[turbobb]

I've read a few impressions vs. DT1990 but it isn't clear to me whether the treble on the Elex is slightly less bright. While I do enjoy the DT1990 very much, just finding the treble has a sharper bite than I care for. Would also like just a teensy more bass too. Hopefully the Elex can tick both boxes?

@AnakChan - Anak, thanks for your impression, but wondering if you can comment on the above?

@AnakChan - Hi Anak, wondering if you might be able to answer my q above, I realize you'll be going off memory but I'd appreciate any feedback at all.

Thx!,
Tim

 

[AnakChan]

@AnakChan - Hi Anak, wondering if you might be able to answer my q above, I realize you'll be going off memory but I'd appreciate any feedback at all.

Thx!,
Tim

I did that comparison back in Post #290 on Dec last year so I have to admit since then I've not revisited those headphones and my memory is bad. I'll see if I can head to the shops again with the Elex to compre against the DT1990 specifically for the points you're looking for.

 

[ksorota]

AnakChan... Did you get a chance to try out the Utopia pads with the Elex? If so, any impressions to share?

Thanks again for the comparisons.

 

[AnakChan]

AnakChan... Did you get a chance to try out the Utopia pads with the Elex? If so, any impressions to share?

Thanks again for the comparisons.

I did actually! I felt it was a little too middish for my tastes - not massively so but enough for me to notice so I didn't really bother spending too much compare any further.

I think the Clear pads are right for the Elex.

 

[MarkF786]

Focal sucks. After early adopters paid $1K for the Elear and dealt with the absurd cable, Focal releases a slightly upgraded version for $700 - but without selling the earpads or cables to existing customers.

How about selling the new earpads & cables to existing customers for $200? I'm sure Focal would still make a profit - and would probably have more sales than the 500+ Elex.

Greed.

 

[dontfeedphils]

Focal sucks. After early adopters paid $1K for the Elear and dealt with the absurd cable, Focal releases a slightly upgraded version for $700 - but without selling the earpads or cables to existing customers.

How about selling the new earpads & cables to existing customers for $200? I'm sure Focal would still make a profit - and would probably have more sales than the 500+ Elex.

Greed.

Have you asked if they'd be willing to sell the cables and accessories separately before you declare "Focal sucks" or "Greed"? I'm sure the earpad will be available since they're the same as the Clears (they just take a bit for accessories to be released).

Also, that's part of being an early adopter. I bought the Elear new at $1K because I wanted them right then. I could've waited knowing they'd eventually come down in price but I made a deliberate decision. If you're not ok with these sort of situations I would suggest you avoid early adoption.

 

[WyldeBlue]

@SCBob, Those are the exact same thoughts I'm having...Utopia for serious listening at home, Elex at work when the time/opportunity arose. However, I'm fully prepared to simply be "whelmed" (neither over- nor under-whelmed) by their performance relative to the Utopia; if nothing else, I would imagine the secondary market will be relatively brisk, at least in the near term, if the Elex just doesn't have enough horsepower to remain in the stable.

 

[MarkF786]

Have you asked if they'd be willing to sell the cables and accessories separately before you declare "Focal sucks" or "Greed"? I'm sure the earpad will be available since they're the same as the Clears (they just take a bit for accessories to be released).

The topic has been discussed elsewhere, and I've searched online for the Clear earpads and cables and haven't found them, but I'm always open to asking Focal. I think we can all guess the general response.

 

[Raphael DeLaGhetto]

So my friend and his Clears and I spent prob about an hr listening swapping around the headphones, pads, etc. The Clear pads felt firmer in most points except the the base portion next to the channel socket where the firmness was the same. For my colleague and I, our conclusion is the pads are the same and his Clear pads are firmer only in other parts of the earpods due to it being much newer than the Elex pads. The material of both Elex and Clear pads are the same, just different colour.

Of the two, the Elex sounds more aggressive and less warm compared to the Clear. The Elex seems to have a flatter but wider and airer soundstage. By comparison the Clear seems to have a little more sub & mid bass with a warmer presentation. The Clear also seems to have a smaller but deeper soundstage. The Clear sounds more fluid with a more 3D presentation.

As to confirm the earpods, we swapped the Elex and Clear earpads and no noticeable differences.

For fun we swapped the Utopia and Clear pads. On the Utopia it's brought down a little of the detail but the Utopia sounds more musical and overall allows more extended listening. The Clear with the Utopia pads though to my ears seemed to have emphasised the mids a little more, not to my liking.

Joined the drop a while back but I'm curious, do you think these sound different enough to warrant having both? I see that you said the sound is similar to the Utopia, but these have been coined as "baby Utopias" & not baby Clears.

 

[humblesquad]

I'm torn between DT1990 and Elex. #290 said "The DT1990 Pro was tonally closer towards the Elex" and "The DT 1990 didn't sound as "clean" as how the Elex". Also, Elex can be run by balanced amp. But DT1990 is cheaper. @AnakChan, could you give me some more impressions between them? For example, soundstage, bass quantity and slam, harshness?

Edit: Another thing I'm interested in is "Elex SE vs Elex Balanced".

Edit2: One more thing. I recently listened Elear and Clear. Clear was far more clear than Elear. Elear's clearness was not so good to be honest and on par with LCD2C. How good is Elex in terms of clearness? Is it Clear-level clearness?

 

[AnakChan]

DT1990 Pro Live comparison thoughts

A little more “isolation” & a little more closed sounding - earpads seem to have a greater play when conparing the Beyers to the Elex.

It emphasizes a little more on 3D depth but somewhat a little detailed. The bass is a little “woolier” & slightly less tightly controlled compared to the Elex.

Again something in my mind leads me to think it’s the Beyer’s pads that’s resulting in the above thoughts rather than a difference in drivers. I’m doing this in a shop right now therefore I don’t have anything (science) to back my speculations.

To -me- is still pick the Elex over the BT1990 Pro’s.

The Elex & Clear comparisons have been made on a few pages back. No change in thoughts even when compared to the Clear Professional.

My demo Elex is getting a good run as you can see from the earpads

 

[Mani ATH 87]

The massive price different between the Elear and the Elex is kind of crazy. I considered buying an Elear a few months back, glad I didn't. The Clear is even more expensive making the disparity even larger.

Based on impressions given here...I can't imagine why anyone would consider the Clear or Elear at this point, despite preferential differences in sound signature. The gap in price seems far to large to be justified in relatively small differences in the signature.

The pricing here just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[franz12]

The massive price different between the Elear and the Elex is kind of crazy. I considered buying an Elear a few months back, glad I didn't. The Clear is even more expensive making the disparity even larger.

Based on impressions given here...I can't imagine why anyone would consider the Clear or Elear at this point, despite preferential differences in sound signature. The gap in price seems far to large to be justified in relatively small differences in the signature.

The pricing here just doesn't make sense to me.

From impressions I read from various forums, Clear is still one or two step higher than Elex with a technically more prowess driver. Especially, Clear seems to have better 'life-like tonality' than Elex and greater quantity and quality of low-end bass.
Also, Clear comes with a nice looking carrying case and a balanced cable. So the price difference makes perfect sense to me, especially a street price for Clear new is now around $1200.

I initially thought jumping on this drop, but probably would not. I would wait probably until Focal's next release or Clear hits $1k.

 

[exdmd]

You can get Elears on Amazon for $749 down from $799 I paid for mine. Smooth out frequency response with a Loki. I don't use the Elears much since I bought HD800S but nice to have spare phones even though HD800S outclasses Elears in all respects for me. Never should have trusted reviews on InnerFidelity and bought HD800S to start. I can live with those phones for many years. Have not heard the Utopias yet but I doubt I would buy them over HD800S.

 

[Raphael DeLaGhetto]

From impressions I read from various forums, Clear is still one or two step higher than Elex with a technically more prowess driver. Especially, Clear seems to have better 'life-like tonality' than Elex and greater quantity and quality of low-end bass.
Also, Clear comes with a nice looking carrying case and a balanced cable. So the price difference makes perfect sense to me, especially a street price for Clear new is now around $1200.

I initially thought jumping on this drop, but probably would not. I would wait probably until Focal's next release or Clear hits $1k.

The Elex comes with a balanced cable too. AXPONA is right before my Elex's ship so I'll have a chance to demo the Clears & I'll be sure to jot down my impressions since auditory memory is the worst in our system.

@AnakChan My question wasn't whether to buy one or the other but rather would it make sense to own both. I'll know in a month though.