Z Review - Focal UTOPIA - CLEAR - ELEX [Don't Share]

no you did not

ZeosPantera

i just picked up a set of lcd2c for 500 usd before seeing this... did i make a mistake???

Nobody has offered them so I can wait or spend a ton of patreon money on them.

ZeosPantera

Z do you plan on a Focal Elegia (their only closed back) review soon ?

I do my mastering and monitoring with ether C flow and I'm wondering if that's what is causing the discrepency. I'm going to have to sit down and really listen on a wide swath of cans when setting the mics up in the future.

ZeosPantera

Z, the sounds demos are all sounding muffled and rolled off. I just got around to listening to the Elex sound demo and it's not right at all. I see a lot of other commenters making the same point.

porcelein4hed

Where are you seeing these measurements? I'm familiar with Jude's measurements and they are not the same. I've also been able to listen to them side by side at an audio store in LA (they let me bring by Elex to compare). They are most certainly not the same.

I have focal elear w/ clear and utopia pads along with hd600 originals....the focal just so much better to my ears...even with stock pads. so its great to have options as I do use both. totally different headphones.

The sound demo's don't lie. Have a listen.

ZeosPantera

The Elex has significantly more low end SPL capability than the 6XX. I just did a test comparing Elex to 6XX. I'm using a youtube video of drum metronome 60bpm as media. This provides a better excursion test than pink or white noise because it's sharp impulses at 3 primary frequencies (kick, snare and cymbal). Mac mini source to Monolith THX/AAA dacamp. The THX has a volume displayed in db which is really a proxy for voltage. The Elex are more sensitive, resolving and extended but excursion rattle at -3.5db vol setting. But to get similar SPL in the snare and cymbal I have to crank the 6XX to +2.5db. But at this level, the kick drum on the 6XX is no where near the output of the Elex at -3.5db setting. In fact, turning up the 6XX past +2.5db increases the volume of snare and cymbal but the kick doesn't get louder, it just compresses and stays at the same level until distorting badly at higher levels. How much more bass SPL does the Elex produce? I'll have to put these on the MiniDSP HEARS and measure bass and subbass SPL for both to know for sure. Has anyone here done that?

Eliot Jacobsen

Great Triple Review Zeos. Thank you! It really is clear that you're stepping up the number of reviews you're releasing and I love that. And I'm glad you used your new sound demo rig these and same song list for all 3 so we can hear for ourselves the differences you describe. I have a pair of Elex. Totally agree with your remarks about them. Great build, comfort, soundstage and extension. For long-term casual listening they're wonderful. They're my favorite headphones....except for 1 use case. When I really want sub bass impact and volume, they "bottom out". Like others have said, when driven hard, they "crackle" as the drivers hit their physical xmax extremes. So for those times I'll reach for a Foster 50mm biocellulose driver over these (Denon Emu, Fostex). But as great as the Elex are, it's hard to justify $700 for them (even if that's a bargain compared to other Focals) when 6XX are 1/4 of that and SHP9500s are 1/5.

Eliot Jacobsen

Interesting. Literally the 6 people I know that have heard both say they sound the same.

They've all got their charm, but those Elex... I could definitely recommend the Clear for R&B/Hip-Hop lovers, though.

The Z1R are great for not giving a shit. They are overpriced for that luxury.

ZeosPantera

Entirely different. Wholly different

ZeosPantera

Do you think the flagship Sony's (at around 2k, it seems) are worth it (if you want to get ice cream at the ice cream truck)?

$10 Telegram Chat Accessible Here : <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/invite-to-10-23017760">https://www.patreon.com/posts/invite-to-10-23017760</a>

ZeosPantera

Look, here is the Utopia driver <a href="https://puu.sh/CeS9I/9896eec797.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://puu.sh/CeS9I/9896eec797.jpg</a> It has those big red magnets. And here is the Elear driver, it has considerably less magnets in it. <a href="http://puu.sh/CeSe2/c2c5257da2.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://puu.sh/CeSe2/c2c5257da2.jpg</a>

OMG I wasn't planing to stay for more than a couple of months this time around, but man you're releasing videos at an incredible pace so I'm not going anywhere. GREAT WORK Z!

Correct. Elex is Elear with Clear pads.

I understand that the pads of the Elex are similar to, or the same as, the Clear, and have the same drivers as the Elear.

Also Clear and Elex are basically the same thing, I don't know how you heard a difference. They measure identically. Which I know you don't like measurements, but FR measurements don't lie.