Focal Elear and Utopia

I've found the Elear only average in terms of comfort. A...huge... plus, is that the earpad openings are huge, but I'm having small issues with the clamp and weight of the phone overall.

If there was a good way to stretch these out I would, but then I would fear that they would press down harder on my noggin.

 

man this is a true celebration of individuality. the clamp force is really nice for me. maybe focal should include the following statement in their instruction manual: 20 situps a day required for listening with comfort s'il vous plait. put it another way, utopes are totally worth doing 20 situps a day to enjoy.

 

Yes, pads and cup depth are great.

 

Someone sell me an Elear. Or, tell me where I can get one.

 

I'm shocked to hear the weight concerns on these Elears. I listened to these for 6 hours this morning, and zero issues with weight and zero hot spots. I have a weight threshold myself, and that's somewhere between the LCD-3 and LCD-XC. (Seriously Audeze who do you expect to wear those XCs?).

But I am finding head positioning an issue. My ears want to slip inside the pads and boy does the overall signature change. I think you can "Utopia-ize" these a touch just by cramming my entire ear inside the pad. Bass is reduced tremendously... But ignore that, that is not the intent of these headphones....

 

I haven't been online for a while, but I'm surprised that people are now feeling the Utopia is so good. Have they changed something since the initial roll out in June? Or is it just that these headphones need the right electronics? I think I listened on a Questyle stack and as I think I mentioned in an earlier post, they had a U shaped presentation, very laid back, kind of Audeze cadillac sound that wasn't all that engaging. I was reading similar comments at the time. What changed?

 

People listened on a real amp?

 

I never heard them at the TSAV launch event. The first time I heard them was at Schiit Show 2 on the Jodie.
I have to say I never thought U shaped at all. My initial impression was how neutral they sounded across the spectrum.
Even after receiving a pair and trying them on Schiit Lyr 2, Vali 2 and Ragnarok, I again never felt they were U shaped at all.
And definitely NOT laid back whatsoever. I think they sound more like Stax than Audeze LCD's. In fact, I think the closest sounding headphones to the Utopias is the PMx2.

When Marv and OJ went to TSAV, I don't remember them saying the Utopias were U shaped either, but I would have to re-read their posts.

Maybe you are talking about the Elear's? Those could definitely be considered U-shaped based on impressions. (I have never heard them.)

 

And let me borrow it! v

 

I bet the Jotunheim is a great pairing for the Elear (I would speculate for the Utopia to a lesser degree). The Jotunheim might tame the bloated mid bass and still allow for the impact that I really like with the Elear. But there might be an edgy factor with the treble that might turn off those who like its "laid back" signature. Punchy and laid back, there I go again describing the Elears in opposites...

 

Just a quick response to your thought experiment. I poised this question to the designer for a fairly popular "audiophile" loudspeaker company. He explained to me that speaker manufacturers generally use drivers that they have experimented with/tested/ran-in quite a bit before the final measuring of driver parameters and subsequent listening tests during the early stages of the design. So, by the time the final voicing/adjustment occurs, the drivers are well broken-in. Since the "target" sound of his design was achieved with broken in drivers, it is not illogical that the break-in at the customers would pull the drivers toward the sound targeted by the designer.

But I do agree the extent of break-in change is certainly not enough to radically change the sound of the speaker.

Best, Kevin

 

Twitter-like impressions of Elear vs. modded HD 650 (both Blue Dragon balanced from TOSLINK Gungnir Multibit-> Mojo2 stock 6BZ7).

tldr; Musical and dynamic but very probably not worth spending for if you already love your HD 650 setup.

longer: More visceral slam, greater low extension. Recessed mids (not bothersome). Treble a bit peaky (not bothersome; I am not sensitive save at deafening SPL) but crisper. Clearer plankton retrieval. More precise imaging with deeper soundstage. More comfortable due to deeper cups (I didn't mind the LCD-XC's weight).

even longer: One of my favorite albums this year is Frost*'s Falling Satellites. It's loud, compressed, and layered. From the onset of the first song, I was noticing plankton with the Elear that was buried with the 650, from multitracked keys to vocals and odd modulations. Also, goodness this Elear kicks! Not quite a nicely driven and modded HE-6, but not too dissimilar and definitely awesome for a non-planar. Craig B's drums are well engineered on this album, and I more readily noticed how tightly he and Nathan K's bass are locked in. In several places where Jem G's keys had smeared over Craig's hi-hat, intricacies were more distinguishable.

The second half of Beth Orton's Trailer Park felt more intimate in places with mostly acoustic instruments, while places with more electronica had more visceral impact.

Hiromi's Spark was utterly entrancing; Simon's drumming is astoundingly nuanced, clear, and dynamic.

...And yet, while I am a great fan of clarity and precise imaging with some warmth, I don't feel the Elear was THAT much more performant than the 650. From the Elear's stock headphone cable (SE), the mid-bass was more bloated, making the mids seem even more recessed (I didn't care for it, which is why I much prefer the Elear balanced). In a couple instances, e.g., Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes on "Nobody's Fault But Mine," I actually felt the 650's visceral response was more noticeable than the (balanced) Elear's. There's also a quality to ride cymbals with the Elear that sometimes sounds "off"-- a bit too splashy, e.g., on Big Big Train's "Wassail."

The takeaway is that the modded HD 650 with good pairing obviates many of the Elear's bonuses, and that's a testament to how frickin' amazingly the former scales.

 

Who is making balanced cables for the Elear at this point? Asking because I have a Mjolnir 2 and would like to give the Elear a fair chance.

 

I think all the major makers are doing cables, considering the Elear is the same as the Sony Z7. But sadly my Sony/Kimber was too fat at the connector, to fit inside the ear cup of the Elear...

 

DIY.
I've seen a Norne Draug 2 made for the Elear. I know Moon Audio sells the Elear with custom cables, too.

 

I need some help deciding between Elear and HEX to compliment my Ether C Flow, for EDM and HipHop.

I miss some bass impact on Ether C Flow for pop, classical and acoustic they are best, so to compliment Ethers between HEX and Elear which one is better, I had a listen to HEX and found treble bit rolled off and Bass impact was nice.

I have not been able to listen to Elear as they are not available but I am getting the HEX at the price of Elear so wondering if Elear has same level of Bass impact as HEX and if treble and midrange resolution and instrument separation is as good as HEX, I know soundstage on HEX is on par with 800S and Elear can't match that.

So for the same price and base on above mentioned question shall I pull the trigger on HEX or wait and listen to Elear but then I miss the opportunity on HEX which are available 1K.

Thanks and appeciate your feedback on my question.

 

that is the world's longest sentence. oh, and hello!