Focal Elear and Utopia

Well atleast you can see yourself in the near future owning the Utopia. Me I had some time with it at home on my own rig, it became the best I have heard and have to wait an eon to own one since its 4K.

 

I'm sensitive to all treble spikes as I listen to black metal and have tinnitus. The amount of headphones I think are listenable? Maybe five: HD 580/600/650, the cheaper HD 558/598, and the K7XX/K712. The only one where every recording is listenable due to the treble spikes of the others? The HD 650. The HD 580/600 upper mid / low treble bumps mess with too many mixes in painful ways.

 

I see there's the channel imbalance with your Utopia
though it's slight and you don't hear it, it's not a good thing for 4k headphone.
getting a new unit may do you good in the end.

 

The treble on the Elear doesn't need to be tamed...it barely even exists.

 

I've been wondering about this.
@Tyll Hertsens Do you think that this is caused by slightly varying positions of the headphone on the dummy head as slight variations in position do seem to change the response below 3kHz a lot, or could it be an actual channel imbalance? Also slightly worried about generally too forward 1-2kHz region with a bump at about 1.2kHz and what seems to be minor resonances at 4 and 6kHz. I hate everything that's forward between 1 and 2kHz, like every STAX headphone. Even the HD600 is slightly too forward in this region for me.

I would love to see someone do plots into the ultrasonic range to see how much the dome breakup has been shifted compared to other headphones. Especially comparing the Elear, Utopia and HD800 would be very interesting. Given that the website specs them with extension to 50kHz I'm not expecting miracles, but I would be surprised if we didn't see an improvement over the Elear and HD800 on the Utopia. IIRC HD800 driver resonance was at 38kHz.

 

Seriously considering an Elear (aka HD650 Super) now to replace my HD650 after all this hype, but has anyone tried one with an SBAF-approved tube amp like ZDS or Stratus? Marv and OJ preferred MHA100 to WA5--I personally did not like MHA100 with any headphones I've tried--at Source AV so maybe Focal's new headphones has an affinity to SS amps... But then again, WA5 is a rather tubey sounding amp that doesn't get much love around here so there's that.

No doubt they would sound fantastic out of something like BW which works well universally with all headphones, but what about ZDS which has a preferential synergy with 300-ohm Senns in particular? Both Elear and Utopia's load impedance measures at 80 ohms so it is borderline between low and high. Not sure if the lo-Z (3 ohms) or hi-Z (20 ohms) output impedance would work well with it.

 

Would also be very interested to see some impressions of Elear out of ZDS and if anyone can compare directly to HD800S and thx00. I have the hd800S and purple heart thx00 on order, wondering if there's a place for Elear in between.

 

I find out tomorrow if my Elear is shipping this week or not. I was on the bubble between this first shipment and the next one which would be a week to 10 days further out. Either way, when it does arrive, I'll be spending some time with it using both the ZDS and the T3. For the ZDS, I'd definitely start with low Z. For the T3, I'm going to add 55R parallel output load resistors in order to present a 32R load to the Cinemags for the low Z setting. I think I'll socket them for convenience. Maybe eventually add another switch on the front panel...

 

Definitely looking forward to your TIII/Elear impressions, @bazelio ..we don't have a lot of impressions on how the TIII fares the low impedance, TOTL-ish dynamics (that can actually scale).

 

Please share what you think of Elear on lo-Z and hi-Z output of ZDS, especially how it compares to HD6X0. I contacted the Korean distributor of Focal today and was told to wait until the middle of September.

 

I'll wait and get a used Elear for maybe $750 or so. But I'm hoping to get on a loaner list and audition it at home first. I can tell just looking at it that I'd need to replace that "garden hose" of a cable.

 

Frequency response: Focal Utopia stock (blue line) and Focal Elear with Utopia pads (green line).

Frequency response: Focal Utopia with Elear pads (dotted blue line) and Focal Elear stock (dotted green line).

-from Jude's post @headfi

Interesting. I find his measurements aren't that reliable above 4k though

 

PLEASE ....... PRETTY PLEASE

Try the Utopia with the Elear pads and report the results somewhere...here!!!

I was scared to rip them off when I had them so I left them alone though the thought did cross my mind.

 

Maybe a little bit embarrassing for Focal?? $3k for pads is a little pricey.

 

Somebody is excited....

I thought of you when I read what you read.

 

@Tyll Hertsens How does the Elear headband attach to the cups?

I wonder how much of the weight of the headphone (440g) comes from the headband.

 

Um...with the yolks. Feels like most of the weight is in the drivers themselves. Doesn't feel like the headband is particularly heavy, but it's hard to tell for sure.

 

So, as I understand it these connect using 3.5mm into the cups, but can someone confirm the exact details?

Is it 3.5mm TS, TRS? If the latter any idea on a pinout? Do they need an extended jack? Thanks!

Want to get started on making my own Elear cable since I'm sur eI'll end up with one eventually

 

Yokes!