Focal Elear and Utopia

Personally I preferred the Ether Flow to the Utopia and the Elear. However, after reading Tyll's article I definitely want to keep an open mind and get more head time with the Utopia and Elear. I tried it out of the BW2 and the bass just wasn't there but would be interested to try this out on my ampsandsound Mogwai.

I will say right now that I didn't think the Utopia was more of an enjoyable listen than @n3rdling clones or the 007 MK1s out of the BHSE but it may just be my musical/sound preferences.

 

Indeed. It's nice to have truly high-end offerings that are not tailored to only treble heads.

I skipped the HF'esque dialogue in the past few pages. We might need to institute dick mode if s/n gets too poor.

Can someone start a Pokemon Go thread? Go Team Instinct! (Yellow)

 

The main issue for with was Utopia's leaner tilt compared to Elear. I just can't stand lean or bright sounding shit anymore. Ideally, I would have preferred an FR on between them.

I imagine a Utopia with minor EQ or a two component shelving circuit would do wonders to the point of it being the best headphone ever. The technicalities are there, just quite the FR. Still, I'd take one for free. And most headphones I wouldn't take for free.

 

Utopia seemed to have a minor upper mid / lower treble bump, but sounded smoother up from there. Elear had an evident mid-treble tizz and overall slightly rougher treble compared to Utopia. Both have nicer treble with more natural timbre than a lot of other TOTL headphones.

HD650/600 treble is smoother than either of them, but without the speed.

 

Warning that I'm talking out of my ass a bit here and clearly making guesses: HD600/650 treble is, IME, only as smooth as it is because there's that mesh material and a layer of open-cell foam over at least the outer portion of the driver. The more of that you remove, the nastier the treble gets. Similarly enough, place similar foam in front of other drivers on other headphones, and the treble usually smooths out. The trick is having your headphone tuned so that you don't need a million layers of shit over the driver to smooth and control treble. If you don't need anything in front of the drivers, great! If you need maybe one thin layer of something, usually that strikes a nice balance. Depends on the material, really. 2 layers is iffy. More than that usually means you're setting your headphone up to sound dull. I'm generalizing here. I know some hate shit over their drivers, period.

Looking at pics of the Focal headphones, the drivers are relatively open and exposed all around. I'll bet a whole dollar (yes, you heard me right, a whole dollar), that if you put a donut of thin, open-cell foam over the Focal drivers, leaving a good portion of the center of the driver exposed, you'll keep all the good stuff intact and get slightly smoother treble. Covering the driver in full up front might be good too, but more likely to risk the possibility of dulling the sound.

If/when I get an Elear, I'll give it a shot.

 

Schiit just got real. Hands is upgrading if you asked me if he would ever get rid of his HD650s I would have told you no f'kin way. He's always been give me HD650 or give me death.

 

@velvetx It's only upgrading if I get an Elear, call it an upgrade, and keep it. Doesn't rule out the possibility that it's in and out my door within a few weeks.

 

The 10kHz spike is not that bad - considering that the spike is only moderate. My personal danger zone is 6kHz to 9kHz and to a lesser extent 2-4kHz. Maybe there is someone with a booklet of various materials that might be used to tame the treble.

Neither of the Focals are anywhere as nasty in the treble. You aren't the only one who is treble sensitive. All of the headphones you mentioned above are unlistenable to me, with the exception of two (HD800, HE-560), and only when significantly modded.

 

@Tyll Hertsens The bet is on!

Now to get my hands on an Elear. That's the hard part.