Overreviews — Company
Focal
Focal (Focal-JMLab) is a French high-fidelity audio manufacturer founded in 1979 by Jacques Mahul and based in Saint-Étienne, France, where it designs and builds its own drivers with an emphasis on full in-house production. Best known for high-end loudspeakers and car audio, it entered headphones in 2012 and makes them in France — including the open-back Elear, Clear and beryllium-driver Utopia and the closed-back Stellia and Bathys.
- Founded
- 1979
- Headquarters
- Saint-Étienne, France
- Known for
- French-made high-end headphones & speakers
- Reviews
- 8 reviews
Latest reviews
Headphone· $499· 2026-08-07Focal Azurys
Half the reviews call its treble bright, half call it dark — and the measurements show why both are right.
17 sourcesconsensus 746 contested
Headphone· $649· 2026-08-06Focal Hadenys
One measured quirk — ear gain shifted a half-octave high — explains almost every argument reviewers have about it.
16 sourcesconsensus 735 contested
Headphone· $1499· 2026-08-06Focal Clear Mg
Focal took the Clear's famous treble peaks away and filled in its upper bass — which fixed the old complaint and started a brand-new argument.
14 sourcesconsensus 693 contested
- Headphone· $500
Focal Elex
The open-back that turned a Sennheiser upgrade path into a decade-long argument — and whose best trick and worst fault share one cause.
consensus 8213 sources2026-08-05 - Headphone· $650
Focal Radiance
Focal’s most isolating closed-back — and a 12 kHz spike half the room never heard.
consensus 7815 sources2026-08-05 - Headphone· $4999
Focal Utopia (2022)
Focal's beryllium summit-fi flagship, refreshed a touch warmer — reference resolution, effortless dynamics, pinpoint imaging and jewel-grade build that almost nobody disputes, over an intimate soundstage, a smoothed treble, a bass some want EQ'd, and a ~$5,000 price that reopens the diminishing-returns debate.
consensus 7211 sources2026-07-21