Focal Elear and Utopia Impressions at Source AV

I may need to rethink my new hd650 setup for an Elear setup.

 

Haha, I bit the bullet and ordered the Elear. Need to sell my PM-3, Omni and Ether C now...

Now I just wonder whether I should upgrade my source chain. The Elear is so easy to drive that I'm considering something more transportable instead of the HA-1. Maybe the Woo WA8?

 

Thanks to all for the impressions.

Once Warren said super hd650 I was game.
Then Marv said it's like its something ZMF would tune... even more happy.

 

Damn! The Elear weighs 450g - I'll have to try them first, but rest assured, I can kiss them goodbye for gaming.

A quick question: How does the Elear compare against the HD650?

Thanks.

 

Read the thread before shooting "quick questions" like that. There have already been nearly a dozen posts in this thread regarding the comparison between Elear and HD650 in great detail, but apparently you didn't even bother to skim through at all.

 

Please also let us know how well the Elear pairs with ZDS, which may (or may not) be ideal in terms of synergy. 80 ohms is actually borderline between lo-Z and hi-Z so I'm not sure which Z output might work better with it.

 

@Rianoris
I'll keep this brief in a Focal thread (of which I find the Elear increasingly interesting btw) but have you considered Beyer for gaming? They are lightweight and because of the subdued midrange they make gunfire more tolerable for me in BF.

 

Nice!

 

Lets start saving money for the Focal Elear then.. Which amp can go with it for $600-800 budget. Sorry if it has already been replied..

 

Q no°1)I'd like to know how would a neutral to slightly lean sounding amp/dac budget combo like the schiit magni2/modi 2 would do with the Elear. Or even an Objective2 with modi 2 Uber?

Q no°2)Also I think the Elear is 32 ohms or 80 ohms, can't remember, feel free to refresh my memory, but could the Elear be just driven by a smartphone/laptop? How bad would it sound?

Q no°3)Is the Elear as unforgiving for bad recordings as the HD800?

 

32 ohms impedance
104db sensitivity

 

I'm interested in the Elear, but this description worries me a little bit since I already consider the 650 to have a lacking presence range to begin with. That being said, I still need to hear them for myself.

 

First page, post 5:

I thought it was ~86 Ohms impedance and that the 32 Ohms was just misinformation. Also, like Tyll and a few others already mentioned, one should be careful with high OI amps since the primary resonance at 50Hz has a very high Q factor with about 4 times as high of an impedance. This means the 50Hz gets boosted a lot with an amp with a very high output impedance.
Also the voice coil inductance seems very low, meaning nearly no treble boost from high output impedance amps, among other things.

 

I never thought I would spend $1k on a pair of headphones but I think I will try the Elears. The "Hype train" period is always the best time to try new things anyway. I'm really glad I ducked out of the last TH X00 massdrop now.

 

Could be, if so, my bad. I got those numbers from Moon Audio and Crutchfield.

 

Tyll's measurements shows that it is a bit under 100 ohm so 86 seems reasonable, 32 doesn't.

 

Went to Source A/V today to listen to these. I went towards the end of the meet so I had lots of listening time - about 40 mins with the Elear and almost 10 mins with the Utopia. I was isolated from most of the people that were still there, so conditions were really good for a meet.

These both have really nice build quality. The cups are solid but maybe a little too heavy, the pads are well made and super supple, and the molded cable is nice and girthy.

The Elear wasn't very impressive to me. When I put them on and listened, I immediately thought 'these are veiled' and 'the mids are way off'. This headphone is really midbass centric. Think full range speaker that can't really do full range. This is super noticeable with acoustic instruments; all the classical tracks I put on showcased the somewhat poor midrange tonality. This was less of an issue with most rock, but still there. Male vocals sounded a little off: Roger Waters sounded like a chain smoker and Michael Stipe sounded more manly. Ok, I'm joking but you get the idea. Bass guitar overwhelms the rest of the instruments. I remember in particular listening to a Santana track where I set the volume with the bass guitar as the reference and it made his electric guitar sound like a little toy. These are similar to the HEK in that I had to listen loud in order to find them more involving, so there could be some issue with the presence region. The bass is good quality but too overbearing for my liking. I'd talk about the treble but I didn't hear any. Actually, I only heard sibilance once in a blue moon so these should be easy to listen to at loud levels for most. As I said earlier, these have your typical dynamic veil though I have a feeling this is more because of the FR than the driver speed. I say that because they're pretty clean sounding (though that could be the cup and pads also). Soundstage is pretty average, and they DEFINITELY sound like headphones. I don't understand the 'sounds like speakers' line that people love to throw out about new HPs, unless you have some huge cups full of echoes. Imaging was good.

I can kinda see how some people think this is a 'super HD650', but that's too optimistic and hypey IMO. I much prefer the mids on the HD650 to the Elear, and I think a lot of people will be disappointed if they're expecting HD650 mids with better technicalities. Bass quality on the Elear kills the HD650 and there's much more quantity as well. HD650 has treble but it's grainy, Elear really doesn't have much treble. Elear is a lot cleaner sounding and probably has a slightly bigger soundstage. Neither is detailed.

I think this actually sounds more in line with the TH900. They both have a heavy bass emphasis, off mids, and are clean sounding. I think of the Elear as more of a 'fun' sound than an accurate one. Note that I'm being pretty picky here. It's not a bad headphone at all. I'm not jumping at the chance to buy one though. At $1000 it's overpriced based on SQ, but there are far worse deals out there. It's not a rip off and the build quality really is top notch. If you like bassy headphones definitely check them out. Instead of 'super HD650' I'd call this a 'French TH900'. That or 'the face woofer'.


The Utopia is very nice, definitely one of the best dynamics ever I'd say. I wish I spent more time with it, but when I switched to it I immediately heard a much better tonality than the Elear. This is a very clean sounding dynamic. Soundstage is a little bigger than average, imaging and detail retrieval are both very good. It has treble. Bass quality is quite nice and balanced. I know people will ask how it compares to HD800 so: main differences are that the HD800 has a much bigger soundstage and the Utopia has a much better tonality; imaging, speed, cleanliness, detail, etc are all comparable. Bass quality on Utopia is also a little better. Overall a nice listen but at $4k I think you can get more overall from a nice stat or HEK for instance.


Note: I listened with the Woo 5, which has an output impedance of 8ohm, so there was probably a smidgen more bass than would be heard from a 0 Z-out amp.