Focal Elear + Uniti Star

Dear audio friends,

I am new to this forum and I am German, sorry for my bad English skills :blush: and sorry for my long first post :blush:.

I have some struggles and looking for help! My current set-up is Harman Kardon integrated amp and CD player, Dynaudio Contour and Focal Elear.

When I bought the Focal Elear three years ago I compared several other models (Audeze, Hifiman, Beyerdynamic, Stax, Sennheiser, …, and also the Focal Utopia). I tested the Elear with Naim CD-Player (do not know the model), Marantz DAC and Hugo TT1. I was quite happy with it. Everything sounded well to my ears, deep punchy bass, clear mids and highs, no sibilance and even the negative reviews about narrow soundstage and incorrect female voices (because of upper mid (?) dip) I did not recognize, even when I compared with the Sennheiser HD800s. At home: the Elear directly plugged into my more than 10 years old Acer Multimedia Computer, I very much appreciate and enjoy listening to music sometimes 4 hours in one go and listening to a wide range of music (pop, rock, classics, film music, covers, …). I am listening via Spotify and even via Youtube videos it sounds great. The Elear sounds also great when directly plugged into my old Samsung Galaxy S7, full bass, clear voices, good soundstage, no sibilance. With my old Harman set-up: full, deep and punchy bass, good sound stage, clear voices but slightly sibilant sometimes, especially with older recordings.

Because I do seldom listen to my old CDs nowadays, I am looking for a new set-up with streaming/download functionality, serving both, listening with my loudspeakers and headphone. On my short list was the Naim Uniti Nova which I have not heard yet but I experienced the Uniti Star (and Atom) intensively in several occasions. A friend bought the Unit Star and I auditioned it with Focal Kanta (which I disliked), Focal Sopra (great), T&A Talis (great) and Avantgarde Acoustic Zero and Fino. Finally he bought the Avantgarde Acoustic Zero.

Yesterday I visited my friend and plugged my Focal Elear into his Uniti Star for checking if I am happy with the sound. The result was very shocking unfortunately! No deep bass, no punch, narrow soundstage, 2 dimensional, metallic, hard, sibilant. The complete spectrum simply sounded very bad. I recognize the same bad sound when I plug the Elear in my business notebook from HP, while the Elear sounds nearly perfect with my old Acer Notebook.

So my question is: does someone have experience with Uniti Atom/Star/Nova and Focal Elear/Clear/Utopia? It can not be that a 1.000 EUR headphone and a very well reviewed Naim product sounds that bad. Additionally, do these headphones sound great with the Supernait 3?

Thank you!

Best

Dirk

1 Like

Dear audio friends,
probably my first post was to long :).
Does no one have experience with Atom/Star/Nova and Focal Elear/Clear/Utopia combination?
Best
Dirk

Hello Dirk,

I’ve tried my Focal Utopia with my Atom and the sound is awesome… This combo sounds rich/analog, quite well layered and dynamic to my ears. Not the widest soundstage, but very good depth and height. Maybe a bit Mid-forward too, but definitely not metallic, sibilant and 2D… The Atom’s headphone out sounds better than some of my dedicated headphone DAC/Amps, and it does with all of my cans. Only my pricey tube amp does better than the Atom in that regard.

I’ve owned the Elear and it sounds quite dynamic and rumbling (even more than the Utopia). So, it sounds a bit strange. Maybe it’s all of a matter of taste, or maybe your friend’s unit was faulty… Hard to say from there.

Hope these few words could help you.

Cheers
Dominic

Dear Dominic, thank you for your reply. Yes, perhaps there is something wrong with my friend’s unit. I will give it a try again and making an appointment with my dealer who sells focal products and Naim products as well. I was totally happy with the Elear sound when listening with the Chord Hugo TT (and even the Marantz HD-DAC1). But perhaps there is also something wrong with my brain :slight_smile: because I had trouble with these DAC-Amps (and Naim CD player) to clearly separate Utopia/Clear/Elear, getting the impression that the differences I believed to recognize are rather nuances. But perhaps the issue was that the quality of the Hugo TT is not high enough. I am looking for an integrated amp with headphone output to avoid a separate box for headphone only because I am mainly listening to my Dynaudio Contour (planning to buy a Sopra 2). Again, thank you for your help!
Best
Dirk

Yeah, all of those Focal headphones share the same DNA. The differences between these are nuances, you’re right. Also, these 3 models are not that picky to drive (in comparison to many other headphones), but they upscale quite a bit with higher-end sources. I personally enjoy my Utopia a lot with my Woo WA8 Eclipse dedicated DAC/Amp (desktop) and my Atom (in my living room)…

Best,
Dominic

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.