This point is excellent! Unfortunately it's not all as simple as that though.
It's is confusing Maestro, but not because of a standard of neutrality. It's confusing because things CAN be totally and completely accurate down to a single musical note recorded in an anechoic chamber by equipment that cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. However, if that note is played back by millions of men and women across the world in hundreds of millions of sound translation devices to billions of ears, there will be no neutrality. Neutrality is not a constant. Accuracy is a constant. Neutrality is a perception. That single note of music i mentioned recorded so meticulously and may be totally accurate in frequency, tone, inflection, volume and even in intention but to millions and millions of ears it will not be perceived as neutral. You and I can say that it sounds JUST as it was played in that studio, and there will be hundreds if not thousands of people who listened to it thru our same devices as our own who will say it is not neutral, it is colored. I will say it again, sound is deceptively subjective. Even though our sound and our hearing is measurable, there are a great many variables that shape what we hear and what we perceive. Our ears are all different, our eardrums are all different, ear canals are all different and finally our neurons are all different and the perception of what they tell us regarding sound are all different. Certainly there are similarities (thank God... if not millions of dollars spent on this hobby would be lost lol) that allow us to hear with great accuracy what was intended, but i doubt that anything short of neuron patching will ever allow all of us to agree on neutrality.
Now if we can just seem to come to a consensus on what dynamics, musicality, and punch mean so we can get on with our impressions of the elear for which i am about to get a beating from our beloved mods for not being on subject, we'll be in good shape.
Your point is valid, as it's the "core" of hi-end audio. It's also a reason why hi-end is dying out -- high-priced gear, lack of appreciation for great sound among the masses (even the younger gen prefer their iDevice earbuds). But it has nothing to do with the operational principle of neutrality and accuracy in audio gear.
From the standpoint of an audio engineer designing amps, personal prefs and listening differences are not relevant. S/he aims to design amps/speakers that are dead neutral/accurate.
Neutrality/accuracy is objectively measurable -- output/input ratio of an amp/speaker, at any/all sound frequencies. From the engineer's standpoint, it is not open for individual interpretation. I'm not talking about the recording quality or artists' preferences with the way the music is recorded. Only the final product (CD, LP, tape recording) played back through an amp. The output of the amp is measurable and comparable to its input signal.
If I have a recording that is warm (tilted up in the mid-bass/trble roll off) I have a choice -- I can get a transducer that plays it accurately so I hear it as it is, warm. OR I can get one that plays it even warmer or cooler (brighter). Not neutral/accurate. It's a question of preference as you say. But that choice does not, and should not, concern the designers if their goal is accuracy.
Personally, I like accuracy. If it's a warm rec, I want to hear it as such, and also not soften any brighter recs I may have. I find that accurate gear serves me well and stands the test of time down the road. I don't want my violins sounding like cellos.
cheers enjoy your music -- whatever it sounds like.
That's not suprising I remember having similar discussions about the Vega, I think both the Vega and Elear are distinctive because of their highly dynamic nature which could be a testimony to "lack" of dynamics of most headphones and IEMs or maybe there are too few of those they do stand out in a big way. You either like it or you don't but if you do it's hard to loose that characteristic
Volume might explain it but I'd say the Elear doesn't need such a high volume to express itself and it paradoxically needs less volume to come alive than most headphones. I simply think if you're not used to that level of dynamics - muscular is and adjective that comes back often - I see how it can get "tiring" and that was my initial experience with the Vega and it probably helped me get in sync with the sig of the Elear quite fast coming from hundreds hours with the Vega (the Elear is more relaxed logically being open back thus less ear fatigue from pressure than a closed IEM). It all comes down to the point of reference IMHO, I was a tad suprised when I first heard the Elear compared to the reviews, I didn't find them dark or veiled at all.
Source is probably overlooked, I know the Elear comes out very different from Mojo than the more neutral, wide and detailed DX200 (a good pairing BTW!). I don't know how the Elear would sound out of a bright source...
I received the Blue Dragon (v3) balanced cable from Moon Audio, to use out of the DX200's balanced out (which outputs 2W @ 32ohm) and let me tell you the Elear clearly benefits from being run balanced... aside from more power on the DX200 it has better extension both ways and soundstage is significantly wider and deeper.
Now I need to spend some time with the Elear
![IMG_20220330_134246213[1].jpg](https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/11732807.jpg)
