Headphone Reviews

Focal Spirit One ($279)
The Spirit One was designed as an around-the-ear, sealed, mobile headphone for use on the move with smartphones.

This is a pretty good looking headphone, but it looks better in pictures than in the flesh where it appears just a bit clunky and plasticy. Looks are deceiving though as this is a pretty nicely designed and well buit headphone from what I can tell. There are a number of metal parts in it's construction, and the materials look very nice. For example the black rubberized earpieces have a good feel and are nicely finished off with a chrome strip around the earpiece next to the earpad mounting. None the less, as you can see from the exploded diagram at the top of the page, there are a LOT of parts in these headphones, and numerous seam lines are apparent, especially in the headband construction. I'd say the look if these cans is good, but not great.

Comfort of the Spirit One is likewise good, but not great. Here one has to keep in mind the desire for these cans to work well as a mobile headset. The earpiece is somewhat small around the ear---those with large ears should probably shy away from these cans and have a look at the Sony MDR-1R. The caliper pressure of the headband is also fairly strong and these can hug your head a bit excessively. Earpad foam is ample, but a little stiff; headband padding is ample and just about right. In sum, however, these headphones are very secure on the head, and provide excellent isolation from outside noise---both desirable atributes of a mobile headset, but because of the somewhat tight fit, these are not headphones that can be worn for many hours continuously.

Accesorization is quite good, the Spirit One comes with: a hard sided carry case; a soft carry bag; 1/4"-1/8" adaptor; and airline adaptor. It also comes with two fabric covered cables, one 4 foot cable with three-button Apple remote, and one four and a half foot plain cable without remote. Both cables terminate at the left earpiece with a slender 1/8" stereo plug, and are terminated at the player end with a rather larger 1/8" stereo plug with threads for the 1/4" adaptor. Personally, I'd like to see the plain cable quite a bit longer for better mobility around the workspace in the home or office; the length of the short cable is just right for mobile use. I'd also like to see a more slender, 45 degree angle mini-plug for the player end of the cables. The current connector may be too large to fit into the jacks of players and phone buried in protective cases.

Sound Quality
While visiting here, Focal's lead engineer for the Spirit One, Ludovic Uhring-Cadart, spent quite a bit of time explaining the Titanium/Mylar diaphragm design, which included some finite element model animations of physical driver deformation while in movement. One of the special features focal brings to the table with these headphones is this very stiff diaphragm design. While the exact design is proprietary, this is a multi-layer part, and there are multiple stages in the manufacturing process to complete the diaphragm. It's not surprising in the least that the OEM manufacture had a tough time with this part, and, in a way, it's probably a good thing troubles occurred with it as it will keep attention tightly focussed on the part's performance. I say that because I do find these cans to have some positive and somewhat unique characteristics that are likely attributable to this part.

The Spirit One is a tight and punchy sounding headphone. The bass is very slightly emphasized, I'd say it's right on the money delivering heft in the lows without any sense of blurring or bloat. The bass is also very well extended into the lowest octaves. The mids are nicely balanced with the bass and the transition is good, but the mid to treble transition leaves a bit to be desired. It seems to me the upper-mids/lower-treble between 1kHz and 2kHz needs a bit of lift as voices lack a bit of presence in this area. The treble is nicely balanced and articulate, but may suffer from a bit of what I would call grain. It just seems to lack a bit of refinement. That's pretty much the nature of the beast with small sealed headphones, they're rarely open and refined sounding. You've got to pay a price for the isolation somewhere. I would say that the Focal Spirit One negotiates this problem as well as anyone, and the overall sound is very good in this category.

Conclusions
It saddens me no end that what would have otherwise been a remarkable first entry into the headphone market by Focal has been marred by a glitch in the manufacturers process. Thankfully, that appears to be behind us now, the problem has been identified and eradicated, and Focal has all the pieces in place to ensure everyone who purchased their Spirit One headphone will end up with a nice piece of kit.

While I think the look, sound, and comfort of the Sennheiser Momentum is a bit better overall, the Spirit One's bass and mids are tighter and more impactive, and they will provide superior isolation when used as a mobile headset. And while I think the Sony MDR-1R is dead sexy looking and more comfortable than both, it doesn't quite live up to either in terms of sound quality. Bottom line: the Focal Spirit One is a competent and competitive headset for the mobile listener, delivering very good isolation, good looks, and very good sound quality from portable devices. Sure, I'll recommend it!

Resources
Focal home page and Spirit One Product page.
Focal page giving instructions for Spirit One owners.
Head-Fi Focal Spirit One thread.