That’s better folks, yea!
My new Elears arrived this afternoon, quite a difference, I’m chuffed.
First popped on L.P Into the Wild, Quite strong bass as the drummer would hope you’d hear it I’m sure. Her Voice a little recessed, could do with coming forward just a tad, improved a fraction with an increase in volume. No complaints, nowt to really bother me.
Steely Dan .. Gaslight Abbie. Strong crisp snare, vocal a little back to my ears, just a tad. It seems to me there’s a slight peak up top somewhere? Possibly pushes it back a tad. But nice no complaints
Burial .. Truant Something a little different here, heavish bass with static and tinkly chimes running through it. Good no problem it does well with this track, better by a good margin than the HD650. Again vocal a tad back in comparison, very good however.
Steve Earle .. Copperhead road. Rock in out a bit more here. Loved it, plenty of exciting “slam” when it come in. The bass could do with a slight bit more control I thought listening to this track. Earles' vocal is about where it should be to my ears, I feel the lower frequency male vocal is reproduced better, more prominent. Higher frequency female vocals I feel are a little recessed in comparison. Possibly due to that slight peak up top, maybe?
Robert Len .. Amoureuse Muted trumpet presented well, triangle nice and clear and where it should be IMO. Overall nicely balanced to my ears. Lovely.
London Grammar.. Hey Now Her Voice is deeper, nice no problem happy where that is. Elear handled the strong bass well when it came in. Nice liking it so far, my brains getting used to it now!
Fatoumata .. Kanou Her vocal just a tad back again, very nicely balanced here, Elear is doing great on this track.
Murray Perahia .. Goldberg variations BMV:988 ARIA. Now some piano, ..... ermm no quite so sure here, I think I’m so used to the HD650 being a bit warmer, it’s sounding natural but that peak? I don’t know.... Maybe just my brain complaining about the change, I might bother EQ’ing a bit with piano, don’t know yet.
Endless .. Melancholia Nice, Im just enjoying the music now, so nowt much to say.
Now to get brave
Tom Raybold .. Bad Dreams OH YES! ..... That’s good, I be a happy chappie!
Max Richter .. War Anthem ditto, ditto, ditto that’s made me a HAPPY Elear owner now! I can get it to crack but NOW at a level that I very rarely go to. .... It will clip when the HD650 will not but I’ll take the more powerful much better presented and extended bass over the HD650 any day!
These are my first impressions, that is literally all I’ve listened to so far and I’m impressed. (I thought i would be) There is a very good chance, as long as all continues positively over the next couple of weeks, that I’ll be selling my HD650's. At the moment I feel I would keep them for piano, unfortunately I can’t afford to though. It could well be I have to get used to the Elear's a bit more, or EQ.
Soundstage is a little narrower than the HD650 to my ears but. that doesn’t bother me, I like intimacy. You are sort of in the middle somewhere, that’s fine for me.
I can now say with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that there ARE some driver inconsistency issues. TAKE NOTE PLEASE FOCAL. .... It may be slight but obviously enough to show! .... IF YOU WANT TO BE SURE YOU HAVE A GOOD ONE TRY “MAX RICHTER.. WAR ANTHEM” IT WILL SHOW IT UP. Especially if your DAC/amp is warm'ish. ....
Focal have done a great job here in my personal opinion. I hear, agree and like their approach, Dynamic ability over SPL every time. Tighten production/QC tolerances a tad and bang, you got it right!
The War Anthem track has some killer low frequency bass, the very low frequencies are not to be taken lightly. Bass at those frequencies can do you some damage without you knowing it! And this new/correctly functioning example of the Elear can get to that level I feel, just, before clipping and letting you know, certainly to a level that I would not personally listen at. The HD650 IMO cannot produce it, so actually less dangerous! Ha ha ha. ..... The Elear should have a health warning attached !
Having waffled on for a while now. Source was PC, Qobuz, CD quality, apart from London Grammar 24/192. Into Regen through to Marantz PM7005 DAC. It may be that this DAC is heavy on bass, (warmer than my Mojo,) which could be turning the killer War Anthem track into a real Elear killer!
I’ll be plugging into my Mojo soon, I’ll let you know how that goes. But don’t worry that post will not be so drawn out!
Thank you all, I’m glad I was persuaded to try again, cheers!
After that very quick listen to the first example, (before hearing the clipping at a much too low level)
I knew I’d like it if the replacement was good, and it is! ....
...... Lighter cable now and that’s my lot.