Although I have no experience with your Focal headphones, I feel the issues you are having could be with the Rogue headphone amp and the Focal being a closed back design ( I prefer the open back headphones myself ). Don't give up as headphones can provide you with an excellent alternative to your main system and provide you with a great musical experience when done correctly. Seek out a way to play your Focals through a dedicated headphone amp and see how that turns out for you. Enjoy the music
Focal Celestee
I just received my first audiophile headphones, the Focal Celestee. I am not necessarily a HP fan, but I needed a birthday present, they were pretty highly recommended by professional & user reviews, my local audio store (even though they were OOS), they were a good price point & I thought I would enjoy them.
I first burned them in running for 24+ hours at a higher volume per Focal recommendation. I then began streaming from my system, several jazz musicians listening through my new Focal’s while A/B with my system speakers (my Rogue plays both headphones & speakers simultaneously).
My issue is the Focal’s don’t sound as good, to my ears, as playing music through my existing system or I had hoped. I understand Focal is not a leader in soundstage & while the Focal’s are more dynamic, I had hoped for a cleaner & clearer sound.
My question is if you think my issues are with the Focal’s or the built in headphone amp in my Rogue preamp and your resulting recommendations / fixes.
My system includes:
Rogue RP-1 pre with NOS Telefunkon medical, Siemens nickel plate & Brimar CV4003 NOS tubes (rolling)
LSA Warp 1 amp
KEF R11 speakers
Rythmic F12SE sub w/miniDSP equalization
Aurender N150 streaming Qobuz
Chord Qutest DAC
Pro-ject 1Xpression carbon classic with Hana ML cart
Rega Aria phono stage
A reason to think the problem may be in the Rogue is the stereophile RP-1 review. While the overall review was stellar, they stated: “… mostly average audio quality of the RP-1’s headphone output.”. But maybe not. Anyone using the RP-1 HP output?
Your thoughts and recommended actions would be appreciated. Thank you.