HeadphoneOverreview

Focal Clear Mg

Everyone agrees it hits like a speaker; almost nothing else about Focal's Clear replacement goes unargued — and some of the argument is really about which pair you got.

37 sourcesUpdated
$1,599Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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Focal Clear Mg

The short version

What to know.

The Clear Mg is Focal's 2021 replacement for the Clear: a 40 mm magnesium-dome open-back that is easy to drive (55 Ω, 104 dB/mW) and built and finished to a standard nearly every source praises on first contact. Sources agree firmly on its dynamics — punchy, effortless, speaker-like slam — and on the zero isolation of an open back, and fairly broadly on good-to-excellent imaging and detail for the class and on comfort most people wear for hours. Beyond that it is one of the more divisive headphones at its price. Treble splits three ways: the largest camp hears the damped low and mid treble as dark or veiled, a smaller one as exactly the fix the original Clear needed, and a third still finds an edge or a fatiguing shimmer up top. Tonality and midrange split between warm, rich and easy and honky, thick or uneven; bass between a highlight and a driver that some owners can make bottom out on loud sub-bass; build between premium materials and a headband and drivers that some owners have had fail; soundstage between intimate and spacious; and value lands near-even. The measurements explain part of the noise: five rigs put its 4–6 kHz band anywhere from about 1 to 7 dB below a Sennheiser HD 600, owners have documented mismatched earpads, and Focal told reviewers the darker curve is intended — so different pairs, and different pads, genuinely sound different.

About this product

The 2021 Focal Clear Mg — a 40 mm magnesium 'M'-shaped-dome open-back (55 Ω, 104 dB SPL / 1 mW, 450 g) in the chestnut-and-mixed-metals finish. It replaced the 2017 Clear (now called the 'Clear OG'), which used an aluminium-magnesium dome and has its own record. The black Clear Mg Professional is the same headphone acoustically — Focal told reviewers so, and RTINGS says the Professional is tuned the same — differing in colour, pads and supplied cables, so it shares this page. Not the beryllium Utopia or Stellia, and not the compact Azurys, Bathys or Hadenys.

Focal's Clear Mg arrived in early 2021 to replace what was probably the company's most-loved headphone. The recipe barely changed — 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 became pure magnesium, the grille behind the pad started following the driver's curve, and the finish turned chestnut. It launched at $1,499, lists at $1,599 today and is regularly sold for around $1,200, with a black Professional twin that is the same headphone in other clothes.

Its reception has been split from the first month. Some of the most influential measurers and reviewers called it a darker, thicker step back from the original; others called it the refinement the Clear needed and a best-in-class buy. Five years of owner reports add two practical threads to that argument — how loud it can play bass before the driver runs out of travel, and how well the headband and drivers hold up.

A good fit for

  • Listeners who want slam and immediacy above all — the one trait every source agrees on
  • Anyone who found the original Clear, HD 800 S or similar too bright or 'metallic'
  • Warm, smooth-sounding listening across rock, jazz, vocals and electronic music at moderate volume
  • People running modest or portable sources — it is genuinely easy to drive
  • Buyers paying a street price near $1,200 rather than list

Think twice if

  • You want air, sparkle and top-end bite — the largest camp hears it as dark
  • You are sensitive to honky or shouty mids, or to very high-treble shimmer
  • You listen very loud with sub-bass-heavy music or big bass EQ boosts — the driver can bottom out
  • You need a big, out-of-head soundstage
  • You want a headphone you can handle roughly for years — the headband is the documented weak point and isn't replaceable
  • You already own an original Clear that you like
  • You need isolation, or listen around other people

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

7 / 12topics divide opinion
dynamicsisolationimagingdetailcomforttreblebassvaluetonalitymidsbuildsoundstage
2 Strong agreement3 Mostly agree7 Divided opinions

Common ground8

  • Punchy, effortless, speaker-like dynamics — the one strength even its critics concede.
  • Open-back: no isolation, and it leaks freely both ways.
  • Precise imaging and good detail for the class, if not class-leading.

Points of contention6

  • Treble: dark and veiled to the largest camp, the long-awaited fix to a smaller one, and still edgy or fatiguing up top to a third — with rigs reading the same band 1–7 dB apart.
  • Tonality and mids: warm, rich and easy to most, honky, thick or uneven to a sizeable minority of influential reviewers.
  • Bass: a highlight to most, too much upper bass to some, and a driver that bottoms out on loud sub-bass to a recurring set of owners.

A closer listen.

12 topics · 7 divided
Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Treble

Leans criticalDivided opinions
Reviewer sentiment18 supporting sources
CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split three ways, and the largest camp has moved since launch. Everyone agrees the original Clear's low- and mid-treble peaks were pulled down; they disagree on what that left. The biggest group — RTINGS, crinacle, Joshua Valour, headphones.com's listener — hears it as dark, recessed or veiled, with cymbals and sibilants dulled. A smaller group calls it the fix: smoother, easier to listen to, the old 'metallic' zing gone. A third still hears something hot up top — What Hi-Fi's initial hard edge, Resolve's too-strong contrast above 10 kHz, and GoldenSound's fatiguing resonance around 18 kHz, which he warns younger listeners may find a deal-breaker.

Measured

Against each rig's own HD 600 (RTINGS: HD 650), the 4–6 kHz band sits 7.4 dB lower on oratory1990's GRAS 43AG, 6.4 dB on RTINGS' HMS II.3, 3.4 dB on SAI's GRAS 43AG-4, 1.0 dB on Super* Review and 0.7 dB on Kuulokenurkka's KB501X rig; 6–10 kHz is 1.7–5.3 dB lower on four of the five. Above 10 kHz four rigs sit level with or 1.4–3.1 dB above the HD 600 (oratory's sits 3.4 dB below). On oratory's rig the Mg is about 4 dB darker than the OG Clear from 4–10 kHz. Resolve (GRAS 43AG plus in-ear mics) finds the mid-treble 'noticeably pulled back' and the band above 10 kHz significantly elevated; RTINGS notes treble delivery varies with fit and seal.

vs. listeners — The rigs disagree by up to ~6–7 dB in exactly the disputed band — far more than they disagree on the HD 600 — so pairs differ, not just ears. crinacle's unit measured warmer and honkier than others until he swapped pads; owners report pairs whose two pads had different foam density; and Focal told Resolve the darker curve he and jude measured is the intended one. 'Dark' and 'smooth' can both be accurate reports of different pairs. The 18 kHz fatigue GoldenSound describes sits above where most rigs are reliable and above many adults' hearing.

Where it splits
Too dark — the top end is recessed or veiled, and cymbal and vocal detail go with it.43%

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

RTINGS
Smoothed in the right place — the fix the original Clear needed.28%

“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)
Still edgy somewhere — a hard edge, a hot upper treble or a fatiguing shimmer survives the damping.29%

“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

The hardware

Specifications.

Checked

Design

Type
Open-back over-ear
Drivers
1 × 40 mm driver (Magnesium 'M'-shaped dome)

Electrical

Impedance
55 Ω
Sensitivity
104 dB/mW≈ 116.6 dB/V

Connection

Cable
Detachable, dual-entry
Connector
3.5 mmcommunity-sourced
Plugs supplied
3.5 mm, 4-pin XLR, 6.35 mm

Physical

Weight
450 g

Manufacturer-published figures, not measurements · from focal.com, dam.focal-naim.com, dam.focal-naim.com. Connector not published by the maker — community-sourced from hands-on reviews: techradar.com, head-fi.org.

Follow the evidence

Sources 37

1–6 of 37 sources

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of

What to keep in mind 7

  1. A read of where reviews and owners land as of October 2026 — this headphone has been argued about since launch, and the field around it keeps moving.

  2. Pairs seem to differ more than usual. Test rigs disagree about this headphone's treble by several decibels, and some owners have found the two earpads on one pair weren't alike — so if yours sounds darker or brighter than a review says, that may be the unit, not your ears.

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