[XMarsX]

My refurbished Elears from accessories4less showed up. Left driver is completely dead. I am bummed to say the least.

 

[jasonb]

My refurbished Elears from accessories4less showed up. Left driver is completely dead. I am bummed to say the least.

Booo

 

[227qed]

Well I got my elears in yesterday. X00 has been my daily driver for the past 4 years or so. The track “3 kinds of bass” by bass outlaws immediately sent the elears into that self preservation mode. If anyone is looking for a track to test their pair for clipping, that one will do it straight away. you can get a pretty decent subbass response before that happens though. Just don’t start with the volume high. Also had some major clipping with doom eternal and the newest COD, which are engineered to be tremendously bassy. I use a micro ican with XBass and Loki though. no clipping without the bass boosts, but the elear does not like the Loki with the XBass. With XBass alone, it’s ok, but I get nervous that it’ll clip any second. So for me, the elear will not be my gaming/movie cans. I have an emu teak coming in next week that will likely take the crown for that. It’s replacing my x00 which has broken apart and been glued back together. I just can’t get enough subbass in action movies and games.

Moving on to most “normal” tracks and music though, even at loud volumes I don’t get the clipping with the XBass on and the bass levels and quality are actually really enjoyable. I really like the warm tuning of the elear really well. It responds to EQ with the Loki well (aside from sub bass), though so far I like the stock sound. The lower treble doesn’t sound recessed to me, but I’m much more of a casual listener and don’t have a lot of experience with expensive headphones to compare to. The elear has roughly as much “impact” as the x00 above probably 60-70 Hz and is a noticeable overall upgrade in sound quality and technicalities. I was expecting the dynamics to be more extreme, but I guess the x00 is no slouch there, the two are quite comparable. However, the sound of the x00 is much more “in your face” and can be quite fatiguing, especially with it’s powerful bass. So I really enjoy the elear more for the better imaging, detail, more forward vocals, and general advantages of an open vs closed back (or semi open) design.

the build quality is amazing of course, but I find the pads to be slightly itchy with my beard. The clamping force is also stronger than I expected for my medium sized head (7 3/8” hat size). But I wear glasses too so I like the good seal they provide. It’s also nice that my ears are fully encompassed by the pads so they don’t push my ears against the pads, like they can with my x00 and PSB m4u2 (my closed back work cans that I use with an ifi zen dac)

I paid $500 for an open box set, which was in perfect condition packaging and quality wise, so no complaints there. I think they’re a good value at that price, but the original $1000 or so was a bit steep imho. That must be what they mean about diminishing returns. Either the X00 is remarkably good for the price or there’s just not as much difference between headphones once you reach a certain level of performance...

I meant to post some short thoughts regarding the clipping, but I guess this turned into a mini, disorganized, first impressions review <shrug>. I haven’t had enough experience with new headphones to believe/disbelieve in burn in yet. Hopefully they get better with time, but for now, I like them a lot for the price, but don’t know if they’re better enough than the x00 to justify the cost, especially since they can’t do low frequencies loud.

 

[cactus_farmer]

My refurbished Elears from accessories4less showed up. Left driver is completely dead. I am bummed to say the least.

Sorry to hear that man... Do you get a warranty with that site?

Got my Elear and wanted to put Clear pads onto it immediately.. Now... I'm not so sure as I'm enjoying it the way it is too much.

The sound very satisfyingly muscular. It's got a Grado-like presentation where it pushes all sound right into your face, yet with an HD650-like tuning but with better bass extension. I understand what people say about its dynamic capability but feel that there is too much hyperbole about it written; yes it is a significant step up from HD650 dynamics, but not a big step up at all from the DT 1990 Pro and roughly equal with the LCD2 Classic's dynamic output.

I don't think it makes my HD650 redundant though because it can't beat it for midrange naturalness and actually makes the HD650's soundstage (which is already on the intimate side) sound wide and deep by comparison. Do not buy the Elear if you are looking for soundstage, because its focus on raw impact sacrifices some positional information. But, for me, when I'm listening to music, impact is more important than knowing how far apart the drummer's cymbals were placed so I can accept this trade-off.

 

[regaet]

Refurbished Elears from accessories4less have the factory warranty from Focal. I checked with Focal after I bought mine.

 

[XMarsX]

I've requested a refund. It looks like Focal farms their warranty/repair work out to the retailer. I'll pass on that.

 

[dontfeedphils]

I've requested a refund. It looks like Focal farms their warranty/repair work out to the retailer. I'll pass on that.

Pretty sure that's not the case. Your point of sale takes care of the warranty claim, but Focal takes care of the repairs.

 

[jasonb]

Still can't believe how much I like this Elear with Utopia pads. These things sound amazing with an ODAC and Magni Heresy. So dynamic and snappy. Good soundstage and imaging. Tons of detail, but still fun. Perfect frequency response for my liking.

With the previous amp I was using, the Magni 2 Uber, I felt like I was always finding myself cranking the volume higher than I normally listen, but with the Heresy they sound great, and still dynamic and snappy at lower volumes than with the Magni 2U. I'm glad I splurged on the Elear. I can't say I splurged on the Heresy because that's only $100, but it sounds great for $100. This will keep me happy and be my "end game" for a while.

 

[cel4145]

As an aside - would you guys say that if you own an Elear/Elex, an HD650 is redundant because they overlap in sound signature too much? Or would they compliment each other?

I haven't really used my HD6XX since I got my Elears last fall. Although I still use my HD58X on occasion.

I was going to sell the HD6XX, then I realized you don't really get much for used HD6XX on the market. Figured I'd keep them until I found a friend that could use them.

 

[jasonb]

I haven't really used my HD6XX since I got my Elears last fall. Although I still use my HD58X on occasion.

I was going to sell the HD6XX, then I realized you don't really get much for used HD6XX on the market. Figured I'd keep them until I found a friend that could use them.

I'm going to send my father my HD650 and an old Magni 2 Uber for Father's day. I really don't see myself ever using them again now that I have my Elear with Utopia pads.

 

[judomaniak57]

my perfect setup

 

[jasonb]

my perfect setup

You have the Utopia pads too?

 

[judomaniak57]

dekoni perferated lambskin. what a difference from stock pads. much better midrange and so comfy. and only 100$ canadian compared to 300$ for the utopia

 

[227qed]

Does anyone have some good settings for using a Loki to EQ these to be close to an Elex? I'm just curious to see what the Elex might sound like.
Call the subbass knob 1, upper treble knob 4, what are the rough times for each knob to make it sound like an Elex, with 12 oclock being the zero point for reference?

 

[cuiter23]

Anyone have issues with the sound (namely bass response) when using the Clears with glasses?