So here's why the Elex sounds a bit worse than the Utopia and a simple way to improve the Elex's technicalities with EQ.
So what the infamous Focal 6 kHz peak is actually meant to do is create two dips centered at ~4 and ~8 kHz simulating a pinna notch, which helps with projecting the headstage outwards and creating a sensation of bass slam:
(Ishca measured the pad-rolled Elear and Elex and found them to be virtually identical, so that's what I'm using here)
However, the Elex is forward at 1.5-2 kHz instead of being dipped there like the Utopia, which partially moves the stereo image back forward, resulting in an incoherent headstage. Also, the combination of a peak followed by dips at the 2nd and 4th harmonics leads to a frequency masking effect, kind of like when you press the same note at two different octaves at differing loudnesses on a piano, causing a loss of detail and weakening of perceived low-end slam.
All you have to do to correct this, then, is add a notch in the upper midrange with parametric EQ. Because of factors such as unit and anatomical variance, this needs to be done by ear and precisely down to the Hz in order to avoid having the headphones sound hollow, narrow, or out of phase, but these are the peak filters I use:
1731 Hz, Q 5.85, 3.9 dB gain
1731 Hz, Q 3.51, -7.2 dB gain
I use this stereo imaging test while tweaking my presets to help ensure my settings are just right.
So what the infamous Focal 6 kHz peak is actually meant to do is create two dips centered at ~4 and ~8 kHz simulating a pinna notch, which helps with projecting the headstage outwards and creating a sensation of bass slam:
(Ishca measured the pad-rolled Elear and Elex and found them to be virtually identical, so that's what I'm using here)
However, the Elex is forward at 1.5-2 kHz instead of being dipped there like the Utopia, which partially moves the stereo image back forward, resulting in an incoherent headstage. Also, the combination of a peak followed by dips at the 2nd and 4th harmonics leads to a frequency masking effect, kind of like when you press the same note at two different octaves at differing loudnesses on a piano, causing a loss of detail and weakening of perceived low-end slam.
All you have to do to correct this, then, is add a notch in the upper midrange with parametric EQ. Because of factors such as unit and anatomical variance, this needs to be done by ear and precisely down to the Hz in order to avoid having the headphones sound hollow, narrow, or out of phase, but these are the peak filters I use:
1731 Hz, Q 5.85, 3.9 dB gain
1731 Hz, Q 3.51, -7.2 dB gain
I use this stereo imaging test while tweaking my presets to help ensure my settings are just right.
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