Inspired by the best technology and acoustic research that went into designing Utopia, our flagship headphones, they offer truly exceptional performance. Mine however is pre-fazor and not sure if yours is too. The Elear highlights the handclaps; higher percussion is not heard as clearly. OK, letâs talk about the sound (youâre here for recipesâ¦?). But letâs get some housekeeping out of the way first. The The Focal Elear are good open-back critical listening headphones. It’s easy to drive and scales well to all kinds of gear. Another headphone at Chez Doctorjazz is the FAD Pandora Hope VI (list price $699) which would be in that general ballpark of headphones (not TOTL, but expensive enough that most normal folks will think youâre insane for buying them). Our review analysis indicates that this headphones is very quiet. The microfiber fabric won’t cause sweating or M-dome driver - the driver used in the Aria line of full-sized speakers. with what I can only describe as an exciting V-shaped frequency response. HiFiMan! The Focal Elear over-ear open-back headphones are inspired by the same technology and research that went into their flagship Utopia headphones. Bass, while strong and going down to about 40 hz, doesnât quite do the sharp leading edge thing that happens in the mids, making it very slightly soft at times. Before we get into the Focal Elear Review, grab a … Sure enough, Tom Delongâs vocals are easy to make out, guitars, jangle and bristle with power chord energy. The most affordable model in the new line – the Listen – is also the most similar But in terms of precision imaging, it wasn’t up price range. I had a chance to listen to Elear, the mid-range headphone that sits in the sweet spot between price and sound quality, I think it Get the Audioholics AV Gear Guide Ebook FREE! The aluminum The Elegias certainly look like a premium pair of headphones. Wayde is a tech-writer and content marketing consultant in Canada s tech hub Waterloo, Ontario and Editorialist for Audioholics.com. auditory field for a headphone. As with all Focal products, it feels well built and substantial, but we just can’t help … The recording portrays the sheer size and presence of Peterson’s grand piano in A shame to hear it's not on par with the grado in terms of imaging. Yet, clearly spending $1,000 on a pair of headphones isn’t for everyone. $1000. The maturity of fancier recordings generally grasps and relies on the leading edges playing the virgin role of never touching one another to portray it's visual up bringing. As for comfort: Iâm fairly sensitive on the top on my noggin, have a nice smooth dome, and most bands do bother it to some extent (the Sennheiser 650 is the most comfortable on for me in that regard). In closing, all I can say to the Too often high-end products neglect appearances; if you’re spending this sort of money, we think you should get a product t… competitive soundstage at this price. Piano chords pounce, the background singers wrap her voice in velvet, and the whole affair boogies its butt off. As a flagship headphone at about Elear wanted to pop. As comfortable as it is, it’s for a headphone in this price range. I appreciate the effort to keep You pays yer money…. The engineering team at Focal says that All that audiophile stuff just didnât seem to concern it. In a few hours time, the Focal Clear will arrive at our doorstep. about the wallet. Key Features. Certain instruments, that have a percussive leading edge, like strummed guitar and drums being struck, get a slight emphasis, making for an involving, exciting presentation. The Elear is designed and manufactured by Focal in France and features wide-range, near-field loudspeakers. “Let our rigorous testing and reviews be your guidelines to A/V equipment – not marketing slogans” on your ears and firing at a slight back angle. For decades, Focal has made a name for itself with its drivers and speakers. of enunciating each separate stroke of the drumstick even at rapid-fire speeds where Music in total intimacy. literal sense, Elear is the personal-audio At this point I had technical difficulties with the MicroZOTL2 (a channel went out), so I switched to the Cavalli Audio Liquid Carbon (v1). bass-heads or those who appreciate a more active listening experience, may even light fit that never presses too tightly around our head.There isn’t much else to be said At the top of Focal’s Utopia speaker line is the Grand years in development, Focal built a new production line at its plant in France just The low frequencies seemed supple headphone! soundstage and imaging. Spaces between instruments are wider, details a bit easier to pick out. The Elear headphones are a fun listening be a relative bargain. (Pop-Punk, or whatever you want to call it). their new Elear headphones, like the vegan who talks to you about diet and present detailed and supple lows and highs in the same rapid-fire form. The stage is wider, deeper; instruments are a few rows back, not in your lap as on the Elear. Next up, The Brad Meldhau Trio playing âSince I Fell For Youâ (Blues and Ballads, 16/44 CD rip). future Elear fans out there is welcome to the high-end headphone hobby – and sorry The Focal Clear headphones sitting on a desk As far as connections go, Focal made sure to provide almost every kind of connection in the box with three different kinds of cables. harmony at midrange. The Brad Meldhau really shows the better treble presentation of the FAD, but the piano sound on the Focal has more âpiano-osityâ, bass more âbass-osityâ, and the band more âband-osityâ. impression of Elear’s sound. In my review of the new Focal Listen headphone, I mentioned that it was at the bottom rung (so to speak) of three new headphones from the French company Focal.Further up … hear that Elear gives up a bit of midrange to the LCD-3. Ginger Baker doesnât get his entire due, though, cymbals being softer than Iâd like, drum impact somewhat diminished as well. from the middle highs up. On the other hand, if rhythm, tonal quality, involvement in the music is what youâre after, and youâre ready to leave behind some audiophile baggage, these could be the ticket to some happy listening. is built very differently. Confused about what AV Gear to buy or how to set it up? It donât cotton to nobody elseâs ideas of what high end sound is supposed to be. At times it seems like the Anti-Elear. Cymbal Dynamic Range Test and Drum Kit Dynamic Range Test would be just that! Around the inner ear-cup is a Focal has just drastically upped its headphone game with two very high-end models. Magic 6 v2 to an. âGirl at the Rock Showâ on the Elear had more head-banging intensity, thicker textures, more pile driver impact; has me ready to body surf (just kidding, honey). ¼” (6.35mm) to 3.5mm adapter would have been nice. The Elear has the rare ability to simultaneously I listened quite a bit to these headphones when I first got them, and didnât find them to my liking. similar aggressive attack on my ears. No, Galileo did not say : And yet it moves, instead Galileo admitted that he was wrong and that the Church was right. features plenty of dense foam to keep the Elear safe in transit. its sleek, seductive silhouette. The stand shape is reminiscent of the Focal logo and allows positioning of Elear, Clear and Utopia headphones easily and without damage to the ear cups. isn’t even trying to compete in packaging. great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. The track Ecstasy features Peterson on grand (I went to a few live shows recently; the one thing I never do is try to hear how wide, deep, or open the space between and around the musicians is). At this point I received the Illuminati LPS for the MicroZOTL2, which the manufacturer, Mojo Audio, recommended get a minimum of 200 hours break in, with headphones connected, playing music, so I figured, this is a dynamic headphone, break in should be a good thing (I had assumed the review sample I had was already used by other reviewers, and thus likely broken in, but hadnât actually confirmed this). The Elear is an open-back , over-ear headphone. really, really well. They are the mid-point–in price, and perhaps quality–between Focal’s other audiophile headphones, the Focal Elear and the Focal Utopia. The interior 800 - one of the most comfortable high-end headphones available. aggressive assault of Elear’s attack bordered on slightly edgy in the high frequencies. This leads to an exciting and involving presentation. That work of art with a sturdy, industrial vibe. Focal is On the high end, the Elear had a Any $1,000 headphone needs to do something new line of headphones at a much more accessible price point of $1,000. Focal believes the M-dome allows an added degree of physical space in the earcup that allows the plane sound wave to fully develop much as it would in a loudspeaker, but in the limited space available inside the Elear’s ear cups. Audeze and while their LCD-3 is comfortable, it’s a leathery, pillowy, So, in a very spring. hi-fi headphone to be sure, and it will compete in a market that has seen some Focal, the high-end speaker manufacturer out of Saint-Étienne, France has expanded its high-end headphone line with a new entrant called Clear. I wanted to put Elear through a attack in the bass. Soundstage? But, listening to Blind Faith, while Winwoodâs voice is a few rows back, it has slightly less body to it; that is, it sounds less than a flesh and blood human spilling his guts. cushioned affair that you don’t quite wear on your head as much as put your to build its Utopia and Elear headphones with the same care and attention that Bennett’s complimentary harmony just won’t work if there isn’t a strong midrange. THE VERDICT The Focal Elear is a world-class design, right up with the best of Audeze, Beyerdynamic, Grado, Hifiman, and Sennheiser’s ’phones. time listening. After 50 hours or so the width opened up more as well, still not wide like the HD800 or anything but much better than in the beginning. The latest of these headphones, and among the more expensive, are the Focal Elear headphones, which come with a hefty $1,000 price tag and aim to deliver an excellent sound quality with few compromises. goes into its speakers. But on the other hand, the piano and begins slowly, just his piano for the first 30 seconds or so. Forget anything you think you know about Focal headphones today. Focal Elear Review So I know Focal Elear isn't exactly new or exciting these days and this is a "late" review. Oppo PM-1 Planar Magnetic Headphones Review, RBH Sound HP-2 Noise Isolating Headphones Review, Loudspeaker: 40mm (1.6") Aluminum-Magnesium "M" shape dome, Connectors: 1 x 6.35mm (1/4") stereo jack connector - 2x 3.5mm (0.14") jack, Carrying Case: 220mm (8.6") x 190mm (7.5") x 100mm (3.9"), The same Cambridge Audio Stream The bass goes really deep and has a burnished wood tone, and one has to nod in agreement with Bradâs assertions. It’s a premium Focal Elear Review - The unflagging dynamic capacity throughout the sound spectrum - Gadget Life. Richard was right there (crowding my personal space a bit, but, for him, Iâll allow itâ¦), the drums pounding with an edge and power that amplifies the pathos of the song. First thing I noted, they are fairly easy to drive. Blink 182 are one of the prototypical (and progenitor) groups in this style, the song âThe Rock Showâ can make your neck sore from bopping. Itâs the instruments, the rhythm, you fool! backbeat sets up the sonic palette upon which Amy’s voice really sings. My experience recently with the new beyerdynamic t5p.2 ended in a bad way after realizing that was its nature. The headphones are largely built from met… The characteristics I initially noted didnât completely vanish, but a balance was found, to the point that I really could get into listening to them. I had to adjust to the Elearâs idea of what music was supposed to sound like. The cable is easily replaceable because thankfully, it’s $1,000 on a pair of headphones. Some details about the Elears, the subject of todayâs sermonâ¦. The Headphone List was created to help visitors select the best portable audio products for their needs by featuring the most comprehensive collection of headphone reviews published in an interactive, dynamic format. One of the unusual design elements of Focal loudspeakers is the frequent use of “inverted dome” tweeters, in which the dome tweeter is concave outwards rather than the more usual convex outwards. Birch’s voice has a richness and warmth that surpasses the 560 -you can feel the air coming up through her throat. say it surpasses the low-frequency response of planar-magnetic headphones. I have extensive notes taken when I first got them (that I subsequently tossed). The 560 gets the overall room, details, and finds it’s take on realism there. You donât get as much of the room as Iâm used to; you donât get splashy cymbals or the edge of the bass. Sennheiser models I’ve tried, I could leave on all day long. When you mentioned that you test to see if the Elear was simply bloating the relatively simple bass lines I was intrigued and had hoped that the Elear didn't do that. 35-years of experience in high-end audio. Again I note the close up perspective, but Meldhau, who is an amazing pianist, is rich, rhythmic, percussive, inciteful. make hours of listening easy. twice the price of Elear, the PS1000e is hardly a fair comparison for Upon inspection of the But in highs and lows comparison to LCD- 3, Elear was able to keep up, some Although the bass comes off strong, it was clear. These are some of the most unobtrusive and comfortable, … Winehouse’s voice is always a rich and textured and sound from their respective instruments, and ranged from softly tapping to increased This whole For pure listening pleasure, you can’t get much better than the Elear, at any price point. demo track – Massive Attack, Group Four. 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