evshrug said:

One of the things I love about Northern Audio/ Music To My Ear is that they have this truly epic wall of headphones... including a pair of Beats Solo 2. And they totally just have it as a joke, nobody has ever bought their one pair.

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oh stop that....those Beats totally kill it.....just looky here..

tsavjason said:

Sennheiser did not confirm that pricing. I suggest you use caution. I'm not soliciting you for the sale, I'm just seeing a lot of fraud online lately

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Thanks for the advice. I thought it was too good to be true at the time but the company was/is a legitimate one so I took the chance. I am not suggesting anyone make that gamble but in my case it paid off.

tsavjason said:

Would you mind providing us with your comparison between Beats and the Abyss please .....based on your reply this should be a relatively good comparison. Use your criteria that price is irrelevant.

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Why should something that costs more automatically sound more realistic?
 
Comparing Beats to Abyss is a moot point of course. The HD650 has a very impressive tuning compared to LCD 4 for example. However the HD650 lacks in clarity and bass quality due to its veiled nature.
 
When you take as reference live acoustic music, yep price can be taken out of the equation in my opinion. I listened to Sibelius 3rd symphony recently.  Listening to the same piece on my system made me appreciate their technicalities. Live acoustic music is what I use as reference when listening to new gear.

I live in Istanbul and unfortunately I cannot import anything that costs more than 1.5K Euros. So, my only chance to audition one is when I'm in Europe for a vacation or something. Is Utopia available in Europe yet? Maybe I'll arrange my next holiday accordingly and come back with a pair of Utopia on my way back. I guess there won't be any problem with the customs... no one would believe that I paid 4K for a pair of headphones   

Quick and dirty impressions:

My current headphones that I use the most are HD800, I like Alt Rock, Americana, Chill music (wide variety there), house, and orchestral (basically, give me good examples from any genre and I'll probably appreciate it), and I've also grown up as a gamer.

The Elear
You know how fans of the HD700 say "Oh, well it has a sound halfway between the HD650 and an HD800 with more bass, less treble, looks wicked awesome and feels hella comfortable?" And it originally cost $1000? The good stuff the HD700 does with warmer, more muscular/solid mids and midbass, and costing less than an HD800, all that? Yeah, the Elear fulfills that sound signature with more aplomb, without the peak and valley flaws in the treble, and overall much more sense of detail and what's going on. With the smoother, more euphoric sound, I totally get the comparisons to the HD650, but again I just hear it outclass the Sennheisers mentioned. Overall they're a headphone that I would choose for a rich, fun sound, and it is a headphone I could see owning.

A/B'd with the HD800, the HD800 definitely felt thinner but in an "airy" sort of way. I felt like the Elear had more grunt and "solid" feeling, while the HD800 was effortless in reproducing the music. Transparency versus musicality, neither straying into analytical or over saturated. I personally prefer the HD800 more, but I'm confident the Elear is more what my friend BunnyNamedFrank would be into. For the money, both would be excellent choices I could recommend easily.


Utopia
I was texting my friends in excitement as I got ready to put the Utopias on my head, but once the music started, all my texts started getting weird.

Short sentences.
Streeeeetched vowels, like "Niiiiice," "Ooooooooh duuuuuuude," and "ahMAAAAAAAAAZEballs!"

Before we listened to the much anticipated Focals, I found an Enigma Acoustic's Dharma plugged in already (burning in, very fresh so keep that in mind), and we listened to some Flamenco guitar recorded live. The Flamenco played to the strengths of the Dharma, with fast treble and (IMO) excellent grade soundstage depth. With that headphone, knowing the tech in it, placebo psychology made me listen extra carefully for the difference between highs and lows, but I still came away pretty impressed. HOWEVER. When I listened to the same song on the Utopia, there was like a sense of relief. It didn't seem to give up any speed or natural timbre, but it felt much more natural and made the Dharma's treble seem bright. It has that effortless sound of the HD800, but somehow sounded even cleaner! Pink Floyd's "Time" was astonishing on the Utopia, that was the best word I could summon up. For fun, I streamed "Time" over Apple Music, then downloaded the 320kbps version, and we also had it on CD. The depth of the soundstage and reduction of "digital hash" improved with the 320kbps version, but grain and harshness were least evident in the CD version. I hadn't really done that test yet with the HD800 (been having more fun using it rather than being all scientific with it), but it was interesting how easy it was to hear the difference the bitrates made. I think I even heard a bit of distortion from the desktop amp we were using, I have no idea why but my brain's intuition said it wasn't the headphone's fault.

Realistically, on my current income, the Utopia is priced a step beyond "get it but feel guilty" and into, simply, I just can't scrounge up enough money to buy one. I'd love one if I could fit it into my budget though, and it makes me curious about Focal speakers some day.

evshrug said:

Quick and dirty impressions:

My current headphones that I use the most are HD800, I like Alt Rock, Americana, Chill music (wide variety there), house, and orchestral (basically, give me good examples from any genre and I'll probably appreciate it), and I've also grown up as a gamer.

The Elear
You know how fans of the HD700 say "Oh, well it has a sound halfway between the HD650 and an HD800 with more bass, less treble, looks wicked awesome and feels hella comfortable?" And it originally cost $1000? The good stuff the HD700 does with warmer, more muscular/solid mids and midbass, and costing less than an HD800, all that? Yeah, the Elear fulfills that sound signature with more aplomb, without the peak and valley flaws in the treble, and overall much more sense of detail and what's going on. With the smoother, more euphoric sound, I totally get the comparisons to the HD650, but again I just hear it outclass the Sennheisers mentioned. Overall they're a headphone that I would choose for a rich, fun sound, and it is a headphone I could see owning.

A/B'd with the HD800, the HD800 definitely felt thinner but in an "airy" sort of way. I felt like the Elear had more grunt and "solid" feeling, while the HD800 was effortless in reproducing the music. Transparency versus musicality, neither straying into analytical or over saturated. I personally prefer the HD800 more, but I'm confident the Elear is more what my friend BunnyNamedFrank would be into. For the money, both would be excellent choices I could recommend easily.


Utopia
I was texting my friends in excitement as I got ready to put the Utopias on my head, but once the music started, all my texts started getting weird.

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Haha good impressions! This may sound weird (who buys $4000 headphones just for games) but how do the Utopia fare during gaming? I love music but I've also been playing some games with the Elear lately and I love it. I know the Utopia is better and more balanced but would it stack up for games too?

muse wanderer said:

The problem is high strings. This particular string trio on the HD800S for example had the viola and double bass sounding full and bodied. The violinist instead seemed like being on a skateboard moving towards me when he plays low notes and away from me on high notes.

I listened to a cello and violin on the elear and the effect was even more pronounced. The bass muddies the mids further making equalisation correction difficult.

The mids on SR009 were gorgeous I agree. I have also been using etys for years until I got my beloved Andromedas.

For me and my priorities the Elear is completely unnatural when listening to orchestral or chamber works. The Utopia is stunning on the other hand. (Not 4k stunning btw!)

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Thanks for the report. Very clear description of the issue. Would also be a serious problem for me. I will wait until I have a chance to audition the Elears before I consider purchasing.

tsavjason said:

Would you mind providing us with your comparison between Beats and the Abyss please .....based on your reply this should be a relatively good comparison. Use your criteria that price is irrelevant.

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????? Why the sarcasm? He has clearly described an issue that would be troubling for some, myself included. Can you contribute anything of substance to the issue discussed?

imac2much said:

Haha good impressions! This may sound weird (who buys $4000 headphones just for games) but how do the Utopia fare during gaming? I love music but I've also been playing some games with the Elear lately and I love it. I know the Utopia is better and more balanced but would it stack up for games too?

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Are you a "fun" gamer or "competitive" gamer?  Fun gamers will probably like the Elear more vs the Utopia for competitive.
 
Quick and dirty difference:  "fun" is for visceral explosions in shooters, engine noise in racers, etc.  "Competitive" is for hearing footsteps in shooters and using virtual surround to identify where they are through walls and such.

imac2much said:

Haha good impressions! This may sound weird (who buys $4000 headphones just for games) but how do the Utopia fare during gaming? I love music but I've also been playing some games with the Elear lately and I love it. I know the Utopia is better and more balanced but would it stack up for games too?

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I'll let you know about gaming either late tonight or tomorrow. I just received the Utopia this morning and immediately began burning it in with some music and left for work. They are still burning in as I sit here at work so I can't wait to get back and have a listen. Will try to fit in a gaming session somewhere.

imac2much said:

Haha good impressions! This may sound weird (who buys $4000 headphones just for games) but how do the Utopia fare during gaming? I love music but I've also been playing some games with the Elear lately and I love it. I know the Utopia is better and more balanced but would it stack up for games too?

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Good question! Who buys $1000 headphones for gaming, or $15,000 surround speakers for movies? People do it; if gaming is something you enjoy, and you can afford it, go for it.

Btw, I finished writing more of my post, I just posted it half-written because I didn't want my phone to try to refresh the page and lose all the typing. Happens sometimes with longer posts and pauses to think.

Now, I demo'd the Utopias in a store, so the only audio I could play was music. Maybe an iPhone game, if I had really wanted, LOL! That said, I can extrapolate the sonic qualities to give you an idea of how it would be for gaming.

I game a lot with my HD800, so I'll use that as a basis for comparison. The HD800 is THE most comfortable headphone for my head I've ever worn, top of what I consider exceptional-class. It's light, doesn't trap and build up heat as much as most, it has amazing weight distribution, the pads aren't hot and sticky leather or scratchy or really wide, the ear is completely free from touching anything and getting sore, and it's almost as light as an AKG K712.

The Utopia isn't quite as easy to almost forget you're wearing it, but I still find it very good. Feels like a fullsized headphone, but not as heavy as I expect a fullsized closed headphone. Perforated pads didn't itch or bother me either. I could put in hours listening to the Elear or utopia without issue, the Utopia pads might actually be less irritating and more durable in the long run.

Sound wise, it has a similar benefit and effect as the HD800. Clean, effortless so it sounds less like you're listening to the headphone and more like you're listening to the game environment. There isn't an artificial reduction in treble, so it's not going to calm high-pitched gun cracks from CS:GO or Battlefield 4, but that low distortion means it can smoothly handle those sharp retorts without adding false grain. Depth perception is very good and (unless you're playing the BF1 beta, which has digital clipping issues) the audio won't become too chaotic that the Utopia can't reproduce the different things happening at once. The resolution would also suit virtual surround processing well, probably wouldn't be aggrivating plugged straight into something like the Creative X7 (Creative's stuff tend to have a slight brightness) but you'll know the Utopia is capable of more. I'd LOVE to hear the Utopia (and my HD800 for that matter) on the Smyth Realiser, hooked up to a Multibit DAC and some super amp.

Phone Battery dying!

pervysage said:

I'll let you know about gaming either late tonight or tomorrow. I just received the Utopia this morning and immediately began burning it in with some music and left for work. They are still burning in as I sit here at work so I can't wait to get back and have a listen. Will try to fit in a gaming session somewhere.

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There's a really happy fly hanging out inbetween your Utopia's earcups. You should be jealous.

evshrug said:

One of the things I love about Northern Audio/ Music To My Ear is that they have this truly epic wall of headphones... including a pair of Beats Solo 2. And they totally just have it as a joke, nobody has ever bought their one pair.

Click to expand...

I am sure the beats are there for comparison. I have seen highend shops with Bose cubes on the wall for this reason.

harmonix said:

Just heard the Utopia yesterday. Listened with a Cowon S and a Chord Dave (optical out from the cowon).

This is it and you don't need a massive amp. Other headphones can eat crow... There you have it. Haven't been this smitten with a headphone since the k1000 - but I think this is better!

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First impression here says it's better than K1000, exciting!

It's official: plying with 4 KHz and up on a parametric EQ, makes Elear much more enjoyable.

evshrug said:

Quick and dirty impressions:


Utopia

Realistically, on my current income, the Utopia is priced a step beyond "get it but feel guilty" and into, simply, I just can't scrounge up enough money to buy one. I'd love one if I could fit it into my budget though, and it makes me curious about Focal speakers some day.

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"Get it but feel guilty" is exactly where I stand right now. There's so much I can do with $4000!! Or even $2000 if I "just" get the Ether Flow. Decisions, decisions.

Focal/JMLab speakers can be pretty good and have been around for decades but are not a no-brainer and are just one in a vast jungle of good loudspeakers.
I personally feel they have gotten a bit more hard-hitting in the more recent years and I'm actually a fan of the older (and still available in the used-market) original JMLab Utopia and the smaller Mezzo Utopia (both having the classic JMLabs Titanium tweeter).
I did really like the huge Grande Utopia Be, but found the other Be models treble-centric. Beryllium tweeters sometimes work, sometimes not for me, depending on the implementation.