Focal Azurys and Hadenys Headphones: A Video Review

The new Focal The Azurys and Hadenys. Both of them share similar traits but do have a couple of key differences.

Starting with what is similar, both of these headphones are made from plastic with metal in the headband and decorating the earcups and fabric cups. They both have cups that swivel 90° to lie flat. They both feature a 40mm Aluminum/ Magnesium ‘M’-shaped dome driver. They share an impedance of 26 ohms, a 3.5 mm connector jack and they both come with a fabric-wrapped hardshell case.

Azurys

Hadenys

Both look very similar, apart from the color and pattern. The Hadenys is Brown (almost burnt umber) with a hexagon pattern on the ear cups which you’ll see on all Focal open-back cans. Conversely, the Azurys is Sky Blue with circles on the ear cups which you’ll see on all Focal closed-back cans. I must admit, I have a touch of Trypophobia, and these headphones come close to triggering it for me.

They’re both very close in weight. I couldn’t tell them apart for the most part.

The way Focal is positioning these headphones, the Hadenys (the brown ones) are for at-home listening while the Azurys (the blue ones) are for walking around, commuting to work, and being around people.

Being closed back, the Azurys naturally block out some environmental sounds and have minimal sound leakage. This is helpful because if I’m recording a podcast, like our Sorta HiFi episodes, I need something closed-back so it doesn’t leak a lot of audio that would get picked up by my overhead microphone.

Whereas the Hadenys, being open-back, leak sound so I use them in a place where I won’t disturb other people. Most of the time that’s me at home listening to music during off-hours because I end up staying up late and working. And you know, if I want to watch a movie late at night and not have my neighbors hate me, I’ll throw these on and give them a listen.

The Hadenys come packed with a quarter-inch cable adapter whereas the Azurys do not. The adapter helps with connecting to most integrated amplifiers.

The pads are medium-sized. Not too big and not too small. And they fit over my ears perfectly.

Overall, they look nice, I personally gravitate to the Hadenys, as they’re more subdued in appearance because of the colorway. And their earcups are softer, the material feels different, less rigid, and stiff.

Both headphones have a relatively neutral sound signature with a slight rise in the bass.

On the Azurys I would say that it’s slightly more noticeable, but only if you were flipping between the two. It’s definitely a purposefully colored sound, a sound that I prefer for personal listening.

Comparing these two headphones while listening to Leon Bridges’ Coming Home was noteworthy. Played off the Activo P1 DAP, the bass wasn’t muddy. The mids too are very much present. It’s an easy and engaging listen. And up top, depending on how loud I go, the sound errs on the easy side of present. It’s only when I crank up the volume to a zone that I’d rather not be in that things get grating. But I think it’s more to do with the Activo as its volume feels limited and I find myself having to keep it cranked.

I have heard that open-back headphones don’t have the deepest bass. This is something I find surprising as my Sennheiser HD 650s, have nice deep bass. Balanced but deep. The Hadenys follow suit. Not at the same scale though, but still deep.

But when I play “Pseudo Echo” from Consequence at my desk via the Cambridge DAC Magic 200M, the Azurys edge out the Hadenys with bass presence. The more robust amplification makes it feel as if I changed the eq. It’s fuller down low with the mids slightly bleeding over to the lows. Whereas the Hadenys are more neutral. And the atmospherics and subtleties in the track that enhance the song are more present which makes listening, over time, more enjoyable.

The Hadenys treble is less pronounced than the Azurys here and lends a more balanced sound to my ears.

Scaling up to the Teac UD507 DAC Headphone Amplifier DAC, and playing “Desire Path” from Cern, the frenetic drums do tend to smear together on both of these headphones, especially during the shuffles. But the smearing is more noticeable on the Azurys than on the Hadenys. The aforementioned comment about bass presence is applicable here too.

Switching to “Jungle Fever” from the Chakachas the left-right separation of tracks is jarring. I much prefer listening to this on speakers over headphones. But again, the lower end has more bloom on the Azurys. And the heavy breathing seems deeper than it does on the Hadenys. It’s funny, even as a bass head, I actually prefer the presentation of the Hadenys. It’s more neutral, and even-handed, and while these aren’t priced like super high-end headphones, when we’re talking north of 500 bucks, I would like my music to sound like my music, not a boosted version of it.

These are interesting releases from Focal. And also, my first experience with headphones from their brand. The price for what you get is interesting as there are many options at this level. The Cambridge P100 comes to mind, and that is a wireless ANC headphone that is much more flexible and can be fine-tuned with an app. Still, for the money, these are very solid entries for Focal. They sound great and having a choice between open or closed-back should appeal to a wide variety of people.