Focal Elear and Utopia

Excellent review from Tyll. Agree on just about all points.

 

Yeah I thought it was spot on.

 

with Utopia, Focal made Senn and others look very last-decade.

 

I am excited at the prospect of replacing my HD800 now that I have some confirmation on what I was hearing. Marv was a bit down on it but to my ear the Utopia was in a league above the Elear.

 

I like last decade's prices though. I've ordered the Elear. Two things sold me on it: (1) Fairly consistent descriptions of it having the best attributes of HD600 + HD650, and (2) @Tyll Hertsens chortle at the end of his Elear video when he reiterates how good it is. LOL

 

Welp, and just as I am in the process of commiting $ to a pair of HD800s...

 

Can you compare the max SPL at low frequencies of the HD800 vs Elear/Utopia. (Subwoofer testing)

I'd really like to know if the Elear in particular has an advantage here which means a lot for subbass boosting.

Also do you see much potential for weight reduction on the Elear? Is a significant amount of weight coming from the headband?

The Elear seems to have a little less subbass extension than the Utopia but that may just be because of the different ear pads. Would like to know whether the Utopia ear pads could be used on the Elear.

 

Tyll’s review is the speed force that the HF hype train needs to achieve warp speed. There is no stopping it now.


It took the release of the new Focals for him to emphatically state an obvious fact on IF. The HD800/HD800S is NOT a headphone for enjoying music with. I’m confident that this is true for 80% of audiophiles with no significant high frequency hearing loss.


For almost the price of an HD800S and a synergistic amp you can have the Utopia and a decent amp.


Congratulations to Focal! I can’t wait for Canjam London!

 

I so wish there's this kind of disruption in the IEM world, it's been boring lately with companies trying to cram a lot of BAs into the smallest shell available and dynamic driver not give much attention, I mean where's my proper planar IEM?

 

Nice dream, but I don't believe in it.
HD800 and I'm positive the Utopia can simply take advantage of the godly resolution that a SET amp can do.
Mediocre amplifier will be bottlenecking.

As it seems to me now it would be 2.5k pricier setup with different voicing and compromises in sound located differently.

 

Ok now you're just spewing misinformation HF-style. It's reading stuff like this that scared me away from the HD800 for too long.

There are plenty of "synergistic amps" that combined with HD800/S are well under the price of the Utopia by itself. Vali, Crack, Mjolnir2, Sonett, Kenzie, and those are only the ones I've heard.

 

We just have a difference of opinion.

With the HD800 you start with a headphone which does not sound enjoyable to many people who have pretty much heard everything:

In the past week Tyll has said that he much prefers listening to the Elear and Utopia.

Bob Katz thinks they are unbalanced, treble happy and used the term ''fake detail'' to describe the illusion that it lets you see deeper into the recordings by tilting the treble upwards.

I saved up and finally purchased an HD800S at a very good price. I used it out of a Valhalla 2 for 2 months. I sold them and went back to an HD650 because they just sounded wrong. Live concerts of my favorite rock bands are not treble happy and bass light. I don't listen to classical or jazz so maybe that contributes to my feelings as well.

If anybody enjoys the sound of the stock HD800 or HD800S without EQ and with a neutral amp please feel free to disagree.

 

Rt, its really the genre (rock) that I think is the issue with the stock 800. The usual mods will help (and really helps having the ZDS). Having said that, its important to hear either the Elear or the Utopia to really diss on the 800.

Just wanted to add I do not use any EQ (with any headphone for that matter)

 

Koth,

After Tyll’’s review I’m going to be scanning Chennai news sites for news of a bank robbery.

Have you decided on a target?

I suggest HDFC Anna Nagar Branch. They recently conned the mother (a widow) of a close friend into buying an expensive ULIP. Bastards.

 

All published auditions/reviews of the Elear/Utopia posted or talked about here have been using stock single-ended (not balanced) connections, correct?

 

I just hope that because Focal stepped their game up and decided to kick every other headphone's ass, they will actually get some more competition going and light a fire under these other manufacturers' asses (doubt it though).

Before Focal, it felt like 800/800s was the universal endgame.

 

This was confirmed over in one of the HF threads -- the pads are interchangeable between the Elear and Utopia. Two people offered impressions of the sound of Elear with Utopia pads and vice versa, but I'm not sure I would entirely trust their assessment due to possible conflict of interest.

FWIW IIRC, they said the Elear pads gave the Utopia a bass boost that could offer a pleasant alternative to the stock pads (bringing the sound signature closer to the Elear). They said the Utopia pads on the Elear lightened up the bass to a more neutral level but also brought up the treble, resulting in an unpleasant peak. The conclusion was that they preferred the stock pads on both headphones.

 

I'm looking for a ideally a dac and amp combo that's black, rather minimalist and streamlined looking, and under 3-400 dollars that would potentially go well with the Elear. I know most people have not heard the Elear yet, so I'm mainly just asking what sounds good and what doesn't. Assuming solid state is going to be the way to go.

I've moved on from a mac setup to a pc setup, so I don't think I'll be doing Schiit gear anymore sadly ( the brushed aluminum just doesn't jive with the black monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and computer case).

Something like the JDS Element would be ideal from an aesthetics perspective, but I don't know how good it sounds, and I rather have sbaf opinions as opposed to head-fi.

Can somebody move this post to the general recommendations thread.

 

I heard the Utopia in the Cavalli room (out of the Crimson and Gold AFAIK) as having excellent resolution but relatively uninspiring bass. I would characterize the bass of the HD 800 and even SR-009 as having advantages in both weight and texture.

I'll be interested in hearing how impressions of the Utopia evolve as people try them on different amplifiers, especially vis-a-vis comparable HD 800 and Stax setups. The Utopia is sufficiently different that I would be uncomfortable drawing nuanced comparisons without having things side-by-side (the bass-light tonal balance was obvious).

Possibly killer if there's an amp that ameliorates the limp bass.

I'm not sure if "fuzzy" is the right term (i.e. could be differences in audio lexicon) to characterize Stax treble but the SR-009 has some unnatural tonal characteristics near the upper registers that are only masked with better amplification but never really go away completely.