[potkettleblack]

A notice in my box expressed that Focal was extending the warranty to 4 years for the Utopia. Thereafter, I received word from my dealer (The Source AV) that the warranty was in fact 5years.

Excellent news for future owners.

 

[grizzlybeast]

 

Delayed until end of July?

Tentatively my Elear's are scheduled to be delivered early next week.

I thought it was the end of this week... 

 

[Audio Addict]

I thought it was the end of this week... 

I think they are scheduled to arrive at LAX the end of this week and they have to clear customs. They will ship them out as soon as they are able. I just suggested early next week to be safe.

 

[TSAVJason]

I thought it was the end of this week... 

Hi Griz! So if the schedule is as France says, I should be shipping yours on Friday making it arrive to you Monday. If I get any delays on shipping or customs I'll let you know immediately.

 

[TSAVJason]

A notice in my box expressed that Focal was extending the warranty to 4 years for the Utopia. Thereafter, I received word from my dealer (The Source AV) that the warranty was in fact 5years.

To be clear there are terms that must be met by your dealers to receive the 5 year warranty from Focal. As a customer of The Source AV you are assured the 5 year term of warranty. There are dealers, other than through themselves or via aftermarket warranty insurance companies that cannot provide this Focal 5 year warranty. It is my understanding the warranty is only 1 year if your selling dealer does not qualify for the 5 year warranty. You as a consumer qualify, it's your dealer that must quality to be able to extend the warranty. Don't just take their word for it, there are avenues to know that your dealer is qualified for this and can extend this factory authorized 5 year program.

 

[music_man]

focal knows speakers. darn well. i would imagine they have no problem pulling off headphones too. as per all the praise herein. i gues i am interested in hearing the utopia.

 

[imac2much]

I just finished reading through the entire thread (phew!). The Elear seem very promising for my taste! I've read some comparisons to the Ether O but not the C. Could anyone compare the Elear to the Ether C and perhaps ZMF Omni? Also would they sound fine driven from an Oppo HA-1?

Also, how would they fare with non-music audio, i.e. immersive experience for movies and gaming?

Thanks!

 

[manishex]

Well my LCD-3 have a 15dB dip from 1kHz to 4kHz, according to the FR response they gave me.

 

[Philimon]

  focal knows speakers. darn well. i would imagine they have no problem pulling off headphones too. as per all the praise herein. i gues i am interested in hearing the utopia.

Send the man a review pair! Please.

 

[Stillhart]

I just finished reading through the entire thread (phew!). The Elear seem very promising for my taste! I've read some comparisons to the Ether O but not the C. Could anyone compare the Elear to the Ether C and perhaps ZMF Omni? Also would they sound fine driven from an Oppo HA-1?

Also, how would they fare with non-music audio, i.e. immersive experience for movies and gaming?

Thanks!

 
The Elear is a very different sonic flavor from the Ether C, which is why I chose to compare it to the Ether instead.  If you've heard the open Ether vs Ether C, you should have a good idea of the general sonic differences.  I don't believe the Elear is on the same level of detail retrieval as the Ether C.  The Omni is probably a better comparison, thanks to similar tonality and weight.  From memory I think the Omni might be a bit more detailed, while the Elear might have better mids.
 
The Elear should sound fine from the HA-1... the upper-mids/lower-treble recession should help offset the brightness of the HA-1.
 
I never tried it with movies or gaming, but I'm going to say it should be great for movies and great for gaming -- as long as you're not looking for good surround sound whoring.  It's more of the "immersive and fun" kind of gaming headphone than the "super clean with insane soundstage and imaging" gaming headphone.

 

[music_man]

I can get it. don't worry. I am pretty darn sure i am going to be very impressed. what i wonder is will it be better than sr009. for "just" 4 grand. since once you factor the blue hawaii that is a lot of money. I will try it with the rs darkstar though.

 

[Audio Addict]

  I can get it. don't worry. I am pretty darn sure i am going to be very impressed. what i wonder is will it be better than sr009. for "just" 4 grand. since once you factor the blue hawaii that is a lot of money. I will try it with the rs darkstar though.

 
From what I read, these are pretty efficient headphone compared to the HE-6 and all the early planars Ray designed the Dark Star for.  At least he included a low gain setting to allow it to be use with other headphones.

 

[ubs28]

Tyll is going to review the Elear so he must like the headphone (he won't review headphones that he doen't like). 
 
The measurements are also quite interesting. It has a huge dip (around -20 db) and goes into a very big peak around the 10k region. Also the similarly priced HD 800 (non-S model) seems to be a little bit better on the THD measurements than the Elear. So not sure what the hype around the THD is all about? 
 
Tyll described the Elear as "uber-dynamic" sounding and sounding different from most things he heard which could be a good thing. 
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/innerfidelity-update-july-2016#eJWQVB23tUdzAzIC.97

 

[james6333]

I am looking forward to seeing the measurments of these after people called them both bright and rolled off...

 

[fallofdave]

You can already see Tylls measurements for the Elear.   Or do you mean the Utopia?