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zubairom
17
May 1, 2018
I received the Focal Elex last week. When I joined the drop I just previously had bought elears and I cursed myself for buying the Elex as there was no way I could justify another headphone purchase. I usually listen to rock / pop and go with base and sub base heavy headphones like Sony and Fostex TH family ( I have Sony z7 and emu teaks as well as thx -00 Purple Hearts and want to get Sony z1r) But I wanted to get a pair of headphones that are neutral and which have more clarity for some of the other types of music I listen to. I by no means am an expert in reviewing headphones and I can just give you my opinion regarding how I felt listening to Elex and Elear. Comparing Elex with Elear is just like comparing twin brothers. These are essentially the same headphone with slightly different tuning. As the product description for Elex states it is a bit less bassy and bit more Neutral than elear but both of them are great and produce crystal clear sound with excellent sound stage , clean and crisp mids and highs. for Physical design and comfort enough people have already commented and I really don’t have much to add except that aesthetically I prefer Elear a bit more than Elex. Product quality and workmanship is excellent. when I joined the drop for Elex I was thinking that after listening to both of them I will decide which one I want to keep and which one I will sell. So far I am not able to make this decision and I am afraid that I might get greedy and keep both.
In terms of sound there is one last thing I want to add for both of them, is that both elear and elex cannot handle sub bass and recordings with lost of sub bass would result in sound distortion especially at high volumes. So if you listen to music which has lots of of sub bass then stay away from these and go with either Sony (Z7 or Z1r) or Fostex TH series.
pavelnedobity
2
May 3, 2018
zubairomHey, I think you might have a defective pair. There are already few people on this forum complaining about rattle in the bass region at higher volume. I am having the same problem and replacing them under warranty. I haven't heard other Focals, but I refuse to believe that this is normal. P.
zubairom
17
May 3, 2018
pavelnedobityI thought about that but I have both Elex and Elear and both cannot handle sub-bass at high volumes , the sound starts to crackle and distort. This does not happen in any of my other headphones which are Fostex and Sony.. Whether we call it a weakness in design or a feature by design, these headphones I think, are not made for listening to recordings with lots of sub bass at high volumes. I will however contact Focal and see what they say.
Did you contact Focal directly or contact Massdrop?
pavelnedobity
2
May 4, 2018
zubairomI talked to Massdrop directly. I sure this would have been mentioned in one of the many reviews of Elear/Clear/Elex. Tyll wouldn’t omit something like this.
zubairom
17
May 6, 2018
pavelnedobitywhat did Massdrop tell you about the issue?
zubairom
17
May 6, 2018
zubairomI just did some research on google, found a review on Head-fi talking about this issue of crackling/popping noise at high volumes with sub-bass heavy recordings. Focal responded to the issue and they say it is "By-design" that all focal headphones (elear, utopia, clear etc.) will have a the cracking noise at high volumes and bass. Any replacement headphones will have the same problem they say. However they don't consider it as a problem , issue or defect, rather a choice by design for focal headphones to focus on sound quality and not to support sound with enhanced bass. The solution they say is to listen to the headphones on low volumes for music with loys of bass.
You can read about it on head-fi
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/focal-elear.21681/reviews#review-18042
pavelnedobity
2
May 6, 2018
zubairomNothing at all. They immediately offered Refund or Replacement. I picked replacment, they really are an awesome headphone and great value.
I will let you know when I receive the replacement (In few months, I’m moving and won’t glet back for some time.)
Pierre111
413
May 9, 2018
zubairomWould you mind putting your Elex pad on the Elear and see if it's the same headphone, just curiosity, to see if there is some other tweaks than just pad swap.
zubairom
17
May 11, 2018
Pierre111I will try to do that. I have never actually done it before but I think it is pretty simple. I will do it when i get a bit more time and will let you know.
zubairom
17
May 13, 2018
Pierre111So I finally got a chance to swap pads between Elear and Elex (it was very simple to swap them). So there is definitely something more than just the pads that gives them their unique sound. Elear still has more Bass than Elex even with Elex pads. Did the pad swap had a positive affect on sound ? No, not at all, especially for Elear, its sound became dull and dark. For Elex with Elear pads I did not find a lot of difference in its sound. Bottom line, don't swap pads across Elear and Elex, they both sound better with their original Pads , especially Elear.
I am no expert in reviewing headphones like many other folks with youtube videos. In my humble opinion, they are both great with slight differences. They both cannot handle recordings with lots of sub-bass at high volumes. Elear has more Bass impact than Elex and its sound is more textured , especially the vocals, which I really like. Elex on the other hand has a bit more clarity but a little less Bass. So which one is better? it depends on the genre and type of music you want to listen to. Neither of these two in my opinion are very good for rock and blues (especially at higher volumes) . I don't listen to jazz or classic, but I have tried them with some soft rock / pop (such as Phil Collins) and Folk /Folk rock (Bob Dylan). Elear does wonders with Phil Collins vocals, have never heard his vocal so textured and clear with any other headphones (maybe with some very high end Planar Magnetic ones) . I did not really enjoy Elex with soft rock a lot. Elex sounded perfect with Bob Dylan's albums, I like it a bit better than Elear, as for folk as it gives a bit more clarity and is slightly brighter than Elear which I think is the kind of sound one would like for folk genre. Although I don't listen to jazz or classic, bu I think Elex would be a winner for those two genres.
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