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Focal Elear and Utopia Impressions at Source AV

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by purr1n, Jul 7, 2016.

Page 14 of 24
  1. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

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    A lot of distortion on the Ether Flow but the FR looks quite smooth, but damn, these Utopia measurements sure look impressive to me. Not the best in every regard but looks like a good balance of everything. Nice to see the distortion lowering compared to the Elear.
     
    Serious, Jul 18, 2016
    #261
  2. TMRaven

    TMRaven Friend

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    That Ether Flow (if you don't into consideration the seal problem) follows that Harman target curve very closely.

    The distortion looks like a measurement artifact.
     
    TMRaven, Jul 18, 2016
    #262
  3. PoochZag

    PoochZag The Shadow knows - Friend

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    PoochZag, Jul 18, 2016
    #263
  4. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    @Marvey Does that Utopia measurement make sense to you? I felt the Elear and Utopia sounded much more different than shone.
     
    OJneg, Jul 18, 2016
    #264
  5. takato14

    takato14 God of Ruin

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    god damnit now I want a Utopia
     
    takato14, Jul 18, 2016
    #265
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    They make absolutely no sense. I suspect last minute changes before sale - after all, the Elear was "recalled", I'm mean re-analyzed, or re-assessed, or re-considered, re-jiigered, in pre-production, whatever the f**k Focal wants to call it.

    The Elear FR was basically like an ZMF Omni. The Utopia FR was like SR-Omega 1.

    Only one explanation: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-regarding-tonal-signature-of-headphones.547/
     
    purr1n, Jul 18, 2016
    #266
  7. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

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    Utopia measurements look warmer than Elear with bump between 1-2kHz.

    How did the SR-Omega sound compared to the SR-009?
     
    Serious, Jul 18, 2016
    #267
  8. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    So do we have to assume that the Elear we will be sending on tour is not equivalent to what Tyll has?
     
    OJneg, Jul 18, 2016
    #268
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    It's possible Focal has finalized the Elear (and Utopia) and sent Tyll the official production ones. Tyll did get them a bit later it seems. As far as sending Jude and his sycophants like Shilhard early pre-production editions, who cares? Just send them junk, they're not exactly discerning and they'll hype the f**k outta them anyways.
     
    purr1n, Jul 18, 2016
    #269
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Very similar with the Omega having a tad more upper mids and less middle-mids.
     
    purr1n, Jul 18, 2016
    #270
  11. Wolfgang

    Wolfgang New

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    Wow, Utopia's FR plots vary considerably with positional changes . Especially in midrange
    So unlike its little bro Elear.
     
    Wolfgang, Jul 18, 2016
    #271
  12. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

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    Looks like both headphones have been tuned to please to @Tyll Hertsens :p . Utopia measured FR suggests it's finally as warmish/darkish than the Elear and it does not correlate much with all impressions thus far. Maybe Focal is able to tailor finely the signature for each reviewer. :D

    Nice bass extension, nice distorsion. I wouldn't have thought a that small driver could offer both low bass distorsion and good extension.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2016
    sorrodje, Jul 19, 2016
    #272
  13. imac2much

    imac2much Friend

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    Hmmm so does that mean the production Elear does not sound like the Omni anymore? Would you still consider it a "super HD650"?
     
    imac2much, Jul 19, 2016
    #273
  14. Wolfgang

    Wolfgang New

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    On Tyll's measurement sheet, Elear's impedance plot has just tiny bit higher and narrower peak than Utopia's.
    On the contrary to this, Utopia's impedance curve peaks notably higher than Elear's according to Jude's measurement.
    the image below is what Jude from hf posted.[​IMG]
    Utopia (purple) Elear (brown)

    So, it is plausible that Tyll got newer(?) Utopia than Jude. Or Jude messed it up. He's kind of new to measuring things, isn't he?
    Anyway, fr graphs from both match well up to 4khz.
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2016
    Wolfgang, Jul 19, 2016
    #274
  15. Rthomas

    Rthomas Friend

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    Now that Tyll likes them, Stillhart is like ' see I was right'

    ;)

    If you praise every high priced product to the skies once in a while some of them are actually awesome. It has nothing to do with your abilities as a reviewer.

    |{
     
    Rthomas, Jul 19, 2016
    #275
  16. Mithrandir41

    Mithrandir41 Friend

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    Regarding the Elear/Utopia sound signatures. There was a stack of finalized versions of these 'phones at the SF head-fi meet this weekend. The Elear is still the very warm 650-ish sound its has been. The Utopia has a more neutral, but still warmish signature. The biggest difference is in the treble, and I think Tyll's measurements bear that out. The first and second peaks at around 9 and 16 k, respectively are much closer in level than on the Elear, which has peaks around 10 and 20k, with the 20k peak being almost 10 db lower. Just a thought.
     
    Mithrandir41, Jul 19, 2016
    #276
  17. sashafuckinggrey

    sashafuckinggrey Acquaintance

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    [​IMG]
     
    sashafuckinggrey, Jul 19, 2016
    #277
  18. mrweirdude

    mrweirdude Asshole lowballer - acquaintance

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    On one hand, the Focals seem to be very efficient, hopefully easier to drive/ not as amp-picky as the HD800.

    OTOH, the Elear's 10khz distortion spike is rather worrying...
     
    mrweirdude, Jul 19, 2016
    #278
  19. frenchbat

    frenchbat Almost "Made"

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    I'm afraid it's not gonna be a good thing for glasses users.
     
    frenchbat, Jul 19, 2016
    #279
  20. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    I think Tyll's Elear and Utopia results come more down to his rig than anything. Plenty of times I've heard two headphones that sounded very different subjectively, even measured very differently for me, yet looked very similar on Tyll's rig. Sometimes it happens, and that would be my guess for most likely culprit in this scenario. I wouldn't try to complicate matters or think too much into it.
     
    Hands, Jul 19, 2016
    #280
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