Can get a Clear Professional for 750 USD at the moment in Australia. Seems fairly cheap!
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Might have fallen off a truck, at that price.
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That is a VERY suspicious price for the Pro model. I havenât seen them used for <$1,000 to $1,100 US. The regular Clears can be lower, particularly if showing wear.
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It happens in Aus with Focal stock. Have said it before in the Elegia thread.
Through one of our 2 main headphone stores. Legit. Warranty etc.
I bought the Elegia for $599 AUD ($370 USD) there.
Donât know why it happens, but it does every few months.
EDIT: Elear is $599 AUD at the moment too ($370 USD).
Clear was 1400 AUD and now back up to 2100 AUD. Be nice to know why it happens, unlikely to find out.
Utopia and Stellia never come on sale. Just the lower range models. Clear, Elear, Elegia.
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And I thought I got a good deal for $999!
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It is!
They just go nuts sometimes!
Elear plus hard case is $599 AUD delivered at the moment. From both our main shops.
[quote=âBuffaloWing, post:204, topic:33â]
It happens in Aus with Focal stock. Have said it before in the Elegia thread.[/quote]
Yeah thatâs really odd with the prices over there, considering they are shipped all the way from France.
Through one of our 2 main headphone stores. Legit. Warranty etc.
Gotta be some fierce competition, I donât see other reasons. Unless⌠unless Focal is dropping that market and just offloading whateverâs left.
I bought the Elegia for $599 AUD ($370 USD) there.
EDIT: Elear is $599 AUD at the moment too ($370 USD).
I donât know why it is that on the Focal online store the Elear is still more expensive than the Elegia. In fact Focal had made a big deal about the Elegia being the only âupperâ Focal to launch at less than $1,000 (that was the Elearâs original price and according to reviewers it was worth it)
Clear was 1400 AUD and now back up to 2100 AUD. Be nice to know why it happens, unlikely to find out.
Covid-19? France is hard hit and the countryâs practically paralyzed.
Utopia and Stellia never come on sale.
Nope, these guys never put their flagship models on sale. Market size is modest and manufacturing costs are high.
Canât be competition. They drop them to the same prices on the same day. Has something to do with overrun or old or excess stock from the distributor (assume only one here and they both source from).
Great for people here. People rocking Elegia and Elears for under 400 USDâŚ
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I was not born in the right country 
And itâs not even the best part of our country!
What is the best part of OZ?
The EndâŚ
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Getting back on track with the Focal Clear discussion here.
I wanted to mention a misconception that I had come to believe as a result of reading Tyllâs review from a few years ago, which is that the Clear was the first headphone to use the âframelessâ voicecoil. I think itâs worth explaining this in case anyone else was thrown off like I was. For anyone unaware, the formerless or âframelessâ voicecoil means the mobile mass is reduced, allowing for a faster reaction. Given that the Clear has better detail compared to the Elex (itâs been a long time since Iâve heard the Elear), I always just assumed this was the difference, but it turns out thatâs not the case.
Hereâs the phrase in question that led to my misunderstanding:
[Speaking about the Clear] âThe driver uses an aluminum-magnesium alloy M-dome diaphragm with surround similar to the Elear but has a formerless copper voice coil as opposed to the copper-clad aluminum conductor of the Elear.â
Iâm sure this mistake was due to an issue similar to that of inclusive vs exclusive disjunctions that show up in language all the time, but I took this to mean that only the Clear used the âformerlessâ design, while the Elear didnât. Weirdly, when I looked at the marketing materials, it didnât appear to be there for the Elear either, and so this aligned with my misunderstanding.
Recently, however, someone left a comment in one of the live streams on the HEADPHONE Show clarifying that while the difference is in the voicecoil, itâs not that one is formerless and the other isnât. Itâs that the Clear uses a fully copper voicecoil and the other two donât. So let me make sure this is stated as clearly as possible:
- Both the Focal Clear and the Elear/Elex use a formerless voicecoil.
- The Elearâs is made from copper-coated aluminum, while the Clearâs is made from solid copper.
I hope this helps with any confusion on the driver differences, but Iâm also curious why the solid copper material was used for the Clear - and that this is meant to confer performance benefits to it. I saw a video of Nicholas Debard speaking about the Clear, and he mentioned that this change does impart performance benefits (in addition to making it easier to drive).
But I find this interesting because youâd think since aluminum is lighter than copper, in theory it could reduce the driver systemâs mobile mass better than using solid copper would. The flip side here is that because copper is a better conductor (along with other physical differences), there may be advantages to using solid copper that outweigh the lighter material.
In any case, to me the Focal Clear sounds like it has quite a bit better detail capability, and I have a hard time thinking itâs just the pads that make the difference.
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My guess is that it due to the conductivity. A more efficient and better signal, possibly equating to better âslamâ and more detail.
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In the world of car audio, at least in my experience, setups using CCA wire tend to have to use larger gauges in order to bring the overall resistance of the cable down to that of a smaller OFC run.
As far as weight goes, I had read somewhere that using by pure copper in the Clear, they could still reduce the mass of the whole assembly by having less windings on the coil as compared to the CCA in the Elear, although I have not heard of that many Clear driver issues/failures.
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In moving from the Elex to the Clear in the last couple weeks, the difference is absolutely, positively not related to the pads. With the Clear one can hear very subtle gradations in volume, to include the fall-off of instruments and voices. Itâs like night and day.
The Elex can be incredibly piercing or overwhelming with noisy sources and/or already strongly dynamic sources. I took this as a function of the drivers collapsing/narrowing their frequency response into exaggerated frequency bands (e.g., like a trumpet). To me it sounds like the Elex has a heavier, slow moving driver vs. the Clear.
Electrical resistance does play a role, but it may not be the main factor. The Clear is notably more sensitive than the Elex. I turned my 789 amp down from Setting II to I with the knob at 9:00 to 10:00 for similar output as the Elex. Similarly, the Loxjie P20 LCD display went from about -36 to -42 for a similar perceived volume. I blasted my ears at first using the Clear.
The Clear does NOT have more slam than the Elex. Instead, the Clear is more transparent, polite, and precise â to follow from having far more self-control. This would result from lighter, quicker-on-their-feet drivers.
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I was just thinking the same when you mentioned what the Voicecoil material was. It makes me wonder just how many different material combos would have been tried. Also is it down to just weight or material conduction properties. Itâs fascinating just what processes go into making such technology. Once you see inside a headphone it looks really simple, basic even.
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Completely. Experimenting with the inserts for the Aeon 2C, or pad rolling has really shown me how small changes make a big change in the sound. The art of tuning a prototype headphone must be finding the right combination of teeny tiny changes to craft the right sound.
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Yeah itâs amazing how much pad rolling can change the sound of headphones. Itâs one of the reasons I like the Focal line-up so much because the pads are so easily interchanged and itâs so easy to see the differences they make.
We donât actually have any Clears in the office right now but I wanted to give them a run through with the Utopia and Stellia pads. Iâm not a huge fan of microfibre pads myself as I find they can get dirty pretty fast so Iâd be curious to hear those two pads on the Clear. I know @Torq measured it here as well.
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