How did I miss all these cake days!!?? Happy cake day @generic and @frkasper! 
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Not a regret exactly, but I ultimately decided I didnāt like my Focal Clears (OG Professionals) and moved them on. Thankfully I bought them as B-stock for a fraction of RRP, so my financial loss was minimal. What I gained was an appreciation of how differently we hear things, how much our hearing varies within and between days, and how big a part individual preferences play in headfi. The Focal Clear is either detailed, dynamic and natural sounding, or it is a metallic and congested mediocrity. Both of these epithets (and many others besides) are true.
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Itās definitely a strange thing when it comes to preferences. I canāt imagine how much different our ears actually are since we are all very much a like. I canāt get sensitivity issues as more understandable. But thatās probably why there are so many headphones out there and even the expensive ones simply donāt cut it.
That is mostly what accounts for my total spending on headphones (see separate thread). Some days XYZ sounds great, other days it sounds awful. Iām not hearing reliable quality or preference differences above my HD 800 S, RebelAmp, BF2/64, etc., so Iām not motivated to spend aggressively.
Also, one can habituate to a given setup even if itās a harsh setup. Itāll sound normal to you over time unless it causes physical fatigue ā and that may not manifest unless one engages in marathon listening sessions.
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Welcome to my life with the HD6XX!
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I had a pair of DR Dre beats. I threw them away after a week, the ear pads literally fell apart, the batteries were always being replaced, just junk. I now own sennheiser HD 6xx, HD 800s, Sony 1000xm5. I love all 3.
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I regret letting price influence my choice of headphones. I set an upper limit of around $300 but even so I preferred choices below $200. I thought spending $1,500 or more for headphones was a waste of money because the law of diminishing returns suggested that they wouldnāt be that much better.
In this way I, I ended up spending way more than $1,500 on a collection of good but not great or completely satisfying headphones. I finally broke down and purchased a pair of Focal Clear Mg open-back headphones. The law of diminishing returns didnāt seem to apply, at least to my ears, because the Clear Mg sounded so much better than anything I had heard before. Now it is difficult to listen to any of the old heaphones in my collection when the Clear Mg are right there and sound so very much better.
I the future I will probably try another outrageously priced headphone. But for now I am completely satisfied with the Clear Mg.
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In the photography circles, there was a saying, āYou can spend $1,000 and buy a Gitzo tripod, or you can spend $2,000 and eventually buy a Gitzo tripod.ā While tripod technology has changed in the last 20 years, the meaning behind that saying has not.
But more importantly, Iām glad that youāre completely satisfied with your Clear Mg.
Regards,
Vic
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AKA āBuy nice or buy twice.ā
Unless you are into audio as a hobby, where some of us tend to buy a bunch of stuff just for the experience.
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I LOVE this thread. Itās generous of you all to share mistakes. Hereās mine.
My biggest headphone disappointment was the Focal Clears. I just couldnāt get past the weird timbre/ringing/sheen, which for me wasnāt only in the highs but also on vocals. Very unnatural to my ears, but obviously this is not a popular opinion. The bass was impressive, but also seemed inappropriately present on non-bassy tracksāitās always a bad sign for me when tracks sound too similar to one another. Caveat: I only kept it for a week and some folks claim that burn-in is an issue.
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I kinda regret buying my 2020 Audeze LCD-2. When EQed parametrically it sounds amazing, but the thing is so large and heavy. Just donāt use it much anymore, especially after getting the HIFIMAN Ananda, which doesnāt need any EQ and is so much more comfortable to wear. Iāll never buy another Audeze again.
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Itās so interesting to me how differently each of us hears, and react to what we are hearing. The Clear obviously didnāt do it for you, and just sounded wrong. I think in your case no amount of āburn inā would have changed your opinion. The Clear will possibly benefit/change after some amount of usage time (like 50 hours or so), but itās far less dramatic than ZMF dynamic headphones for instance.
To me the Clear OG represents one of the best headphone values out there. But some folks just donāt react well to the Focal sound signature in general, as I think itās fair to say they are bright(er) sounding. For some people the Utopia OG is intolerably bright, and to others itās perfectā¦ My personal sample size is 2, Clear OG and Utopia 2020, and I think each one is pretty awesome.
As Mr Spock frequently said, āfascinatingāā¦ 
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Yeah, Iām plainly the outlier, so no shade on Focals. Iām really picky about timbre, and would gladly take errors of omission rather than commission. I also have a problem with BA IEMs for similar reasons.
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Iāve had a similar reaction to some BA iems also. They can sound unnatural.
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What item is this? xD xD
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Iāll explain when it arrives, or when I wake from a bad COVID dream and realize I never bought anything! I can say that Iāve waited longer than the DNA blue buyers.
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My biggest headphone regret is probably the Abyss Diana. Like a very, very expensive planar Focal Clear sound-wise with a weird and very uncomfortable (for me) fit. I havenāt tried the newer allegedly more comfortable pads though and donāt intend to.
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Ok, so maybe not the biggest regret considering the price, but, the ALABS I got from Amazon takes the cake still for me. I got caught up with the aesthetic of it and knowing it was a new company to the headphone space. I thought, hey Iāll grab one and see if I can provide feedback on it or whatever. I listened for maybe an hour and threw it back in the box and in my closet it has been since. Some day I may break it out and possibly use it to mod or something to tinker with. Man that thing sounded bad though. Justā¦dead. Oh, it was $99 at the time and all wood cups. So uncomfortable too!
The new Ananda Nanos for me. I purchased them when they first released and they sounded so metallic and soulless. Almost like it was just cranking out sounds instead of playing music. They were very technically proficient though. I returned them within 2 weeks after giving them a longer listen.
I replaced them with a Focal Elex and Iām a happy camper.
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Ohhh boy this thread is fun! My biggest audio regret was definitely a used WA6-SE.
Upon arrival it had a scratchy volume nob and a transformer hum on anything except stock tubes. Sent it back to Woo Audio in NY from CA (I remember I asked to be sent a an original box with custom foam cutouts first for ease of travel, because it didnāt come with one when it was sent to meā¦so an extra $50) to get it checked out. They sent it back after tightening a few bolts here and there and basically said āyeah some tubes are noisy, just stick with its stock tubes if you donāt want the hum.ā This was after some serious (expensive) tube rolling, too. I was also completely unaware of my own hearing imbalance at the time, so I was trying to figure out why all my favorite tubes made it sound like male voices where coming farther and farther from the left, and even had it checked out by a local guy who seemed to make it better by resoldering a few joints (in the end, the amp was fine though).
Anyway, I ended up selling it at a huge loss, but after a couple weeks it started giving the new owner much more serious problems, so he had it sent to Woo AGAIN (which I helped pay for), and turns out it had a busted capacitor that only started acting up with him. They fixed it and sent it back to him and Iāve been free of it since.
I thought the sound was ok, nothing that really wowed me, but man, dealing with it as a huge pain. Itās a miracle it didnāt turn me off tube amps forever, but it came quite close!
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