Massdrop x Focal Elex Review and Measurements

For the record, I would never equate headphone owning with marriage. And anyone who does is an idiot. Because there is a shits load more to it than the physical thing that @Marvey alludes to in his comparisons.

 

Note for self, need to work on wording to avoid sarcasm flying under the radar.

 

My first response to this shouldn't have been matched with anything related to marriage in the first place. But I can see how my reply could have since it was an answer to such. That said my apologies if that is the perception.

Nothing against you, just covering the bases for some person thinking down the road that I believe marriage has monetary worth on its own.

 

You and me both. Just covering bases for the sake of it.

 

How does the Focal lineup play with higher output impedence tube amps? I think the slight bass boost might be welcome for the Elex but I'd be worried about ruining the rest of the tonal balance.

 

So unfortunately the heaviest headphones out of the bunch (on both weight and price tag) still sounds the best for me on paper...crossing my fingers that i can try them all sooner than later.

Edit: out of curiosity, what type of girl would a HD800 be @Marvey?

 

I still feel that none of those 3 are wife material. Sub Elex for Utopia. The Abyss has gotten the closest, but that is like marrying for personality and a butt for a face.

 

Well I hope I don't get cold feet. It won't ship till April.

 

you mean may...april 30th is probably the earliest and you'll probably receive it in may if it ships then....which you never know. I was interested in the drop, but then again...I'm not happy waiting 5 months with $850(with state tax for me) spent with no product. Who knows what will be released by then. The drop numbers are low because most people(masses) can wait maybe 1 month or max 2 months, but not 5 at this price range.

 

It does need to be an incredible bargain to justify a lead time like that. Oh well, making ordering deeply inconvenient is a way to save people money, I suppose.

 

Don't mind me, just dropping in to report what I hear.

So I got to listen to the Elear with Clear pads. Umm... Still sounds like an Elear to me. To me. The change in FR is subtle. I usually don't recommend EQ, but this isn't too far from some decent EQ work done on the Elear.
Don't get me wrong, I imagine the Elex is an improvement to the Elear. And the price is good especially with balanced cable. It's just not for me, because...

Because I discovered the Clear. The clear wasn't on my radar, as everything seems almost identical to the Elear. But boy I am glad I got to hear them.

Can someone get us some Clear measurements, pretty please? I would like to compare it with the Elear/Elex.
I don't buy the Elex/Clear FR comparison that's readily available. That is quite different from what I heard.

Edit: somehow I missed the measurements here posted last week. Was referring to some other graph out there...

 

Yeah i agree with your sentiments about the Clear measurements floating around. If they are actually promising, like a "tonally fixed" rather than "tonally fucked a la Elear" headphone, then it would be very interesting to get one to pass around among people here and see measurements from @Marvey and @ultrabike and others. Again, the measures that have floated around do look kinda promising, and I've gotten some very brief impressions from people I trust but very brief because based upon brief impressions and also without any measures. The price that Focal is asking still seems steep but those tend to come down rapidly or via group/bulk purchases. And there's a risk involved because even if we do acquire some, there's a chance they remain a subtle improvement over the Elear and continue to sound disjointed, but I'm hoping that's not the case.

 

@brencho I see. The Clear isn't perfect, but it sounds much like what I wanted the 650k+ to be. And yea the current price is steep.

 

Maybe we should wait for the price to drop if we are low. We have LCD2 and HE5 incoming anyways.

 

Any possibility of organizing a specific contribution scheme for the Clear, for those that are eager for measurements and a loaner?

I know I’d be down to asssist with getting one in the hands of the measurabators.

 

The Elex ain't exactly flying off the shelves. It seems like Massdrop is struggling to break into more premium headfi territory. How many EC Jr's did they end up selling?

 

How many $1,000+ items has Massdrop sold, regardless of category? It's a lot of money and not exactly like a $2,000 item for 50% off.