[mromes]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! Oddly enough I was able to get through a few hours for the first time with no issues! I am going to try and take them carefully apart and see if something is loose. I am reaching out to Focal today to see what they say just in case they fail again.

 

[Shane D]

Man, I Love these headphones! I have been using this for several days with my tube amp and the sound is Great.
Today I got my Liquid Platinum amp and I am most curious to see how the Elex's work out with this.

 

[SilverEars]

Man, I Love these headphones! I have been using this for several days with my tube amp and the sound is Great.
Today I got my Liquid Platinum amp and I am most curious to see how the Elex's work out with this.

It might be interesting. The tube hybrid may soften the upper-mids dyanmics a bit, which I found too forward with slight reduction in mids weight, causing the upper-mids forwardness to be sharper than preferred and cause detachment from being engaged to the music. I know LP thickens up the mids too.

 

[Shane D]

It might be interesting. The tube hybrid may soften the upper-mids dyanmics a bit, which I found too forward with slight reduction in mids weight, causing the upper-mids forwardness to be sharper than preferred and cause detachment from being engaged to the music. I know LP thickens up the mids too.

For the last week I have been down to two amps and I have been A-B'ing with my tube amp (MAD Ear+ HD II) and a THX amp (SMSL SP200). Wildly different sounds. That tube is smooth, but SP200 is banging out that great bass.
Very curious to see where the LP fits in.

 

[adeadcrab]

Elex + THX AAA 789 is a very fast, controlled ride. Also very lean sounding. I like to use a warm opamp in the preamp before feeding to the 789 to flesh out the Elex's midrange. A tube amp would work too but then it loses that precision from the fantastic 789!

 

[Trunks159]

I'd be interested to hear of the differences between the AAA 789 and the Liquid Platinum (since I use the latter with the Elex).

 

[Marlowe]

I'd be interested to hear of the differences between the AAA 789 and the Liquid Platinum (since I use the latter with the Elex).

Me too, since I currently use the THX 789 with the Elex (Valhalla 2 with the Sennheiser HD 6XX) and expect to buy a Liquid Platinum in 2-3 months. I'm planning to use my stimulus money (which should arrive within a week) to buy a ZMF Aeolus, which may well supplant the Elex as my primary music headphone. I'm guessing that the LP will pair better with the Aeolus than the 789 (and given the likely backlog of orders at ZMF, I'll bet I get the LP before I receive the Aeolus).

 

[Trunks159]

Me too, since I currently use the THX 789 with the Elex (Valhalla 2 with the Sennheiser HD 6XX) and expect to buy a Liquid Platinum in 2-3 months. I'm planning to use my stimulus money (which should arrive within a week) to buy a ZMF Aeolus, which may well supplant the Elex as my primary music headphone. I'm guessing that the LP will pair better with the Aeolus than the 789 (and given the likely backlog of orders at ZMF, I'll bet I get the LP before I receive the Aeolus).

You gotta tell me how that Aeolus compares to the Elex. I'm personally thinking of buying the Quad Era 1 and comparing.

 

[Shane D]

I'd be interested to hear of the differences between the AAA 789 and the Liquid Platinum (since I use the latter with the Elex).

I don't have a 789, but I do have an SP200. Sounds good with Elex with good music, but can be a little fussy. Strong bass though.

Got my LP yesterday and it is wild! Tried several genres and it sailed through everything. Full, detailed sound with lots of bass. Although it is way too early to say this, I can see this replacing my SP200.
I just put on my Sundara's and I will see where that goes. Awesome to start. Played some lush Mercury Rev (Bobbie Gentry album) and then switched over to STP playlist on shuffle. VERY nice.

 

[Cassadian]

Received this headphone earlier this week. Will have proper hardware to audition them tomorrow.

Looking forward to listening to them and posting some initial impressions.

 

[Shane D]

These really rock with a Liquid Platinum. They are clear, clean, exciting and have lots of bass.

These headphones truly are "W shaped". Lots of bass, mids and treble.

I have cut back the collection recently and these, along with the Sundara's and the Grado's make a Very, for me, complete collection.

But these headphones are really exciting to listen to and more than a little addictive.

Hopefully I can avoid the pitfalls of mechanical problems.

 

[ezekiel77]

So my broken Elex will be going back to Drop for a full refund. It was fun while it lasted. All 5 months and 20 hours of it.

I hope things are better for the others here. I'll be moving on from Focal.

 

[Shane D]

So my broken Elex will be going back to Drop for a full refund. It was fun while it lasted. All 5 months and 20 hours of it.

I hope things are better for the others here. I'll be moving on from Focal.

That sucks! Would you consider moving up to the Clears or are you just soured on the brand? Of course the Clears are pretty expensive too.

 

[Marlowe]

That sucks! Would you consider moving up to the Clears or are you just soured on the brand? Of course the Clears are pretty expensive too.

Frankly, after having three OEM Elex XLR cables fail in a little more than a year (carefully used, never left my apartment; I now use one from Periapt) I wouldn't ever consider buying a Focal product again.

 

[roskodan]

It's Drop not Focal, who knows how they flip rma and b-stock.