They are actually pretty well behaved. But I would still rather not go out of my way to pique their curiosity with my brand new Focals 
Defo not a cliche with this upgrade. Was just sitting last night with a track where at one point I always heard a smooth sound and now suddenly I could hear that it was made with a string instrument and hearing the sounds of the the strings being strummed!
Inspired by your and OPās posts re running the Celestee when you donāt want to be disturbed or to disturb others, I auditioned them the other day at a local dealer using an Atom HE and I really love them. They are now high on the wish list for use with my DAP when I return to the office after the summer. Thank you for the tip!
Clear MG and the Atom is also a great listen
Hi, glad you found some headphones that went well with your equipment and tastesā¦
If you get hooked you will find it like a drugā¦ and headphones can be astonishingly absorbingā¦ but you need a good headphone amp, with an impedance matched for your phonesā¦ if and when you want to try the next level up the rung then try higher end magnetic planar headphonesā¦ they can be a revelation, but for a cost. They are all open back in my experience, and do need good headphone specific amplification, but the immersiveness can be surreal. Now the new Atom Headphone edition should be a good step in the right direction - but with a casual glance I couldnāt see current and voltage output of the headphone amp which if often required to confirm headphone impedance suitability. Quality headphones can range from 8 ohm to 600 ohms so amp and headphone matching is often quite important for max quality.
I use planars for my music mixing/production as well as Hi-Fi ā¦ perhaps not ideal for masteringā¦ for me open backs are important when working and listening so I am not cut off and do sound generally more extended in the deep bass/sub bass with minimal bloat and colourationā¦ but yes at the cost of sound bleed.
For headphones for Hi-Fi and production I tend to use devices that approximate well to the Harman curve, as that matches our sonic preference
We also tend to have great sensitivity about 2.5kHz as we have ear drum and ear canal resonance point around here.
Donāt be so quick to think you need
To spend more money on Headphones. hD6xx variants are a fantastic cans that scale with amp quality extremely well. HD800s are different but I would not say objectively better. Iād spend a bit of time with what you have and really think about whatās missing before dropping any more coin.
Iāve been through a ton of headphone exotica over the years including HD800 and Audeze and top end AT woodies etc I ended up keeping my HD600s and some Grado RS1s as ultimately they gave me what I was looking for.
Sure the Sennheiser HD 6XX range are good - I own a pair of of HD650sā¦ they are very good - and work well with cheaper electronics. On higher end equipment they can start to sound lacking in terms of that sense of relative and immersiveness that you get with higher performing headphones. They ultimately are unable to communicate a lot of the subtlety that is being sent to them - hardly surprising when you look at the transducer technology used. This becomes more an issue with live recordings without much processing - less of an issue in studio processed recordings. I donāt use them for mixing work much because of that lack of subtlety.
If you are into audio replay experience - and really dig into the music and recordings headphones are a fantastic way to achieve that - especially high performance headphones suited to your ears/ear shape and dedicated / optimised headphone amps. To get the same performance with speakers would be hugely expensive and requires dedicated acoustically treated listening environmentā¦ so it does depend what is important to you / looking for as you say - because clearly headphones are ultimately more physically restrictive.
I too have had many many headphones through the years - and many many disappointments. For example I had an extended loan of Focal Utopias ā¦ nah - not for me - they sounded processed and artificial in the 8 to 10ksā¦ but we are all different - some are more sensitive to these frequencies than others.
It has been Magnetic Planars for me that have been the ear opener - and even cheap planars can perform really well for the money. The downside for planars are their relative cost - and some can be challenged from a comfort/weight perspective. They, in my experience, also donāt have that 3D spatial realism that good electrostatics give you.
Hi Simon, Dan Clark (formerly Mr Speakers) just came out with a new headphone called the stealth. It is a planer headphone,yet closed back. It uses a Meta absorber similar to the Kef LS 50 Meta. Many people who have heard it (not me) seem to really like it. Always something better popping up it seems with headphones.
yep - there is somewhat of a headphone revival on at present it seems - so I am sure we will see some interesting product coming to market 
Well, I have been listening through mostly headphones for a long time. Rather than a step into an upgrade cycle for headphones this was intended as an upgrade to put my headphones more on the same league as my Atom HE.
My intention is to stay here for the foreseeable future 
Thanks for the advice but if you read back this is exactly what I did. Listened to a set of HD660s for the last two years and still own it. The Focals are, for me, that much better. So the coin was happily dropped.
Simon - could you share what combination of Magnetic Planars and headphone amp works for you? Thanks
I traded my Senn 650 for AKG K701. No regrets, though I loved both. I needed a bit more treble; though never warmed to Grados, which all are too shrill to my particular ears.
Very personal decision.
Nick
Itās a personal matter of choice, Iāve tried many headphones before getting mines and the Focal lines didnāt make it for me. I prefer the Sennheiser HD800s for open-backs : the openness is unsurpassed and the medium are very beautiful. Some would say that they lake some bass but for my music preference it has never been an issue.
The HD650 is a great set of headphone but itās not in the same league (I own a pair of these). The medium is great and a little more mat and warmth then the HD800s, itās more focused and the soundstage is much narrower.
The Sennheiser are a top choice if you can pair them with a powerful amplifier (they really need power : Iāve a pair HD650 since the mid 2000Ā“s and I didnāt like them at all until I bought a quality amp/Dac). Other thing to mention, the HD650 was a very good investment because lot of things can be bought to make them cosmetically new again.
If someone donāt want to invest in the HD800s, I strongly recommand the 650/600 as they provides a tremendous quality / price ratio.
The Fostex TH900 mk2 is a good choice for close-back, they have tremendous bass reponse and a very nice highs. They signature curve is V-Shaped so the medium are recessed, consequence of that the voices can be a little bit overwhelmed by instruments and they donāt sound as natural as they do with the Sennheiser. The impedance makes them an easy match with lot of amps.
I didnāt like the Utopia even if they are the most detailled because the soundstage was narrower and the medium (voices) seemed a little bit metallic but i didnāt try them on a quality Dac. Same issues with the Clear.
The Celestee and the Stellia were good (the second is obviously better), but I havenāt felt anything special with both of them. They only superiority of the Focal compared to other brands is the quality built and the esthetic and like the Fostex, they are easy to drive.
Best regards
Hi I am currently using Meze Empyreans with various headphone amps. For Hi-Fi I use the DAVE headphone amp/DAC. For mixing I use instrumentation and Focusrite headphone amplification.
How do you find they compare with the top Stax models? I appreciate the Stax but have always found them lacking in texture and dynamism. Not my cup of tea in the endā¦
Hi - I have only listed to Stax headphones at demos and such like - so its hard to make a detailed comparison. Electrostatic headphones tend to sound a little more pristine in my experience - but lacking that dynamic pressure wave effect you get from good planar and dynamic headphonesā¦ I do find the realism however quite uncanny with certain planars and it can be hard to differentiate from a person in the room with you or a knocking sound in the house from a virtual presence in a recording - especially with the DAVE on certain recordings.
I am sure some electrostatics must be outstanding - but for me having a dedicated power supply and specific amp driver for the electrostatics is unlikely to be sufficiently practical for me.
The Empyreans are very comfortable - but you canāt really walk around with them as the clamping force is too lightā¦ however they get heavy use and some punishment and so far show no signs of obvious wear.
I tune the Empyreans to taste using the leather ear pads and Meze silver plated copper interconnects - I run unbalanced with my recording and hifi equipment.
Now most dynamic and planar headphones donāt need much power - although the HifiMAn Susvaraās are notoriously challenging. The issue is to do with impedance and reading hifi web pages there appears much confusion on this thinking high power is required when it isnātā¦ Many low cost headphone amps and smart phones are optimised for low impedance headphones such as 8 ohms - and therefore typically current rather than voltage is important. Many quality headphones are around 32 ohms and again are relatively easy to drive apart from some non dedicated headphone equipment . However some high end and professional headphones are 600 ohms - and here the voltage swing in the headphone amp is more important than the current - the power requirements are typically the same, but cheaper or non dedicated electronics will usually struggle as they canāt provide the voltage swing required, and so a soft, lack lustre result typically occurs.
High end headphone amps tend to state current and voltage output specifications to suit a wide range of headphones. Some headphone amps - especially valve ones - will often have an impedance matching switch to suit the headphone impedance to the amp. Either way - the power requirements are relatively modest, the challenge is often the voltage output and is some amps impedance matching.
I needed a new headset and bought the Mezes for budgetary reasons (most money is in house renovations atm). The dealer gave me the opportunity to listen to the Atom HE into Celestees, and it immediately felt āhomeā to me. Thatās the sound I look for and which is currently produced by my SBLās.
It was a clear synergy between the Atom and the Celestees. I can appreciate the Mezes too, but itās a step back. It reminds me of my BW CM loudspeakers with the fatter bass.
Once the renovation is finished, I know what to do!
Thought I will come back to this after a few months about the choices I made.
TLDR; I am extremely happy with my headphone choices. In fact my experience has been so positive with the combination of Atom HE and Focals that I ended up getting another HE for downstairs!
Both the Focals are nicely run in now and are stunning headphones sonically for my ears and likes. They reproduce exactly what drew me to Naim devices in the first place.
Of course the Clear Mg comes out tops, it is just the superior headphone. Open and wide soundstage and such a real-world reproduction of sound.
The Celestee on the other hand is a more in your face and in your head piece of kit. But it sometimes is my go-to headphone for electronic music due to the punch it has. And it does exactly what I got it for, create beautiful sound in a closed back headphone when needed that without making me long for the Clear Mg all the time.
The combination of the two with the Atom HEs are killer for me.
If I have to say anything on the ācould be betterā side for the headphones it is that, for the price, I did not expect creaks and sounds coming from the headband assembly and hinges now and again. Also, the headband padding not being removable has me sitting with weird little knitted headphone band covers on my head. But the sounds has me forgetting about these shortcomings so thatās all good then I would say.
P.S. No one creeps up on you when playing Battlefield V online with these puppies on! 
Dekoni earpads have made my Focal Elears more comfortable to wear. Worth the extra cost to me.
Personally I find the originals pretty comfortable on both. But can imagine how that can vary.