I picked up the HE500 on eBay in 2018, and the seller claimed to have them for 6-7 years before me, so they're well over a decade old at this point. Counting my blessings every day that they don't give up the ghost any time soon.

Yeah, I imagine with careful handling your headphones should last a good long while. :)

Lol, this one always tends to ruffle some feathers for what I am about to say.

I've owned the Utopia (pre-2022 refresh) for over 18 months, and the Clear OG for 13 months, and in side by side listening, MY opinion remains that the Clear OG is the warmer tilting baby brother of the Utopia. The Utopia has better clarity in the midrange, but there are times when it can come across as slightly more piercing than the Clear. To me, the Clear is the more consistently relaxed listen, but how much of these differences can be narrowed by EQ is up for debate. In a lot of ways, there are a lot of parallels between the Focal "twins" and the differences between the HD600 vs HD650/6XX.

I should also add that the Utopia is easier to drive than the Clear, by about ~3-4 dB. This is significant because if you have an overpowered amp, as most tend to own nowadays, it means that the Utopia can be a bigger pain in the ass to manage volume with less play on the volume knob (especially if your amp happens to have issues with channel imbalances on the lower end of the spectrum), versus the Clear. However, the upside is if you are Team DongleDAC, the Utopia has more headroom available and actually sounds pretty good - as heretical as that may sound.

For me, aside from the above, the biggest differentiator is the premium materials that are used on the Utopia. Yes, the Clear feels great in the hand, but the Utopia exudes luxury, and maybe this is enough to push some people over the edge. However, I often wonder how much these physical qualities bias the perception of audible differences, and make them out to be significantly larger than they may actually be.

I know some people swear that the Utopia has better technicalities, like punching harder than the Clear, thanks to those beryllium drivers, but I'd be hard pressed to tell that minute of a difference. So then, is the Utopia more detailed? Maybe? But if I go back to the Clear I can hear those same details just fine; maybe a tad bit subdued, but it really is the very definition of splitting hairs.

In a world where I could only own one and cost didn't matter, then yeah no question, I would pick the Utopia every time. However, if cost is a concern, how much of a difference does the Utopia hold over the Clear? I'm not so sure it is worth more than five times the cost - unless you don't mind buying used, which means it's "only" 2-3X more money. ;)

Hope that helps.