Here is what the Master of Headphone suggested to pair with the Utopia: Focal Utopia Open-Back Headphones - Official Thread
My recommendation: Get a ZMF Verite
I am biased 
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Euforia isnāt a warm sounding amp. Itās a very dynamic sounding amp, but it does not alter the frequency response of the headphones enough to be noteworthy. If anything, it bumps it up a notch in the treble region, without any fatigue. FR remains consistent within a 3 dB margin of error.
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Thanks for the link. I read over @Torqās comments on these pairings, but heās also made it sound like the WA6 and WA5 require quite a bit of tube rolling to get a good sound out of them in other posts. WA234 is not anywhere near something I can afford. Iāve heard glowing reviews on the ZMF Pendant, but almost always in the context of high impedance headphones. The Utopia got a passing mention in a couple of the reviews, but seemed lukewarm. Of course, the ZMF Verite has a lot of fans here. I have nothing against them, and havenāt spent enough time with them to form an opinion, but I love my Utopias, and itās probably going to be a long time before I feel the need to add more headphones to my collection - not before the rest of my chain is tip-top, anyway 
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The Pendant does a pretty good job with low impedance headphones, the low tap is 8 Ohms.
The only focal I have owned is the Elex, and while I really like them at the price point, I donāt like them on any of my tube amps (never listened to them on the Stratus), I found they tended to increase Bass quantity with a loss of some control, which made the FR less coherent to me, and they seem to disrupt the somewhat unique focal staging. The pendant isnāt offensive in this regard, but it still isnāt something Iād choose to listen to the Elex on.
Of course this might not apply to the Utopia.
Some people seem to like the Elex and other Focals on Tubes.
So youād probably need to hear it for yourself.
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Thanks for this helpful post. Iām using a Lake People RS-02 with the Eikon and VĆ©ritĆ© Closed, and Iām struggling with the VC getting fatiguing and sometimes sounding thin compared to the Eikonās reliable lushness. I specifically searched this thread for advice on amps for the VC and whether there is anything cheaper than the Pendant I should try. So itās great that you have experience with the Lake People sound and all these other amps, but not so great that the answer seems to be āno, save up for a Pendant.ā
My second amp for now is the Loxjie P20, which had no purpose with the Eikon but now gets recruited to take the edge off the VC and add some warmth with some music. And it does both of these things and sounds great for the price. Butā¦ somethingās missing: when the VC is fatiguing me I switch it to the P20 and it sounds warmer and less edgy, but then I switch to the Eikon through the RS-02 and feel this surge of emotional response that was missing before.
So, gotta start saving up for that Pendant I guess. I havenāt read a bad word about it.
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What tubes are you using? Have you swapped the power supply? Both can and do have an impact. More info in the P20 thread.
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Reflektor 6N3P-DR tubes, which seem slightly cleaner than the stock ones. I havenāt tried changing the PSU - maybe I should give that a go. My thinking was not to splurge on expensive pieces for a cheap amp, but Iāll check that thread again to see what others recommend. Thanks!
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Yes, donāt go overboard on a cheap amp. The GE tubes will deliver more brightness than the Reflektors, if thatās what you seek. I bought a basic 12V 5A power supply for <$20 on Amazon. It provides more stability and headroom.
how old is your VC? I noted significant change the first few weeks with it. The first 50 hours were the most critical and noticeable, but even at over 100 hours i noticed it was still settling in and losing itās hardness. During the first 50 hours I really thought i made a mistake buying it. but by 200ish hours it settled down and sounded smoother than my Eikon. Both the Eikon and VC occasionally zing my ears, but only with either a bright amp (thx amps) and/or really bright music. once my VC was all settled in i thought it sounded smoother on my RS-08 than the Eikon. Not by much though, they both have a good amount of treble energy. But the Eikonās spike between 4 and 5k really get me at times.
if you see a used Decware CSP2 or CSP3 amp on the forums, thatās a killer amp for ZMF. itās warmer than the Pendant, but still has great technical prowess. a few months ago a guy on headfi sold two of them for under $700 each! iām still pissed i didnāt grab one of them.
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Doesnāt Zach recommend something like 200 hours burn in? The 50 hour or so mark is something Iāve read many times and will at least likely do when I get my VO.
Thanks for the advice. The VC was manufactured in April this year but I bought it used, so I expect any settling in has already taken place. Thanks for the amp tip too - hadnāt heard of these.
$700 is a sweet deal. Iām curious about the anniversary mod also, which adds $700 to the retail price. Steve recommended that as a mod for those wanting to excavate as much detail.
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yes he does recommend 200 hours for the full process. he responded to someone on either sbaf or headfi once with a more detailed breakdown where he said the first 50ish youāll notice the most change. from there to 200 the changes get more subtle. thing more refinement vs large gross changes in response. that did more or less coincide with my experience. the first 50 i did not like. after that as time wore on it got more and more pleasing sounding. what i noticed the most was a shift in the āhardnessā of notes. i donāt know how to explain this well, but what i found early on with my VC was notes had a hardness and harshness to them, almost metallic in nature. as the driver was used more, that seemed to relax quite a bit. now i never think of my VC as metallic or harsh. itās a bit bright at times, but not harsh.
yeah they both sold within 30ish minutes i think. i saw the listing, hesitated as I just received my Pendant maybe a week or two earlier, then realized the price was just way too good to pass up, and was going to flip whichever amp i disliked more. but they were both gone by the time i reached out. 
i heard a CSP (donāt know which version though) at a show and was really impressed. i had my hd800 at the time and was not anywhere near able to drop 4 figures on an amp then. but i remember sitting on the floor with it and thinking man this is so much better than my lyr 2! twas a long time agoā¦
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Im going to listen to them right off the bat but will keep them going while Iām not around. Got a magni3 that hasnāt done much recently that will burn em in.
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thatās what i was doing with mine, minus the away burnin time. i just took them to work every day and put them on for the 9 or so hours a day i was there. i purposely left all my other sets home for a good 3-4 weeks while i burned in the VC and learned it. it took me awhile to appreciate it, but now i absolutely love it. i found itās the most reactive ZMF iāve owned to pad rolling as well. they all react pretty strongly to it, but the VC seems even more responsive than the Atticus/Eikon. whatās funny is i HATED the auteur pads when i got it, and even after many attempts to like them, just couldnt. but after getting the Elegia i grabbed them and have been using them. i may have judged them too soon, as iām finding the brighter but more open and dynamic presentation quite engaging.
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Must not hesitate! Decware doesnāt seem to be talked about too much recently on this forum. I was trying to find somewhere here in LA to demo, but nearest is in Santa Cruz. This guy I connected with on the Decware forum said I could come by his house.
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Itās funny, I had a similar experience with the Elegia, I even tried to return it, I thought it did not have all the bass I like and it was too bright ā¦ but now I enjoy it very much. I guess people also need a " burn in" time to get used to a different sounding headphone. I had the Atticus and although I thought it was beautiful I enjoyed it the same as the Fostex TH-X00 for 1/5 of the priceā¦ so I sold the Atticus.
Now I am waiting on a Verite Open and Verite Closeā¦ hopefully that will be the end for a while.
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More of a question of curiosity than anything I have any intention of acting on - what would be a Pendant or EDC ZDS/Afficionado level SS amp value/quality wise? I feel like Iāve done ample research into tube amps to the point where I have a sense of what the range is, but less so for SS amps at the higher end.
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