[chaz_flhr]

Tested the entire lineup of Focal closed-backs yesterday at CanJam London. And I was cheeky enough to take my Dekoni Stellia Pads with me to swap out the Elegia stock pads and compare them with the rest of the line up that way.

My simple conclusions are:

1. The Dekoni Stellia pads do improve the bass on the Elegia and don't alter the mids. However there is a veil on the mids to my ears that benefits from being EQ'd out. With the pad swap and EQ the Focal Elegia trades blows with any of the rest of the lineup and wins on occasion. To be honest, I'd say the EQ alone would do the trick for me but the Bass from the pad swap is a nice cherry on top.

2 - Without EQ, the Radiance was my favourite in the lineup. I was lucky enough to test it before a guy bought the set I was listening to. The last one in Europe apparently. Lovely smooth bass and warm mids without sounding veiled.

3. The Celestee was the most forward and aggressive sounding. You won't miss a detail there. But it was too much for me. I felt boxed in and as though I was under attack.

4. The Stellia.... I've heard them before and for some reason they never quite do it for me, but I prefer them to the Celestee for sure. They are supposedly more resolving, but the noise at CanJam made that difficult to fully appreciate. They are the most spacious sounding of the closed backs. Listening to them and then following that with the Utopia helped me understand the Utopia (as someone who also owns the Clear Pro OG), but the Utopia is on a level of its own and is untouchable in the Focal lineup. But back to closed backs, I prefer the Radiance and the Elegia (with all the tweaks) to the Stellia.

All in all, the Elegia is not perfect, but it's great for what it is and it takes very little to make them go from good to great-great (not a typo), especially for their current price.

The Radiance is quite nice, it's not the normal Focal house sound as it was voiced to approximate the TOL Naim system in a Bentley it is warmer and less articulate than the Stellia.

 

[chaz_flhr]

Have you also heard the Elegia's? The Stellia's are Way too expensive for me and I don't really care for the look.

I was watching a review by resolve and he said that the upgrade to the Radiance from the Elegia's wasn't worth the cost. I do wonder about that, but then it all comes down to personal preference.

No I haven't listened to the Elegia, between the Stellia, Radiance, Arya and Fd 7 my dance card is rather full and enjoyable. You can always just give the Radiance a listen It can only hurt your wallet.
The only other can I want to hear is the Meze Empyrean.
I also agree on the looks of the Stellia.

 

[waveSounds]

It seems that there were no Denon 9200s at Canjam London...

There wasn't, but I wish there was! But I don't believe it would dethrone the TH900 for my preferences. I guess the only way I'll find out is when the waveSounds family travels back to the Canary Islands and meets up with the Terriero's for a comprehensive listening session

 

[AudioDuck]

Have you also heard the Elegia's? The Stellia's are Way too expensive for me and I don't really care for the look.

I was watching a review by resolve and he said that the upgrade to the Radiance from the Elegia's wasn't worth the cost. I do wonder about that, but then it all comes down to personal preference.

I’d be cautious to immediately group the Radiance with other Focals. I’ve owned the Elear and Radiance before making the leap to the Stellia, and from my (somewhat limited) experience, the Radiance is tuned a bit differently. It falls more in the camp of Naim- warmer midrange and more prominent mid-bass. I liked the Radiance a lot, but lumping it in with the “Focal house sound” of more dynamic, “faster” sound and a bit more neutral, yet forward midrange seems off to me.

 

[chaz_flhr]

I’d be cautious to immediately group the Radiance with other Focals. I’ve owned the Elear and Radiance before making the leap to the Stellia, and from my (somewhat limited) experience, the Radiance is tuned a bit differently. It falls more in the camp of Naim- warmer midrange and more prominent mid-bass. I liked the Radiance a lot, but lumping it in with the “Focal house sound” of more dynamic, “faster” sound and a bit more neutral, yet forward midrange seems off to me.

I like the difference between the Stellia and Radiance and you are correct they are voiced to approximate the TOL Naim system in a Bentley so not the typical Focal sound.

 

[Shane D]

I’d be cautious to immediately group the Radiance with other Focals. I’ve owned the Elear and Radiance before making the leap to the Stellia, and from my (somewhat limited) experience, the Radiance is tuned a bit differently. It falls more in the camp of Naim- warmer midrange and more prominent mid-bass. I liked the Radiance a lot, but lumping it in with the “Focal house sound” of more dynamic, “faster” sound and a bit more neutral, yet forward midrange seems off to me.

I love the Focal sound as in my Elex's. I will likely upgrade eventually to the Clear's. I like my Elegia's, but am Radiance curious. I like warm amps and fun headphones. I am in no way an audiophile.

The Radiance sounds very enticing, but is pretty pricey, landed in Canada. We'll see.

 

[JAnonymous5150]

I'm pretty new around head-fi (at least as more than a lurker) and this is the first time I've wandered into this thread. Closed backs have always held a special place in my collection and I have never looked at them as being inferior to open backs.

Recently, after a months long audition process trying all the best open and closed back TOTL headphones I could get my hands on just looking for the single best headphone for me, I ended up purchasing the DCA Stealth and I couldn't be happier.

When I tried headphones like Susvara, LCD 4 & 5, Meze Lyric, Elite, and Empyrean, Focal Utopia, and others from Kennerton, Rosson, ZMF, Hifiman, Focal, etc I heard a lot of great headphones, but I didn't hear one that felt made for my preferences, that immediately captured and held my listening attention until I heard the Stealths. They have some special synergy with my ears such that from the moment I first put them on I knew that I needed to own a pair. The point being that currently the best headphone in the world for me is in fact a closed back! Blasphemous, right?

At the other end of the pricing spectrum, earlier this year as an AKG fan (See sig lol) I decided to audition the K371 that I seemed to be hearing great things about everywhere against my favorite low cost closed backs, the K553MkII. The K371s are a pretty good budget headphone no doubt, but heads up the K553 just seemed better to me in just about every way from the sound quality to the build quality. At the time K553MkIIs were selling for $189 on Amazon while the K371s were going for $159 I think. I remember thinking at the time that saving up that extra $30 was definitely worth it and I recommended the K553MkIIs over the K371 to anyone who who was considering budget closed backs generally or the K371 in specific.

Now that the K553MkIIs are only $139 on Amazon I find myself contemplating ordering a second pair to have around because that's a whole lotta closed back for some pretty modest money. I'm surprised the K553MkII isn't on the closed back recommendations list at the beginning of this thread. I know from some other discussions that I'm not the only person who prefers them to the K371s. I'd even go so far as to say that they're, IMO, a better value as I think you're getting more for the money so to speak. I'm just putting it out there. I mean, even if you don't agree that the K553MkII is better or a better value I would think almost anyone who has listened to both the K553MkII and the K371 would at least say they're both solid low cost closed back recommendations.

I'll wrap up my novel/introduction by saying that it has been nice reading an entire thread full of posts and people who don't treat closed back headphones like an after thought. Cheers for putting together a thread of like minded people. One question though: Now that I have posted here will someone come to take my official audiophile club card or is there somewhere I'm supposed to mail it back to?

 

[Haxion]

Have you also heard the Elegia's? The Stellia's are Way too expensive for me and I don't really care for the look.

I was watching a review by resolve and he said that the upgrade to the Radiance from the Elegia's wasn't worth the cost. I do wonder about that, but then it all comes down to personal preference.

I just bought a set of Elegia's, and have had them for three days. Following my Audeze IEMs (LCD i3's), this is my second properly Hi-Fi headphone, and I haven't heard a lot of high end headphones otherwise (I don't have any friends in the area who are into this sort of thing), so I don't have too much to say in terms of points of comparison. That said, a few impressions:

* Stock tuning is a bit wonky, in a way that's hard to describe. Not bad by any means, and probably fixed by the Dekoni Stellia pad swap everyone mentions (which I plan to do myself). But even mild EQ really wakes them up.
* They are easy to drive--my Qudelix 5K can easily get them to uncomfortably loud levels. Likewise they respond to EQ very well with no distortion I can hear.
* For a closed back, they have an amazing sense of space. There is a faint, but noticeable, echoing effect from the cups that gives the sense of listening in a concert hall or large room. You really can hear all the different instruments in complex pieces coming from different places around your head. It's a nice contrast to my Audeze IEMs-- those are just as immersive, but give more of a sense of "living in sound" where the music seems to come from everywhere all at once. The Elegia's on the other hand really feel like being in the same room as the musicians.
* Because of this, your favorite singers tend to to sound really good.
* Detail retrieval is superb, you hear every tiny bit of information. Truly exceptional. However, if your track is poorly recorded, or you're listening to old poorly compressed music, you're going to hear all that too. For instance, listening to the same song back to back, you can tell the difference between Youtube videos (free, not the paid music service) and high quality AACs downloaded from iTunes.
* They are very large. Not particularly heavy, and they're quite comfortable-- and I have a very large head. But like most headphones, to get them to sound right they need to make a perfect seal, and this is made a bit harder because they're pretty big. The bass really suffers if you need to wear glasses with them, for instance. I can imagine for some people getting the right fit could be hard.
* Build quality is excellent and they feel "premium" aside from the odd choice of cloth for the pads and the weirdly stiff stock cable. But if you plan to do the pad swap anyway that's not an issue. And I immediately replaced the stock cable with a $20 balanced cable from Amazon to get better sound from the 5K.
* Some people complain about the bass as being weak, but I wouldn't say that's true. What I'd say instead is that they aren't a bass-prominent headphone; if a track has loud, deep bass, you're going to hear it well, but in a busy passage with lots of different instruments at once higher frequencies (e.g. vocals, guitar or violin) are going to dominate it. You can of course EQ up the bass a bit to compensate and they get pretty punchy with a few dB added down low. But it isn't really what they're tuned for. I'd say if you listen to primarily EDM or hip-hop there are probably better choices. EDM is still enjoyable on them of course (I'm listening to Juno Reactor as I type this and it's quite nice), but just from my own very small collection the Audezes I have are better for that genre.
* Sound isolation is pretty good, and sound leakage is minimal.

All in all for $400 they're an amazing deal and I am very happy with them. The level of detail and soundstage are so compelling. And the Celestee and Radiance have identical or nearly identical drivers (same dimensions, material, impedance and frequency range quoted in the specs); I imagine differences between them come down to the cups and pads, and that's the sort of thing that's easy to make up with a pad swap and/or EQ. I haven't heard either but from the other comments on this thread that doesn't sound like it's at all worth 2.5 - 3x the price (also recall these were $900 when they first came out). The Stellias have a different driver setup but are also $3k new and I can't imagine one would cross-shop them given the price differential.

 

[helloh3adfi]

Now that the K553MkIIs are only $139 on Amazon I find myself contemplating ordering a second pair to have around because that's a whole lotta closed back for some pretty modest money. I'm surprised the K553MkII isn't on the closed back recommendations list at the beginning of this thread. I know from some other discussions that I'm not the only person who prefers them to the K371s.

They are a really good bargain. At the beginning of my audiophile path I had some Superlux cans. Wasn't happy with them so I got a pair of K550s, which I could listen and wear for hours. It's good to know I'm not the only one having budget priced cans in the collection even though I got TOTL cans. I would say the K553 would be a good choice if you want to buy dynamic headphones similar to DCA.

 

[Terriero]

There wasn't, but I wish there was! But I don't believe it would dethrone the TH900 for my preferences. I guess the only way I'll find out is when the waveSounds family travels back to the Canary Islands and meets up with the Terriero's for a comprehensive listening session

Here I'm and you know that you and your little daughter are very welcome here My children love to "play" with little babies, with a lot of care... I will create an EDM playlist in my foobar for you

I was tempted with the TH 900s but I think that the enormous treble peak will destroy my ears... I suppose that in EDM would be not as noticeable...

From the headphones of my past avatar, I only sold the Sony Z7s, the other three remain at my house

BTW, I hope to don't forget about that "long-term surprise" I promised to you... Maybe this afternoon

 

[helloh3adfi]

I was tempted with the TH 900s but I think that the enormous treble peak will destroy my ears... I suppose that in EDM would be not as noticeable...

Eq helps to reduce the peak, but you have to find out yourself if it's enough.

 

[JAnonymous5150]

They are a really good bargain. At the beginning of my audiophile path I had some Superlux cans. Wasn't happy with them so I got a pair of K550s, which I could listen and wear for hours. It's good to know I'm not the only one having budget priced cans in the collection even though I got TOTL cans. I would say the K553 would be a good choice if you want to buy dynamic headphones similar to DCA.

Absolutely. And, no, you're not alone. I have more expensive gear for sure, but me buying more expensive gear didn't mean my K553s stopped doing what they do well. I find them to be an incredibly consistent and non-fatiguing headphone that makes long monitoring or critical listening sessions much easier on the ears. I still use them pretty regularly. Just a couple days ago I spent several hours using them to listen to some jazz standards like Giant Steps by Coltrane and I enjoyed every minute of it. I don't see myself getting rid of them any time soon.

It's nice to know that I'm not crazy. Or at least that I'm not the only nutcase who recognizes the value of the K550 series.

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Absolutely. And, no, you're not alone. I have more expensive gear for sure, but me buying more expensive gear didn't mean my K553s stopped doing what they do well. I find them to be an incredibly consistent and non-fatiguing headphone that makes long monitoring or critical listening sessions much easier on the ears. I still use them pretty regularly. Just a couple days ago I spent several hours using them to listen to some jazz standards like Giant Steps by Coltrane and I enjoyed every minute of it. I don't see myself getting rid of them any time soon.

It's nice to know that I'm not crazy. Or at least that I'm not the only nutcase who recognizes the value of the K550 series.

This reminds me somewhat on my K545 back in 2015.
Snagged them for 99€ and they were worth every cent.
3 years later I bought my second closed back, the Ultrasone Performance 880, with its "Hugh" headstage due to the S-Logic implementation.
Both are pretty nice to listen to.

 

[vcoheda]

question to the group.

i have been searching for a closed headphone for DAP use and the Focal Celestee seems promising, but i have read conflicting reports about sound leakage -- some say it leaks a great deal (similar to open-backed) and others that it does not leak at all. i need a headphone that does not leak (or very little). does the focal meet this standard or not.

thanks

 

[JAnonymous5150]

question to the group.

i have been searching for a closed headphone for DAP use and the Focal Celestee seems promising, but i have read conflicting reports about sound leakage -- some say it leaks a great deal (similar to open-backed) and others that it does not leak at all. i need a headphone that does not leak (or very little). does the focal meet this standard or not.

thanks

I haven't heard the Celestee, but if it's anything like the Elegia then I would say it has below average isolation for a closed back. When I owned the Elegias one of the issues that I had with them was that I had to be in a quiet environment to use them because they let in more noise than I was used to closed backs letting in. My Emu Teaks and AKG K553MkIIs, the two primary closed backs I was using at the time, both isolated sound significantly better than the Elegias did. The below average isolation and some problems I had with the tuning/timbre led to me getting rid of them pretty quickly.

I demoed the Celestees briefly, but I did so in a friend's quiet listening room so I'm not sure if they're comprable though I would think they'd be similar given their similar construction. That might be a bit of a leap though.