Utopia

Same with focal Utopia 2022. Makes garbage sound like garbage, but great productions come alive. Def hard to daily them, compared to my comfy and not so picky 6XX hooked up to some vintage tubes

My $4000 Focal Utopia pretty much sounds the same as my $200 Sennheiser 6xx for gaming, footsteps, sound whoring etc. that’s why we have “daily drivers” and “critical listening” categories of headphones. Gunshots and footsteps aren’t going to sound that much better or clearer on more expensive headphones. Directional audio is mostly software based. I don’t see how a normal stereo headphone can be tuned for gaming, that’s usually a part of the driver/firmware that comes on USB headphones that have their own dac built in. Personally, I think $200 open back headphones are the best for gaming.

Currently playing bf6 with focal utopia 2022 and schiit.

I listen for fun and these are my most favorite headphones ever. I like them better than the HD800S, Arya Stealth, and Focal Utopia (2022). Just a slight bass shelf and it was perfect.

The stealth is not worse by any means but its just different. The Arya is more open, brighter and the LCD-X is more relaxed but it feels like the music is punching in your face.(Sorry, im bad at describing this). I will never ever sell the Stealth nor LCD-X. The utopia is great. Maybe even perfect. But absolutely not for that price. There was no "wow" effect compared to LCD-X. And also i dont like the chassis design. They feel premium but idk man. I was listening to them for one hour in a quiet room in France and i was not super impressed, because i was always thinking about the price. Maybe i like planar bass more? Maybe its the design? I don't know.

I've had a Sennheiser HD660s2 for ~2 years before switching to Arkona, and tried a few *community loved* headphones, such as Focal Utopia 2022, Sennheiser HD800s, HiFiMan Susvara. Compared to them, they just sound more engaging with minimal detail loss. Good, quiet bass that is still present, yet no mudening the mids, with highs still crystal clear (tho a bit sibilant on occasions). Tho, it could be my preference for planars over DDs, since so far all DDs have muddy mids problem for me at any price point. If going planar to planar, compared to Susvara, they sound like the last with a spark and more body to it. Afaik, Arkona were the only headphones that strongly convinced me going past HD660s2, since everything else even tho performed better, wasn't as enjoyable to listen to.

It does get better! Turn off Dolby Atmos, and try a pair of Bower and Wilkins PX8 S2, or Focal Utopia. But if you’re into your APM2, enjoy them.

I was stunned at how amazing the Utopia sounds for a dynamic driver and it definitely made me reconsider my opinions on the "planar vs dynamic" debate, but that said I still think Susvara is overall superior in sound. And I'd hope so also, it's a neat bit more expensive than Utopia.

I've got those plus Focal Utopia but no contest compared to my Tad me-1 speakers.