[tamleo]

https://www.strax.com/












Elex = Elear + Clear pads, I think. The Clear itself may have tighter tolerance for L/R driver matching, which is very important for soundstage, but I don’t know for sure the exact difference between Elex and Clear… certainly the Elex was a bargain.

The elex has 80ohm impedance and is only sold in US

 

[Shane D]

Elex = Elear + Clear pads, I think. The Clear itself may have tighter tolerance for L/R driver matching, which is very important for soundstage, but I don’t know for sure the exact difference between Elex and Clear… certainly the Elex was a bargain.

I have seen that trope marched out many times, but I don't believe it. If just changing the pads worked magic, I would have eventually liked my Elegia's. I went through many pads, including the Stellia pads from Dekoni and nothing worked.
I wonder if anyone actually did that comparo head to head?

I LOVED my Elex's for years and the Clear's were just too expensive at that point. I then bought the Clear's about a year and a half ago from Headphones.com. I could not find a noticeable difference between them. Although it is nice to have three years of warranty and the ability to get after warranty service.

I Love the sound of open back Focal's. And those Elex's are, IMO, the best deal in headphones at $499.00.

 

[tholt]

I could not find a noticeable difference between them.

You couldn't hear a difference between Clear and Elex?

 

[kman1211]

I have seen that trope marched out many times, but I don't believe it. If just changing the pads worked magic, I would have eventually liked my Elegia's. I went through many pads, including the Stellia pads from Dekoni and nothing worked.
I wonder if anyone actually did that comparo head to head?

I LOVED my Elex's for years and the Clear's were just too expensive at that point. I then bought the Clear's about a year and a half ago from Headphones.com. I could not find a noticeable difference between them. Although it is nice to have three years of warranty and the ability to get after warranty service.

I Love the sound of open back Focal's. And those Elex's are, IMO, the best deal in headphones at $499.00.

I gather the Elegia is the least liked of the Focal closed-backs and supposed to be strangely tuned. I gather the new Azurys is better tuned and more spacious than the typical focal closed back sound. Will see if they are decently spacious for a closed back when I get them, my closed Beyers are both very spacious so good headphones to test against for that aspect. Open focals in general are great, I’ve heard a couple (Elear and Utopia OG) and thought they were great and I’m sure they’ve only improved since. Comfort of the old style focals wasn’t ideal for me though.

 

[tutetibiimperes]

I have seen that trope marched out many times, but I don't believe it. If just changing the pads worked magic, I would have eventually liked my Elegia's. I went through many pads, including the Stellia pads from Dekoni and nothing worked.
I wonder if anyone actually did that comparo head to head?

I LOVED my Elex's for years and the Clear's were just too expensive at that point. I then bought the Clear's about a year and a half ago from Headphones.com. I could not find a noticeable difference between them. Although it is nice to have three years of warranty and the ability to get after warranty service.

I Love the sound of open back Focal's. And those Elex's are, IMO, the best deal in headphones at $499.00.

Someone did do measurements at one point showing the Elear, the Elear with Clear and Elex pads, and the original Drop Elex

The Elear with Clear or Elex pads measured close enough to the factory Elex to be within normal unit-to-unit variation.

Darned if I can find the link now though.

 

[kman1211]

I did decide to pre-order the OAE1, very curious about the sound of the headphone. Since it’s a limited run headphone I thought would be smart to pre-order now.

 

[maegnificant]

I did decide to pre-order the OAE1, very curious about the sound of the headphone. Since it’s a limited run headphone I thought would be smart to pre-order now.

I fell for that, too.

 

[kman1211]

I fell for that, too.

Yeah but it also gives me time to debate whether I want to keep the pre-order or not; not supposed to ship till late June so have plenty of time to think about it.

 

[zilax002]

I have seen that trope marched out many times, but I don't believe it. If just changing the pads worked magic, I would have eventually liked my Elegia's. I went through many pads, including the Stellia pads from Dekoni and nothing worked.

The point isn't that any headphone can be great/to an individual's taste with the right pads, but that certain headphones have the potential to be great but were held back by the pad choice.

But in the case of the Elex ... that headphone is literally an Elear with different pads and minor cosmetic differences.

There are many other cases of manufacturers changing pads with a noticeable improvement in the eyes of the community: Sundara 2020, the 2020 revisions of the Audeze LCD-X and LCD-XC.

2020: a big year for pads.

 

[Shane D]

You couldn't hear a difference between Clear and Elex?

Nope. There might have been some variance, based on different songs, but nothing conclusive.

Certainly not worth double the price to me. But I do not claim to be an audiophile nor do I claim to have golden ears.

 

[tamleo]

Silly when calling Elex just an Elear with different pads lol

 

[tholt]

Silly when calling Elex just an Elear with different pads lol

Not silly at all. That's essentially what it is

 

[Deckard001]

Is they gonna be available in Europe, also are these really a budget combination of HD600+800s? The lovely sound of HD600 with the sub-bass extension and with big soundstage such as HD800s?

 

[tamleo]

Not silly at all. That's essentially what it is

My comment was not meant to you and I don’t want to derail this thread but the Elex has a different damping scheme and tuning compared to the Elear and it was confirmed by one Massdrop staff’s comment. Besides my friend added Clear pads to his Elear but the mids suckout was still there. My old Elex had no suck-out mids at all

 

[drummerman1]

... and I thought this was all about the Grell headphones ...