[Redwingnine]

Most so called headphone experts will tell you that the Focal Clear is a step up from the Focal Elear. The retail price for the Clear is 500.00 more than the Elear. Many Elear owners likely upgraded to the Clear when it was introduced.

And yet, at least one set of respected headphone experts have a different take on the difference between the Clear and the Elear. Sonarworks provides software and support for professional music producers. One of their key services is the ability to measure individual headphone curves and provide corrections to smooth out the frequency response to flatten the response curve. They also have a database for a set of headphones that provides a general overall curve, which is not quite as accurate as a individual curve for one's specific headphone, but does provide improvement over listening to a headphone with no EQ.

As part of their service, they also provide reviews on some of the headphones they support. It turns out that they reviewed both the Elear and the Clear.

Here is the link to the Focal Elear:

https://www.sonarworks.com/blog/reviews/focal-elear-studio-headphone-review/#pros


Here is a link to their review on the Focal Clear:

https://www.sonarworks.com/blog/reviews/focal-clear-and-clear-professional-studio-headphone-review/

The conclusion from the review of the Clear is as follows:

"On its own the Clear and Clear Professional are very decent headphones. They might not have the stellar imaging of the HD800S, but they make up for that with better resolution and a more solid low end. The problem with Clear is Elear, a headphone half the price and 2 times the performance. If Clear was supposed to be an improvement on the Elear, then Focal needs to go back to the drawing board. Currently it’s more of just a different flavour."

This conclusion certainly gives one pause. Sonarworks is not someone who dabbles in headphone reviews for fun. This is their business, and as such, their assessments are based on solid engineering and actual measurements.

I had intended of purchasing a set of Focal Clears, but after reading this (along with other reviews), decided to go with the Elear cans instead. I have the Sonarworks True Fi app for windows, and I can report with certainty that it works quite well.

So, let the debate begin!

 

[ubs28]

If I remember correctly, the Clear is just a retuned Elear? So with some EQ’ing you should be able to get quite close with the Elear I’d say.

 

[Redwingnine]

The Driver magnet structure are different between the Clear and the Elear (Elear is 80 ohms, Clear is 55 ohms).

 

[ronhGA]

The Clear driver has a copper voice coil and the Elear uses aluminum. Also, the Massdrop Elex is supposedly an Elear with Clear pads.

Haven't heard the Elear or Elex but I have the Clear and love it.

 

[Redwingnine]

So, who has heard both, and what are your impressions? It's odd that the Clear is supposedly preferred, yet does not measure as well as the Elear.

Makes on wonder conformation bias is involved.

 

[bagwell359]

The Clear sounded better than the Elear to me - but I could have been seduced by price tag/expectation.

I'm not sure how to take SW, when the HD-650 seems to be their pot of gold, and Elear might be #2. I see lots of reviews of sub $500 dynamic cans with ridiculous freq response curves. I don't see much in the way of planar magnetics, and other elite cans over $500. From my POV the HD-600 is hands down superior to the 650 and most of the stuff they reviewed. At best as reviewers they get an incomplete for examining what appears to me to be a narrow collection of cans. IMO, these guys are not must listen to experts on cans, just another set of voices to consider.

Well, you seem to want people to agree with your choice - what is the motivation for that? I guess you better ignore me AND the bulk of the reviewers to avoid cognitive dissonance.

 

[Redwingnine]

The Clear sounded better than the Elear to me - but I could have been seduced by price tag/expectation.

I'm not sure how to take SW, when the HD-650 seems to be their pot of gold, and Elear might be #2. I see lots of reviews of sub $500 dynamic cans with ridiculous freq response curves. I don't see much in the way of planar magnetics, and other elite cans over $500. From my POV the HD-600 is hands down superior to the 650 and most of the stuff they reviewed. At best as reviewers they get an incomplete for examining what appears to me to be a narrow collection of cans. IMO, these guys are not must listen to experts on cans, just another set of voices to consider.

Well, you seem to want people to agree with your choice - what is the motivation for that? I guess you better ignore me AND the bulk of the reviewers to avoid cognitive dissonance.

Not at all. Looking for honest feedback. BTW, I agree with you regarding the 600 vs 650.

I have used their true-fi, and it was eye opening to say the least. Their approach to EQ works. Their market is geared more to sound professionals vs. audiophiles. That may account for the divergence.

Having said that, measurements don't lie. I would think a headphone that is 50% more retail price would measure better. This gets to a whole other discussion about measurements vs. perceived sound quality.

 

[bagwell359]

Not at all. Looking for honest feedback. BTW, I agree with you regarding the 600 vs 650.

I have used their true-fi, and it was eye opening to say the least. Their approach to EQ works. Their market is geared more to sound professionals vs. audiophiles. That may account for the divergence.

Having said that, measurements don't lie. I would think a headphone that is 50% more retail price would measure better. This gets to a whole other discussion about measurements vs. perceived sound quality.

Good. I'm a recent adoptee of EQ after 42 years of not being interested given my first unit.

Measurements do lie - if all you look at it is freq response. The EQ "experts" I've studied recently seem to to only care about freq response (and one of them clearly likes 3-5 db more in the bass than the recording asks for) - but the main point is ringing. Look up waterfall plots - I have a 6 band digital parametric EQ and I can always manage to spare a setting for the worst ringing issue. Innerfidelity.com has some excellent testing so you can see beyond just freq response.

I've got 4 very good cans, and I've EQ'd them to sound "flat" frequency response wise, and they do not sound the same, none of them, and none of the 3 I've worked on the most sound better that way, then when I factor in ringing, and my own reaction to recordings Ive heard thousands of times including live in non amplified settings.

As I have them now (still learning mind you), my headphones sound well better than a month ago when I didn't. That's enough reason to keep going.

If you can get the Elear's to sound as good or better than stock Clear - more power to you too.

 

[Davesrose]

To me, it seems quite a statement to say the Elear is "2 times the performance". From my experience with headphones is that brands do have a certain house sound: they base all their models on similar driver, housing, and padding designs. Such is also the case I've seen from Focal (which is all based on their beryllium driver design, and varying pad/housing tuning). Apart from what I hear, I also base my opinion on the FR graphs which so more minimal differences (certainly not 2x differences anywhere). When you look at reviews of headphones, it is mainly based on opinion: people are going to prefer a price/performance and certain frequency response (which in turn I've notice depends on one's ear, music preference, audio setup). When it comes to ringing, IMO issues are minimal with headphones.

 

[Redwingnine]

Fair points. I feel as if the reviewers are commenting on the escalating prices of high end headphones in general. The major point they are making that the Clear is substantially more expensive than the Elear, and does not measure as well is the issue. It's interesting to note that since they support the mixing/mastering crowd, some percentage of music we listen to was likely produced with the headphones they support.

 

[Barone Birra]

I own a Focal Utopia and my brother a Clear. I think the Clear is... 80% of Utopia - less resolving, less analytical, with a more classic headstage (Utopia is very intimate, with a stunning imaging), but overall excellent.
I never listened to Elear, but I read criticism to the upper mids. Anyway, if the Elear is way better than Clear ... is on par with Utopia? I don't think so...

 

[Redwingnine]

I would certainly hope and expect the utopia to be better than the clear/elear.

A friend has the clear, and he reckons the clear is 90% of the utopia.

Regarding the delta in sound between the clear and elear, some people obviously prefer the extra peak at 1.4 hz with the clear that is not present in the elear. One thing that elear owners have done to get a more harmon like response curve is to get perforated pads.

My reference headphones are Abyss Diana, which I find more neutral than the majority of cans. However, the focal cans with some music types is most enjoyable, and a bit more forgiving.

 

[catscratch]

I have the Elex, Clear, and Utopia, though no Elear. The Elex has the most linear FR of the 3, so if all you're doing is looking at graphs, buy the Elex, stop there, and be happy. It does sound the most balanced of the 3, to be fair.

The Utopia has noticeably better resolution than the Elex, and it is also smoother and free of grain, though some of the grain could be the pads rather than the drivers. If you put Elex pads on the Utopia, some of that airy smoothness goes away. I would say that the Utopia definitely has top-tier technicalities, while the Elex does not, but the tuning on the Utopia is worse than the Elex and it needs EQ to be enjoyable for me. Without EQ the highs are too sharp and the mids are a bit wonky and colored.

The Clear is somewhere in between the two, but closer to the Elex. It has a smoother sound than the Elex and is free of grain like the Utopia (again, this could just be pads), but it doesn't have top-tier technicalities and is closer to the Elex on a technical level. It also has a pretty nasty peak at around 11khz that needs to be EQd to make it listenable, though of course YMMV. Some people are sensitive to peaks in this area, and some are not. The Clear also has the smallest soundstage of the 3, though it's quite coherent and the imaging is solid.

I would say that the Elex is the closest to representing a good value, and people who like the Sennheiser HD6X0 sound but find it a bit boring, and want a bit more dynamics and slam at the expense of some treble smoothness, should definitely consider the Elex. The Clear I have a harder time justifying, but if you can find it at <$1k and are willing to use an equalizer, then it might make sense. It does fix the slight graininess that some might find annoying in the Elex, at the expense of peakier highs. The Utopia is not even close to being worth $4k, but then again you don't have to spend $4k on it, there are plenty of used ones at under $2k, and new or almost new ones for around $2.5k, maybe a little more. At that price, it makes a lot more sense, though I do consider it a headphone a bit like the HD800 in the sense that it doesn't necessarily sound its best out of the box, but with a bit of effort you can coax a very high level of performance out of it.

Spoiler

This post may sound somewhat negative, but keep in mind I actually bought all 3, and I wouldn't have done that if I didn't care for the Focal sound. It has its pros and cons, but so does everything. Having said that, I don't see myself stopping here, if money allows.

 

[Redwingnine]

I have the Elex, Clear, and Utopia, though no Elear. The Elex has the most linear FR of the 3, so if all you're doing is looking at graphs, buy the Elex, stop there, and be happy. It does sound the most balanced of the 3, to be fair.

The Utopia has noticeably better resolution than the Elex, and it is also smoother and free of grain, though some of the grain could be the pads rather than the drivers. If you put Elex pads on the Utopia, some of that airy smoothness goes away. I would say that the Utopia definitely has top-tier technicalities, while the Elex does not, but the tuning on the Utopia is worse than the Elex and it needs EQ to be enjoyable for me. Without EQ the highs are too sharp and the mids are a bit wonky and colored.

The Clear is somewhere in between the two, but closer to the Elex. It has a smoother sound than the Elex and is free of grain like the Utopia (again, this could just be pads), but it doesn't have top-tier technicalities and is closer to the Elex on a technical level. It also has a pretty nasty peak at around 11khz that needs to be EQd to make it listenable, though of course YMMV. Some people are sensitive to peaks in this area, and some are not. The Clear also has the smallest soundstage of the 3, though it's quite coherent and the imaging is solid.

I would say that the Elex is the closest to representing a good value, and people who like the Sennheiser HD6X0 sound but find it a bit boring, and want a bit more dynamics and slam at the expense of some treble smoothness, should definitely consider the Elex. The Clear I have a harder time justifying, but if you can find it at <$1k and are willing to use an equalizer, then it might make sense. It does fix the slight graininess that some might find annoying in the Elex, at the expense of peakier highs. The Utopia is not even close to being worth $4k, but then again you don't have to spend $4k on it, there are plenty of used ones at under $2k, and new or almost new ones for around $2.5k, maybe a little more. At that price, it makes a lot more sense, though I do consider it a headphone a bit like the HD800 in the sense that it doesn't necessarily sound its best out of the box, but with a bit of effort you can coax a very high level of performance out of it.

Spoiler

This post may sound somewhat negative, but keep in mind I actually bought all 3, and I wouldn't have done that if I didn't care for the Focal sound. It has its pros and cons, but so does everything. Having said that, I don't see myself stopping here, if money allows.

Excellent assessment. Haven't heard the Elex, but my guess is it will sound fairly similar to the Elear.

 

[catscratch]

It will if you put Elear pads on it. AFAIK the Elex is an Elear with a different paint scheme and pads. The pads, however, make a very big difference, and some aftermarket pads, like some of the Dekoni ones, will completely re-tune Focals to the point that they don't even sound like Focals anymore.

Spoiler: OT

I will probably get some Dekoni pads for the Utopia and try to EQ them closer to neutral, and report back on how that works. Focals are tricky to EQ because a lot of their treble peaks are very narrow, and you have to use high-Q filters in your EQ - which degrades the sound - if you want to have a completely linear FR. So you have to choose between having a linear FR but maybe degraded imaging and detail, or keeping the technical performance but maybe not having them sound totally linear. Right now I'm choosing the latter and my Utopia sounds a bit like a somewhat darker HD600, which is not a bad thing in my book. But from the measurements I've seen Dekoni pads smooth out the FR and tame some of the peaks, at the expense of being less neutral and not as balanced overall, and this may make it possible to use less degrading EQ and let you get closer to neutral while keeping technicalities intact.

However that's just the theory. We'll see soon enough. There's more to sound quality than just the FR, and I didn't like either Clear or Elex pads on the Utopia at all.