Is there a final word on whether MGs and MG Pros sound the same?
It’s the same driver assembly, so they should sound identical.
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It would seems the only difference is in aesthetics and provided accessories.
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I bought the Focal Elex pads on Drop a few weeks back, and got them about 2 days ago. To my ears, it’s a VERY apparent upgrade over the stock Clear Mg Pro pads. The veil in the treble isn’t as present as before, and I feel like dynamics are much improved as well. I think the sound is closer to the Clear OG, but a bit smoother overall (especially in the upper mids).
I would encourage anyone to get a pair for themselves, as it is quite cheap for the improvement in sound.
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Hmmmm, so I was just looking around online and I found a pair on EBay. Demo and authorized retailer which is nice for warranty purposes.
So I decided to watch the item and they send me an offer for 1100, that sounds like a fairly incredible deal. But is it worth it…
Had my eyes set on getting the Elex as it is a more reasonable price in my budget. However this got me thinking.
Just skeptical cause the sound stage seems to be only draw back. I really actually enjoyed the original clears and I was just watching @Resolve review/comparison on it again.
Also confused if it’s an actual demo and if it is why would they be selling it already
The paranoia in audio😩
Hobbies often have rapid turnover. This follows from impulse buyers who have no intent to keep the item, those with buyer’s regret because they couldn’t try it locally, and review samples that lose vendor value 2 weeks after the first review reaches the public.
If you are treble sensitive, skip the Elex. If not and if you like dynamic slam, it’s fine.
You may be able to flip a used MG in excellent condition for $1,100. It may or may not be true in a month or three.
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Something to consider is, Focal headphones don’t have a large soundstage - doesn’t matter if you’re listening to the Elex or all the way up to the Utopia. If that doesn’t bother you, I think $1,100 for a fully warrantied, slightly used MG Clear is a pretty solid deal.
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Wow I didn’t think about that. But again it’s on EBay and there’s tax so it’s going to be 1210.
Edit: @Nuance i got the Elegia, and I like it. Just recently did the eq on it and it sounds really good. Those are closed and I am assuming that the soundstage will far better on an open focal versus closed.
However I am no expert and just recently got into headphones. My lack of experience may be hand in hand with that I am assuming the focal opens are better overall.
As usual I think I am overthinking it and trying to take in too much information.
I like the og clears.
I overthink everything
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@HeadphoneNoob - I have an Elear w/ Clear pads, now also with Elex pads — in all but name an Elex — and love it (I don’t think I’m as treble sensitive as @generic) but the Clear is even more refined. The MG Clear (see @ValentineLuke’s take) sounds to be more so - if it’s affordable it may be worth it. If you decide to sell it later, assuming the condition’s good, it sounds to reason you could break even.
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In comparing notes with others on this site, I have probably average treble sensitivity. I was more tolerant of the Utopia’s treble than several other people on the tour, and tend to pick neutral rather than warm headphones (e.g., HD-600 over HD-650).
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I don’t think I’m treble sensitive, I can listen to the HE6SE for 6-8 hours almost every other day. Most people said it was sibilant and I’ve had no issues with it.
I think from what I understood is that after sometime you want to stop listening. I am just too knew to audio to fully understand. Going to EQ those HE6’s soon.
I didn’t want to bring my question here, but I did want the perspectives of people who purchased it. Andrew seems to say they are incremental jumps, it’s not huge and the price difference is something I am considering.
700 Elex, 1000 Clear, The mg was completely out of the picture until this came about.
I know it’s difficult to get a grip on my internal conflict and want to apologize for my overthinking and conflicting thoughts.
I would be far less annoying if I was back to regular work. So I consider things excessively and it’s not everyday a deal like this pops up. Was actually going to wait and make a purchase further on in the year.
This is the rabbit hole.
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Planar headphones [with the exception of some Audeze products] do not generally have problematic treble to my ears. The drivers are diffuse and generate sound all over, so whatever’s in the treble seems to turn into grain or fuzz or air or atmosphere. They usually improve with more and more and more power (current) available.
Dynamic drivers and cheap BA IEMs can have lethal treble. The Porta Pro (<$40) is an inexpensive check for me – it seems to wrap deep bass around into the treble region, and also resonates in shrill peaks. While the mid range sounds great and compares with more expensive headphones, little stabs can be common. If you don’t hear those then you are “likely” safe with the Clear, perhaps safe with the Elex, and perhaps safe with the Utopia.
Cheap BA IEMs (such as KZ’s earlier stuff) serve as a cluster of needles. Some frequency bands are entirely out of proportion with others.
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Well that makes sense. I am jamming 10 wpc into those HE6’s.
I need a little more experience with annoying treble on headphones. On speakers I’ve figured it out and I’ve never had that feeling from headphones yet. I think the 6’s have done it or have an equal experience to speakers with certain Nirvana songs. However, from what I understood recordings can sway response. Let’s not get into that lol.
I bought the Kph30i’s and actually like them, just to note. I believe it’s the same drivers as porta pro, so I wanted to mention it.
We will see and I am still deciding on these clears. Let’s just move on and appreciate everyone’s input
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I’m a noob too, and it’s with this limited experience I can tell you that I absolutely love the Clear MGs. Clear (haha) but muscular, nice broad soundstage (tho there could be broader in some other models from what I’ve read), comfortable and non-fatiguing.
I really think there’s no substitute for hearing what you’re thinking of purchasing. Go with retailers who have a generous return policy and give it your best evaluation. I don’t take the burden of return policies on small retailers lightly, but it has saved me from at least two significant purchases I would’ve regretted.
I find the enormously helpful feedback of this community gets me far. I read, I say, yeah, that sounds like what I’m looking for, I get out my credit card, I cross my fingers, and I order. It’s a fun adventure, to be honest.
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Clear Mg Pro review:
The Focal Clear Mg Pro is one of the new releases from the french speaker manufacturer who has released several highly praised and popular headphone models in the past several years. The Clear Mg Pro replaces the previous Clear Pro (which are the same products, as far as I know, as the Clear Mg and Clear). This new Mg Pro set comes in at $1499 new, and was provided on loan from Headphones.com.
The new Clear Mg series features a new honeycomb pattern on the inner and outer cups, as well as a new driver. The pads have seen some slight differences as well. And while the general look and feel of the headphone as a whole is in the same vain as the original Clear, Elear, and Elex, the new Mg series comes in a new color theme. The Clear Mg has a brown/bronze and black look, while this specific Pro model keeps the same Clear Pro’s black and red look, where the main headphone frame is black, while the pads and padded portions of the headband are red.
The Clear Mg Pro comes with the same Focal case as the original series but in a heather red/gray color appearance. Also included are two sets of cables, one being a short standard cable, and the other being a coiled cable. For my liking and use case, neither of these cables are very helpful, and I opted to use my own set of cables instead with my limited time using these headphones. The Pro model also comes with an extra set of ear pads.
Sound Impressions
The Focal Clear Mg Pro has a surprisingly different sound than what I would have expected from Focal. I should clarify this, it’s surprisingly different than what I’d expect from an open-back Focal headphone. What I mean here is that, while it retains much of Focal’s house signature and flavor, it resembles to me, something more aligned to their closed back Elegia and Stellia, than it does their Clear, Elex or Utopia.
The Mg Pro has an overall warmer, and meatier sound, while also sounding slightly veiled in the upper mid-range. This veil is a little unexpected because Focal’s sound has never had this before in their open-back lineup, and if anything, is very forward and elevated in this upper-mid range presence region. Instead, it sounds slightly dipped here, and enough to make a distinguishable difference when listening to some particular female-led vocals.
With that out of the way, brain-burn-in is real. I quickly adjusted to this and spend many continuous hours listening to the Clear Mg Pro on multiple days while pairing it with the Chord Qutest and Audiolab 6000A amplifier, and also with the Topping D30 Pro and A30 Pro DAC/Amp Stack.
Let’s talk about it in more detail, though I may repeat myself here and there:
One of the noticeable things I remember from listening to the Focal Elex, Elear, Clear, and Utopia is the super punchy and dynamic nature of its low end, as well as just general macrodynamics and transient speed. They all exhibit this in some way or another. So it was a little to my surprise that listening to the Clear Mg Pro, that it seemed tamed down a bit. Now let me preface this by saying that I did not have any of the older Focal headphones to compare side-by-side, and so this is going really based on poor auditory memory. I also want to mention that the current chain I have may reduce some of the slam factor as well. But that aside, I do believe there is a slight reduction, but its still distinctively Focal.
This is much more apparent when I pulled off the Clear Mg and swap it out for my trusty Sennheiser HD600. The HD600 struggles to provide any meaning punch to most electronic music, while the Clear Mg still can pack a punch, but it’s nowhere near as powerful as how I remember hearing the Elex. Instead, I feel the Clear Mg Pro has a thicker and rich sound down low. This is not a far cry from Focal’s typical house sound, as it still retains a punchy character, and a forward mid-range sound, but it does not sound nearly as thin and incisive as a typical Focal.
This is most evident when I listen to the deep-bass and ultra-punch “Angel” by Massive Attack. Again, audible memory here, the Elex hits hard. Real hard. I don’t get that same sense of slam on this track, but it’s still has nice body and jabs. This is a song where the HD600 definitely struggles in, without some significant equalizer gains.
In a different track, “Rose Rouge” by Jorja Smith, some of the same impressions can be copy and pasted here. The punchiness is definitely present, but there is a lack of slam. And this is when I compare it to something other than the HD600, or from auditory memory. When I compare it to one of my Hifiman planars, it does lack the deep rumble and slam properties. But, hey, this song sounds quite good either way. I think everything sounds accurate, and correct, and surprisingly, I don’t find issues with Jorja Smith’s vocals on this track, because there are some interesting tuning choices that Focal ran with on this Mg model.
The Clear Mg’s upper-midrange is where I think the more noticeable changes occur, and to me, it’s pretty easily distinguishable. It’s definitely more veiled, with a measurable drop in the presence region here. And so while I say that the low end is warmer and a little beefier, yet still retains the normal Focal sound, I can’t totally say that about this upper-mid range and even treble region. It’s just atypical of the rest of the Focal open-backs.
Instead, I characterize it more closely to the Focal Elegia here, with a recessed and veiled sound, though not nearly as much so. It’s like a thin curtain is placed over guitar chords and female vocals. It’s not a big thick black-out curtain that causes haziness, but more of a sheer curtain that blocks some light, but still lets enough in to provide some level of clarity and brightness.
It’s an interesting change and I can understand why Focal may have decided to do this. For some folks, Focal’s sound had a lot to do with how it’s mid-range and upper mids were presented. It was almost like a generational step improvement above the HD600 sound. But for others, the metal driver with the upper-midrange’s quantity resulted in a metallic timbre that some did not like. It seems Focal may have tried to please the latter in this case with this tuning change.
It’s not atrocious to me. That’s good. In fact, over time, I came to enjoy the smoothness of it all. The Mg Pro is a different direction from the other open-backs, and probably closely resembles mostly the Elear (their first open-back) and the Elegia.
I slapped on Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me” CD. I was actually expecting her voice to sound a tad veiled here, and perhaps a little subdued, but actually her voice has a very nice sound to it. It’s full-bodied and doesn’t show any signs of being smothered by other parts of the mix at all throughout this record. If I was going to comment on anything here, it does seem like there’s a bit of exactness missing in some of the piano notes, the guitar strings, and just an average level of instrument separation.
But that’s not much of a surprise, since Focal headphones in general are fairly intimate affairs, and do tend to lack this quality, outside the top of the line Utopia. It wasn’t necessarily a fair comparison going from a Hifiman Susvara to the Clear Mg Pro in this example, but when I put on the Sennheiser HD600 afterward, you can tell the Mg Pro was a step up in terms of note weight, little micro-details, and just an overall more warm and engaging sound, though the HD600, priced significantly less and ancient in headphone years, still competes shot for shot.
Wrap-Up and Final Remarks
While the I did think something like the Elegia didn’t have the best tuning in the world, it was soft and lush, at least for a Focal house sound. And this made it a very nice headphone to multi-task to. I was happily using it at work for hours at a time without feeling fatigued or feeling like I didn’t want to listen to music any more. And that’s actually something I can’t say about the Elex or Utopia, which I think are tuned more appropriately, and have a more exciting level of macrodynamics and big punch and slam. They are just too exciting to really focus on other things, and with that comes faster fatigue time.
The Mg Pro tested here is more aligned with the former. Like I said a few times now, it works great for just putting on my head, turning music on, and working away with whatever it is I am playing calmly playing in the background. Yea, so that means it’s not necessarily the most exciting sound out there, nor does it really do anything especially well, but it means its a solid headphone that actually works well across multiple genres and one that surprisingly out-performs many other headphones under its asking price of $1500.
If I do sound negative here, and I know I am, it’s because Focal’s bar is quite high. Their lineup is stellar, and this one is just a bit different, and lacks some of the special traits of their previous generation of headphones. But, this one is probably more well-rounded to a broader audience all the same. It’s a solid addition to the lineup, though I don’t know if I’d recommend it over the original Clear either. But I wouldn’t mind this one in my collection either.
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Check out the Focal Clear Mg Pro on the Audio Discourse Graph Tool:
https://headphones.audiodiscourse.com/?share=Antdroid%20Target,Clear%20Mg%20Pro
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Well, maybe not in this case. Looks like the one Antdroid measured is quite different from the ones we measured (in the upper mids). The padgate question continues apparently. I don’t know if this is just a difference between the MG and the MG Pro or if indeed this is due to pad inconsistencies. The official word I got from Focal was that what we found was the intended response (same with Jude’s), and that the MG and MG Pro should sound the same. But without more samples I can’t verify that.
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I should probably measure both sets of pads, since the Pro comes with 4 pads… if there is a possible variation in pads.
This was the set that Josh Valour reviewed on YT, though I did swap pads out with the extra set.
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Yeah, what I wonder is if it’s batch-based or something, having seen Crin’s graphs.
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