@whitedragem Thanks Again so much. I was never a headphone person until now. I decided get a pair of great headphones, not for me, but out of respect to my husband, so he is not disturbed by the HiFi when watching TV in the bedroom at the other end of our apartment. He is very supportive of my HiFi mania and does not financially object, although he felt $5000 headphones was not to be taken lightly.
Before, in prior systems, I had cheap (by comparison) headphones. They never compared to really good speakers and I just gave up.
Home renovation trashed our Rega system. The only thing that survived, surprisingly was our Rega P9 TT. We decided to go with Naim and I decided to get headphones that, for the first time, would not be outdone by the speakers (Spendor A4).
I by no means regret purchasing the Focal Utopia and Clear beyond headphone cable. I donāt see myself going to Can Jam meet ups in NYC. Regarding tube ampsānot for me. My vision and hand coordination preclude getting into tube gear. The sound stage is quite wide.
Itās 1:30an in nyc. Going to sleep and thanks again for all your great help.
I came across an Album that I had not listened to for a while. Bravo Bikel. By Theodore Bikel. Recorded live in Town Hsll NYC. I think when he was doing the Sound of Music on Broadway. As one of my Naim friends says ā he can sing the phone bookā. Great DEMO OF PRAT.
Ok this is interesting, one thing I didnāt find the Focal Utopias was dull or constrained in the high endā¦ I found them a little too lively with slightly ressessed mids for my tastesā¦ but I demoāed a well run in pair.
But yes headphones do need time to run in, yes they can sound a little restrained to start with and a little slow in the bass, the mid and highs a little damped.
I would ask your dealer to borrow for a short period a well run in pair with that cable you are wishing to use to check this is the kind of sound you are after. The Focals have an optimal impedance I see of 80 ohms which should be fine for most headphone amps. Headphones are very very personal in terms of their characteristics when it comes to high end performanceā¦ as the coupling interacts with your ear pinna and ear canal geometry as well as your hearing response.
@Simon-in-Suffolk Thanks Simon. They are getting much better. Break in is a week and continues. At the same time I got the Utopias, I also went from an ND5XS2 to and NDX2/XPSDr and of course the Cardas Clear Beyond cable. I am not entirely sure how much of the SQ improvement is due to headphone break in or streamer break in. But overall things are much better.
I think it is possible that the SN3 headphone out is actually not very good.
I owned an SN2 and tried its headphone out, lasted about 30 seconds, thought it was lifeless.
This was around the time that the original Hugo 1 came out, so I bought one of those.
BIG difference in sound, not even close. This started my Chord journey so to speak. I suggest trying even a mojo 2 with the Focals, I bet you like it a lot better than the SN3 output.
In my experience, it is likely you are noticing most the headphone transducers freeing up. When I get new phones I tend to leave them running constantly over several days at first to get over the initial hump.
A rather odd thread the OP seemed extremely unhappy about his Focal headphones. When offered some advice sometimes seemed reluctant to listen and when someone pointed out that they (headphones) may need to to run in the OP simply states he knew, no surprises. So what was the point, is it the cable the amp or the headphones themselves that he was unhappy about or was he just impatient.
This is not true in my experience, especially with a HiCap DR onboard - iāve found with a pair of āreally easy to driveā cans such as the Grado SR 325 e the headphone output on a SN3 is more than satisfactory, itās very closely matched to its speaker output in terms of authority, detail & driveā¦
Well unless they improved the headphone output on the the SN3 a lot over the SN2, I have to disagree with you Stephen. I had a high cap DR on my SN2. I realize this is a Naim forum, and everyone gushes at everything Naim have ever made, but I used Sennheiser Momentums when I tried. They are very easy to drive, and only cost me $275 dollars. The thought of spending $6.5K on Utopias, just to use with an SN3 output is the Ultimate mullet experience.
There is an entire community that only listen with Headphones, and practically all of them use some kind of Headphone amp with a high end DAC.
I ask you thisā¦ why did Naim develop the Atom HE if all anyone would ever need is an integrated amp headphone output?
@NO-QUARTER i am sure there are better headphone amps than what is in the SN3.
There were reasons why I am limited to the SN3.
My dealer only stocks the Atom HE. Because of my disabilities I need a lot of home dealer support. Purchasing from an online dealer was not an option nor was purchasing from another nyc dealer who would not offer home support.
I did not have available rack shelf space for an external amp.
Regarding mullet, my husband did not like the aesthetics of other headphones in the Focal range. I wanted a top of the line headphone. He liked the visual appeal of the Utopia. My dealer only carried Focal.
Over the years with other systems I have had a variety of relatively inexpensive headphones (except for Stax) and hardly ever listened because they never approached the SQ of my speakers. I hope the Focal Utopia change that. While I see myself listening an hour or so a day, I wanted it to be where I really want to use the headphones.
Hi Jaybar
I understand where you are coming from, but the title of your thread is the question I am trying to answer. A Chord Mojo 2 is tiny, portable, and would be an improvement on the SN3 headphone output in my opinion. You spent a lot of money on headphones, they deserve to be driven properly. I will include a photo, you can stick a mojo in your pocketā¦It is smaller than a phone.
@NO-QUARTER i am not looking for a portable headphone amp used with an iPhone. I am looking to listen to all my sources (CD, LP, and Streaming), through the system at home.
Iām not entirely sure but maybe the Atom HE is the more sophisticated successor to the HeadLine 2, which went out of production around the time of the SN3 launch?
Unless Naim introduce a better integrated than the SN3, I am done for a while. Maybe a better Chord speaker cable. I have the basic one and it is 10 years old. My interconnects are Shaeline. Very satisfied with the system.
