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Reviews

Review: Focal Listen Wireless Chic On-Ear Headphones

Last updated: May 14, 2021 3:28 pm UTC
By Guido Gabriele
Review: Focal Listen Wireless Chic On-Ear Headphones

A few years ago, renowned speaker maker Focal shook up the headphone world with a line of exceptional headphones — the Utopia, Elear and, later, the Clear — featuring new driver technology and big price tags. More recently, Focal has released the Listen and Listen Wireless, portable headphones with more of a consumer focus. This week we’re trying out the new “Chic” variant of Focal’s Listen Wireless, a special edition available in three new colors. We think the Listen Wireless sounds very good, though its blocky design might not be for everyone.

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Review: Focal Listen Wireless Chic On-Ear Headphones

The original Listen Wireless was available only in black. Upgrading to the Chic livery offers options of semi-iridescent olive, purple, and blue.

We like these colors — they’re a refreshing change from the shiny “look at me!” colors of so many other consumer headphones. Other than that, the Chic is the same as its basic-black counterpart: an over-ear Bluetooth headphone made almost entirely of plastic with fairly large and deep ear pads. Though we’d usually cringe at an all-plastic build, the Listen Wireless Chic feels solid and doesn’t have any creaks or squeaks, which is more than we can say for the more expensive ATH-DSR9BT we tested recently.

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Review: Focal Listen Wireless Chic On-Ear Headphones

The Listen Wireless Chic comes with a charging cable, 3.5mm analog cable, and a soft zippered storage case. At a reasonable 300 grams, the Listen Wireless Chic is generally comfortable, except that its thin rubbery headband padding can cause hotspots if worn for a long time.

Controls are also cast in silicone, with track controls located along the front of the right ear cup and volume and power/pairing on the rear — they’re large and tactile, making them easy to operate on the go.

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Review: Focal Listen Wireless Chic On-Ear Headphones

Listen Wireless Chic is primarily a Bluetooth headphone — AptX and SBC are supported, but not AAC. It lasted through our week of testing without needing a recharge, probably close to the 20 hours of advertised life. The Bluetooth system the Focal used for the Listen Wireless Chic is, in a word, strange — it beeps every time anything happens on the headphone, including volume changes and track changes — even when a track changes on its own. We experienced the occasional skipping, but only when our phone was in our opposite-side pocket in areas where the surrounding environment seems to cause drops on every Bluetooth product we test.

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