Shroune
Head-Fier
Introduction
Focal is a French company that makes reference-grade loudspeakers and now for the past couple of years, headphones. Recently, they developed a driver on one of their loudspeaker lines that trickled its way down to their flagship headphone, hence Utopia. It surprised the headphone community because of how they managed to come out with a headphone that is still considered to this day to be one of the world’s best headphones, with little experience in the headphone world. Focal has come out with three headphones that is fabled for their unique intimate sound: Utopia ($3000 USD), Clear ($1,100 USD) and Elear ($647 USD). With the help of Massdrop.com, they were able to collaborate and come out with Elex in 2017. In a world where headphone prices are shockingly increasing, it’s quite fun to have some that pop up once in while that are more “bang for your buck”. It is a true success on their part as there are more than 1.6k units sold as of March 12, 2019.
Build & comfort
As for the headphone itself, its mostly an anodized aluminium build with a leather headband. The part of the headband that touches your head is a thick cushion wrapped in perforated microfiber, which is the same material as the pads. They have a stylish aluminium grill that covers the side of the drivers with the Focal logo in the middle, a nice touch on their part. It’s truly a beautiful headphone. The only complaint I have is the cable that is too long and that it’s janky. On the flip side, they do come with two cables: one that has an XLR termination and the other that is terminated with a 3.5mm. They’re very comfortable with perfect clamp force. My ears are also very sensitive to heat and the combination of materials used and the fact that they’re an open headphone makes my ears happy. The weight is a little on the heavy side being 450g, but I can easily forget that once they’re on my head.
Treble
The treble extends well and has nice resolution. It has a peak at 6k just like its siblings but isn’t too bothersome for me. This headphone’s ability to extract detail is close to that of the hd800 which is quite impressive at this price point. Not once did I think this headphone was sibilant.
Mids
This is usually where people tend to love or hate this headphone. The tonality of this headphone is perceived as metallic for some people. This wasn’t a problem for me as I didn’t hear that. It is most prominent when listening to EDM, but I never was able to pinpoint the problem. Otherwise, this headphones timbre is also good but hd6XX’s was better. Vocals come forward in an unbothered manner with every instrument being placed where they should be with enough space in between each of them. You will not miss anything with these as they’re extremely revealing headphones. You must be weary of choosing the right amp for them because they will tell you if your amp is coloured.
Bass
This isn’t a sub-bass can by any stretch of the imagination. Many problems have been reported with this driver bottoming out when played at around 100db-110db on bass heavy tracks. This has never occurred to me yet as I don’t play my music at high levels. I remember the sub-bass being slightly more detailed on the utopia, partly because of the better magnet and better driver materials used in them. Although, the Elex has better extension than Utopia and HD800. Every time I used my HD6XX’s, I thought that they were lacking in this department since I mostly listen to genres that revolve around EDM and hip-hop. To me, Elex seemed to fix this issue and that’s why I sold my HD6XX’s. Bass doesn’t distract the mids or the treble and is extremely pleasant to listen to.
Soundstage
The soundstage on these are a great deal wider than HD6XX’s but still less wide than HD800. I would describe the soundstage on these as natural.
Conclusion
Focal hit the nail on the head with this one competing with the best in the league: HD800 and Hifiman’s new Ananda. All three have their quirks and this one is a great performer for the price, even though it isn’t perfect. If you can manage to get passed these small issues, you will enjoy these as much as I did. These will likely be my reference headphones as my others are for pleasure listening only. I listen to music while doing my university homework on a daily basis and these are as good for background music as there are for active listening. I won’t be upgrading to another pair for a while.
Focal is a French company that makes reference-grade loudspeakers and now for the past couple of years, headphones. Recently, they developed a driver on one of their loudspeaker lines that trickled its way down to their flagship headphone, hence Utopia. It surprised the headphone community because of how they managed to come out with a headphone that is still considered to this day to be one of the world’s best headphones, with little experience in the headphone world. Focal has come out with three headphones that is fabled for their unique intimate sound: Utopia ($3000 USD), Clear ($1,100 USD) and Elear ($647 USD). With the help of Massdrop.com, they were able to collaborate and come out with Elex in 2017. In a world where headphone prices are shockingly increasing, it’s quite fun to have some that pop up once in while that are more “bang for your buck”. It is a true success on their part as there are more than 1.6k units sold as of March 12, 2019.
Build & comfort
As for the headphone itself, its mostly an anodized aluminium build with a leather headband. The part of the headband that touches your head is a thick cushion wrapped in perforated microfiber, which is the same material as the pads. They have a stylish aluminium grill that covers the side of the drivers with the Focal logo in the middle, a nice touch on their part. It’s truly a beautiful headphone. The only complaint I have is the cable that is too long and that it’s janky. On the flip side, they do come with two cables: one that has an XLR termination and the other that is terminated with a 3.5mm. They’re very comfortable with perfect clamp force. My ears are also very sensitive to heat and the combination of materials used and the fact that they’re an open headphone makes my ears happy. The weight is a little on the heavy side being 450g, but I can easily forget that once they’re on my head.
Treble
The treble extends well and has nice resolution. It has a peak at 6k just like its siblings but isn’t too bothersome for me. This headphone’s ability to extract detail is close to that of the hd800 which is quite impressive at this price point. Not once did I think this headphone was sibilant.
Mids
This is usually where people tend to love or hate this headphone. The tonality of this headphone is perceived as metallic for some people. This wasn’t a problem for me as I didn’t hear that. It is most prominent when listening to EDM, but I never was able to pinpoint the problem. Otherwise, this headphones timbre is also good but hd6XX’s was better. Vocals come forward in an unbothered manner with every instrument being placed where they should be with enough space in between each of them. You will not miss anything with these as they’re extremely revealing headphones. You must be weary of choosing the right amp for them because they will tell you if your amp is coloured.
Bass
This isn’t a sub-bass can by any stretch of the imagination. Many problems have been reported with this driver bottoming out when played at around 100db-110db on bass heavy tracks. This has never occurred to me yet as I don’t play my music at high levels. I remember the sub-bass being slightly more detailed on the utopia, partly because of the better magnet and better driver materials used in them. Although, the Elex has better extension than Utopia and HD800. Every time I used my HD6XX’s, I thought that they were lacking in this department since I mostly listen to genres that revolve around EDM and hip-hop. To me, Elex seemed to fix this issue and that’s why I sold my HD6XX’s. Bass doesn’t distract the mids or the treble and is extremely pleasant to listen to.
Soundstage
The soundstage on these are a great deal wider than HD6XX’s but still less wide than HD800. I would describe the soundstage on these as natural.
Conclusion
Focal hit the nail on the head with this one competing with the best in the league: HD800 and Hifiman’s new Ananda. All three have their quirks and this one is a great performer for the price, even though it isn’t perfect. If you can manage to get passed these small issues, you will enjoy these as much as I did. These will likely be my reference headphones as my others are for pleasure listening only. I listen to music while doing my university homework on a daily basis and these are as good for background music as there are for active listening. I won’t be upgrading to another pair for a while.
