I’ve now done some direct A/B comparison E2/Utopia. Note that I’m running my Utopia w/ Elex pads, which, to my ears, tilt them a little warmer to
just right —
see this post for more.
tl,dr: Utopia presents more detail. Utopia is slightly more linear as my ears hear a bit of roll-off in E2 treble. Bass quantity is similar, but Utopia has better timbre. Sound stages are similar in size, but Utopia stage is more resolved/precise. Utopia is significantly more efficient. Comfort is close to a wash for me. Some might find the weight difference a big plus for E2, while folks with big ears may find E2 pad ear holes a bit cramped.
Not surprising that Utopia is more detailed, as that’s its hallmark. Here are a couple tests which highlight the difference:
Can you understand the conversation at the beginning of title track from Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’?
How well can you here the audience reaction to the line ‘Put some Neil Young on, and turn up the sound’ from Lucinda Williams’ track ‘Ventura’ off the Live at the Filmore album?
Tonality difference is just barely notable — they’re both neutral-ish, Utopia a bit brighter. You hear just a bit more ‘edge’ on some female vocals from Utopia (Joni Mitchell/Marissa Nader, not k.d. Lang/Sade), or acoustic guitar (Antoine Dufour, Dead ‘Reckoning’). Probably same number of listeners will say E2 is ‘rolled off’ as say Utopia is ‘bright’. Really noticeable on live Dead tracks.
Bass from Utopia has great timbre — you can really distinguish drum strikes from bass string plucks. And you get more ‘tone’ out of some percussion, like tom-toms & (especially) kettle drums. E2 bass has good impact and speed, without bloat or roll-off, but just not as ‘full’ and detailed. Aftertone/decay from each note of opening bass line of Jimi’s ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’ demonstrates this.
Sound stages seem similar size-wise in all three dimensions, with Utopia a touch more intimate, and the E2 slightly airier. But the Utopia stage is notably more precise. I refer to this as the ‘
that instrument, right
there’ effect, meaning that each instrument/voice is very precisely positioned in the image. Utopia also presents more space on tracks which use reverbs/echoey effects — Marissa Nadler ‘Christine’ & Mark Knofler/EmmyLou Harris ‘Beyond my Wildest Dreams’. It’s pretty noticeable on ‘Christine’.
<edit> I was writing the ‘bottom line’ section below w/ E2s and playing my ‘Big Faves’ playlist (1176 tracks) on shuffle. Steely Dan ‘Deacon Blues’ came up, and the staging seemed ‘really good’ — super defined and airy. So I A/B’d the track w/ Utopia. Turns out it’s really well-produced and has wonderful staging with all my cans. But still best from Utopia.</edit>
Utopia is much more efficient. If I set volume for E2 from BHA-1 using the high gain setting, switching to Utopia on low gain matches volume pretty well.
I’ve always found Utopia to be quite comfortable. They are heavy — but apparently I’m not sensitive to that since I don’t find my Blackwood Auteur uncomfortable either. E2 are much lighter, so if that matters then you’ll consider E2 much more comfortable. The holes in the E2 ear pads are smaller, and they are ear-shaped. I can easily imagine folks with large ears having problems there. Didn’t bother me.
Bottom line: I like E2 very much. Better than EFO 1.0, although EFO 1.1 is close. Side-grade compared to HEKv2 & Auteur — in fact, E2 kinda falls in the middle between those two. But I prefer the Utopia w/ Elex pads to E2 across the board. However, it’s surprisingly close to my ears. Several times during my comparisons I found myself checking to be sure which cans I had on.
And E2 comes in third in the ‘Dead-phones’ competition (best headphones for enjoying Grateful Dead music), behind Auteur in first, with Utopia a close second. E2 are waaaayyyyyyy ahead of HEKv2 languishing in last place.
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