d8000 pro just came in the mail today as this is posted. Currently using the utopia for music production with great success but wanted to give a shot to a worthy competitor!
Nice review mate. Weight aside, the D8000 are the most special pair of cans I've spent time with to date. They're detailed as hell whilst managing to stay smooth as butter at all times. Their unboxing experience sure is...interesting.
The D8000 were my favorite headphones for about 2 years, after buying the 1266 TC, they hung more on the stand than on my head, and after buying Utopia I sold them completely, but sometimes I miss them a bit because I had an exceptionally successful model.
Interesting journey! How would you compare the Focal Utopia vs the Final D8000? What differences/improvements in the Utopia made you decide to sell off the D8000? I ask this because for Currawong clearly chose in another video to sell off the Utopia and keep the D8000 Pro! :)
Thanks for mentioning that. The Pro was designed for higher volume levels, but there have been changes since then to the design I didn't get around to confirming the details of, so I left that out.
I love these a lot, have a chance to hear them on a local hi-fi show, along with Utopias and to my veteran ears, of over 50 years in music and hi-fi audio nothing has that kind of rightful reproduction of music.
A headphone that has all kinds of that ‘groove’ fall in love sound to them. The Bass is quite lovely and impactful on them. Price tag is high, but like the Meze Empyrean your paying quite a bit for the design and build quality of the headphone itself, not overall SQ.
Qute detailed review! Oh my! Is that the Luxman headphone amp behind you!? You have this...THING too? Incredible headphone amp I hear, very expencive but well worth it. And the other one sould be a dac from Luxman. I like your set up XD.
@@Currawong tbh I wondered the same thing. (I have an Aurender ACS 10 music server which also has a bank of charged capacitors , and, they also can act as a little UPS in case of AC mains failure. But Aurender still sees fit to have a linear power supply to charge those caps. Mind you, the Chord Dave has a built-in switched mode power supply.....) The tipping point for me to pull the trigger was MCRU's statement "will improve the sound of anything connected to them or your money back". FYI, this LPS has been built specifically, only for the TT2. There is a separate model for the M Scaler.
Just watched "A British Audiophile" reviewing five different interconnect cables. Made me think of the discussion thread here. (1) "These cables do sound different and I have know idea why". (2) "There's a lot we now know about our auditory system. And there's still a lot we do not know."
I’ve asked this dozens of times including to resolve on headphone show about the $2,000 Dan’s lazuli cable on the utopia. Some people sing their praises and some people claim that it’s snake oil and that the Owners who love them suffer from confirmation bias.
The latter type of people are mostly young and can't afford high-end gear. As they graduate and get high-paying jobs, that all changes and they go and buy the very things they used to crap on as being "snake oil".
@@Currawong I agree.. I guess to clarify the cable you use on the utopia silvergarde s3 is $440 usd where the Lazuli cable I believe is around $1500. So maybe snakeoil is a bit of an overstatement but at that price well (worth it is subjective) but is it a material improvement in sound quality?
@@Currawong Yes but young people they can hear better than you and me ! Especially ones who game, their forced to be good listener's, i always get my kids to give opinions on any new gear i get !!!!!!
I love Final. I started with the Pandora Hope IV with the tweeter driver....then graduated to the awesome Sonorous X (staying in the easier-to-drive dynamic world) when I found it for only about 2 grand. I'm wondering if anyone has been able to use those Xs on the newer DAPs like Fiio M17 or Canyon N8ii :)
I'd love to know how they sound on the Sony TA-ZH1ES I made bad experience with the Sennheiser HD820 and the TA-ZH1ES. They sounded awesome on the FiiO M11 Plus or the FiiO K9, but i didn't like them on the TA-ZH1ES. On the other Hand, the MDR-Z1R sounds just so much better on the TA-ZH1ES than on any other amp... As the MDR-Z1R is my main Headphone, the TA-ZH1ES is my main Amp and i would want to use the D8000 on that Amp
@Currawong did you have any issue with the bass making a crunchy noise at moderate volume? I just got these based on your review but wasn’t aware of this flaw at lower frequencies. Is there a hack or mod that I can do? Perhaps pads that help the seal? Would that help? Please help as I really like the tonality and sound but they snap crackle and pop. Cheers from Italy
I'm not sure if this was fixed in later versions, of it's still an issue. Mind you, if you're listening loud enough that the driver is hitting the magnets, you're likely damaging your hearing permanently.
@@Currawong it’s not even that loud. With Meze Elites or my other cans I don’t have any issue going much louder. This happens with bass at moderate levels. Do you think I should send them to Final to be looked at? Thank you for your help Amos. Cheers from Italy
In the market for high end headphones. I can’t choose between these, empyreans, focal utopia, any of the $2000+ LCD models, or the abyss Diana. My ultimate goal is just overall immersion and musicality. Not looking for some clinical reference or anything.
Excellent, as always! Great review. One question: you mentioned clamping but I've also heard that these are fairly heavy. Would you say they are on a comfort level close to the LCDs?
You could probably kick up your production quality by filming some b-stock and throwing it in instead of just showing yourself talking holding up the headphones.
@@Currawong Sorry. I think what I'm actually responding to is the awkwardness of you holding up the headphone next to you. I think if you were able to pull back the camera and have the headphones on a surface in front of you (a la DMS or Joshua Valour) it would look less awkward). I hope this is helpful.
d8000 pro just came in the mail today as this is posted. Currently using the utopia for music production with great success but wanted to give a shot to a worthy competitor!
Let us know how it goes!
I see the GS-X mini, and I am very excited for that review.
That is the #1 review I’m waiting for!
me too!
I litteraly prefer my $700 portable BX2+ over my DACT GSX-mini with every single headphone I've ever tried on it....
It's ok. Not really worth the money though.
Nice review mate. Weight aside, the D8000 are the most special pair of cans I've spent time with to date. They're detailed as hell whilst managing to stay smooth as butter at all times. Their unboxing experience sure is...interesting.
The D8000 were my favorite headphones for about 2 years, after buying the 1266 TC, they hung more on the stand than on my head, and after buying Utopia I sold them completely, but sometimes I miss them a bit because I had an exceptionally successful model.
Interesting journey! How would you compare the Focal Utopia vs the Final D8000? What differences/improvements in the Utopia made you decide to sell off the D8000?
I ask this because for Currawong clearly chose in another video to sell off the Utopia and keep the D8000 Pro! :)
Great review, thanks for the content!
Glad you liked it!
Very nice Luxman stack you have there! Must say your gear is very appealing!
Dear Amos, in my experience the pro also can give an higher volume and and don’t distort as the normal final can be driven to clip
Thanks for mentioning that. The Pro was designed for higher volume levels, but there have been changes since then to the design I didn't get around to confirming the details of, so I left that out.
@@Currawong 👍 keep up the good work, love you Chanel
Please make a video of the Luxman amp. Thanks
I love these a lot, have a chance to hear them on a local hi-fi show, along with Utopias and to my veteran ears, of over 50 years in music and hi-fi audio nothing has that kind of rightful reproduction of music.
Still to this day this is the best comparative review between the 2 headphones.
Great review as always. But for my ears Utopias rule. Thanks for the review. Please try to review T+A HA200 amp/dac.
A headphone that has all kinds of that ‘groove’ fall in love sound to them. The Bass is quite lovely and impactful on them. Price tag is high, but like the Meze Empyrean your paying quite a bit for the design and build quality of the headphone itself, not overall SQ.
Qute detailed review! Oh my! Is that the Luxman headphone amp behind you!? You have this...THING too? Incredible headphone amp I hear, very expencive but well worth it. And the other one sould be a dac from Luxman. I like your set up XD.
Recently tried a LongDog Audio LPS with the TT2. Now the D8000 Pro plugged straight into the TT2 sound oh so much better.
Not sure how that is possible given that power for the TT2 comes from charged capacitors, not the PSU.
@@Currawong tbh I wondered the same thing. (I have an Aurender ACS 10 music server which also has a bank of charged capacitors , and, they also can act as a little UPS in case of AC mains failure. But Aurender still sees fit to have a linear power supply to charge those caps. Mind you, the Chord Dave has a built-in switched mode power supply.....) The tipping point for me to pull the trigger was MCRU's statement "will improve the sound of anything connected to them or your money back". FYI, this LPS has been built specifically, only for the TT2. There is a separate model for the M Scaler.
Just watched "A British Audiophile" reviewing five different interconnect cables. Made me think of the discussion thread here. (1) "These cables do sound different and I have know idea why". (2) "There's a lot we now know about our auditory system. And there's still a lot we do not know."
Nice review, appreciate it. That Luxman amp is quite the looker!
Love the intro music!!
The Utopia has a fuller sound with plumper (but still detailed) images with a Danacable Lazuli Reference cable. Nice engrossing review; thanks.
I’ve asked this dozens of times including to resolve on headphone show about the $2,000 Dan’s lazuli cable on the utopia. Some people sing their praises and some people claim that it’s snake oil and that the Owners who love them suffer from confirmation bias.
The latter type of people are mostly young and can't afford high-end gear. As they graduate and get high-paying jobs, that all changes and they go and buy the very things they used to crap on as being "snake oil".
@@Currawong I agree.. I guess to clarify the cable you use on the utopia silvergarde s3 is $440 usd where the Lazuli cable I believe is around $1500. So maybe snakeoil is a bit of an overstatement but at that price well (worth it is subjective) but is it a material improvement in sound quality?
@@Currawong Yes but young people they can hear better than you and me ! Especially ones who game, their forced to be good listener's, i always get my kids to give opinions on any new gear i get !!!!!!
Great review! I really would like to see what you think about the new focal clear MG (Not the pro)
Nice! you finally getting some B-roll too :D
CHORD Dave is great for them and also for Meze Empyrean! 🐻
I love Final. I started with the Pandora Hope IV with the tweeter driver....then graduated to the awesome Sonorous X (staying in the easier-to-drive dynamic world) when I found it for only about 2 grand. I'm wondering if anyone has been able to use those Xs on the newer DAPs like Fiio M17 or Canyon N8ii :)
I love the planar revival story. Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. *-*
I'd love to know how they sound on the Sony TA-ZH1ES
I made bad experience with the Sennheiser HD820 and the TA-ZH1ES. They sounded awesome on the FiiO M11 Plus or the FiiO K9, but i didn't like them on the TA-ZH1ES.
On the other Hand, the MDR-Z1R sounds just so much better on the TA-ZH1ES than on any other amp...
As the MDR-Z1R is my main Headphone, the TA-ZH1ES is my main Amp and i would want to use the D8000 on that Amp
I see CHORD TT2 in the thumbnail ... I click :)
@Currawong did you have any issue with the bass making a crunchy noise at moderate volume? I just got these based on your review but wasn’t aware of this flaw at lower frequencies. Is there a hack or mod that I can do? Perhaps pads that help the seal? Would that help? Please help as I really like the tonality and sound but they snap crackle and pop. Cheers from Italy
I'm not sure if this was fixed in later versions, of it's still an issue. Mind you, if you're listening loud enough that the driver is hitting the magnets, you're likely damaging your hearing permanently.
@@Currawong it’s not even that loud. With Meze Elites or my other cans I don’t have any issue going much louder. This happens with bass at moderate levels. Do you think I should send them to Final to be looked at? Thank you for your help Amos. Cheers from Italy
I'd indeed contact Final if that's the case.
@@Currawong Thanks mate. I appreciate the response. You’re the man.
In the market for high end headphones. I can’t choose between these, empyreans, focal utopia, any of the $2000+ LCD models, or the abyss Diana. My ultimate goal is just overall immersion and musicality. Not looking for some clinical reference or anything.
Oh, then that's likely the ZMF house sound then.
@@asplmn exactly
Maybe Meze Liric will scratch your itch.
@@r.k.5031liric is moody
I wanted them but price is high and I prefer dynamic drivers but never say never maybe one day I will find it on used market in decent price
Excellent, as always! Great review. One question: you mentioned clamping but I've also heard that these are fairly heavy. Would you say they are on a comfort level close to the LCDs?
Yeah, fairly similar, but the feel is different due to the cloth ear pads.
I love my $200 M570 planars (recently at $175). Amazing sound that scale perfectly with the Sanskrit 2 and Asgard 3. How much was the D800?
Over US$3k
Nice b-roll
Thank you 🙌
Japanese always good at making something look simple but luxury I’ll claim it’s uncomfort because Japanese usually have smaller skull than other
Sometimes it is the opposite, and they have a wider skull.
You sounds like Podcastage
You could probably kick up your production quality by filming some b-stock and throwing it in instead of just showing yourself talking holding up the headphones.
That's an odd comment given this video had the most b-stock and overlays of any video I've ever made, but you're not wrong.
@@Currawong Sorry. I think what I'm actually responding to is the awkwardness of you holding up the headphone next to you. I think if you were able to pull back the camera and have the headphones on a surface in front of you (a la DMS or Joshua Valour) it would look less awkward). I hope this is helpful.