Focal is a consumer and professional audio
product company. It is the largest loudspeaker company in France, producing
both finished loudspeakers as well as manufacturing loudspeaker drivers. The
company has been in operation since 1979. In its 30 plus years of existence the
company has produced a bounty of loudspeaker and audio products, including its
current flagship $190,000 US Grande Utopia EM loudspeaker. Given this heritage,
when I got word that Focal was going to enter the headphone market, I was no less
than enthusiastic to get the details. How would Focal’s knowledge, experience
and expertise manifest itself in a hi-fi headphone product? Enter the Focal
Spirit One hi-fi mobile headphone.
The Spirit One is the result of two years
of research and development on the part of Focal. It is the company’s first
foray into the very competitive headphone market and is just the start of more
to come. Focal reportedly intends to introduce higher-end audiophile and
pro-audio models, to its Hi-Fi Headphone line in the future. In the meantime,
we have the Spirit One mobile headphone. Would the Spirit One headphone convey
“the Spirit of Sound” that Focal professes its products embody? Well, with its
arrival at my door, I was definitely eager to find out.
Focal
Spirit One Headphones
Design Features
Just one look at the Spirit One and I think
that most would agree, Focal has created a distinctive looking headphone
product. The Spirit One carries a handsome, progressive and upscale appearance
that makes for a unique fashion statement. The overall styling leans to the
masculine, while very successfully integrating stylistic lines, materials and
textures, including: brushed aluminum; silver accents; suede-textured
rubberized plastic; a robust headband with hefty hinge assemblies and
butter-soft leatherette skull and ear pads. Two color schemes are offered -
black with silver trim and white with grey and silver accents. With either,
Focal provides just a tease of color, red in both cases, concealed within the
ear cups. Maybe it’s just me but I thought the red might be a go at the risque
- like red lingerie for the ears. Both the black and white are distinctive and
tasteful, yet I’d expect that more men will go for the black, given its austere
appearance, while women will lean to the white, for a friskier facade.
Going from aesthetics to engineering, it’s
hard to not be fascinated with the intricate matrix of parts that go into a set
of Spirit One headphones, as seen in the exploded image on this page. Such
engineering is not commonplace and requires access to engineers, tools,
software and knowledge - all things that a company such as Focal has at its
disposal. Though all of the design, as I understand it, took place in France,
the actual product is made in China. Getting into the specifics - the Spirit
One uses 40 mm mylar/titanium dome diaphragms, has a 32 ohm nominal impedance
and a sensitivity of 104 dB/1 mW/1 kHz. This makes the Spirit One easy to
power, even with low output mobile devices such as iPhones or iPads. The frequency
response, especially impressive on the low-end, is stated from 6 Hz to 22 kHz.
The headphone cable is a 1.2 meter anti-tangle fabric sheathed OFC construction
with an in-line three-button smart device remote and mic. At each end of the
cable are gold plated mini-plugs (3.5 mm) that have an aluminum casing
emblazoned with the Focal name - kudos to the marketing team. This cable allows
for easy replacement or upgrade. The inline remote control allows for calls to
be picked-up or ended, volume adjustment, pause and forward/back skipping of
songs. It is designed to be fully compatible with most Apple iDevices,
including the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, with varying compatibility with other smart
devices. The ear cups use two-point hinges that allow them to fold-in or swivel
90 degrees for Fl at storage. In addition, an aluminum frame combined with
plastic pieces provides strength, flexibility and lightweight, at just 225
grams.
An
aluminum frame combined with plastic pieces provides strength, flexibility and
lightweight, at just 225 grams
The Spirit Ones employ a closed-back
circumaural design, which means that the ear cups are meant to sit directly
against the skull, completely encircling the ears. This together with the firm
spring hold of the headphones yields an ambient noise reduction of up to 20 dB.
However, since the concave of the ear cups measure just 4 cm (wide) x 5 cm
(high), I expect a true circumaural fit will be difficult for most - this was
my experience, even with my relatively small ears (3.5 cm by 6.5 cm). Still,
overall, I found that the isolation provided was more than adequate for most
situations including riding public transit or walking in a shopping mall. With
leatherette, as soft as a baby’s bottom, covering the articulating and spongy
ear cups, I expected the fit to be comfortable but I soon found out the Spirit
One grips like a Venus Fly Trap - taking some getting-used-to. That said, it
wasn’t long before I grew to find them very comfortable, even for extended
listening.
The accoutrements (it’s a French derived
word) provided with the Spirit One were generous, including: a screw-on 3.5 mm
to 6.5 mm adapter plug; twin-pin airline jack adapter; fabric drawstring travel
pouch and a fabric covered semi-hard molded, zippered storage case.
I should mention that during the tail end
of my evaluation, the Spirit One began emitting distortion from the right ear
piece. The Canadian distributor, Plurison, very quickly replaced the set,
allowing me to complete this review. Such unexpected things do happen but it
gives comfort that Focal offers a two-year manufacturer parts and labor
warranty on the Spirit One, which is double the usual length for headphones.
The
accoutrements (it’s a French derived word) provided with the Spirit One were
generous, including: a screw-on 3.5 mm to 6.5 mm adapter plug; twin-pin airline
jack adapter; fabric drawstring travel pouch and a fabric covered semi-hard
molded, zippered storage case
