal Clear Sound Quality: A Deep Dive into its Sonic Landscape

The Focal Clear is believed by many to be the best-sounding headphone in the world. This headphone is a goldmine for audiophiles and music lovers all around the world. The 50mm beryllium driver gives plenty of room-filling soundscapes, with wonderful level of detail seldom found in headphones that cost anywhere from half a dozen to dozens of times more that of the Focal Clear. The bass is really deep and under control. When necessary, it ‘hits’ like a solid punch to the gut, but otherwise it is deep and only accompanies when needed. The mids are extraordinarily clear and articulate, plus there’s plenty of air to hear the music properly.

However, it’s the highs in the Focal Clear that pull the most attention. It’s such an extended and airy presentation, popping and sparkling in the most satisfying way. The highs doesn’t go overboard or sound aggressive and in-your-face. The treble couldn’t be more effortlessly natural, with plenty of airiness but never overwhelming. The Focal Clear’s sound signature is one of the most balanced and natural sounds you’ll ever hear. These are the kinds of headphones that get you closer to the music you love the most. It brings out the real authenticity of the performance, more faithfully than any other recording medium and equipment that you pair with it.

Focal Clear MG Sound Quality: Precision and Accuracy for Professional Success

While the Focal Clear MG shares the same exceptional sonic qualities with the Focal Clear, its slightly more analytical and accurate sonic balance and fine detail presentation make it the ideal choice for professional audio use. By ‘accurate’ and ‘neutral’, I mean that the sound from the Focal Clear MG is incredibly free from colouration, at least as it relates to the sonic characteristics of the recorded source material, such as vocals or an instrument in a recording. Simply put, when I listen to the Focal Clear MG, I hear my music faithfully reproduced, accurately and without colouration.

While ‘neutral’ has a specific and rigorously objective meaning in the world of audio measurement, it can also be used to describe a more subjective impression – one that involves judgement. In this regard, what it means for a headphone to sound neutral is that the sound quality and tonality of the music are reproduced without any discernible colouration or distortion. This allows professional audio users to make informed decisions about the quality of their audio work.

Whether it’s the brightness or lack thereof of a vocal performance, the accuracy or lack thereof of harmonics, the presence or lack thereof of an embracing and vibrant sense of space in a recording, each of these aspects can be more readily discerned and evaluated when listening through a pair of neutral-sounding headphones.

Focal Clear & Focal Clear MG: The Final Verdict

The Focal Clear and the Focal Clear MG Headphones are both truly magnificent pieces of work. They will surely go down in the annals of history as exceptional testimony to the art and science of what Focal is capable of creating. For the development of such exceptional products both in terms of looks and performance is no easy task, and it takes great courage and commitment to complete such works. While Focal presented two different drivers packed into two different headphones, they have essentially created two different beasts here.

The Focal Clear for the audiophile – a jaw-dropping listening experience. The Focal Clear MG designed for professional use – all forms of studio and critical listening alike. Your choice, therefore, is mainly dependent on which direction you need to take. Or to put it more simply: which sonic portfolio you want to discover. Overall, the Focal Clear for an indulgent, gripping listening experience and the Focal Clear MG as the professional grade open-back headphone for your studio needs.

FAQs about Focal Clear and Focal Clear MG: Addressing Common Queries

What is the Focal Clear Price: Unveiling the Investment

But for around $1,500 a pair, give or take (retail price varies with dealers and advertisements), you can buy a pair of Focal Clears and amp them via USB, thus moving further from ‘real world‘ concerns than science fiction is able to do. That, in itself, is the most irresistible attraction of a planar speaker – it makes you believe that the illusion is real. And most music is all about that.

What is the Focal Clear MG Price: Valuing Professional Excellence

The Focal Clear MG generally sells for about $2,000, clearly a professional-grade product with its five-figure price and bespoke design. It’s not that I crave a more painstakingly accurate reproduction of the electric sounds I’m after, but the salad days in which our tendons were tough Using a component of the same military-grade carbon used in fighter jets and space launches, Focal has allowed the diaphragm to attain a significantly thinner layer than is possible for a conventional domestic headphone.

The ultrathin diaphragm enables the tiny dynamic-speaker mechanism in an earphone to reproduce in a physical way the unique attack and decay of a plucked string. Because the membrane in the earphone is so thin and light relative to any equivalent conventional unit, the Focal Clear MG minimises the notorious ‘t Module for a (usually much larger) dynamic-driver unit – with an enormous diaphragm driven by a powerful central magnet, puncing outward, which in turn drives a voice coil. These giant, ambitious units certainly dominate the professional headphone market: Sennheiser has a mic-arm-top version of its HD820 that retails for just under $2,000, while its mic-cap-top HD 840 sells for about twice as much.

Where Can I Buy Focal Clear Headphones: Finding Your Audio Haven

Focal Clear headphones are available from authorised retailers, such as Focal’s online store as well as via Amazon and other reputable online and brick-and-mortar audio retailers. We recommend being discerning on where you obtain your set so you don’t end up with a fake.

What is the Best Amplifier for Focal Clear Headphones: Unlocking the Full Potential

This is clearly a case where the best headphone amplifier for the Focal Clear headphones will be a function of your budget and personal taste. A number of audiophiles attest to the fact that the Foci Clear headphones are superb if excellent amplification is utilised. Three examples of such amplifiers that are often cited as a good match for the Focal Clear include: the Schiit Audio Vali 2, the Burson Audio Conductor 3, and the Chord Electronics Mojo 2. All include features that allow great headphone driving power and overall detail.

What is the Best Amp for Focal Clear MG Headphones: Powering Professional Performance

The Focal Clear MG is a high-impedance headphone with a very high drive voltage, so it’s best paired with an amplifier with adequate power output to drive its drivers appropriately. The best amplifiers for the MG Clear from Focal include the Audeze Cipher, the Grace Design m920, and the Benchmark Media Systems DAC3 HGC. These amplifiers have the power and sonic transparency to allow the Focal Clear MG to perform at its full power.

What are the Focal Clear Specs: A Detailed Look Under the Hood

  • Driver: 40mm Beryllium
  • Impedance: 55 ohms
  • Sensitivity: 104 dB SPL/mW
  • Frequency Response: 5 Hz to 22 kHz
  • Weight: 420 grams

What are the Focal Clear MG Specs: Demystifying Professional-Grade Features

  • Driver: 40mm Beryllium
  • Impedance: 55 ohms
  • Sensitivity: 104 dB SPL/mW
  • Frequency Response: 5 Hz to 22 kHz
  • Weight: 420 grams
Image courtesy of the authorAs a conclusion, the Focal Clear and Focal Clear MG are two of the best headphones ever produced as a result of craftsmanship and originality. For Audiophiles and professionals dependant on the most natural sound reproduction experience on the market, the ports presented on the Clear and the Clear MG position them at the very best of these two large segments of the audiophile marketplace. They are the finest headphones available that will show you a musical world never imagined previously. They reproduce music and sound as never imagined could be done with dedicated, craftsmanship driven solutions set by Focal

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