Was fortunate to be a tour member for TTVJ's Elear loaner program and posted the following on that thread.
So first off, thanks again to Todd for making this loaner program a reality, and my apologies for the week delay in putting up my impressions from my time with the Elear.
First impressions - a quality piece of hardware..........no question. The box, presentation and looks are first class all the way. The Elear feels quality, looks quality and is built like a tank with refined fit and finish. Overall the looks of the headphone are basic and understated - it's classic looks and feel in your hands like a well made piece of equipment.
How I listen - all I own are vintage speaker amps - 8 systems in all and all in use in various locations. Pioneer is my manufacturer of choice and the flagship is the Spec 1 pre/Spec 2 amp combo in the rack system shown below. I feed it with either an iPhone6 through a NuForce iDo DAC, a Pioneer CD player or you guessed it, a Pioneer vintage turntable. For the Elear audition I played a variety of Smooth Jazz music (Paul Harcastle, Paul Taylor, Rick Braun to name a few artists), Rush 2112 and for a change of genre, a bit of classical in the form of The Nutcracker (a favorite of mine from my daughter's ballerina days dancing the lead in a local production of the Nutcracker).
A few initial comments - the Elear felt heavy to me and the clamp was a bit tighter than I preferred (and I like a firm clamp) much like the Senn 650 but because of the added weight it felt a bit too tight, too heavy, and therefore a bit on the uncomfortable side to me. The next item I noticed was how CLOSED they sound to me - even putting my hands around the cups had little impact on the soundstaging so honestly it was a bit of a surprise. Also a surprise - how dark they are - very bass-capable, normally a huge plus in my book as I'm a reformed/audiophile basshead. My system allows for both EQ (both with the tone controls of my Spec 1 preamp and in the form of a hardware EQ in the chain) as well as electronic EQ profiling (both with the iPhone6 app I run my playlists through - EQ10 which I highly recommend by the way and my Chase RLC-1 remote control/preamp) which allows for a huge amount of fine tuning ability. So for the purists, I am the anti-purist I guess - I like being able to make the music sound exactly how I want it.
Overall sound - the thing is............I have a pair of HE-6's that are fully modded and fed from the Spec system from the speaker taps and honestly, after owning and/or auditioning over 60 headphones now, nothing comes close to the HE-6. Nothing. The bass on them is visceral and the overall sound to my ears is almost to the point that I wonder if anything can beat them. So the Elear had an uphill battle on it's hands - I chose to not listen to the HE-6 for a few days before the Elear arrived and did not A/B them against each other till the final day of having the Elear in the house - I wanted to let my mind acclimate to the Elear sound and see if it was a possible replacement for the HE-6. Well, the Elear sounds good - very good, but it is not a HE-6 killer - the search continues - not that I want to replace the HE-6 but if I find something better I WILL switch.
What I felt was outstanding on the Elear was the tonal quality - I'm not sure how to describe it but the sound was just so................good. Very musical and crisp with all areas sounding excellent - treble, bass and mids are well represented. Mids especially were a nice revelation - female vocals (Hardcastle has his daughter do vocals on some of his songs) are excellent. I kept going back to the disappointment I felt though with the closed in sound - I love open back headphones and these just didn't sound like an open back headphone. Listened to a few key passages off the Nutcracker CD, comparing the HE-6 and Elear and the HD700. The Elear clearly was the most closed in sound - though the positional cues were good they still were in my head - if that makes any sense.
Overall I'd put the Elear in my top 5 - below the HE-6, Dharma (which is my second favorite open back), HD800 (anyone who thinks they are bass light has not heard them out of a vintage speaker amp!) Denon LA7000 all best it in my preferences.
![IMG_20220330_134246213[1].jpg](https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/11732807.jpg)
). I am leaning pretty heavy towards the Elear (and possibly the Utopia if I hit my head between now and then).
