wormsdriver
Headphoneus Supremus
Ok guys after a week with the Focal Elegia here are my brief impressions. The Elegia is a full size headphone, it is a bit on the heavy side but very well balanced and comfortable when wearing. I was able to wear them for hours on end with no problems of them feeling to heavy on my head.
Very well built, nice aesthetics and quality materials. The plastic on the cups looks and feels a tiny bit cheap to me but really only compared with their open back models which have metal grills so no biggie here.
Nice carrying case, cable is a bit stiff and can be microphonic. I noticed it on several occasions rubbing on my shirt or jacket and the noise was very noticeable. It is the shorter cable that also comes with the Focal Clear, it is terminated in a 3.5mm jack and includes a screw on 6.4mm adapter.
For what it's worth packaging is top notch as all Focal headphones. Double boxed, lots of padding and very sturdy retail box.
For a closed headphone isolation was lacking in my opinion. I asked my wife on a couple of occasions if she could hear my music and she replied yes! I can hear it clearly!
As far as isolation from the outside world, I usually have no trouble when listening to music at moderately high levels so no problem here and it definitely gets the job done.
As far as the sound goes I definitely agree with the above reviewers and I found the Eligia to be mid forward. The mids are bit dominant over the treble and bass but the good news is I did not find it fatiguing as I was able to listen hours on end with no problems of it sounding shouty.
By the way if you haven't read @buffer's review a few posts up, please do yourself a favor and read it! He absolutely nailed it in my opinion, great job @buffer!
- Ahem - back to the Elegia, the bass does have some punch to it and is not missing but at the same time it is lacking. I listen mostly to rock music and while the music was lively I felt it was missing some groove. I felt it lacking in PRAT. Most of my listening sessions were not very emotionally invested. I did not feel emotionally connected to the music for the most part.
Treble is well done and controlled except for the fact that the midrange usually seems to overshadow it. It was no problem when listening casually but when it came to focus on each frequency to evaluate for this review that it became a bit of a problem just how much the midrange calls attention to itself. I found it distracting trying to focus on the treble, my attention would veer over to the midrange.
Although the Elegia is a closed back headphone I found it relatively open sounding which was definitely a good thing but when it comes to doing more critical listening that openness does start feeling a bit fake in a sense. Like I said, I feel this headphone is great for casual listening but once you start to evaluate it and start listening critically it is that these flaws will start to be most apparent.
On a more positive note, the Elegia is not hard to drive and it matches well with whatever you throw at it so that's a big plus in my book.
I currently do not own any closed back headphones for comparison and in reality I've only own two other closed back headphones in this range. One being the Ultrasone Signature Pro and the other being the Mr.Speakers Ether C. Technically I feel the Elegia fall in the middle of these two.
From memory the Ether C might be a bit more revealing or maybe the fact that it was a bit more balanced although still on the brighter side it gave me more of a "higher end" headphone in comparison. I believe it was more resolving.
The Signature Pro was a bit behind in resolution compared to both, but boy was it perfect for what it is intended to be. Portable, rugged, comfortable, isolating and a very fun listen, so personally I would choose it over the Elegia... (and probably the Ether C for that matter).
In conclusion the Elegia at $899 is a hard sell for me personally. I've no doubt the prices on these will go down sooner than later as Focal has been having significant sales on the rest of their models in recent times. I would wait for the Elegia to drop considerably in price before going out and buying one. I would consider the a Elegia a great closed back mid-fi can but not TOTL.
I would personally like to thank Todd Green of TTVJ Audio for hosting these loaner tours of his gear. I have been a part of several loaner tours and I'm very thankful for the opportunity of demoing new gear and sharing my views with the rest of you. BTW, Todd is a great guy to deal with, I've bought a few headphones over the years from him and it's always been a wonderful experience. Check out his used gear section on the TTVJ Audio website for some killer deals!!!
Cheers,
Wormsdriver
Very well built, nice aesthetics and quality materials. The plastic on the cups looks and feels a tiny bit cheap to me but really only compared with their open back models which have metal grills so no biggie here.
Nice carrying case, cable is a bit stiff and can be microphonic. I noticed it on several occasions rubbing on my shirt or jacket and the noise was very noticeable. It is the shorter cable that also comes with the Focal Clear, it is terminated in a 3.5mm jack and includes a screw on 6.4mm adapter.
For what it's worth packaging is top notch as all Focal headphones. Double boxed, lots of padding and very sturdy retail box.
For a closed headphone isolation was lacking in my opinion. I asked my wife on a couple of occasions if she could hear my music and she replied yes! I can hear it clearly!
As far as isolation from the outside world, I usually have no trouble when listening to music at moderately high levels so no problem here and it definitely gets the job done.
As far as the sound goes I definitely agree with the above reviewers and I found the Eligia to be mid forward. The mids are bit dominant over the treble and bass but the good news is I did not find it fatiguing as I was able to listen hours on end with no problems of it sounding shouty.
By the way if you haven't read @buffer's review a few posts up, please do yourself a favor and read it! He absolutely nailed it in my opinion, great job @buffer!
- Ahem - back to the Elegia, the bass does have some punch to it and is not missing but at the same time it is lacking. I listen mostly to rock music and while the music was lively I felt it was missing some groove. I felt it lacking in PRAT. Most of my listening sessions were not very emotionally invested. I did not feel emotionally connected to the music for the most part.
Treble is well done and controlled except for the fact that the midrange usually seems to overshadow it. It was no problem when listening casually but when it came to focus on each frequency to evaluate for this review that it became a bit of a problem just how much the midrange calls attention to itself. I found it distracting trying to focus on the treble, my attention would veer over to the midrange.
Although the Elegia is a closed back headphone I found it relatively open sounding which was definitely a good thing but when it comes to doing more critical listening that openness does start feeling a bit fake in a sense. Like I said, I feel this headphone is great for casual listening but once you start to evaluate it and start listening critically it is that these flaws will start to be most apparent.
On a more positive note, the Elegia is not hard to drive and it matches well with whatever you throw at it so that's a big plus in my book.
I currently do not own any closed back headphones for comparison and in reality I've only own two other closed back headphones in this range. One being the Ultrasone Signature Pro and the other being the Mr.Speakers Ether C. Technically I feel the Elegia fall in the middle of these two.
From memory the Ether C might be a bit more revealing or maybe the fact that it was a bit more balanced although still on the brighter side it gave me more of a "higher end" headphone in comparison. I believe it was more resolving.
The Signature Pro was a bit behind in resolution compared to both, but boy was it perfect for what it is intended to be. Portable, rugged, comfortable, isolating and a very fun listen, so personally I would choose it over the Elegia... (and probably the Ether C for that matter).
In conclusion the Elegia at $899 is a hard sell for me personally. I've no doubt the prices on these will go down sooner than later as Focal has been having significant sales on the rest of their models in recent times. I would wait for the Elegia to drop considerably in price before going out and buying one. I would consider the a Elegia a great closed back mid-fi can but not TOTL.
I would personally like to thank Todd Green of TTVJ Audio for hosting these loaner tours of his gear. I have been a part of several loaner tours and I'm very thankful for the opportunity of demoing new gear and sharing my views with the rest of you. BTW, Todd is a great guy to deal with, I've bought a few headphones over the years from him and it's always been a wonderful experience. Check out his used gear section on the TTVJ Audio website for some killer deals!!!
Cheers,
Wormsdriver
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