The Listen Professional Headphone has been designed, by Focal's statement, to meet the needs of sound engineers, music producers and professionals who work on the go.
With it the Focal it goes even further in the professional sector. Focal was founded in 1979 in Saint-Étienne by Jacques Mahul audio engineer. Initially, its production consisted of loudspeakers for home use. For the youngest, we remind you that Focal is the largest speaker manufacturer in France, among the top three in Europe and in the world top ten in its category.
Our products Focal – JMLab they are present in 80 countries around the world. Research and technological innovations have always been an important part of the company's development. Among the “particular” solutions implemented at Focal, we recall, just to name a few, the inverted dome tweeter, mid-woofer double coil and of woofer high efficiency denominated "power flower". Today the company excels in the sectors Hi-Fi, professional and audio.
With the increasing demand for headphones on the part of the market, (also thanks to the spread of "personal" audio, see i-pod, Smartphone, PC, Tablet, etc.), Focal has also entered the world of headphones for about 6 years. and he did it in his own way, creating reference products for innovation and technological synthesis.
This allowed him to win one of the most coveted awards in Audio / Video, namely theEISA Award. This, and precisely for the headphones segment, occurred for two consecutive years and precisely: in 2019-2020 with the Elegy headset as best product and in 2018-2019 with the Clear headset as the best High-End product.
The Listen Professional, the subject of our test, is a closed circumaural cuff.
The headset comes in an elegant package containing the hard case which, in turn, houses and protects the Listen Professional. Two are supplied OFC cables. A 5m spiral cable and a second 1,4m straight cable equipped with multifunction control and a omnidirectional microphone for using the headset with a smartphone. Both feature 3,5mm jacks. The presence of removable cables with standard 3,5mm jack allows, in case of breakage or specific needs, an easy replacement, possibly even with customized products. In this case, however, attention must be paid to the structure of the jack to be inserted in the headset which must necessarily be small in order to fit into the hole. Furthermore, it must be considered that doing so will lose the locking system. However it is an opportunity.
The ear cushions (red) as in every headset, are particularly important for comfort and decisive in the construction of the final sound. In fact, just as the listening environment affects the perception of the sound of a pair of speakers, so the ear cushions with their height, width, depth, constructive geometry and material used, contribute to the creation of the right (designed) sound.
To easily realize how important a correct distance of the transducers from the ear cups is, you can do the following simple experiment: put on a pair of headphones you know (even simple and light Walkman-style headphones) and during playback, apply more pressure. or less light on the pavilions of the headphones by pressing them away from the ears. Here you will immediately notice some variations when listening (bass increase / decrease, more / less airiness of the scene ...) Correct programming of the ear cushions is therefore an integral part of a good project.
Although these are closed headphones, the goal of the Focal designers was still to make sure, as far as possible, that the Listen sounds lively and offers an experience similar to that obtainable with semi-open headphones. For comfort the bearings are built in foam-memory which is well suited to different anatomical conformations. Wearing the cap you immediately notice the more than adequate pressure exerted on the ears, as well as the good insulation. Precisely this, in those who do not expect it and have in auditory memory the use of “easy” listening headphones, can cause a strange initial sensation… .. joys and pains of isolation.
The speaker driver has been equipped with a suspension Mylar al 100%, While the central dome is made up of an alloy Mylar-titanium to provide increased stiffness and extended frequency response at the top of the spectrum, allowing the transducer to exceed 40kHz. Even the reproduction of the low registers has received a lot of attention aiming at obtaining a low resonance frequency combined with an extremely low overall distortion.
Use and Listening
As I always do when it comes to equipment electro-dynamics, or that have moving structures, the cuff has been subjected to a good running-in period. In fact, it remained in operation and connected to one of my audio players with loop playback (sufficiently articulated song) for about 15 days. Before moving on to a more in-depth listening I wanted to check the behavior of the listen with different interfaces:
Beheringer headphone amp…, headphone output of the RME Fireface 400, Headphone output Mixer, Smartphone, PC… The impedance of 32ohms and the high sensitivity 122dB SPL @ 1kHz - / 1Vrms, make this headphones “easy enough” to interface and allow it to play “enough” loud even in “light” situations. Obviously the right combination with a headphone amplifier will allow Listen to express itself at its best.
The initial listening sensation was that of a light loudness effect, with powerful and precise bass, very extended highs and full mids but placed in a plane located slightly behind. This sensation fades considerably with time and listening to slightly more sustained volumes, as we will see later. Perhaps this is due more to the excellent performance of the low and high ranges than to a retreat of the mids. The low range is what surprised me most. In fact, even with all the limits of listening to the bass through headphones (the perception of the bass also occurs with the body, the real movement of the air caused by the instruments or the woofers of the speakers is physically perceived), these are well present, dynamic, clear and distinguishable in the frequencies.
Wanting to "fantasize" it almost seems to listen to the bass with the body (it is impossible but this is the feeling), as when listening through excellent speakers or live. One thing I want to clarify right away is that despite its beautiful and healthy presence, the low range is not characterized by that type effect "Bass boost”That we often find in commercial headphones and that wink at the user who is inclined to be amazed with special effects rather than substance.
So, response speed, attack, low distortion and present and well articulated bass make listening to bass and drums very realistic. Listening to The Dark di Tom Kennedy it seems almost live. And continuing with other songs of the genre the feeling is confirmed.
When you switch to listening to more "acoustic / large" music where in addition to the veracity of the sounds, even the acoustic scene - the "respite”Becomes fundamental, then the characteristics of the closed cap partially show their limit. Let's be clear, what must be there is everything, but the "breath", "the scene", "the etherity", are partially sacrificed.
So if your primary goal is pure listening (Hi-Fi style), perhaps the closed project is not exactly ideal (even if the Focal has tried with the Listen, to minimize the "closed headphones" effect. as much as possible) and Focal itself, as we have seen with the two EISA-AWARDs, offers models that are "more suitable" for use, vice versa if you are recording a bass, drums or other, these headphones will be very "friends" to you, as well as for fine-tuning songs that have a high dynamic component.
However, and I rewrite it, the sounds are all there and sufficiently precise to allow us to choose the right volume or the appropriate timbre, with the awareness that the next day, listening again through the monitors, the work previously performed on the headphones is not nullified. Anyone who has worked with headphones out of necessity (eg at night - traveling - in crowded areas ...) knows what I mean. I also noticed that the best reproduction, capable of making the nuances better appreciated even in the medium and high range (very extended), occurs with a slightly more sustained listening volume.
Fortunately the low distortion it does not cause listening fatigue, but if not necessary, I always advise not to exceed the volumes especially with the use of headphones, in order to preserve hearing. Now even on mobile phones and other multimedia players, when you try to turn up the listening volume, the message appears: the use of earphones / headphones at high volume and for a prolonged time can seriously damage hearing. Of course, this also applies to speakers and not just headphones.
Quick listening to single instruments, real or reproduced through a famous one VST of high quality, we note that these are there, as they should be, clean, dry and in all their "nakedness". The more the listening hours increase, the more you become friends with this headset, appreciating, among other things and more and more, also its quality as a "Swiss Army Knife".
In reproduction through this headphone there is everything the professional needs and maybe even more. Of course, staying on the subject of the Swiss army knife, if you use a screwdriver or a suitable professional pliers, those of the Swiss army knife will seem little to you. However, if you are doing a global job and you only have the pliers (i.e. only one excellent feature but all the others not perfectly adequate or absent) then you will see how you will miss the completeness of the Swiss army knife and in some cases to the point of not allowing yourself to completing the work or completing it in an inappropriate way.
Returning to Listen, I must confess that sometimes in pure listening I wanted a little more "air", a greater "breath" and therefore, also out of curiosity, I was pushed to try a different headset. Surprised, after a few minutes I realized how much I lacked the solidity, precision, compactness and lack of listening fatigue of the Focal. The closed headphone is a specific need of the professional to isolate and isolate listening from possible microphone capture and therefore the professional will use it! Well then, a closed headset that does its job well. If he also squeezes the "listening" to open models, even better.
Characteristics declared
Type Closed-back, circum-aural headphones
Impedance 32ohms
40mm paired transducer with a Mylar / Titanium cone
Sensitivity 122dB SPL @ 1kHz - / 1Vrms
THD 0.3% @ 1kHz / 100dB SPL
Frequency response 5Hz – 22kHz
Weight 10oz (280g)
Cables provided Coiled 16ft (5m) Straight 4.5ft (1.4m)
Connector 3.5mm jack plug with 4 conductors
Size 97/16 ″ x 80/8 ″ x 43/8 ″ (239 x 212 x 111mm)
Useful Information:
Official site: www.focal.com
Italian distributor: AlgamEko
Price: 230,00 Euro
Savio Aversano
