TheMiddleSky
Headphoneus Supremus
I am finding more and more that the iDSD is not a good match for the Elear. It has a nice warm sound, but this tends to be "too much of a good thing" when combined with the Elear. My comparisons are with an Audioquest Dragonfly 1.2. For strictly desktop use, I can't justify the price of the iDSD over my old DF 1.2. Also, with the Elear and iDSD, the gain is always way too high. I have it set to "Eco" mode, and in that mode, I can barely get the volume past 9-10 o clock. It was suggested by someone to try the "IEM Match" mode to lower the gain further, which then enables me to get the volume knob up to around 12-1 o clock, but it loses a lot of impact and dynamics in the IEM Match mode. Not sure what is done internally when enabling those mode, but it has a very negative impact. I will most likely be returning the iDSD if I plan to keep the Elear.
I would say myself as midrange lover too, and if you have chance please try it with any of of Chord products (Mojo or Hugo or even Dave). Dunno how it is, but I feel there's a special synergy between Focal and Chord products, especially in capturing the realism in vocality and imaging (particularly in depth and height soundstage).
I've never heard her before, but since I just received my Elears and am catching up this thread, I gave them both a listen. Certainly great extraction of detail. At about 2:05 on O Holy Night, there are some cars honking in the background and I thought it was at my house, so I had to reply that segment a couple times just to confirm (and then out the window on the video, you see some flashing lights go by). I also then quickly tried replaying this with my Ether Flows, which definitely didn't sound as prominent. not sure which is the most accurate (yeah, i'm being a nerd about background sounds in a recording).
LOL, I also did the same! I don't expect the horn is from the song itself when I listen that video for the first time (I wasn't aware it's live recording at all)
Unfortunately, the large amount of negative feedback are probably due to the fact that the Elears can be picky with equipment.
While easy to drive, they're finicky about equipment pairing.
Probably why most of the top reviewers have been giving it positive feedback, able to hear it on all sorts of rigs.
I personally found the Elear sounds amazing with the Cavalli products, though the Chord Hugo is an alternative if you don't wanna break the bank.
Agree with this.
Vocal is what I really care about because I mainly listen to pop.
So you think T1.2 is better than Elear in terms of vocal?
Vocal presentation and quality will goes for Focal, though speed in bass still in Beyer tho.
How about soundstage?
I've read some reviews said that Elear lack depth of soundstage.
I think that t1 is very good at constructing that depth.
Can you compare these two in terms of soundstage?
If I have to net picking, I would say Elear is a bit lack in width. Still excel in depth, and especially height tho.
I also get a "hot" spot at the top of my head, not as bad as with some other headphones, but not the most comfortable I've used (the Senn 650 is the winner in that category for me).
Maybe try to use is with one click shorter? That would help generally.