I own the Utopia,the LCD-4 and the Elear and as far as I am concerned the Elear is the best HP available for the price and I think is as good as HP's up to 1800 dollars...terrific bargain IMHO in a world where everything is overpriced
So I have the LCD3f and my experience on the Elear is very different.
I wonder if the Elear is fussy about amp matching. I've now heard two different Elear's on 2 amps - the Woo WA5LE and a lesser Rega HP amp. In both cases, the Elear's sonic signature was similar - generally musical, great bass, but a dry and somewhat uninvolving midrange and top end. In comparison, the Audeze (LCD X and LCD3) and EtherFlow were far more involving and musical and rich in the mids and highs, if not quite as extended in the bass. But the Elear didn't wow me like it has wowed many others on this thread. By contrast, I loved the tone of the Ether Flow, but it was sadly lacking in bass impact and extension compared to the Elear and LCD3.
It's not that the Elear sounded bad, just that it didn't have the magic, richness, or warmth that the others did. It was more extended, but very dry on the mids and highs, much like what I hear when I listen to the HD800. It has that "house" Focal" sound that I've heard consistently in their car audio and home speaker systems which use the non-berrylium inverted metal tweeter. In all cases, I initially thought the Elear was strong until I switched to the others (Audeze, Ether Flow, Utopia), then later switched back to the Elear.
The Utopia, on the other hand, was simply magnificent at all times. Super musical, quick, extended and dynamic, and it had great pace and rhythm and tone. It bested my LCD3f's and it deserves all of the accolades it has received. If it were only half the cost or even $2500, I'd likely be an owner today. But $4k is a real tough sell for a set of phones, even for someone who has some top shelf gear.
One thing I noticed is that the Elear was super sensitive on the Woo WA5. Even in the low impedance and low power settings, I couldn't turn the volume past 10'oclock. I wonder if the Elear is just not a good match for the WA5, which seems odd because I haven't yet heard a headphone that didn't improve wonderfully on the WA5.
Maybe the Elear doesn't like tubes as much as it likes solid state amps? Or maybe it was the DAC? On the Woo WA5 system, they had a high end Sim Audio DAC, and the Rega system used a Linn high res music streamer. Either way, it wasn't a sound that excited me enough to add to the collection.
On the other hand, my MassDrop HD6XXX (essentially a rebadged HD650) is slowly breaking in and sounding better every day, and for the $200 I spent, I'd call it the best bargain headphone I've heard (though it needs a powerful amp). It would be interesting to compare a fully broken HD6XXX to the Elear, then compare with the LCD3f and the Utopia.