I believe the AFC was notably more isolating, yea.
I was able to get a pair to test, and that was one of the first things I checked, and the AFC does a better job at isolation; inner and outer environment.
My impression of the Elegia is mixed, it does have the Focal sound signature, but IMHO it felt like it had the same issues switching from say LCD-X to LCD-XC. The mid frequency band felt a little shouty on some tracks like the LCD-XC's. I mostly did A/B testing with the Elegia and AFC over the Elegia and Elear and found myself still preferring the AFC. If they would have used leather or synthetic leather, I could see better isolation and possibly bass, but then you alter other frequencies. The soundstage was average at best, but it does have much depth for a closed headphone, and proper instrument placement for not having an HD800s soundstage. To my ears, I felt these were more mid-centric than the Elear's but not as polite as the AFC, but it does have more bass than the AFC.
One thing I noticed right off the bat was the Elegia not suffering from the driver bottoming out and making that rattle sound with sub frequencies. For example, I use a track by The Brothers Johnson from their Light Up The Night Album, track: Stomp! (DSD album). Moreover, every Elear I've owned can't handle this track from 2:40-3:10 without rattling (bottoming out the driver), and that's at volumes less than 50%; It can't handle P.R.A.T. volume levels. The Elegia was able to handle this without any issues so the redesigned driver must have been a focal point as it doesn't bottom out. I do have an EQ setting for my Elear''s in Roon but test with no EQ for both AFC and Elegia and I still preferred the AFC due to it having a more neutral non-shouty midrange band. If you're into the Elegia sound, then the AFC IMHO would sound too neutral polite.
On an aside, the color choice seems like they ran out of dark fabric as the 2 tone gray is atrocious, the lighter gray works for the Clear but no in the Elegia. I did swap the pads for the Elear, but I can't say I noticed that much of a difference. I did borrow MDR-Z1R from a friend for a few weeks, and from my memory, it's defiantly a much different sound signature, and I personally loved them, but the cost of them has been the reason I haven't bought them. Lastly, I think if the cost is the same I'd prefer the Beyer T5p2 if I wanted a closed-back dynamic or even the AQ NightOwl.
Set up: Roon w/ DSD library and Tidal HiFi, Chord Hugo 2, Mojo, and WA7/WA7tp 2nd Gen. I tried all different combinations, and it didn't change my opinion, but your mileage may vary.
