Focal Elear and Utopia Impressions at Source AV

At $1500 CAD the Elear is almost 3x the $550 CAD the hd650 retails for so if it only represents a marginal improvement in performance its hard to justify the added cost (at least in Canada at our prices). FWIW a straight FX conversion WOULD have the Elear selling for about $1300 CAD these days so the extra $200 leaves a bitter taste as well. CAD vs US MSRPs are actually closer than the spot FX rates would imply for most other manufacturers I've checked.

Obviously the merits of elear's sound/performance VS the HD650 remain to be seen but if they are relatively close I'd have a hard time justifying nearly $1000 CAD for the improved aesthetics and materials.

 

I do wonder how Sennheiser would price such a headphone slotted below the HD800. I'd wager they would wait a couple of years to further reduce HD800 inventory and then introduce a new model somewhere in the $750 - $1,000 price range.

 

Sennheiser prices (+ Orange & Marshall amps, Genelec, Focals etc.) are a cool perk for us EU-folk. Why I have mostly US-made hp-gear, I don't know.

 

Our family is going on a cruise of Northern Europe next summer and Helsinki is a stop, it may be a good time to make a purchase

 

Maybe. You'll get basically the same prices in all of the eu-zone. Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, AKG, Genelec, Adam & all. They are cheaper here. I bought my HD600s for 160 euros used. Senns aren't that hot here, I'd say they are considered ordinary

Grados are very popular in Finland, for some very odd reason. Hifimans too. Audezes are rare, Mr Speakers' un-heard of.

Btw, this is not what this thread should be about, sorry guys.

 

Tic tac sir?

 

You're raising the enemy's flag in a place full of soldiers

 

Jason wrote "our Elear sales/pre-orders @ $999 = 113 Units. Our Utopia sales/pre-orders @ $3999 = 71 Units." on head-fi forum about 6 hours ago.
Utopia is selling well for its price.

 

Wow, for 1 dealer, that's alot of units, maybe SBAF/Marv could negotiate a cut of the profits or something...

 

Wow, nearly 300,000 in sales. Close to as much as they would bring in from selling a single pair of flagship speakers. Watch out for the headphone revolution steaming through

 

I'd think that would go against the spirit of SBAF...

 

", maybe SBAF/Marv could negotiate a cut of the profits or something..."


huh?
serious? that's a joke right. I am pretty gullible.

 

No, because that would mean ppl like shillhard would be eligible for the same thing.

 

Tyll, from earlier reviews I got an impression you like slightly warm HPs. How are your comparison between the Elear and HD650 (stock and mods)? Any quick impressions?

 

Not yet.

 

Looking forward with great interest Tyll to this review.

 

Apologies for this noob question but after searching for whether a balanced 4 pin XLR cable was available from Focal I noticed the following from the Elear's spec sheet.... "Balanced cable with channels separation for fast and easy custom-made
solutions (bi-amp)"

Does this mean one could easily DIY the stock cable to work with a balanced amp by replacing the single ended jack with a 4 pin XLR jack?

 

That would make sense to me. The cable is kind of like zip cord with two separate sides. After you cut of the stock connector I bet you could even pull the two cables apart for two 3-pin XLRs if needed.

Who came up with that stupid idea anyway...oh...yeah...sorry.

 

You didn't even follow the usual gender convention for XLRs...