aerius

Pelegeya is like the Russian Floor Jansen - she can sing pretty much any song in any style and make it sound good.

Picked up another classic Kona.

I think you'll like this one. A different take on "Now We Are Free" from Gladiator. Regardless of what you think of them, the Russian version of The Voice is stacked with talent.

Old school beats

When a comedy band writes better rock songs than most rock bands

Welcome to the Great Awakening and what many outside the US/NATO controlled info bubble have been preaching for a long time. Once you've spent some time seeing the world from outside the Western media bubble you'll see that it's very different than the filtered view we get from our corporate overlords. I think you'll enjoy the journey, just be prepared to have a lot of long-held myths and preconceptions shattered.

When an Italian comedy band is more metal than most metal bands

Ukrainian folk song performed by the wonderful Pelageya. This is why I own Grado RS-1 headphones, songs like this one become hauntingly beautiful.

Youtube can make some pretty good suggestions at times.

Interesting mix of styles. Wait for Pelageya's vocal part.

Finally found out where that snippet is from at the start & end of this Pelageya song. It's Rachmaninoff.

All the Focals were running on Naim Uniti Atom amps with tablets to stream Qobuz . Didn't bring my own gear and no way to hook it up anyway, but I did plug a USB drive with my music into it.

I spent a fair bit of time with the Utopia at the audio show yesterday, definitely the most fun I've had since listening to your PS-1 setup back in the day. Punchy as hell and it just doesn't compress or soften even if I played very dynamic music way louder than I'd usually listen. Pretty much everything I've heard other than my LCD-XC and the RS-1/PS-1 will soften & compress to some extent, my Senn 580 and AKG K340 do it, and so did the Focal Clear I tried out yesterday. My first impression of the Utopia was that Focal took an RS-1, fixed up the treble tizz and bass, and then just cranked everything to 11. I can also see where @EdipisReks1 is coming from regarding the soundstage & placement, it's definitely more of a Grado soundstage than my LCD-XC or K340. Audezes are the best I've heard so far at creating a believable sound field, that is, not only placing voices & instruments in the correct place, but also getting them to project properly. For instance, a timpani will make a sphere of sound whereas a trumpet will make a cone of sound, most headphones I've heard will make both of them into a ball-ish shape. The Utopia has a sizably smaller soundstage than my LCD-XC and at times it did feel a bit cramped like there wasn't quite enough space for all the instruments & voices to breathe & project properly. I get why an audio engineer wouldn't want to use these for mixing. Overall, I think it's the best dynamic headphone I've heard so far. If I hadn't heard Audezes I don't think I'd have any real complaints on the Utopia. This is definitely another headphone which I need to hear in a quiet room to hear what it can really do.

Finally got to hear the CRBN at the Toronto Audio Fest. I camped out all morning at the Audeze booth and listened to the LCD-2, LCD-5, and CRBN since I wanted to know how they compare to my LCD-XC. I have very little experience with 'stats since I don't know anyone in my area who has one, only ones I've heard was some entry level Stax (crap) at a meet like 20 years ago and a SR-404/SRM-717 combo a fellow head-fi member had. 404 was nice on some music, but dynamics, impact, and bass were lacking, it couldn't rock or boogie. Show conditions so can't really tell much about low level detail or resolution, once I got to around the LCD-XC level it's all fairly similar, I'm not going to pretend I heard a bunch of details or room echoes in the LCD-5 or CRBN that I didn't on the LCD-XC. But the good news is the CRBN can rock out to Black Sabbath and Motorhead, and it can groove to Bob Marley though I do wish it had a bit more bass & impact like the LCD-2 or XC. Soundstage is nice, perspective seems to be a bit further back which I prefer, the LCD-XC sometimes puts me right in the conductor's position in an orchestra which can sound a bit wonky depending on the music. Overall, it sounds like an Audeze which is a good thing. I think the LCD-5, XC, and CRBN are more alike than different, being a closed headphone the XC has a sizable advantage in show conditions so I'd definitely want to spend more time with the flagships in a nice quiet room to hear how well they can resolve low level details, room boundaries, and all that other stuff that's hard to hear in a noisy room.