I thought I'd share my journey with the Elear. I've now had them little over a month, in case it helps anyone on their journey with them.
Upon first try, I was little put off by how low-mid forward/dominant they seemed. After Eq'ing them to my preference, I gave them a good auditioning over a few weeks, until then trying the Sonarworks True-fi plugin, and now the Sonarworks reference 3 with the Elear added, which totally fixed my dislike of their natural low-mid forward curve.
I have spent 20+ years playing around with audio production, so I've become used to a fairly flat response curve, and have become accustomed to a more analytical sound, hence my need to EQ the Elear. I realize this probably has the purists cringing, but I rarely expect a pair of headphones to match my prefered sound signature, unless I'm using a pair of studio reference cans for studio work, that were made to be flat.
For reference, other cans I've got very used to are: AKG K550, and K553, AKG K701, AGK k702, K712, Sennheiser PXC 550 (wireless), Beyer DT100s, Beyer DT880, and various Sony MDRs.
I went through a series of source updates, and aftermarket cables during the month too, and noticed a number of things.
They're the most responsive/revealing of source cans I've ever used. By this I mean, that the experience varied much more based on what was driving them, than any other can I've used.
Things that varied the most, were soundstage, separation, and perceived audio quality.
Sources:
iPhone - Single ended stock cable - horrible experience. They sounded thin, lifeless, and dull.
Apogee Duet and Ensemble - Single ended stock cable - Clean, detailed, but wasn't overly impressed with the soundstage
Tascam DM4800 studio mixing board (headphone out) - Single ended stock cable - (with EQ) - solid, reliable representation of mixes/production tracks in progress- decent soundstage, very dynamic
Aune T1se Amp/tube dac - single ended stock cable - This is where I got a surprise - the soundstage got much wider - in fairness, it's artificially wide, but enjoyable, but what surprised me is that other cans like the AKG 702s/712s sounded wide, almost independent of what was driving them. The Elear seemed to open up considerably, and made me realize that the experience with them was much more dependent on what was driving them. The Aune T1 is a fairly cheap tube dac amp, so I wasn't expecting much from it, but in fairness, it's quite impressive for it's price. I later tried different tubes in it, and was even more impressed.
Schiit Mjolnir 2 - I then purchased the Mjolnir. It's then that I fell in love with the Elears. After ordering 30 different tube pairs, as well as trying the LISST tubes, and experiencing the surprisingly vast difference in sound of many of the tubes, I tried using the balanced outs of my Tascam DM4800 into the Mjolnir. The sound was great, as before, but with more detail and resolve from the Mjolnir. Soundstage wasn't super-wide, but more accurate (The LISST tubes are great for studio work, as they are well balanced, and fairly neutral to my ears, but not that exciting to listen to in comparison to a good set of tubes).
I then plugged in the Aune T1 DAC output, into the Mjolnir inputs, and that's where I've stayed ever since, now lusting after a better DAC.
The best combination I've found for me so far, is an Amperex 7308 Jan 60s tube in the Aune to get the warmth, DAC output fed into the Mjolnir with a pair of Voskhod 76 6n23p tubes in the Mjolnir, which to my ears have great top and bottom extension, and incredible detail and resolve, without being too mid forward.
The final change I recently made was with cables. I got a custom balanced copper litz cable made, which didn't change the sound signature, but did sound more dynamic, and needed less of a turn on the amp volume knob to get to more than loud enough for listening, and overall sounded a bit more lively.
I then got a UPOCC silver plated copper balanced cable custom made. This was another surprise. It really opened up the highs, and gave better separation, as well as a slightly wider soundstage (although that might be an illusion of the better separation). I don't think I've experienced a cable making such a difference to the sound signature before. I've certainly heard the difference between cheap, and good quality cables, but not a really noticeable difference in sound signature and quality.
So to sum up my findings and surprises, The Elear, to me, sound very different depending on the source driving them. The soundstage went from narrow, to wide, to super wide just with different source equipment. They appear to be very good at revealing the signature of different tubes very well, and with the right source equipment, can be very detailed and revealing. Cables can make a difference to the sound, and silver plated seemed to really open things up. I'd be curious if a solid silver cable made more of a difference, although I'd be cautious of making them too bright.
Now listening back to the other headphones I listed, I can notice less separation, less dynamics, less detail, and just an overall loss of clarity.
This was my experience. your mileage may well vary. I know everyone hears differently, and has different sound preferences. I think the main point I found was that experimentation with source equipment really changed my opinion of the Elears.
![IMG_20220330_134246213[1].jpg](https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/11732807.jpg)
