Makes sense. Think Iāll get those jumpers going this evening and see how it goes.
Thanks!
Youāre hearing mismatched impedances. The headphone output on the A100 has a very high output impedance and the Elegia is a low-impedance can. Therefore a disproportionately large proportion of the energy the amplifier is producing is being dissipated by the output resistance, and less is making it the Elegiaās drivers. The bass probably also sounds really sloppy and bloated.
Are you using a DAC? I found the iFi Zen DAC + Schitt Asgard 3 amp to be lots of fun with the Elegia. You can turn on the Zenās bass boost and the Elegia becomes a lot of fun for bassy music, or turn it off and itās pretty good for acoustic music too.
Makes sense, bass was def sloppy. Yeah I have an SU9 dac, still trying to figure out an amp to pair with it. Iāll look into the Asgard3 lots of ppl recommend it.
Thanks!
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So I just ordered a hart audio cable. This stock cable is pretty much unusable. I love the connectors and split since they look and feel really nice, but the actual cable itself is hard, stiff, janky, sproingy, and very microphonic.
I actually like the 8 core Grado cable more than this. While itās not detachable, everything else about it is at least not as bad if not actually good. Itās softer, more flexible, not at all sproingy, and the least microphonic cable I have ever experienced. It also feels like it could survive even the most aggresive desk chair wheel.
Shure the Grado cable is janky, but it is still twice as easy to deal with as this focal cable. Focal should be ashamed that Grado has better cables than them.
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This is perhaps the best description of it lol.
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I just opened my Elegia up today. Already have a Hart HC-9 from my Sundara, didnāt bother pulling the stock Focal cable out of the caseā¦
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Do all Focal headphones have shitty cables?
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It seems so. The older fabric cables where super stiff and had 2 side by side wires, meaning they literally couldnāt bend certain ways. The newer cables are janky, sproingy, stiff, and microphonic (makes noise when rubbing against stuff).
I think the only cable Iāve heard people not absolutely hate was the clear pro cable since it comes with a coiled cable.
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Why donāt ya get the stack the sh- 9 amp is good paired with ur dacā¦ its measures well its more on the analytical side very clean like the 789 from drop but better features
Must have read my mind! I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the SH9, stack time.
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My first impressions are so far so good. Overall neutral and maybe a bit cold, but that might just be in comparison to the very warm Hemps and Lawton X00s.
Iāll do a full write up with comparisons to all my other headphones in a week or so.
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This cable deserves some more ridicule. Not only is it stiff, hard, janky, sproingy, and microphonic, but it literally transfers the sound of my phone vibrating to the cups.
Let me repeat thatā¦ IT AUDIBLY TRANSFERS VIBRATIONS THROUGH THE WHOLE CABLE TO THE CUPS!!!
I think Iām fairly tolerant of cables since I can live with Grado cables, but this Focal cable is unbearable. It makes me a bit irritable every time I use these headphones. Focal should be ashamed.
I canāt wait for my hart audio cable.
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I love the bitching and griping about these cables because itās all true 
I made myself a new cable lickety split.
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The problem is the price point. This cable is unacceptable for a $400 headphone, imagine a $900 or $1k one.
Focal advertises their headphone line as a premium product. So, getting a cable that looks like a climbing cord warped in fabric really breaks the āpremiumā. It would be much more ok if they made cable like the Sennheiser ones, or even getting another OEM.
Well, it LOOKS premium and feels premium. But obviously itās crap.
Thats the thing, I HAVE ONE OF THE UPDATED CABLES!!!
Even after TRYING to make a better cable, itās still the worst thing Iāve ever had to use.
Itās hard to believe guys that are making some advanced metal transducers canāt make a decent cable. Considering how my Elegia cable failed pretty quick, I think the āredesignā was just to minimize warranty claims.
But instead of a design, they just picked one in a online catalog that looked somewhat interesting, without even trying it before. Either that or they want to be known as the company with shitty cables.
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Thereās an unwritten law somewhere stating you cannot release a perfect product.
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Yeah, but whose cables are worse, Focal or Hifiman? 
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