that part is painted plastic, not metal, so it's susceptible to paint chips. i suggest contacting your distributor to ask what they can do about it.
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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4.5 years later they will tell him its reasonable wear and tear.
like why is this even a thread.
I love these headphones to bits audiowise wouldnt trade them for anything, but the build quality is a let down and the list goes on, both the 3.5mm and xlr cable broke within 2 months. The headband and earcups creak alot and now the paint is chipping off. As I said I love these so much and I will be using them until they’re broken but I have headphones half the price and have zero issues on these regards. :)
Agree. Why is this a thread?
have you seen these prices on these things? it’s disgraceful companies do it, even worse that buyers accept it.
It's a painted finish. The areas that are peeling are exactly where you go to grab it if you pick it up. Look at the finish on anything subject to wear and tear and see if it is without blemish after 4.5yeard handling . Give me like an hour to get to the office and I'll post a picture of a pair of focal elears that has had about 6hrs seated desk use, every day, since they were bought for daily use in 2016/17.
Tldr - wear and tear is individual use case. Op has had snaps, chips etc but given zero context of use, so this witch-hunt circle jerk you're all jumping on is pretty naive.
Atleast use like a few layers of painting or atleast a more durable paint, I mean its sprayed on a pure black plastic background so when marks do appear they really noticable. Ive always handled these like a baby they look like snaps,chips on the corners but theyre not, its just the paint that came of and gives it that look in the corners.
I have 20year old HD 600s
which are solid plastic, not painted, correct?
the headband and the earcups creak alot
most do on all headphones to varying degrees depending on what you're doing to them. once its sat on your actual head are they doing it cos neither my focal elears or utopias do it on my head. the last lot of hd600's i had creaked if you twisted them enough.
hd600 creak site:www.reddit.com
gives 715 threads.
Or am I just delusional?
yes and no, imo. you're 4.5 years in so yes. i would not expect anything painted onto another non porous surface that is subject to manual handling to be issue free after 4.5 years. if this happened within a few weeks or months, then absolutely not ok.
As I said previously both the XLR and 3.5mm cables broke within a month
out of interest, how did they? what action caused the snap cos that would certainly piss me off.
camera isn't really picking up the minor scratches and scuffs. but these headphones literally go on my head for 6hrs, then are placed down much as they are in the pictures until they're next used. they're not painted so they're nothing to chip.
The creaking isnt my biggest issue with them. The cables itself just felt cheaply made and would tangle constantly. So its been like 4 years that i've been using a custom cable and never looked back since. You have the Focal Elear so it seems theyre not painted as I cant see any chips.. Its not like I have much knowledgde on how these headphones are built, but why would you use black plastic earcups and put a layer of silver paint over them. I have no clue how they sprayed these. But wouldnt it be wise to first give them like a primer layer and then like 2 finished layers? So its atleast thicker and harder to break down? Cuz the coat on this is like 1/10th of a mm. I just think they've could done better at that area. I might be mistaken but who knows... I will still rock them. Im not trying to sound like a jerk.
So its been like 4 years that i've been using a custom cable and never looked back since
oh i thought you meant the actual connectors snapped, not the cable. they should do better yes and i'm guilty of just accepting that cables that are supplied by certain manufacturers are just shit cos they know the buyer will just use their own cable.
But wouldnt it be wise to first give them like a primer layer and then like 2 finished layers?
i hope someone else can chime in here as i think this might be wrong, but i think the thicker the layer of paint, the more likely you are to get cracking and then chips forming?
ideally focal should have made their own plastic cup in the colour they wanted instead of just painting the existing parts. so that's a compromise i'd hope to not see on a premium product.
Yeah fully agree here, with the resources they have they should've done better. Especially on the cups.
which are solid plastic, not painted, correct?
wouldn't have guessed that. makes the focals look very dogshit finish wise then, for sure.
it’s shouldn’t be a painted finish. everything is subject to wear and tear. it’s also subject to design and engineering. that’s why it shouldn’t be used by makers, or tolerated by customers. it’s not a necessary specification, especially for this unnecessary price. the naivety is overpaying for crap and thinking it’s unavoidable.
Are you expecting them to defy Science and create new chemicals or something?
I have 20 years old $100 AKG that do not have that kind of problem. They use plain colored plastic and metal finish. Why use paint…
use different materials. it’s that simple. they have a big enough budget.
Because certified reddit moment
If your pair is older than a few weeks then cherish every bit of chipped paint, it's your headphone now!
Ofcourse! I still love them as much since the day I got them. But im just suprised this can happen to a headphone at this price. I have headphones half the price with more hours on them and it doesnt even show a scratch. The painted coat is also extremely thin on the focal. So I guess they kinda rushed that part of the headphones. But other than that im still happy with these and still are my daily drivers ;)
Have had mine for a couple of months and yeah it does that.
Not acceptable for headphones with a price tag of 1500...
wow that is not acceptable for a 1000k headphone
For a million dollars, I’d agree with you
Even the Sennheiser HE1 don't come close to one million monehs.
That's pretty disappointing but not really surprising, Focal headphones are made to look good but they're still cheaply made. Would be nice if they started to make things properly even though it would of course hurt their profit margin a bit.
If you want to make these look good again and last longer too you could disassemble them and give them a new coat of paint using for example Cerakote or DuraCoat. If done with patience and care you can make them look good as new.
This isn’t an issue with the Pro versions (OG and MG) since they use black paint on top of black plastic. I also recall seeing something similar with the brown MG model chipping off. Really is a shame since they sound so good.
I'm just wondering what AMP they are connected to?
Topping DX3 PRO+
That French quality. Cool looking designs though.
Called patina