[mainguy]

How can you flash the WM1a with WM1z firmware and what sort of difference are you experiencing?

I'm using mrwalkman's firmware.

Honestly the difference is insane, night and day. There's people on the mrwalkman firmware thread here who own WM1a & WM1z, quite a few actually, who have been kind enough to share their impressions. Long story short, with this guys firmware the WM1a sounds as good as a WM1z, or so close it's very hard to tell them apart. But if you add Mr Walkman's firmware to the WM1z it then takes that up a notch too, supposedly.

I was a big skeptic tbh, but it's true, the player sounds absolutely superb with his firmware. Before it was nothing special for me, just a DAP.

 

[lil BANE]

Hi Bane,

These are now my portable headphones so I use them exclusivey with a WM1a running WM1z firmware. Its quite a lush sounding player and I think it adds some warmth and body to the Elegia which really makes them shine. Initial impressions anyway

I’ve read that the WM1a/z is on the warmer side, but have yet to hear one….

I can see how the Elegia would benefit from a warmer DAP. I have a SP1000 and it can be hit or miss depending on the song…hanging onto them because I like the build and the looks. Just got to find that right source!

edit: forgot to thank you for sharing!

 

[mainguy]

I’ve read that the WM1a/z is on the warmer side, but have yet to hear one….

I can see how the Elegia would benefit from a warmer DAP. I have a SP1000 and it can be hit or miss depending on the song…hanging onto them because I like the build and the looks. Just got to find that right source!

edit: forgot to thank you for sharing!

Id strongly reccomend trying another source.

I first tried the Stellia on an AK380 and wasnt impressed. Then on a Hugo 2 they were the best headphone I’ve ever heard. Possible AK daps dont lend themselves to the focal sound I dont know.

Also the Elegia on the wm1a/z is much closer to the Stellia than I expected tbh.

 

[aleniola76]

Hi folks
few days with the Elegia now.
Very nice headphones, different than Clears but I am enjoying them.
The only details I would like to improve are related to each other... bass and sealing
I switched to sheepskin fenestrated pads to get a bit more bass, as the original were a bit weak on the (low) end.
Fenestrated are marginally better, but I was expecting to get bit more hump and be closer to the Clears..., and this was not the case. I may try the sheepskin non fenestrated ones in the future.
As far as sealing is concerned, I have a harder time finding a good fit on my ears that would prevent leakage and the related loss of bass response. The strange thing is that I do not have this issue with the Clears, which seems identical from a construction point of view....maybe it is just a matter of the headband and pads getting some time to get adjusted to my head shape.
That said, I can confirm these cans are sounding better with "warmer" sources, which are probably adding a bit of bass and taming the high mids.
I am preferring them paired with Violectric DHA 380 than the AK Kann Alpha.

 

[rickydenim]

The non-fenestrated sheepskin are definitely the way to go for stronger bass and better seal for the Elegia.

 

[TheRealDz]

Hi folks
few days with the Elegia now.
Very nice headphones, different than Clears but I am enjoying them.
The only details I would like to improve are related to each other... bass and sealing
I switched to sheepskin fenestrated pads to get a bit more bass, as the original were a bit weak on the (low) end.
Fenestrated are marginally better, but I was expecting to get bit more hump and be closer to the Clears..., and this was not the case. I may try the sheepskin non fenestrated ones in the future.
As far as sealing is concerned, I have a harder time finding a good fit on my ears that would prevent leakage and the related loss of bass response. The strange thing is that I do not have this issue with the Clears, which seems identical from a construction point of view....maybe it is just a matter of the headband and pads getting some time to get adjusted to my head shape.
That said, I can confirm these cans are sounding better with "warmer" sources, which are probably adding a bit of bass and taming the high mids.
I am preferring them paired with Violectric DHA 380 than the AK Kann Alpha.

You are going to get the most bass and best seal (isolation) from the non-fenestrated pads.

If you purchased directly from Dekoni, don't forget that you have a 30 day no questions asked return policy...

 

[aleniola76]

You are going to get the most bass and best seal (isolation) from the non-fenestrated pads.

If you purchased directly from Dekoni, don't forget that you have a 30 day no questions asked return policy...

Thank you very much, unfortunately dekoni.com ships from the US and I live in Italy, which means high shipment cost and custom fees
However….I was lucky enough to find a used pair here on Head-Fi market, should get them at the end of this week.

p.s. Listening to Elegia with fenestrated sheepskin right now…plugged to my ipad pro I get a surprisingly good sound

 

[peterinvan]

Thank you very much, unfortunately dekoni.com ships from the US and I live in Italy, which means high shipment cost and custom fees
However….I was lucky enough to find a used pair here on Head-Fi market, should get them at the end of this week.

p.s. Listening to Elegia with fenestrated sheepskin right now…plugged to my ipad pro I get a surprisingly good sound

You might want to look at a USB-C dongle dac/amp to get more out of your iPad Pro.

 

[aleniola76]

You might want to look at a USB-C dongle dac/amp to get more out of your iPad Pro.

It’s an old Ipad pro, the forst gen 11”, it still has a 3,5mm output

 

[lpd2]

My Elegia set to arrive tmrw along with a Fiio Q3 THX dac amp, a travel setup for macbook air with its usb-c connect. Also ordered a Monolith THX 887 for desktop and/or stereo stack, on sale for $250 today on Monoprice website, killer deal. I had the Elegia previously for a bit and put it up there with the best I've heard, even Z7 and hd820. Anybody running this model off the aforementioned amps? Excited to get my hands on another set of Focals. Will be using first just to isolate while studying for a GRE retake. Mozart I guess.

 

[Youcan1]

Those Dekoni pads ever go on sale for half off? The best pads I've ever used cost $10 so paying $100 is completely ludicrous.

 

[TheRealDz]

It is less about the pads, and more about Focal's proprietary connection. Otherwise you could get some perfectly good Chinese pads for $20.

 

[Youcan1]

It is less about the pads, and more about Focal's proprietary connection. Otherwise you could get some perfectly good Chinese pads for $20.

It can't be that hard to make a knockoff plastic ring with tabs. Do the Elex pads sound good on the Elegia? They are still overpriced but not as crazy as the Dekoni/Focal ones.

 

[TheRealDz]

It is less about the pads, and more about Focal's proprietary connection. Otherwise you could get some perfectly good Chinese pads for $20.

I stand corrected; you have discounted options, but I don't know the quality:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sheepskin-...2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

I have bought some Chinese pads, and most have been pretty good.

There is even a conversion ring, which I will buy so I can used my numerous spare pads:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Foam-Cushi...349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=706-127636-26712-0

 

[Silver Wolf]

The original Focal pads are even more expensive than the Dekoni and much shorter lived. You can get cheaper pads of all sorts and types, quality pads will often cost a premium as the materials used can get costly. I'm making some custom pads currently and you would be shocked at how expensive quality foams and exotic leathers, specialized thread and all that can be.

But cheap pads can certainly be made cheap- my first set only cost me an old set of used socks lol. It really also depends on what a individual is happy with to a point. Some folks are perfectly happy with cheap and don't care so much about SQ or build, comfort etc, we're all different.