Hopefully you love it! Of course, it’s very much up to personal taste and source chain, but so far, I’ve preferred the Utopia to all of the other flagships I’ve heard.
1 Like
Not quite but that seems to be the direction it’s going
Nah, you should get the new one and let us know if it can be resolving as your sus in your chain. lol
1 Like
Haha sure, will do.
My Susvara, 1266 TC and VC were all bought used. Chances that from everything out there I’m getting a brand new Utopia are exactly zero. Honestly I don’t know how anyone is willing to spend $5K on that unless the changes from the OG for less than half the price (and we know where it’s heading) are basically a different class of new TOTL headphones
1 Like
To be fair, aren’t most of us with flagships spending nearly double over headphones in the same line for fairly minor improvements? Like, absolutely noticeable and preferable (usually), but not mind blowing differences.
5 Likes
To be fair, (sorry @andris for borrowing your intro) there is no indication the original Utopia will be selling for half off. If you are comparing the cost of a used Utopia to $5k, that is a skewed correlation given the current cost of the Utopia at $4.4k.
All information leaked out should be taken with a grain of salt, sure there are probably some people who have already heard the updated model and reviews will likely be coming closer to its launch. I guess all of this is pure speculation for the sake of speculating.
Further speculation on my part, the used price of the current Utopia tanking to $1.5k?? Come on now folks! What indication is there that will be the trend, I have been tracking the used market and with the exception of a few outliers the avg price used is in the high $2k range. Hell if you look at current listings from this past week once info was leaked about the new model, there are a few listed above $3k.
If someone can snag them for that price, that is awesome and worth snagging without blinking. Unless of course they are faulty in some manner.
For those of us willing to upgrade a few hundred shekels more than current Utopia, hope they are readily available at launch so we can get some impressions. Hope those early adopters were keen enough to score a good discount too 
8 Likes
Of course it’s speculation but used vs new is a fair comparison if it’s in good condition. As long as we don’t know the difference between the supposed new version to the OG and 2020 it’s all theory. I don’t buy new audio gear, especially not TOTL because I personally believe others keep real good care of it and I can get it then for much less on the used market. YMMV.
As for current used market prices - anyone paying more than $2200 is paying for boxes and cables or is impatient. All might be valid reasons for some. Not for me. I had multiple opportunities to buy it in real good condition for $2K and decided not to. Of course I’m speculating but I do think prices will continue to drop on all gear as the economy keeps its current trends. It’s harder to sell stuff these days and everything stays longer available compared to a year ago. That’s my experience and again, YMMV.
1 Like
I think the Utopia is right on the edge of what beryllium dynamic drivers can do. Any more resolution and they might resonate/whine and thereby make the treble sensitivity worse. Any less sensitivity and they’d move in the direction of the Clear.
Or, a new Utopia could be a retuned sidegrade in the vein the OG Clear to MG Clear.
1 Like
The only bloody improvement they mention is reliability of the driver and more linear treble, basically. What that language masks in regards to the actual FR will have to be heard and seen on FR graphs.
Speculating here but I have a suspicion they meddled with the driver to improve reliability but couldn’t get it to level up with the previous model and so ended up doing what they could to “smoothen” it out and charge $500 more to give us the privilege.
5 Likes
The exact opposite may occur if the new U’s suck, making the old one’s a nostalgic reference point to be sought after.
If someone wants to send me a new one to evaluate on my rig just let me know!
3 Likes
An example. A used Sebenza 21 can sell for more than a new Sebenza 31.
5 Likes
For people excited about the sub $2000 Utopias, keep in mind that those are probably old Utopias that are likely out of warranty or close to being out of warranty. Repairs on Utopia drivers are not cheap, and I know people complain a lot about how expensive the replacement pads are as well. So, caveat emptor here…
For the facelift Utopias (2020 +), those are closer to $2500, and will probably stay around that range. Sure you’ll occasionally find someone selling a pair for $2000, but I wouldn’t expect it to be the norm.
5 Likes
I shopped for used Utopias a year or two ago. Some used sets were bundled with aftermarket cables, and had prices that basically gave the cable(s) away. A buyer could have flipped them for $200, $500, or more, bringing the net cost down to <$2,000.
2 Likes
You’re not wrong, and people should just know what they’re buying into like anything else in this hobby.
I do believe we’ll see more sub $2K Utopias in the not so far future. And as I said in my original post that kind of started this - if that happens, I’ll bite. Knowing the risk but also paying less upfront might be worth it for some and not for others.
At the end of day the driver could fail on a $2500 or $3500 pair, nothing promises it’ll stay perfect for life.
2 Likes
I picked up my Utopia used for about $2200 on ebay at the beginning of this year. No warranty, but so far no problems at all. I probably should have held out for a set WITH warranty, but I got caught up in the last seconds of an ebay auction and clicked when I probably shouldn’t have. lol Zero regrets, though, as Utopia has turned out to be exactly what I didn’t even know I was looking for.
5 Likes
Yep, the news is real. Focal tried to get as much of the release pulled down as they could. I genuinely feel bad for them, a dealer(s) released the confidential release email in a few places, including headfi.com. Not sure if it got posted here as well. More news in mid-September. Looking forward to it.
I don’t know. I hear these rumors every year. This year they seem pretty legit, but then again what do they really need to improve about Utopia? 
Hmm, hope it’s not just a facelift like the 2020 Utopia with new bells and whistles. Will be pretty disappointing… Also, given the margins on the Utopias, + $1000 for a facelift would just be daylight robbery 
1 Like
Headphones started to shift from function to luxury quite a while ago. The original Utopia was what, 2x the price of the prior king of the hill? I think Focal was making a statement about the Sennheiser HD 800 at the time? Focal’s higher-end headphones have always pushed the luxury aspects (leather, carbon fiber, etc.), as you’ve got to feel you are getting something for your money. And there are clearly buyers at these prices.
Consider the luxury watch price bubble over the last year. Simple steel watches that are mass produced year after year suddenly doubled or tripled in price. The brands also jacked up the suggested retail prices too. So, this is part of the current global economy.
There’s a lot of paper money with nowhere to go and every asset inflates to soak up the paper. This could continue for a while, or prices may come down with other economic needs (e.g., winter is coming), or other vendors may step in with cheaper and better products. Consider China’s rapid progress in audio over the last 10 years.
4 Likes
Utopia is a pretty epic headphone especially when paired with a good tube amp!
1 Like
I said a few weeks ago on head-fi, if they can figure out how to extend the sub-bass linearly WITHOUT corrupting the resolution & detail in the mids & treble then I’ll gladly give them $5k. Otherwise, I really don’t think anything about Utopia needs improving. We shall see.
1 Like