Jostled by the planar technology increasingly present on the market of very high-end Hifi headphones, the good old electrodynamic transducer is not yet buried.Despite its limitations, this genre continues to reinvent itself through new types of motors and ever more optimized membranes.In this little game, the French manufacturer Focal is perhaps the strongest.Its 2016 Utopia helmet as well as its closed-shell model Stellia are regularly cited as the peaks of helmeted Hifi.Can't do better?Maybe so.Indeed, a new version of the Utopia is finally available, enough to rekindle the dynamic flame.Type: open Hifi headphones with dynamic transducers ON-mag's opinion: (5/5) Price: €5,000>>> FIND ALL OUR TESTS IN OUR ONLINE GUIDES AND MAGAZINESFocal may repeat itself tirelessly with each new headset, but the formula is so well established, so irreproachable, that it is hard to see why the manufacturer would initiate a formal revolution.The Utopia version 2022 helmet is as such the finest example of the luxurious know-how of the Saint-Etienne manufacturer.Its design, as a whole, clearly recalls that of its predecessor, but it stands out thanks to several more modern details.The rear grille of the shells, dotted with cells of different sizes and shapes, gives an even more premium, even more radical character.Fortunately, Focal has been able to keep the almost timeless little touches of the first Utopia, such as the red motor of its transducer visible from the outside.The structure of the helmet is based mainly on forged recycled carbon.This gives it a less smooth appearance than its elder, less perfect, a little more organic perhaps.Focal has kept the headrest band and the cushions almost identically, in stitched leather with a beautiful effect.For the connectors, there is a Y layout (one Lemo-type mono connector per side).We can specify that each base is now integrated into the strapping of the shells, and not in a protrusion as was the case on the first Utopia helmet.In practice, this does not affect ergonomics or comfort.As you can imagine, this debauchery of luxury has a weight, even by betting on the lightness of carbon: the Focal Utopia 2022 headphones indeed weigh 490 g.It is therefore heavier than the majority of modern planar models, such as the Meze Elite or the Audeze LCD-5.This goes hand in hand with a certain rigidity of the structure, which is neither foldable nor swiveling.And yet the Utopia 2022 is very comfortable.Its headrest is padded enough not to apply pressure on the top of the skull and the adjustment system allows the helmet to be worn on a fairly wide variety of heads.Same observation concerning tightening, largely acceptable.In short, a very good headset for long listening sessions, if not the most comfortable model on the market.Let's finish this presentation of the shape by evoking the packaging of the helmet.Here, Focal unsurprisingly raises its standards to the same level as for the Stellia.The Utopia 2022 is delivered in an imposing box, which includes a rigid thermoformed cover, dressed in fabric (the only almost classic point of the lot) and a beautiful leather pouch.The latter accommodates a 3 m cable with 4-pin XLR termination, a 1.5 m cable with 3.5 mm jack termination and a 3.5 mm jack to 6.35 mm jack adapter.Focal thus remains at the top of premium, because no other Hifi headset can claim such a level of luxury and finish.Technically speaking, Focal is not very explicit about the difference between the transducer of the Utopia version 2016 and this new model.The most significant change seems to come from the motor based on an optimized copper/aluminum voice coil, which provides more linearity.Even if perfection is not of this world, the sound reproduction of the Focal Utopia 2022 headphones has everything to please the demanding audiophile.The manufacturer takes a good part of the sound signature of the previous version, while refining it.These headphones distill a slightly warm sound without being bassy, ​​but above all extremely precise and punchy if necessary.As such, Focal has clearly reduced the famous dip in the 3 kHz – 6 kHz of the first model, which seems beneficial to us.The new Utopia thus offers a more natural reproduction, very slightly more detailed, without being more versatile.This is felt on the very good mixes, where the details pile up without any difficulty, but also on the bad mixes, for which the Utopia 2022 proves to be as unforgivable as before.This character trait comes partly from its extension in the treble, as well as its slight peak around 10 kHz, a sign of a hint of brilliance.The breadth of its soundstage has no common measure with the Sennheiser HD 800 tenor and remains behind a pupil like the Empyrean of Meze.Nevertheless, like headphones like the LCD-5 from Audeze, we find a good general breadth, marked by an above-average depth.Above all, the separation of the instruments is royal.But the main strength of the Focal Utopia 2022, in our opinion, is its ability to alternate softness and energy, while retaining the richness of the timbres.With Jazz or other very smooth genres, he manages to brilliantly bring out the naturalness of the pieces, the small inflections of voice and instruments, while maintaining a touch of roundness.But ask him to spit hell, he also does it without flinching.The Utopia thus brings an exceptional impact in the basses, basses as precise and outlined as on the excellent planar models.Of course, the linearity in the bass remains below what the latter offer.Likewise, we would have preferred even more balance in the treble, in order to smooth out the few overflows and shine effects.Inevitably, the Focal Utopia needs to be powered by a sound system worthy of the name, starting with the amplification.If it is not an energy-guzzling headset overall, its bass is clearly expressed better with an amplifier that has it under the hood.For our part, we associated it with the excellent Ferrum Erco, the perfectly neutral personality of this DAC/amp marrying very well with the Utopia.A little too expensive, the Focal Utopia 2022 undoubtedly is, the additional 1,000 euros compared to the price of its elder classifying it beyond other very high-end headphones of its kind, generally at 4,000 euros.Still, this Hifi headset is a total experience, both in terms of its form, at the height of luxury, and its sound qualities.Detailed, musical, powerful, subtle, versatile (with good mixes), they are probably the best dynamic headphones ever created.View the embedded image gallery online at: https://www.on-mag.fr/index.php/topaudio/tests-auditions/24372-test-focal-utopia-2022-le-casque-hifi-al-apogee- of-the-dynamic-transducer-finds-a-second-wind#sigProIdb76a211eb6Frequency response measurement.In blue: the uncompensated response.In red: the compensated frequency response.The technicality of the helmet goes hand in hand with a good general balance and an extension that is still just as successful in the treble.>>> READ ALSO: ALL OUR HIFI HEADPHONES TESTSlogin / logout new account report abuseNOT TO BE MISSED ON ON-MAG- OUR FREE MAGAZINES - OUR SELECTION OF THE BEST PRODUCTS - OUR GOOD DEALS - OUR FAVORITE PRODUCTSON-mag is part of Coopetic Medias SIC-SA with variable capital, registered with RC Paris, n° 80457246900018 Legal information, contacts, writing, advertising, cookies, report abuse