Focal Elear and Utopia

Despite the uninspiring Naim streamer, the Utopia still shined through with stupendous deep engaging bass, clear flat as pancake mids and exhilirating highs. The soundstage was not as seamless as HD800/S but then part of that is an illusion created by the HD800s' warped mids.

I listened for almost 90 minutes in total (you could say I hijacked the table over 2 days!)

I tried hard to find a flaw and it turned out that it was the treble when compared to Andromeda.
It can get bright at times with some recordings. Strangely enough this sibilance was noted with recordings using Glockenspiel or Celeste such as Tchaikovsky Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Some of the mid and high treble was piercing. Mind you nothing as flagellating as HD800! However I have to say I minced a bit.

On the other hand, cymbals sounded right to me. Wagner's operas such as Gotterdammerung or Walkure have plenty of these. Listened to Ride of the Walkure and it was heavenly. Why the difference?

It could be that the treble peaks are broad and sound fine when cymbals with their white noise are listened to. Stingy brightness may only be heard when particular frequencies are elicited by instruments like the celesta.

I am also sensitive to sabre harshness and the Utopia may be tamed by my Yggdrasil. Only time will tell.

Despite its perceived minor flaws, the complete Utopia experience is so wonderful that I decided to buy it when funds allow. I will just have one headphone for years to come.

 

Yeah, the Utopia didn't embarrass itself, even in show conditions from such an uninspiring source. I think any brightness that you heard was there because.. it was there, for the most part. My impression is that it is incredibly inoffensive- that's not actually as faint praise as it sounds. If you think about the other candidates, it's usually a series of "the X is good, but..". The Utopia has very few gotchas. The tonality is on-point. Percussion has bags of impact. Imaging is clear (though I'd love some more width). Nothing really jumps out and makes you go "ZOMFG!" in seconds, but after a bit of a listen, you realise how cohesive, well-controlled and generally competent it sounds.

I suspect that plugged into a nice amp (possibly not even solid state.. gasp!), it could be very nice to live with- it's not even uncomfortable. My only concern is that it's horribly, eye-wateringly expensive, and probably deserves an amp of similar quality. That's a while 'nother can of worms, and an expense. You probably would need to consider something other than the Raggy, if you wanted to avoid those little treble spikes.

That said, I really think you should own a pair. I've seen that look in your eye. Some people get Stax and then listen to Garth Brooks, but I think you'd make the Utopias earn their keep

 

You might not, but I'd still recommend giving it a listen.

I think the initial "super HD650" label put the Elear in an unfair spot, especially since its biggest weakness (in the upper midrange) is one of the HD650's greatest strengths, but there's still room for both within a collection.

 

I don't agree. I had a very specific question about a very specific aspect of tuning which the HD650 gets right, as does the Utopia. I asked someone with a particularly good ear for this deficiency in tuning (and how it manifests when listening to classical music) whether the Elear falls at this hurdle and he confirmed that it does. I don't have any particular urge to add it to a "collection" just to have. It might be a perfectly passable headphone, but given how good the stock HD650 sounds balanced out of the Jotunheim, it would be a questionable purchase for me, if it doesn't give me anything too dramatic.

Good headphones and amps are expensive, so I tend to avoid buying sidegrades that I don't really need, or that don't scratch a specific itch. That way lies Head-Fi.

Thank goodness, or I'd have a shelf full of somewhat pointless mid-fi* AKG x7xx that I never listen to, and similar.




*Actually mid-fi, not in the GUTB sense of "anything that isn't dodgy Chi-fi with cardboard 'mods'"

 

I'm pretty sure that Tyll is using the Simaudio Moon 430, not sure if he uses the in built Dac or a separate DAC.

Bob Katz considered the amp soft and fake tubey, I've never heard it.

 

Ah, my mistake, I misread. Wasn't aware that your response was specifically directed towards @Muse Wanderer, nor would I advocate buying headphones for the sake of it.

 

You see how useful someone like GUTB can be? He's provided us with a stable point of reference for years to come. How many people can say they've had that kind of influence.

 

Bad argument, so did the Chernobyl disaster

 

You had me till you wrote "stable"...

 

One day with Elears. I'm sure it's all been said, though I haven't followed the thread much. But briefly...

Source: Lynx, FLAC
DAC: Yggdrasil
Amps: T3 modded, ZDS
Phones: HD600, Elear

• I prefer the ZDS over the T3 with HD600s. I really can't wait to hear Utopias on the ZDS!
• I prefer the T3 over the ZDS** with Elears, thus far. And I prefer the 32R T3 output for the Elears. 300R output = limp dick bass.
• ZDS/Elear sounds thick on the H output. Still evaluating the L output setting.

Elears in general (mostly through the T3):

• Yeah, I love the clarity, cleanliness, and resolution. They make the HD600s sound like fuzzballs.
• Soundstage is just fine for me, but I'm not a recovering HD800 addict. Marked improvement over HD600s.
• This presence region cancellation issue is indeed rather bothersome. I think folks are well in to pad rolling now, and I hope that's helping?
• I prefer the general musical continuity of the HD600s.
• So close yet so far from being mini-Utopias, at least insofar as I can remember Utopias.

** I should add that the ZDS is actually a preamp to this T3 in this case.

 

So I'm just back from a vacation trip to London. I decided to check out my favorite audio shop while I was in town, but they are now out of business. So I decided to try another store just for fun (Audio Venue). Turns out they had both the Elear and Utopia on display. Oops...

I didn't get a chance to listen very long to the Utopia, but I thought the Elear sounded promising and in stock! Brexit made the price cheaper there than home, so what the hey...

Last Friday I had tickets to Osmo Vanska and the LPO playing Sibelius 3 and 2. So far, I can say the Elear has passed the "can I listen to it after the concert without getting actively pissed off" test (I had the Sibelius pieces on my AR-M2). As I say, promising.

By the way, the boys and ladies kicked ass on Sib 2.

Kevin

 

I recently got the chance to listen to the Elear and Utopia at a meet yesterday. Even better, got to hear the Utopia out of the EC Studio. I will say, my modded 650 (coin mod, and rear spider/foam removed, no damping yet). was in no way embarrassed. Here is a repost elsewhere of my impressions from the meet. Also includes a few other comments, but I'll just keep it whole, than splitting over a bunch of threads:

"I think the biggest surprise for me was just how well my own modded HD-650 kept up with the more expensive headphones. That being said, I think I'm leaning toward the Elear as my next purchase when it's financially feasible. The modded 650 is surprisingly close in overall tonality, but the Elear edges it out with superior subjective speed and transient response. It is a touch more "sparkly" in the upper registers than I'd normally like, but not offensively so. I got the impression that they have more to offer in a quieter home environment.

The biggest let down for me (as happy and enthusiastic Mojo owner) was the headphone out of the Dave. Not terrible sounding by any means, but a terrible value IMO. Taking consideration of meet conditions, I found it only slightly better than the Mojo with iUSB 3.0. Not that I was in the market for a Dave, but I expected better out of a cost no object flagship. Perhaps it's DAC function is far better though.

The new ZMF headphones were decent but not my personal preference of signature. I have to commend the build quality though. Easily the nicest build quality of botique headphone builders I've yet seen. They feel very much hand crafted (in a positive way, not in a DIY way). Like an heirloom item.

Frank's EC Studio....not much to say, It speaks for itself. Makes the HD800 godlike, and my modded 650 a sleeper (Frank even seemed pretty impressed). Suprisingly, I wasn't really digging the Utopia, despite liking the Elear. Thankfully for my wallet. Great headphone, no doubt, but there was some weird resonance or something in the upper midrange that put me off. Possibly a characteristic of the Beryllium, as I've read elsewhere.

I kind of wish I tried the Elear on the Studio to see how it scales, but it slipped my mind. And I forgot to try the new Sony flagship. My ADHD kicks in really bad at these meets, as I regress into a child at Toys R Us.

The Elear cable though.....exceptional build quality, but they need a shorter option.

An honorable mention to the brief listen to the Decware CSP3 at Zacks table. It tricked me into thinking the iFi Retro sounded way better than it actually did, when it was feeding it as a preamp. So I took the Decware out of the chain, listened to the iFi, then the Decware by itself. The iFi was decent, but a little less "groovy and seductive" on it's own. The Decware alone with the modded 650 really got up and boogied, but was maybe a little thicker sounding than I'd prefer as a primary amp. But it did balance out the thinner sounding iFi nicely as a preamp. On the flip side, the Cavalli Liquid Gold showed me that I'm still a tube guy for the reasonable future. Even state of the art solid state just doesn't do it for me anymore."

 

Just heard the Elear and the Utopia...OMG OMG OMG!!!!

Geez I don't have the budget for the Utopia (5k in Canada) but I think that I will purchase the Elear tomorrow.

To my ears the Elear are not far behind the Utopia, 90% as good.

 

Intersting, i have the HD650 and Massdrop HD6XX is on the way.. i was thinking of getting an Elear next .. now i will rethink
Thanks for sharing your impressions, i am also a MID lover, that's the reason i didn't buy Beyerdynamic T1 which is good in everything except in the Mids part..

 

Check out the mods that @Hands has been doing with the Elear. I used them stock. The mods so far are really simple and worth looking into if your still wanting to try the Elear.

 

I'm curious, what gear were you listening to them on? I'm starting to think Elears might be a little amp picky...

 

Macbook --> Tidal --> DF Red --> Schiit Lyr 2 --> Elear/Utopia (Not my setup because I was at the store)

 

I own the Elear now after selling some other stuff off. The 4Khz dip is noticeable and sometimes bothersome, but it's not a deal breaker for me. I have no qualms about playing around with mild parametric EQ. May try some of Hands' mods in the future.
I'm really digging it overall, though. I love 'fast' dynamic headphones especially. Kind of like the AD2000x, but those seriously lack bass and have that weird AT coloration in the mids. The 4k dip in the Elear also seems less noticeable after your ears adjust as well.

 

I'm only listening to Prog-Rock and Metal music and I'm wondering if the upper mids dip of the Elear is a real issue or if the negative comments are exaggerated ?

I didn't have any issues with the mids when I tried the Elear yesterday but it's so hard to evaluate a product at the store and without your own setup.