Got my Elex in yesterday. I had tried out an Elear a long time ago when I used to be into the journey. First impressions of the Elex are as follows:
-Yeah the cables really are as bad as they say. Super stiff and prone to kinking. I have to work potential future kinks out every time I put them on. However I do like that you get a quarter inch and XLR cable with the headphones. I'm using XLR into my Jotunheim.
- More comfortable than I remember with the Elear. I'm comparing them to my R70X with Brainwavz XL pads as well, which put everything else on the market to shame. I typically shy away from heavy stuff, especially if they don't have large suspension straps, but the Elex does a remarkable job distributing the weight on its headband, and the cups themselves fit very well while having minimal clamping force. Very nice!
- Soundstage is miniscule. Things are very much in your head. The imaging of the sound is very open and lifted however. Very lifelike. These things are as open as the Hifiman Egg-shaped headphones. You can hardly tell a difference in ambient sounds with them on or off.
- I quickly EQ'd these to get rid of some treble spiciness around 8-9hz by around 3-4db, slightly reduced some shoutiness around 1.5khz by about 1-2db, gave about a 2-3db lift around 40-25hz, and a slight db lift of about 1-2db around 4-5khz. Out of the box they are well balanced, but I can still tell they have some of that Elear quality to them. Bass extension is exceptional-- very assertive down to 40hz. Lower - mid midrange is very smooth and natural. Around 4-10khz I hear lots of Elear qualities that I remember from when I had them. I'm sure the pads are doing a good job at bringing back much of the presence region around 2-4khz, but there's still a depression centered around 5khz just as with the original Elear, and there's some roughness to the upper treble. The R70x is much more linear in this area, and while the Brainwavz XL pads do a number to its original sound, it can thankfully be EQ'd back.
- Sound overall is very energetic and tight. Tight and solid are perhaps the bets descriptors I can use for the Elex. Bass is strong and very controlled. Drums sound amazing especially once you bring back some additional energy around 5khz. I wouldn't say they're bassy headphones at all however, just very dense with what they present.
- This headphones might be the most sensitive to hair or other small particles that get in contact with the drivers. I'm experiencing rattle coming from either the left or right (or sometimes both) drivers. And no, I'm pretty sure this isn't the clipping issue at 105db and above that I've heard about. This rattle is shown even at lower volumes when I do test tones on Audacity. Sometimes carefully inspecting and pulling hair out of the inner cups does the trick, sometimes slightly blowing over the area or repositioning does the trick. Either way I experience it quite often. Does anybody else experience this?
