Focal Celestee Vs Aeon Noire - REVIEW 

It's nice to see more actually decent closed back options. They're so difficult to engineer properly such that they have sound quality to a level we'd expect for this price range

I tried out the Focal Celestee today. I absolutely loved them! The detail and clarity in the Celestee was off the hook! After listening to them for about a 1/2 hour I put on my Sennheiser HD 6XX back on and was kind of let down. I really really loved the sound of the Celestee.

Bro you're way fluent and smooth and very warm in your narration - full of all relevant information and almost just immaculate compared to so many other reviewers (not gonna put up names here lol), and maxsettings in the next one close. Very professionally done, your recent videos. Keep it up!

Enjoying the Celestee so far. I do agree, Soundstage is not so good. It also bleeds sound at high enough volume, not so great for the office if anyone is looking for the audiophile experience at work or on the go. You'll have to listen to these on medium to low volume at most to not have any bleeding. Noise isolation is surprisingly pretty good.

Awesome comparison, in terms of soundstage with closed-back headphones I find the Senn HD820 one of the best ones.

Now that you have reviewed the Focal Celestee as well as the Aeon 2 Noire you should try to get your hands on the Audeze LCD-XC with the carbon fiber cups.

Really good over all descriptions how they both sounds.Great job.👍🏼🤚👍🏼🤚......

The celestee looks so good. I cant get out of my mind the focal girl saying "celestee" with that french accent LoL.

these are the sexiest focal HP after radiance

Thanks for the video DMS! I also would love to see a HD 600 updated review.

Another Noire review? Awesome! Thanks DMS!

you should check out the Kennerton closed backs like the Gjallarhorn GH50 JM Edition

I had the same issue you describe with the Celestee in terms of sound stage, with the Elegia. I found the issue was the Focal Pads, so I glued on a pair of Dekoni suedes for a Beyer DT. That solved the issue. I found the sound stage prior tall, narrow, with an odd reverb. After it was much smoother, I think the pad thickness and material aid in tuning/taming the reverb with those drivers and those cups.

I bought the Noire yesterday at Canjam London where it won the tough battle with many other closed backs. Shortlisted were these, the Bokeh, the Verite Closed and the Azurys. The verite was probably the very best but, since I liked the open even more, I decided to discard them and wait for the open to pop up in the used market. The Bokeh had less resolution and the sound was not as clean as the Noire. Discarded. Azurys was a very tempting lower cost option. I liked really a lot, preferring to the Celestee (which I own) by a large margin. Super comfortable, good clean bass. I remained undecided until 4 Pm (closure at 5) and eventually decided fir the Noire. I think it sounds more hifi than the Azurys and it folds to a really compact shape. It also retains it value well, if one day I decide to sell. The main negative of these is that they are much trickier to power than the super-easy Azurys. The low impedence of 14 ohm is not exactly a blessing and some devices I have struggle a lot (cayin HA-3A being the most notable example).

Great Video and review, as usual! I personally own the Aeon Noire 2 and find the soundstage quite good. But to be honest, I still feel as if there could be more width to the soundstage. Is there any headphone that you would recommend for a wider soundstage, which is also portable? The LCD XC seems to be great, but is less portable due to its sheer size.

I'd like to see the Celeste a comparison versus the DT177X GO, as you still don't have a review on that yet!

I find my priorities for closed back headphones are detail, imaging, soundstage (preferably large), dynamic’s and air. I’m no bass head but I do appreciate speed and texture in that department. I would love to see a list ranking headphones with those considerations in that order as I have yet to see one. Your reviews definitely give me a good idea when you compare one to another but in overall standing in the larger context of what’s out there I still haven’t a clue. I watch a lot of reviews and consider yours as (must see’s)! Thank you for your excellent and insightful posts!

Was actually considering both of these phones, thanks for the vs! I'm definitely leaning towards the nior now (love me some solid sub-bass and have heard they're comfort kings).

Enjoyed the comparison, but I think I'd like to add something to the discussion about the builds of the headphones. The headband DCA headphones (the nitinol) is nigh-indestructible and I haven't heard much about the cups breaking or failing, either. I have heard complaints from people who think that the hinge is a weak point, which I think is completely reasonable, but other than that, I think that the build is *very* solid. Conversely, I have heard quite a bit about Focal headphones having issues, especially as it pertains to drivers dying. That shouldn't be the case with this new can (since the Celestee seems to use the more robust voice coil), but there still exists the concern about other components, like the cable and headband. The cables that Focal provide are notoriously..... unsatisfactory for the price point, and the headbands have been known to break rather easily. Though to be fair, the headband issues seems to be down to user error in transportation during portable use. Point is, I think the build may seem nicer on the Celestee, but I'm pretty sure that the DCA can would take more of a beating. I could be wrong, though! Again, nice comparison, and keep making this kind of content!

Thanks for the excellent comparison. 👍

Do you have any plan on reviewing the different Kennerton open / closed, or their LSA family members? I'm hearing more and more about these headphones, but none of the major reviewers I usually watch reviews from have covered them.

Yo! Can’t wait to hear about that wall, does it work for sound diffraction or does it just look neat?

Every time I watch any audio review like yours, my wallet will say "NO".

Hey DMS, could it be possible to have a ranking list of Headphones listed by usage?Something like Top 10 Headphones

I've never used the dampening for the Dan Clark. The treble only bothers me on a few music tracks. I like that it is more transportable than the Focal ( I do use a Chord Mojo2 to drive them) so I guess "more transportable" is debatable for me. :) Thanks for the great video.

@DMS where is that video where you compare damping? can't find...

Must say I wasn't a fan of the original Aeon or the Focal Elegia, so interesting to hear the favourable tonal descriptions here. Aeon was super comfortable though.

hey man, big fan from Venezuela, if you have to choose for best soundstage and imaging for fps gaming in closed back headphone (its a must) what would be your choice

You can use the noire without the tuning filter if you change the pad to their perforated leather pads.

sweet as usual. dropping a com also to add to the coms that the yt algr seems to enjoy

Nice haircut and great video! #MomApproved❤️

Would like to know how the Celestee compare to the Radiance? Any input would be appreciated.

My limited experience with DCA headphones would lead me to suspect that several hundred hours of burn-in might be needed before their dynamics improve. They won't reach the level of the Focal but they do get to an acceptable level. I might be wrong about the Aeon's but I do know that my Ether CX showed significant improvement once above the 350 hour mark.

Yo DMS, can you please release a music playlist with the tracks you are hearing while testing headphones? Greetings from Uganda

What headphones are you using now. Are you still favoring the Sennheiser 6XX?

I know it's not in the same price bracket, but I wanted to ask, how would these two headphones compare to the ZMF Eikon? (I know your review of that headphone is several years old, but I figured I'd ask.)

Looking forward to the Elegia review as I am considering them as they are discounted due to being discontinued. Plus would love to see if you agree or disagree with Z.

Just curious but I've seen alot of reviews really liking the Celestee but when I read Crinacle's initial review of it he more or less roundly panned the Celestee and ranked it pretty low, in terms of detail and tonal balance. I was curious about people's thoughts on this tbh.

That looks amazing 10:30

I'm not sure what to think about the Noire. DMS seems to really like the Noire, but other reviewers call them lifeless. DMS raves about their bass and other reviewers say they have no bass and no impact.

Please review MEST mkii.

Thanks, but I wish you would have left out the 'background' music track

Wich closed-back do you recommand for a pretty good soundstage ?

I don’t understand why every review of closed back headphone sound leaks is not mention, once headphone mostly will be used on the go is very important to know if the listeners is disturbing a co-worker or if someone is snooping around listening to my personal music. I fell that should be a standard like construction of headphone is ......

Ive owned the celestee and thought they sounded pretty good. Quite clear and puchy. I could live with the narrow sound stage as you get used to it but didn't like the thin mids or the shoutyness.

The cut is fresh my dude

I'm deciding between the Aeon 2 Noire and Focal Radiance, have you compared them, and which one do you prefer? I see they have quite similar FRs. I'm getting them for use mostly outside with a portable amp. Thanks!

Which one is the best for male vocals listening between aeon noire and focal celestee ?.

How does Noire compare to the bass kings Fostex X00 Ebony, for example in treble and bass quality/quantity?

can you pls tell me where you got the black geometrical background tiles you have?

I think the noir with a set of akg361 may be the way for me

Hey DMS, is there another well tuned closed or open high-end-detailed headphone with the magic of T50 Argon or Noire with that tight huge and not muddy low end punch and big soundstage that doesn't have any bad treble peaks and treble is relaxed, slightly more lower than you would like below the Harman curve? I really thought that my T60RP Argons will be as perfect, but somewhere a treble peak bugs me with suede pads. Would you review them by any chance?

No soundstage = goodbye

Please help I’m torn between the Celestee and the Aeon 2 noire I will using them mostly for portable I have an ifi hipdac but planning on getting a much stronger portable dac/amp plus I head the Elegia starts to clip during deeper bass notes at higher volume and I’m thinking that the celestee can’t be to far from the Elegia

Have both headphones here atm. I agree on all points of your comparison. The soundstage of the celestee is really, really bad. It sounds almost broken. Also there is this weird closed cup echo like quality to the sound which I gave up trying to fix with EQ. Just wished the Aeon 2 Noire had better dynamics. Everything else is great. I recommend not using the filters for the Aeons. It dampens the dynamics even more. Just use some EQ to shelf down a bit of the high frequency engergy.

Getting my first listen today to the Celestee. I have a bunch of Flac and Hi-Res tuneage on my laptop and am using my Dragonfly Cobalt after giving a little time to use straight out of my laptop. The DAC is really necessary in my book. I could hear music and it wasn't horrible but the difference with and without is enormous. I hate the included cable because of what it is. And it's too short for my desktop needs. I purchased a cheap cable and haven't had much chance to compare the two but don't put a lot of stock in the cable argument. I don't know about closed back headphones... this pair sounds good but I have been spoiled maybe by my LCD-2 and the open back can in general. I'll give it some time because it sounds good enough, may get a bit better as I adjust to the different signature and it really is a great looking, well built piece of gear.

I completely agree with your review. Beside design, which I love, Celeste are just poorly tuned. Narrow sound stage and very flat sound. Really nothing special in it's price range. If you looking for HiFi sound signature, you should get instead the unicorn of 2022, which are MEZE 109 PRO. Since 3 months my reference. I can guarantee, that if you try them, you forgot about Focal's once for all.

New video, yay

check the denon d9200

My mom would love that haircut! ❤️

I would like to buy a portable/transportable closed-back headphone, but nothing seems to check all of the boxes.

if the Celestee is narrower than HD6xx then i can imagine how 'narrow' it can be

couldn't decide, took both)

Looking forward to the review of the one that sucks!

You were right.

ELEGIA VS NOIRE

why have you never reviewed the HD 800 S?

For bass response and soundstage Noire or lcd-2c??

please review STAX-SR009S

What is the name of the song which starts at 10:05 ?

This confuses me - for $1000 I would expect to be blown away? :/

No one move. There's 361 likes on the vid.

Just buy the Noir and the K361... problem solved.

The akg 361 is nowhere near the focal celestee. Similar sound signature but not even close in terms of actual sound quality. little FYI for those scratching there heads 👍

Celestee is not easy to drive. I have yet to hear hear any DAP that doesn’t make Focal headphones sound muffled and sterile.

What's the one that sucks?

jeez 451 views rn

i like ur cut G

Does anyone feel like Dan Clark is getting so expensive on the upper end that it is offensive enough not to buy from them? $3000 headphones? Come on.

Nice haircut

if you dint have those girly earrings you may become my boyfriend.

Moded vs stock is useless and it took you half the video to mention it.

I tested the Celestee (on a focal arch), and the new Radiance. The Celestee was absolute garbage imo, Radiance was alright, but I don't like fun-sounding headphones so I'm not the target audience

DMS: The Celestee is not better, but please buy it over the better headphone, because I am payed

Good review. Ugliest glasses ever.