Focal Elear and Utopia

It is not a contradiction.

My point is simple.. As a basshead the Utopia is just shy for my tastes but it has enough bass and is more responsive to the track that enables me to play a lot more of my collection than the HEK, and HD800 which are not as responsive to what the recording has in it. I prefer the Elear balance only slightly, the Utopia is a little more fatiguing but the Utopia is very much the better headphone. On my set up the Utopia sounds good with a lot of my hip hop and reggae something that hek and HD800S didnt do. I believe it is a genre master because, while it could use a little more bass qty for my tastes, I can use it for every genre in my collection. I simply would like a hair more bass and the treble to be more tamed.


My initial excitement for them, when I made the statement of me being a basshead was to profess.... "Hey even a basshead can actually enjoy the Utopia despite it not being his ideal tuning." It crosses over just enough to, and on the right song, be appreciated by all. The Elear will be even more agreeable by everyone and during my test yesterday did not play one song badly.

So how does the Utopia blow the Elear out of the water? for me.... Because I can play some of my fav files that are not high res, I can play tidal, I can play crappy mp3's . But the ones that are high res and the files that do use up all of the details from my pavane and trafomatic 2 sound more clear and realistic than the HEK and HD800. The Elear cannot do that. It can sound wonderfully clear but it cannot and will not, on TOTL gear, sound as detailed, separated, and realistic. The Utopia does this while not sounding thin in the midrange and providing a bass that is not tooo sterile for casual listening.

As a basshead I appreciate quality more than quantity which is why I like the HD800S bass a lot more than the Dharma even though the Dharma had more. The Utopia bass is better controlled than the HD800S bass as well. Playing Robert Glasper - Black Radio (look it up its a jazz piano player that produced a hip hop record) on the Utopia was enjoyed through the whole album. I have never ever been able to do that with the HE560, HE1000, HE-5LE, HD800, HD800S, Grado G2KE, HD700, Mr Speakers Ether, LCD-3 (only the HE-6: too hard to power, LCD-X: (not nearly as detailed), and LCD-2F (bass quality sucked). and on and on of the usual thin and bright headphones made for audiophiles. Part of this is because the Utopia is very responsive to percussion, has wonderful speed, and sounds downright alive with full tones.


Now I don't post the above explanation to defend myself to you because it is simply not worth it. But just to offer clarity to anyone else who may find my posts to be contradictions. If they are contradictory, forgive me. When I first bought the HD800S I really loved it and found my favorite headphone. But knew it wasn't the end of the road because it was shy in the bass for me by a lot. I am a basshead willing to compromise for a lot of my collection that doesn't require it but it better be able to take some eq. So I don't demand a lot of bass, I just prefer it.

However, even though I loved the 800S, I posted how I thought its bass wasn't as responsive to what the recording had in it for my tastes. The Utopia gives me everything I like and more but actually is a lot more responsive to the bass that is in the recording, even if not being as full as the Elears balance that I prefer.

 

let me add,

The audiophile realm is a lot about compromises. Compromise doesn't mean contradiction.

Because I am an audiophile, the basshead in me must suffer. However, when it has to suffer less, I get excited and will express that.

 

I think I'm confused. So Elear is thin in the midrange or what? Also, how do you find the treble compared to HD650?

 

@Gravity that sentence you highlight sounds like it's in relation to the HEK and HD800

 

@brencho is correct

Neither are thin in the midrange.

The Utopia being better than the Elear for me has nothing to do with balance and everything to do with technicalities. Its just that even though the Utopia has the treble peak and slightly less bass it still doesn't sound thin.

I think the treble is comparable to the 650 in quantity but is a lot less grainy. I didn't have the 650 on hand to compare directly. I had to ship the Elear back today so it is packed up.

 

''So how does the Utopia blow the Elear out of the water? for me.... Because I can play some of my fav files that are not high res, I can play tidal, I can play crappy mp3's''

But it has a frequency peak that makes it fatiguing

The bass is the most accurate you've ever heard (as per your post on headfi), but the bass gives up on certain songs and is 'hit and miss'.

But 'it gives you everything you like and more'?

You can play more music on your Elear and you prefer the balance of the Elear.

But the Utopia blows it out of the water.

Gotcha.

You remind me of my ex.

 

@gbeast
@brencho

Good, don't want thin midrange

 

Haha I'm becoming gbeast's interpreter. I think what he is trying to say is that the utopia is rare for a totl can in that he can play any music file or quality recording on it and have it sound good, unlike say the 800. That's a trait that the elear and utopia share. But the utopia pulls away from the elear in that, on hi res files, it pulls out more detail etc etc...

There's also the question of bass quality V quantity, which perhaps is where the comment on accuracy comes from. Accurate but he wants more.

Ok I retire as one of the greatest gbeast interpreters there ever was. I hope songs are written about me one day.

 

Damn you are slow. How about just ask me what I mean instead of being a dick.

It gives me everything I want from the HD800S and more

Never said the bass was the most accurate I have ever heard.

I just posted why I prefer the utopia, for its techinicalites not balance and since the Utopia is close enough to the Elears balance I prefer it overall. OVERALLL

I can play more music from the Utopia than I can other TOTL headphones the Elear is not the TOTL headphone.


The Utopia bass gives out on some songs, not all. I can play a lot more of my music. But in general responds better than my previous fav HD800S and HEK.

 

I should also add to what brencho said (the greatest gbeast interpreter that ever was) by saying bass without a bass hump around somewhere between 60 and 120 hz can often sound hit or miss depending on how things were mastered. I felt like TH-X00 sounded very thin in the bass on certain recordings despite it having bass elevation and bass extention the bass measured (fairly) flat unlike headphones like HD650 where the bass on these "poorly recorded bad extension bass records" actually slammed pretty hard.

Thus causing "hit or miss" bass.

 

Even in your latest post you said you can use the Utopia for every genre but the first post says you can use the Elear for more genres than the Utopia!

Haha

The f**k out of here man. You're all over the place.

 

Okay so I meant I can use the Elear for more songs with in the specific genres than the Utopia but both for all genres.

Just in case anyone else was still confused. If you find a contradiction just ask me and I will explain. If you read the preface you would know it was unedited, that I didnt try to fix every mistake and it was literally a response to some one in a PM so I shared it here.

I love you too

 

I am confused.. Which one did you decide on?

 

Let's save the real outrage for more serious issues, like social injustice, the Israeli Palestinian conflict, Pokemon go, and so forth.

Here's to spending more time initially editing potentially ambiguous/unclear posts and here's to not picking bones with people in public. Failures along both lines add noise and heartache.

i for one would like to hear these damn phones one day soon. Utopia as an exercise cause I'm not shelling out 4 grand for them (the greatest interpreter does accept gifts tho) and elear because it's so damn "reasonable"!

 

@TMoney If I remember correctly you said on head-fi that you thought Elear was overpriced and should be more like $600. Can you elaborate on this?

 

I was expecting to not like the Utopia but like it more than the Elear for the technicalities. I will have my pair of Elears but want the Utopias. I just cant afford them.

 

Have you considered the M50 bear?

 

One step at a time, grasshopper.

 

Don't understand how you can take such a personal offense to someones opinion. This passive aggressive bullshit just gives randos a bad name.

I think after 1,461 posts on HF you'd be a little better at just ignoring opinions that you don't like.

 

Pfff, dude nobody is offended you have my word on that. Just confused and nauseated. I can't help myself in situations like this; especially with the bias circle jerk that's been going off in the Elear/Utopia thread on headfi, and now this flip floppy, cryptic nonsense.

(And I don't mean Marvs impressions)

The amount of posts I have has no bearing on my ability to ignore blatant bollocks.