Elear... what a trial those have been to me. Right out of the box I hated them with a vengeance. Dark and screamers at once, mercilessly assaulted my eardrums when least expected it, clipped at low volume, mids vanishing where most needed... how could headphones that looked so good, were so well built, could sound that horrible? They were a gift from my ex (who wasn't "ex" yet) so had to pretend to like them, you just don't spit on a $1,000 gift. I felt trapped. When she caught me listening to other headphones of mine she would always frown... I knew that look, it was bad news. I decided (hoped) that something was wrong with them and returned them to the brick-and-mortar store where she she had purchased them. They gave me another pair, sounded just as godawful. Went as far as to purchase the DAC/amp that was supposed to have been designed for such cans, the DAC V1, quickest way to turn a $1,000 headphone into a $3,500 headphone. Did it make it sound better? Oh yeah, it sure did, but it was far from satisfying to me.
Fast forward two years, ex has become ex for good so I stashed the Elear out of sight and listened to other cans from my collection, mostly Sundara and LCD-4. The latter sounded awesome but man was it ever uncomfortable. So uncomfortable it drained the pleasure from music after a while pushing down on your head. Sundara was better comfort-wise but a little too crystalline and lacked the LCD's bass. Then I had the opportunity to buy the Focal Clear for less than $600, it was an open-box demo and the balanced cable was missing. Could care less about the cable. I had read so many good things about the Clear that I just had to have it. Hooked it to the V1 and was pleased with it but not overwhelmed, in fact they sounded a lot like the Sundara which costs 5 times less, but they had the sub-bass that the Sundara lacked. Not Elear bass, but pretty good. However after a while I started to be slightly annoyed by the Clears' mids, they were a little too forward for my taste. Tried swapping pads with the retired Elear: no dice, the improvement, if there was one, was bordering on imaginary. HE1000 V2 entered my life and I stuck with them for almost a year, now that's a great headphone, it just feels cheap, but sounds rich. Handle with care. Missed the sturdy Focals and their unrivaled comfort a bit.
Some time later I heard about a software called Reference 4 Headphone edition by Sonarworks. It is now well-known but was a novelty at the time. I thought maybe this could tame the Clears mids? Downloaded the trial but it didn't do much for the Clears which are already pretty neutral to begin with. There was no preset for the Sundara unfortunately. But there was one for the Elear and curiosity got the best of me. Plugged them in and turned on ref 4. What happened next I still can't believe. The despicable Elear was instantly transformed into a completely different headphone, and a very good one at that. Sound was cleaned, clear and accurate. mids were even all over the spectrum. Deep bass was still there but much better controlled. Gone were the wild dynamics, gone was the clipping even at high volume. They still packed punch but it was civilized and predictable. I thought "this is exactly how Focal should have tuned it to begin with" and why they hadn't remains a mystery to me. Now they finally sounded like they looked: awesome. To this day it remains a favourite of mine, even if there's no lack of competition in the abode.
![IMG_20220330_134246213[1].jpg](https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/11732807.jpg)
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