By aspect — in detail
The record's central argument, and it is a measurement disagreement about interpretation rather than about facts. Every rig finds the ear-gain peak sitting near 3.5 kHz instead of 3 kHz. The larger camp hears that as a character trait — vocals rich, timbre natural, nothing fatiguing. A smaller but well-equipped camp hears the same shift as a slightly coarse or thin voice that is measurably less natural than an HD 600. Both camps are describing the identical curve.
Measured
Four rigs, one finding. Resolve measured it on a Brüel & Kjær 5128 and a GRAS and calls the shifted ear gain the key feature to note. Kuulokenurkka, on a clone IEC-60318-4 coupler with KB501X pinnae against Harman 2018, puts the response peak 'slightly later at 3.5 kHz, and somewhat accentuated'. SoundGuys' own rig reads a narrower spike centred at 3.7 kHz. An owner posting his own B&K 5128 traces files the same band as a lower-treble peak. SoundGuys' MDAQS timbre score is nonetheless 4.7 out of 5.
⚠ vs. listeners — The interesting part is why the Hadenys wears the shift more lightly than its closed twin, and two analysts arrive at the same mechanism independently: Fc-Construct credits 'a touch of 1.25 kHz elevation that helps to balance out the higher ear gain', and Kuulokenurkka writes that the energy around 1.2 kHz 'likely prevents the 3.5 kHz emphasis from standing out too much', noting the more level Azurys shows the same peak more plainly. So the split is not about whether the peak exists — it is about how much of it your ears, and your recordings, let through.
Where it splits
The shifted peak is character, not a fault — vocals come through natural and rich, and nothing about it fatigues.71%
“This combined with warmth injected by the mid-bass bump gives the midrange of the Hadenys a natural, realistic presentation.”
Headfonics (Thomas)
The shift colours the timbre — a touch coarse, a touch thin, measurably less natural than the HD 600 benchmark.29%
“There is slight harshness at 3.5 kHz, so the timbre is not perfectly natural”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
The most-agreed strength on the record. Nearly every source is surprised by how much low end an open-back this size delivers, and how far down it reaches — the shelf climbs into the sub-bass rather than stopping at mid-bass, which sources call rare for the format. The spread is about quality rather than quantity: several note it is softer and less controlled than the tighter Focals, one owner finds the mid-bass tips into bloat, and there is a slight smearing where bass hands over to the lower mids.
“it is quite rare to find an open back headphone with a bass shelf that rises up into the sub bass like the Hadenys does”
Resolve (The HEADPHONE Community)
“Roll-off is present on the deepest notes but extension is generally quite impressive for an open-back headphone.”
Headfonics (Thomas)
“The improvement compared to, for example, the Sennheiser HD 600 series is immense.”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
Measured
SoundGuys' rig tracks its house preference curve closely from 50 Hz to about 1.5 kHz. Kuulokenurkka reads the bass as very close to the Harman 2018 target, tapering only at the very lowest frequencies. Fc-Construct notes a sizeable mid-bass hump on the B&K 5128 graph and a slight smearing into the lower mids around 250–300 Hz. Resolve measured harmonic distortion under 5% at 110 dB and reports it does not clip at 107 dB the way some older Focals do, so bass EQ is on the table.
Tonality
Strong consensus · 10 srcThe point of firmest agreement. Sources describe a well-judged, close-to-target balance with a warm tilt — a mild V by some readings, 'reference-adjacent' by others — that stays listenable across genres and forgives poor recordings. It is repeatedly framed as a deliberate break from the older, more forward Focal house sound rather than a budget version of it.
“a competent, well-tuned open back headphone with a bass shelf in the right spot to keep the mids clean sounding”
Resolve (The HEADPHONE Community)
“The Hadenys have a well-balanced signature with prominent mids and elevated bass and treble regions giving it a mild V-shaped signature.”
Headfonics (Thomas)
“very nicely tuned but with some quirks here and there”
Headphones.com (Fc-Construct)
Measured
Resolve notes the Hadenys drops the 1.5 kHz forward character of the older Clear/Elex generation, which is part of why it reads more spacious to him. Kuulokenurkka's overlay against Harman 2018 shows the tuning tracking the target closely apart from the shifted ear gain and a lightly lifted 1.2 kHz.
Broadly read as smooth, controlled and non-fatiguing, with the top octave deliberately restrained — several sources point out that, unusually, it measures with less air above 10 kHz than an HD 600. The cost is sparkle: 'good but not the point' is the common verdict, and one measured owner is a real dissent, hearing the lower treble as shouty and sometimes harsh. Two 6 kHz and 8.5 kHz wrinkles show up on one rig that its author attributes to pad compression on the silicone ears rather than the headphone.
“It is suitably bright, yet less fatiguing than many other headphones.”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
“Extension into the brilliance region is enough to give the presentation some shimmer and sparkle, but it is minimal and completely non-fatiguing.”
Headfonics (Thomas)
“the most offensive part of their tuning is the lower treble peak that can sometimes get quite annoying”
r/headphones (atyne_mar, 18-day owner with own B&K 5128 traces)
Measured
SoundGuys' rig has the response following its curve to 9 kHz, dropping off there and then recovering. Kuulokenurkka reports the 10–20 kHz region following Harman 2018 and explicitly dismisses the 6 kHz and 8.5 kHz peaks on its own graph as coupler artefacts, saying a sine sweep reveals nothing unusual there. Fc-Construct, comparing directly, finds the HD 600 has notably more energy above 10 kHz than the Hadenys.
Soundstage
Contested · 11 srcA clean split, and the two camps are not describing different units — they are weighting the same modest scale differently. One camp, led by the British hi-fi press, hears real three-dimensionality and depth. The other, which includes most of the measurement-minded sources, calls it centred, intimate and unremarkable in size. Kuulokenurkka sits with the second camp on the fact while rejecting it as a criticism, judging the stage well-proportioned and not a factor in the listening experience.
Measured
There is a proposed mechanism rather than a measurement here, and it is the same 3.5 kHz shift: Fc-Construct writes that vocals are 'perceptually pushed-back as a result of the upper mids tuning' with a centred image overall, and an owner in the Reddit thread makes the same connection, saying the upward-shifted ear gain 'may actually for some come off as if they are intimate'. Headfonics instead blames the compact cup, and Resolve — comparing against Focal's own older models — reads the Hadenys as the more spacious of them because it lacks their 1.5 kHz forwardness.
Where it splits
Genuinely spacious and three-dimensional — space and depth you can place performers inside of.42%
“the Focal creates a level of space and three dimensionality that is very impressive for a headphone, even one with the benefit of an open back design”
AVForums (Ed Selley)
Modest and centred — fine, but small for an open-back, with imaging doing the heavy lifting.58%
“The soundstage is not particularly wide”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
Consistently rated above the soundstage it sits in. Sources describe precise, evenly spaced placement and clean separation, with instruments rendered at believable size and off-centre movement tracked accurately. The main qualification is depth — several find the horizontal plane sharper than the front-to-back one — and one owner finds the whole spatial picture simply unremarkable.
“the headphones delineate the vocalist and different instruments to their true size in their own positions within the sound field”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
“Channel-to-channel movement is done with precision and accuracy.”
Headfonics (Thomas)
“notes in the horizontal field are quite precise and evenly spaced”
Headphones.com (Fc-Construct)
The most consistent 'good, not great' verdict on the record. Sources place resolution as comfortably sufficient for enjoyment and short of what critical listening or the dearer Focals offer, with the smoothness that makes it non-fatiguing also rounding off fine nuance. Owners are the most enthusiastic voices here, professional reviewers the most measured — a gap worth reading as expectation-setting rather than contradiction.
“While not lacking detail, the presentation has a softness that keeps minute nuances from standing out.”
Headfonics (Thomas)
“It sounds detailed, even if the transparency of the reproduction doesn't necessarily surpass the best planar headphones”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
“Transient detail is Focal-familiar: snappy but not etched.”
Sound & Vision (Mark Henninger)
Dynamics
Contested · 8 srcA genuine two-camp split, and the dividing line is what you are comparing against. Sources who put it next to Focal's own Clear, Elex or Utopia hear a clear step down in attack and immediacy. Sources judging it on its own terms — or against Sennheiser — hear a lively, punchy headphone. Headfonics adds a mechanism nobody else tests for: it needs volume, and goes flat when played quietly.
Measured
Both camps point at the same cause. Resolve calls it 'Subjectively good but not quite as hard hitting on the attack as the Clear, Elex or Utopia, likely due to the increased overall bass presence', and Fc-Construct puts it more bluntly: 'The Hadenys is using its bass elevation to compensate for the diminished sense of dynamics.' The shelf that everyone praises and the attack that some miss are the same design decision.
Where it splits
A step below classic Focal slam — pleasant rather than gripping, and it wants volume before it wakes up.52%
“the dynamics and energy at low volumes are lacking leaving the presentation somewhat dull”
Headfonics (Thomas)
Comfort
Contested · 10 srcSplit, but along a physical line rather than a matter of taste — and the sources say so themselves. At 294 g with deep memory-foam pads and a breathable cloth cover, it draws some of the highest comfort scores of any headphone in this price class. The complaints cluster on two things: a fairly firm clamp that several reviewers notice after 30 minutes to an hour, and a headband that is both narrow and short on adjustment range. Reviewers with average or small heads report near-perfect comfort; those who run the band near its limit warn that larger heads may not be accommodated at all.
Measured
SoundGuys scores comfort 9.8 out of 10 and reports many-hour sessions without issue; AVForums independently describes the yoke as 'relatively stiffly sprung which pushes the pad against the head with a fair amount of force'. The head-size caveat is corroborated three ways: Headfonics extends the band two detents on a small head and doubts it will suit large ones, Kuulokenurkka runs every Focal on this chassis near maximum, and an owner measures himself at the 6-of-8 setting on an average head.
Where it splits
All-day comfortable — light, soft, breathable, and forgiving of glasses.68%
“Hadenys therefore receives a perfect score from me for wearing comfort.”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
The clamp and the narrow headband make themselves felt over a long session, and the band may not fit a big head.32%
“The clamping force is also quite high, and discomfort begins to set in around the base of the ear pad after 30 or so minutes of listening.”
Headfonics (Thomas)
Widely praised, with one caveat and one outlier. Sources call the magnesium yoke, leather-and-cloth headband and French assembly genuinely premium for the money, and Fc-Construct argues this newer chassis fixed the headband and driver failures that dogged Focal's older models. The near-universal complaint is the stock cable, which has so much memory it coils back on itself in use. There is no balanced option at all — one 3.5 mm socket, full stop — which several reviewers call a miss at this price. One forum owner received a unit with a severe channel imbalance and returned it; that is a single report, and Resolve's read was a pad-to-baffle seal fault rather than a driver failure.
“It seems like despite the plastic parts, this newer frame design actually solved the failure points of their older models and the 40 mm driver is better installed.”
Headphones.com (Fc-Construct)
“The Hadenys cable constantly tries to roll itself back onto the reel, making it difficult to keep straight during use.”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
“the Hadenys is resolutely single ended and has a single 3.5mm input on the left hand housing”
AVForums (Ed Selley)
“excellent build quality - nice smell, materials, everything is nicely finished, headband clicks are crisp, swivel rotation is smooth, it feels quite premium”
r/headphones (atyne_mar, 18-day owner)
Isolation
Strong consensus · 5 srcAs designed: none worth counting. It is a genuinely open headphone — one owner measures it as about as open as an ATH-R70xa or HD 560S, with almost no occlusion — so it leaks outward and lets the room in. SoundGuys scores isolation 2.8 out of 10. The one dissenting note is Headfonics', who found the deep bass shelf survives outdoor listening well enough that the Hadenys can double as a going-out headphone in a way most open-backs cannot.
“Noise leakage might best be described as considerable but not total”
AVForums (Ed Selley)
“there is some on the Hadenys, albeit minimal”
Headfonics (Thomas)
Contested, and the argument has quietly changed since it was written. At $699 the majority verdict was that this is a serious Focal for well under Focal money, with the British press calling it best-in-class under £1,000. The dissent is specific rather than vague: the closed Azurys performs at roughly the same level for $150 less, which makes the open model look like the worse buy on price alone. Owners paying today's discounted street prices are the most positive voices; the reviewer who wanted it cheaper is the sharpest critic.
Measured
SoundGuys scores value 6.9 out of 10 — its lowest sub-score after isolation and portability — while still concluding the money is well spent. AVForums scores value for money 9 out of 10. Both were written at $699.
Where it splits
Very hard to beat at the price — a real high-end headphone for a fraction of what Focal usually charges.69%
“I believe it's difficult to find a significantly better open-back headphone than the Hadenys for 700 euros”
Kuulokenurkka (Headphone Corner)
Priced above what it delivers — the cheaper closed Azurys does the same job, and the gap is hard to justify.31%
“I do wish it was priced the same as the Azurys at $550 to cement a position as a superb price-to-performance headphone.”
Headphones.com (Fc-Construct)
