Focal Elear and Utopia

If you want more of the same as 650, but "better" some options

-Elear, it's more resolving and has lower, fuller bass IMO. Preferably with a pad swap per @Hands and other's work in the Elear Measurements Thread (I liked HM5 angeled pleather)

-HE-500 is also warmer with a dark tilt, but can be hard to find these days and build is meh. More like a side grade with better/deeper bass

-Mod the 650, a few different ways to do it depending on goals (I liked Dynamat/foam/and coin but have not heard the KISS)

- Potentially improve/alter chain with 650

I'm sure others would have more thoughts as well

 

I've heard the Elear and I have the HD800. I thought the Elear is quite warm. If you like the stock HD650 signature, then you might like thenElear. If you prefer a more sparkly treble, the HD800 with or without mods might be better. I just wasn't impressed with the Elear. I found it boring. For $1000 I'd get a TH900, HD800, or a T1 gen 2, unless you like a warm headphone.

 

I'm loving my Elears, but I'm running them through a vali 2, and have them EQ'd. It really truly depends on what your setup is, and whether you can use EQ or not.

For $1,000, you can get a JotunDAC, HD650s, and balanced cables for the 650s. Which depending on your tastes and needs is arguably a better listen than just having Elears.

 

Maybe the best choice is to save some pennies and buy a focal utopia...

 

Maybe the best choice is to enjoy the music until more competition in this price range is released. I'm looking forward to the ZMF Eikon and Klipsch HP3 in 2017. Maybe one of them won't have any obvious drawbacks in the frequency response while also not costing 4K!

 

I'm hoping focal draw their prices in 50%!

 

I have been researching for the past week for flagship headphones without success. All of them innates some sort of flaw somewhere.
It seems like the only solution is to demo/buy all of them then choose the winner.
And after browsing 50+ pages, the consensus I found is that HD650 is still the best dynamic headphone in the market. I personally felt underwhelming when listening to it tho.
"Decades past, Sennheiser still makes the best dynamic transducers that sell like hot cake". How ironic :^)

 

Elear on the way. D7200 pre-ordered. After getting TH-X00, I found myself leaning towards bassy headphones

 

I feel the Elear has more aggressive / fatiguing treble than the original Ether open, which Marvey suggested to me. Technichally I think the Ether open is also the better headphone, in comparison, the Elear just sounds wrong, maybe because of its huge dip. It sounds so weired when you switch from the Ether to the Elear. Unfortunately, the Ether also has a major flaw: zero staging, which can also be pretty annoying.

 

While I can see them being the ideal headphone for many, I wouldn´t call them a HD 650 upgrade. The tonality is just too different with the upper midrange dip and the more extended (but more uneven) treble. Definitely try to extensively audition before buying if you´re an HD 650 fan.

The sad truth if you ask me is that there simply isn´t a clear HD 650 upgrade on the market. It´s quite odd actually when you consider how popular the model has been.

 

So I've had the chance to go back and forth between my EQ+modded HD700s, and EQ'd Elears.

In short, I changed both to have fairly similar sound profiles. EQ'ing was done based off of subjective sound, so I wasn't actively trying to make them sound like eachother. Just sorta happened. It definitely seems I lean left of neutral, but don't mind treble nearly as much as others (thanks, brass sections, for blowing out my hearing).

Similarities
The bass. Both also have good Bass speed + Impact
Sucked out mids
'Weird' treble fun times.
Pretty comfortable to wear (700's are admittedly lighter and more comfortable for long sessions though).
Warm leaning

Elear things
More details (Can pick out new things with them that I couldn't on the HD700s)
'Feel' more luxury (700's were nice when I first got them, but in a side by side, they feel cheap).
Warmer tilt on sound
More mids (comparatively)

Modded HD700 stuff
More comfortable (God I wish that sennheiser had just stuck the 6xx drivers in these)
~1/4 the price. Seriously, it's not a truly fair comparison when you can get four of these things for the price of one Elear.
Stock cables aren't derptastic in length
You can feel hipster if you use these because everybody else hates them

Summary
I like the Elears more. But the HD700s were a good stop gap, especially for what I paid for them (~$350CAD). But I do think that, price nonwithstanding, the Elears are a better headphone overall, require less effort to 'fix', and would be better welcomed stock by a larger number of people. I seriously wish I had more nicer things to say about the 700's compared to the Elears, but the Elears just... don't do nearly as many things 'wrong' as the 700s do.

 

Did you tried the utopia pads in elears?

 

Anyone have a set of Elear pads I can borrow? I would love to listen with them on my Utopia.

 

Satisfy your curiosity by all means, but I was not impressed with the Elear pads on Utopia. You get more bass, to be sure, but I think they ruin everything else that makes the Utopia great: amazing clarity, treble extension. Give it a try though!

 

Citations? Quotes? What's your point?

 

I read a post by Marvey where he said that for those with an optimized Modded HD800 rig the Utopia would be different not better.

Frans at diyaudioheaven (somebody who I trust for hype free impressions) claims that an equalized HD800 is superior.

Sorrodje sold his Utopias and kept his HD800 SDR.

These data points to me mean that this is not a ''no brainer, sell everything you have and use up all your savings buy''.

A used HD800 in the UK is around 17% of the price of a new Utopia. 17%!!

Of course on Headfi the F U blows everything else away, especially when you use a DHC Prion 4 cable..... ( around $3000 for 8 feet)

Come to your own conclusions

PS

I just wanted to add one point. I called Sennheiser UK and was quoted £210 for a HD800 repair even if both drivers were not working.

So about the same as a spare set of Utopia pads.