HeadphoneOverreview

Focal Clear Mg

Name: Focal Clear Mg
Brand: Focal

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.

69/ 100
Review score

14 sourcesUpdated 2026-08-06

$1,499Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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The short version

What to know.

The Clear Mg is Focal's 2021 open-back mid-tier: a 40 mm magnesium-dome dynamic that is easy to drive (55 Ω, 104 dB), built to a standard nearly every source calls premium, and voiced warm. Sources agree strongly on three things — the dynamics are its signature strength (punchy, immediate, speaker-like), the imaging and layering are excellent, and, being open-back, it isolates nothing and leaks freely. They agree fairly broadly that the tuning is warm and slightly dark, that the midrange is natural if a touch polite up top, that the soundstage is intimate-to-medium rather than expansive for an open-back, and that comfort is good with a caveat about clamp and limited cup swivel. The disagreements are the decision-relevant part. Treble splits three ways: one camp hears the damped low treble as the fix the original Clear needed, one hears it as over-damped — RTINGS files the range as recessed, with dull sibilants — and a third still hears a hard edge or a narrow ringing band. Bass splits three ways too, but the graphs reconcile it: the shelf sits above roughly 100 Hz, so 'too much bass for monitoring' and 'not enough down low' are both true of the same curve, and the driver hits its excursion limit below 35 Hz when pushed hard. Value is near-evenly split — a genuine high-end headphone at the price to one side, hard to justify against the cheaper original and against rivals to the other. Build feel is widely praised, but the non-replaceable headband is a documented weak point and pads are expensive.

About this product

The 2021 Focal Clear Mg — a 40 mm pure-magnesium 'M'-dome open-back dynamic (55 Ω, 104 dB SPL / 1 mW, 450 g), in the chestnut-and-mixed-metals colourway. It replaced the 2017 Clear (now called the 'Clear OG'), which used an aluminium-magnesium alloy dome and is covered by its own record. The black Clear Mg Professional is the SAME headphone acoustically — Focal's own measurements reviewer and RTINGS both say so — differing only in colourway, packaging and supplied cables, so it shares this record. Not the beryllium Utopia or Stellia, and not the compact 'ys' line (Azurys, Bathys, Hadenys).

Focal's Clear Mg arrived in early 2021 to replace what was probably the company's most-loved headphone. The recipe is nearly unchanged — the same 40 mm inverted 'M' dome, the same easy 55 Ω / 104 dB load, the same 450 g French-built chassis — but the dome is now pure magnesium instead of an aluminium-magnesium alloy, and the honeycomb grille in front of it follows the driver's curve rather than sitting flat. It launched at $1,499 in a chestnut-and-mixed-metals finish, with a black Professional twin that is the same headphone in other clothes.

What changed most is the voicing. Measured on three different rigs, the Mg reads warmer and fuller than the original: the low-treble peaks that made the old Clear polarizing are damped, and there is more weight through the upper bass. Whether that reads as a fix or as a loss is the whole conversation — and it is a genuinely split one, with a second argument about whether the newer, dearer model earns its place over the cheaper headphone it replaced.

A good fit for

Listeners who want slam and immediacy over analytical dissection
Anyone who found the original Clear (or the HD 800 S) too bright or fatiguing
People running modest or portable sources — it is genuinely easy to drive
Rock, jazz, acoustic and vocal listening where body and punch matter more than air
Buyers who value build and looks and will keep the headphone for years

Think twice if

You want air, sparkle and top-end bite — the low treble is deliberately damped
You need a big, out-of-head soundstage; this one is intimate to medium
You're mixing or mastering and need a flat upper-bass-to-low-mid transition
You already own the original Clear or Clear Professional — most sources say the gain is small
You listen very loud with deep bass content; the driver reaches its excursion limit below 35 Hz
You need isolation, or listen around other people
You want maximum resolution per dollar — rivals at the price out-resolve it

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

3 / 12topics divide opinion

3 Strong agreement6 Mostly agree3 Divided opinions

Common ground8

Punchy, immediate, speaker-like dynamics — the signature strength, conceded even by its critics.
Precise imaging and clean layering; instruments stay separated in dense mixes.
Warm, full-bodied and slightly dark overall — noticeably fuller than the original Clear.
Premium materials, finish and accessories, made in France.
Very easy to drive (55 Ω, 104 dB/mW) — it runs off a dongle, though it scales with better gear.
Pad choice moves the sound meaningfully; third-party pads are a real tuning lever.
Open-back: no isolation, and it leaks freely both ways.
The Clear Mg Professional is the same headphone acoustically — colour, packaging and cables differ.

Points of contention4

Treble: a three-way split — the damped low treble is 'the fix the Clear needed' to one camp, 'recessed, with dull sibilants' to RTINGS, and 'still has a hard edge or a 5–6 kHz ring' to a third.
Bass: called a highlight by most, too light in the sub-bass by RTINGS and one listener, and too heavy in the upper bass by a mixing engineer — the same curve read from three directions.
Value: near-evenly split between 'right up there with the best at the price' and 'undercut by its own cheaper predecessor for little gain'.
Whether the warm tilt is the appeal or the problem — Headphones.com lists 'too colored for some' among its own dislikes, and a minority hear the result as dry rather than warm.

A closer listen.

12 topics · 3 divided

Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Choose a topic

Treble

Leans criticalDivided opinions

Reviewer sentiment9 supporting sources

CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

The defining argument, and it runs three ways rather than two. Everyone measures the same thing — the original Clear's low-treble peaks have been damped — but they read it differently. The largest camp calls that the fix the Clear needed; a second says it went too far, with RTINGS filing the range as recessed and sibilants as dull; a third still hears a hard edge or a narrow ringing band around 5–6 kHz. Air above 10 kHz is the one place several sources agree it gained.

Measured

Three independent rig classes agree on the direction. SBAF (MiniDSP EARS plus a flat-plate coupler) reads the upper mids and lower treble as muted with the highs returning from the mid-treble up; Head-Fi's Brüel & Kjær 5128 overlay of Clear vs Clear Mg shows the same smoothing plus better extension above 10 kHz; RTINGS scores the treble range underemphasized and notes its delivery varies with fit and seal. Headphones.com adds a ~4.5 kHz dip that dampens instrument overtones and a little extra energy in the air band.

vs. listeners — The damping is not in dispute — where it lands is. The same measured dip is 'easier to listen to' and 'veils the upper harmonics' depending on how much low treble you want, and the surviving 'it's still sharp' reports cluster on narrow bands (a lower-treble edge, a 5–6 kHz ring) that a smoothed average curve hides and that RTINGS says fit and seal move.

Where it splits

Smoothed in exactly the right place — the fix the original Clear needed.43%

“I think that the new Clear MG tuning is an improvement over the original as the changes to the treble I think make it quite a bit easier to listen to”
Headphones.com (Chrono)

Over-damped — the top end is recessed, and detail and bite go with it.29%

“their treble range is a bit recessed, which veils the upper harmonics of vocals while sibilants are dull”
RTINGS

Still hot somewhere — a hard edge or a narrow ringing band survives the damping.28%

“Initial listening shows up a slightly hard and sharp edge in the lower treble region, but this eases off in use to leave an etched but informative sound.”
What Hi-Fi?

Link to this topic

Bass

Leans positiveDivided opinions

Reviewer sentiment10 supporting sources

CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split — but the split resolves once you separate the bands. Most hear it as a highlight: rich, punchy, well-extended for a dynamic and clean under load. A mixing engineer hears too much of it, a broad hump in the upper bass that masks low-mid detail. RTINGS and one listener hear too little, because the sub-bass is where it gives out. Both complaints are about the same curve: the added weight sits above roughly 100 Hz, and below 35 Hz the driver runs into its physical limits.

Measured

Headphones.com measures a more generous shelf below 100 Hz than the original Clear with only the slightest roll-off under 35 Hz; RTINGS scores low-bass as lacking; SBAF's distortion sweeps at several SPLs find the overall pattern clean — second order above third, no peaks — but note the driver hits physical excursion limits below 35 Hz when pushed hard, the same limit Focal's other big dynamics share.

vs. listeners — 'Too much bass' and 'lacks low-bass' are not a contradiction — they describe different bands of one response. The lift is upper-bass (a hump Cheriff places around 120–200 Hz), which is exactly what a mixing engineer objects to and what a listener enjoys; the shortfall is sub-bass, which is what a lab bench flags. How loud you listen decides whether the excursion limit ever shows up: The Headphoneer reports it staying clean on demanding bass tracks, while SBAF finds the limit on the bench.

Where it splits

A highlight — rich, punchy and better extended than almost any dynamic at the price.57%

“As with the original Clear, the Clear MG delivers some of the best bass I’ve heard on a dynamic driver headphone.”
Headphones.com (Chrono)

Too light down low — the sub-bass is where it runs out.33%

“they lack a bit of low-bass”
RTINGS

Too much of it in the upper bass — it masks low-mid detail and undercuts the monitoring pitch.10%

“I find that the increased bass does mask some detail in the low mids, slightly, compared to the transition between bass and mids on the original Clear.”
Jake Cheriff (Medium)

Link to this topic

Follow the evidence

Sources 14

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of 2026-08-06

What to keep in mind 7

A read of where the reviews land as of August 2026 — tastes move, and so does the field around this headphone.
Price is the moving part of the value argument: it runs from about $1,101 on Amazon to $1,599 at specialist dealers, with used pairs near $700. Most of the reviews here were written against $1,499, so read the value verdicts against what you'd actually pay.
This is the Clear Mg, not the original 2017 Clear — the two are voiced differently, so impressions of one don't carry straight over. The black Clear Mg Professional is the same headphone acoustically and shares this page.
The treble is the whole debate. Whether the damped top end reads as relief or as a veil depends on your ears and your recordings, and different test rigs read that region a little differently.
Pads change it more than usual. Worn stock pads, or third-party replacements, will shift the balance — worth knowing if you're buying used or reading someone else's impressions.
The headband is the part owners worry about and it isn't replaceable, so it's worth handling with two hands and factoring into a long-term or second-hand purchase.
Owner star ratings skew positive, since they mostly come from people who chose to buy it — and a few hundred ratings is a small sample.

Where to buy Product & retailer links

Focal Clear Mg Amazon

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Focal Clear Mg

What to know.

A good fit for

Think twice if

Agreement &
disagreement.

Common ground8

Points of contention4

A closer listen.

Treble

Measured

Bass

Measured

Value

Measured

Tonality

Measured

Dynamics

Measured

Imaging

Measured

Isolation

Measured

Build

Measured

Comfort

Measured

Mids

Measured

Detail

Measured

Soundstage

Measured

Sources 14

Limitations & method.

What to keep in mind 7