[PopZeus]

Buy what YOU want! No matter what you decide someone will be there to tell why you shouldn't and what THEY would buy instead. If you've done the research, don't let anyone change your mind here. As soon as I read your first post I knew what I'd find below it and I wasn't disappointed.

I don't think there's anything wrong with pointing out the fact that Focal's flagship line of headphones is picky when it comes to source quality. I mean, that's a widely shared opinion of Focal owners and reviewers. And frankly, there are benefits and drawbacks to it depending on personal listening habits and music tastes. I didn't say that junk88 shouldn't get what he wanted. Just that my experience with owning the Elear and Elex inadvertently put my GAS into overdrive after they revealed flaws in my system.

 

[westyjeff]

If you want Focal, I would look at the Elex over all except Utopia. This headphone is a very good example of massdrop changing the sound signiture for the better. Nice used examples in the low $500 in the exchange, why spend more than you have too.

 

[Tsukuyomi]

focal literally has mini speakers as drivers

If thats what you think then, go for it and enjoy your cans. I think you dont need any more advice.

 

[HBen]

If that's what you decided to buy all there is left for us is to wish you happy listening

Furnermore, since we don't know what kind of music you are listening to, under what circumstances you are going to use your set up etc. there is pretty much no way for us to judge the setup you plan to buy.

A bit of advice on the side: I can only second what "raypin" said. I hope you made your decisions not only from reading forums and online reviews, because they are going to tell you very little wether you're going to like this kind of sound or not. Buying a 1000$+ headphone without testing them yourself is a perfect path to being unhappy about your purchase later on.

My personal take on the clear or generally on all the focals in that product line: The focal's have their merits but it's imo a very neutral, almost sterile and kind of closed in sound. If you plan to listen mostly to vocals it's the wrong headphone if you ask me. It's better suited for studio usage, electronic music etc. but once again, only your ears can tell you. You can of course attemps to change the sound signature with the amp/dac etc. but since you plan to buy all of that together you probably won't buy a ton of other equipment right after your purchase to do that. I also kind of think that if you need a tube amp to make a headphone sound listenable to you then you probably should'nt get that headphone in the first place - others might disagree^^

Anyway I hope you will be enjoying whatever you decide to buy and life happily ever after ^^
Cheers and all the best on your headphone journey