PROLOGUE
When I got into this hobby back in 2010 my seminal purchase was a Klipsch Image One headphone. At the time it was the first headphone I had spent over $100 on and the first audio product I had purchased in a long time. I had owned countless numbers of beater Sony’s and Koss Porta Pros but the Klipsch headphone seemed like a step up to something more serious in my book.
The problem was that it was a little too insensitive for my iPad and iPod. That lack of drive or ability to pump up the volume from my two Apple sources would be the catalyst and my undoing.
Not having enough power with onboard amplifiers in those two devices is what initially got me looking for some small outboard amplifier that I could connect between the iPod and the headphones to get the volume levels I wanted.
At the time I wasn’t even sure such a device existed…. An amplifier for a headphone, with portability…. This quest for some device I wasn’t even sure existed was the jumping off point for my journey down into the Head-fi rabbit hole.
I had no idea at the time, what I was getting myself into.
6 years later, I’ve torn through probably 20 different headphones, 5 or 6 dacs, at least 5 different desktop amps a couple few different portable amps and thousands upon thousands of dollars.
The entire time, I’ve been chasing a dragon of very specific origins. Because despite spending a ridiculous amount of money on playback equipment and being as susceptible as anyone to Madison Avenues gaming of the consumer system, I don’t consider myself an audiophile.
I don’t listen to high res, I don’t really care a whole lot about detail retrieval and think imaging and soundstage are overblown when it comes to headphones.
In the 2 channel game, with speaker playback, imaging actually matters because you can, with the right speakers, actually cast an image out into the room of a band playing. 2 boxes placed in the corners of a room can project a sonic hologram of sorts.
With headphones it doesn’t work like that. Not even close.
Even the greatest imaging headphones like the Stax SR-009 or the Sennheiser HD800 only provide a mild amount of extra depth to a soundstage that is essentially within inches of your face (in the absolute best circumstances) and right in the middle of your head in most cases. And I think stereo image width, has a lot more to do with the track mix of the file being played than the acoustics of a headphone. The headphone imaging game is really a game of inches and so I don’t place a lot of currency in it.
What matters more to me is color & tonal richness, dynamic drive and scale. I want a headphone that plays forcefully and pressurizes the air and creates some rhythmic drive that interacts with me on a physical level.
I don’t want to listen to my system, I don’t want to be a passive observer with my sound system. I want to engage my music. I want to feel it and be immersed in it.
To that end I’ve been chasing a dragon further and further into high end Head-fi territory that seemed to be getting further and further away. I was beginning to think maybe my dragon didn’t exist.
Still the end of 2014 marked a point at which I stopped chasing. I pulled the trigger on an HD800 headphone to couple with my Audeze LCD2, T1 and my LuxMAN’S tube amp.
I had been dragging my feet on the HD800 because of all the universal criticisms of it being overly bright and being a bit light in the ass on low frequency fare. Still I felt it was an Apex predator and I outta have it on hand. The LCD2 I own is the third specimen I have purchased. The LCD2 does not wow you, and I’ve twice now, tired of it and sold it because I wanted something different for difference’s sake. In any case, at the end of 2014, I acquired an HD800, had an LCD2 and a T1 in hand and from then on have been largely satisfied with my system, despite still feeling that all 3 headphones sound a bit anemic dynamically. Even these apex predators were, to me, light on tonal weight and density and lacked the air pressure that I wanted.
In the meantime I’ve developed a mild addiction to DIY audio and am always strung out on vintage gear, particularly Tannoy Reds and Golds (If you gots hit me up!) , but I have kept my headphone rig in the same general state… short of a tweak or two.
I’ve also been immune to the upgrade bug and the hype machine that is the audiophile press. I still read sites like 6Moons, Computer Audiophile, Digital Audio Review, Audiostream, Stereophile and Inner Fidelity but nothing ever really grabs my attention.
I don’t own a DAP because I find the concept redundant. Even though I have been tempted repeatedly, I have managed to resist attempts by the hype machine to convince me to buy a second device that I can stick in my pocket that’ll play music slightly better than the other device in my pocket that plays music.
So when Focal Audio announced the imminent release of two new flagship headphones, The Elear and the Utopia, it barely moved the needle for me. I do remember going on their new website to look at the models. But I had the same response to it that I did to the Pioneers SE Master 1, or Final Audio’s Sonorous or even the Audeze LCD4. I was more irritated by the price point than interested in the device.
And so I disregarded it out of hand, until something happened.
Tyll at Inner Fidelity posted a review that wasn’t just a thumbs up… He was over the moon about it.
Mind you, I treat most audio review sites with a healthy level of skepticism. I’ve been burned more than once purchasing a product based on an audio review sites or multiple sites gushing recommendation only to find the product performance falls well short of what the reviewer described.
Tyll Hertsen is one of only a couple exclusions I can think of. Other writers at Inner Fidelity are viewed through the same cynical lens as the rest of the market, but Tyll has a track record of calling it like I see it. So when he posts a review with unbridled enthusiasm like he did for the Focal Elear it forced me to take a second look.
Maybe I need to consider this a little more seriously.
Despite being hamstrung on cash at the time, serendipity provided the answer. I had posted a mechanical part for customizing one of my cars on an obscure auto enthusiast forum. I just didn’t have the time or the need to install it so had listed it and the ad had been collecting dust in some obscure corner of the internet for months.
Suddenly out of nowhere, I had a bite. Full price plus shipping… Done and done!
So with my Paypal account suddenly overflowing with cash, I made arrangements to acquire my own Focal Elear. I was able to catch the second wave of Elears that flooded the market in September and have now had the device in my care for over 3 months.
HEY HO LETS GO!
So to begin in earnest, the Focal Elear comes in your bog standard retail box but with a relatively nice cardboard carrying case with magnetic closure. I do like the acoustic foam on the lid. It looks like the grill pads off of an old JBL L100 vintage speaker. And while the box is nice and protective it is massive. It will not work if you want to throw your Elears in your suitcase to travel unless you’ve got a very large suitcase.
I purchased a Pelican case (iM2100) and used the cardboard insert out of the Focal box to create my own travel case. I happen to think it looks pretty sharp if not exactly like an OEM product.
Other ancillaries are limited, a gargantuan cable, a cable wrap, and warranty/ user documents.
In hand the Elear is a very good looking headphone. On its surface it looks like a better engineered or more durable Beyer T1. Obviously the housing/ driver is completely different but the suspension system is similar. The Elear uses aluminum blocks at the end of the headband where the T1 uses plastic, the Elear has a 1” wide yoke hanger/ headband slider where the T1 was less than half that, albeit with thicker aluminum stock. The yokes are connected to the ear cups with metal pins, the T1 connection was plastic with a metal screw, and the headband leather is more substantial. The leather on the T1 was remarkably soft but always felt a bit fragile to me.
Not to give too much away, but the reason I speak of the T1 in past tense is because it has been sold…. This should be a pretty clear indicator of how I feel about the Elear but there is more.
One thing that I need to mention that I haven’t heard much chatter about is the headband noise. To me it is actually a pretty significant problem.
The Elear headband does appear more substantial than the T1, and I do think the T1 suspension was chinsy and poorly engineered contrasted against a bombproof everlast design like the LCD2, or perfectly silent and seemingly durable design like the HD800. But the Elear also appears to fall short here.
I think the Elear suspension/ slider mechanism is too complex and made with poor material choices. Let me explain:
First I think the gimbals/ yokes are made of thin but wide aluminum material and were likely formed in a press… Problem is that the geometry with the rolling bends in thin aluminum stock strikes me as easy to bend or deform, and despite babying my pair since day one, there is an actual lack of symmetry between the left and right side of mine.
Also inside the headband, once you remove the screws on the aluminum blocks, what you actually have is a plastic headband housing with a top and bottom shell. There are small springs on either side of the housing with plastic bearing plates glued to the plastic housing to allow side to side movement. There is a spring loaded pin connected to the slider that catches against detents inside the headband and another spring loaded tab inside the headband that applies pressure to the slider. With all this movement, I don’t see anywhere in it where a specific part is encountering forces or friction that will cause it to wear down or fail. But because there are so many little plastic odds and ends inside there, and two different axis of movement being controlled by spring loaded parts I’ve found that my specimen actually has a couple different spots where different pieces get hung up on each other and make audible pops and scraping noises. Also both in the center and out on the edges, the headband makes creaking noises fairly often.
Numerous times when listening to music, I’ve heard the headband making noise and the obsessive part of me goes into a tailspin. I end up completely distracted by the noise waiting for the headband to give me another pop or click or creaks while the music continues in the background.
Also the headband just doesn’t feel solid… Not LCD2 solid or HD800 solid. It feels a bit loose.
I would love to see a reengineered headband for sale separately or even as an aftermarket solution that was more simple and/ or made of more durable materials.
So I don’t think the Elear is perfect. I think the headband falls remarkably short of what should be expected from a $1000 product and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect silent operation from the mechanical bits of a product during use.
That said, the remaining aspects of the build quality are all positive. I love the metal ring on the cups, I really like that they utilized the simple and relatively easy to source 3.5mm connectors versus some obscure, exotic or proprietary connector that is impossible to find. I like the removable pads although Focal has shown no indication that they are going to sell replacement pads yet. And despite being too long and ridiculously heavy, I do actually like the quality of the cable. It is unwieldly but is a solid cable with good conductors of good size and is what one would expect from a serious piece of audio equipment. I just wish it was maybe 3 or 4 feet shorter.
HOOK IT UP!
Okay with those few but significant grievances out of the way let’s get down to the heart of the matter.
Is the Focal Elear good? Damn Straight! At this point in my journey, it is the closest I have come, in the headphone game, to getting E X A C T L Y what I want.
But that may not be quite enough for some people so let me elaborate.
The Elear has an intoxicatingly rich tone. It has weight and dynamic punch in spades. This isn’t to say it is just about bass. Bass with the Elear is certainly one of its strong suits and I can’t imagine anyone coming away from the Elear saying they were unsatisfied with its bass performance but it really is about more than bass and frequency response when you talk about the headphone from a tone perspective. It energizes the space around your ears, it moves air to physically interact with you. And to me, because it pressurizes/ energizes the air it creates this momentum and in a way, demands that you pay attention to it.
It is not a headphone you wear to listen to music while you work. You'll get nothing done.
The Elear is not an acoustics superstar. Compared to the HD800 and to a lesser degree the T1, the acoustics seem darker and murkier, fringe notes and small light details out on the edges of the stereo signal are less clear than they are with the HD800 and T1. Still despite not giving clarity to the depth that the HD800 and T1 do, this darker acoustic tuning also seems to create this inkier black space for music to spring up from, creating emotional tension and anticipation. When listening to Tool's 'Wing's for Marie' the alternative scratching noises out on the edges between the main notes being played in the center could not be heard as clear as they could on the HD800, but the Elear could track the small variance in volume as the guitar came in (once again bouncing back and forth between left and right channels). It's ability to accurately represent these "micro dynamic" changes in volume communicated the building tension and anticipation. Where the HD800 was able to remove all the shadows it's inability to convey the small dynamic shifts left it sounding accurate but lacking the emotional engagement.
One of the most remarkable experiences I had was after playing music through the Elear for a good hour or so, I plugged my late T1 in to see how it compared. Mind you this was a 19K serial number T1, not the early models that were plagued with inconsistency and mid treble glare. The sound coming out of the T1 was so bleached sounding, so anemic sounding that I actually pulled it off my head for a minute and checked the connections because I was worried that something was wrong with it… Nothing was. It was just after listening to this full bodied sound out of the Elear for so long, switching over to the T1 seemed like going from 3D to 2D or from color to black and white. It was a remarkable difference.
VS. LCD2 the differences were similar to the differences with the T1. Contrasted against the Elear, the LCD2 sound lacks the dynamic weight of the Elear. I don’t think the bass performance on the LCD2 is anywhere near the level of the Elear. At least not with my list of priorities. For those who don’t mind that recessed sound, the LCD2 has remarkably linear response down into subterranean levels. It just does so with it quite a bit less propulsiveness (is that a word?) It can play certain low end fare with texture and nuance, but it does this with a significantly recessed presentation. It is very much like the often maligned HD650 veil. Compared to the Elear, the LCD2 has this same veil on.
In my world, this hamstrings engagement with music. It doesn’t give you the dynamic feeling, the pressurization of the space around your head, moving volumes of air to make music come more alive. It gives you the data, an accurate representation of the sinewave but lacks that extra layer of hills and valleys, quiet and loud that create tension and momentum that draws you into the music.
The Elear isn’t perfect. It's soundstage is relatively crowded in comparison (although contrasted against the larger market it isn't bad) but the tone is so rich, the dynamics are so engaging, its a nourishing, involving, potent communicator. And like I said I don't care a great deal about soundstage so the Elear is extraordinary in my book.
So in terms of the LCD2 and T1 I think the Elear destroys them both…. With my tastes in my system.
To your run of the mill audiophile who listens to his system at quieter volumes, or who wants to listen to his system as much as he listens to music, the Elear’s propulsive up front nature may leave him wanting it to take a step back to allow him to investigate detail and textures and filigree more.
But I am not that guy… I want the music to cast a spell over me…. I don’t want to observe the performance I want to be immersed in it. The Elear does that for me.
Vs HD800. Now this one is a bit interesting because of my obvious proclivity for punch, you would think that the HD800 wouldn’t stand a chance,at least that’s what I thought. But what I’ve found is that the HD800 while clearly not excelling in certain areas that the Elear does, is a wonderful alternative voice to have on tap. Obviously the HD800 has more clarity front to back and cast sunlight in a number of places where the Elear is still casting shadows. But with the tone controls on my Luxman amp, the HD800's dynamic slam can be brought up a notch to compete on a more even playing field and though they each excel at different things. I think for me the HD800 and the Focal Elear are a perfect dynamic duo to continue my Head-fi journey with.
To me, the Elear is like the Les Paul with Seth Lover humbuckers and a big Marshall Stack. A big, full bodied, wall of sound that punches you in the gut and prioritizes the leading edge attack and warm powerful sustain…. The HD800 is the Fender Telecaster with a P90 pickup and a vintage Hot Rod amp that has more nuanced articulation of individual notes. It excels with a cleaner tone and offers up more info with reverb, decay and release.
They are both masters of certain parts of the tonal envelope, and complement each other.
Obviously I can’t get the levels of body and punch with the HD800 that I do with the Elear, but I do think the HD800 midrange is more honest and linear. There is a smidge of hollowness to the midrange of the Elear. The HD800 gives me a completely different look, more air, more depth (there are those damn sound stage words again) and despite the Elear ticking most of my personal listening habit boxes. I still find that I want to listen to the HD800 quite a bit, even with the Elear in house. So I am keeping it!
Interesting side note:
I’ve always viewed my HD800 as my microscope. If I was looking at different dac or amp options for my system, the HD800 has always been a good tool to have on tap to tease out differences between devices, especially since differences between dacs are usually vanishingly small (you heard it here first, don’t believe the hype!) but there are often small differences and the HD800 has proven invaluable in identifying them.
What has surprised me is just how adept the Elear is at this same thing. I don’t know a whole lot about its design at an electrical level, but it seems to be remarkably sensitive to upstream changes in a system. I am better able to pick out differences between my two dacs at my office system with the Elear than I am with the HD800. One other thing I have found is that the Elear will and does sound like a completely different headphone depending on what amp you tether it to.
Connected to my big rigs, a Luxman SQ-N100 (the original Japanese version) and my custom built Nelson Pass transformer rig the Elear is the most dynamic headphone I’ve ever heard, bar none.
Connected to portable amps like the ALO Audio National, the Cayin C5, and to a lesser extent the Chord Mojo, the sound is more restrained sounding and not quite as dynamic…. Still better than most, but it does sound a bit lackluster compared to the experience through the Luxman tube amp. This pairing, the Elear and the SQ-N100, is almost obscene how good it is. And if I was content before, I am pretty much at games end now.
The only item on the horizon that still has me wanting to make one last run into the market, is the new Sony flagship. Because I am only too familiar with Sony’s habit of building their sonic foundations on bass and tonal fatness and because I have been lucky enough to spend a fair amount of time with Sony’s legendary R1, and because I admire the full throttle engineering approach Sony takes with statement products, I am curious about this lone specimen out in the wild.
Beyond that. I think I am done. The Elear is the dragon. It is what I was looking for. While I am not entirely thrilled with the headband, it hasn’t failed on me and so I can only knock it for not ‘feeling’ like it is going to hold up without any real proof of that… Time will tell. I hope it does, or that someone brings a solution to market that is better.
And as far as the Utopia goes…. If that fancy 3 armed detail on the cup of the Utopia had been milled out of aluminum and the cup ring material had been upgraded from plastic to either aluminum or wood, I may have looked at it a bit more seriously.
But because it is a plastic part and the only other difference is the yokes are made of carbon fiber, I have trouble with the notion that the more advanced driver of the exact same shape, is worth 3k. Not saying it isn’t. I just have trouble seeing the value in it.
So no Utopia for me.
Nope… Short of the Z1R taking up residence here, I’m done.
Game over.