That suck man 
Honestly I think Focal should save themselves the customer services nightmares im sure they are having and just remove the utterly shit excuse for a cable from all their headphones and just tell customers to supply their own.
I recently got a used pair of Elegiaās here on the forum with the original cable still in the box, unused. I used the stock cable and after a while noticed something was just off. There was a noticeable channel imbalance between 1-3kHz like greater than 5dB. The cable seemed fine, full continuity, no oddness in resistance either. I dismantled the headphones completely, checked all the internals and the drivers, everything looked and read fine, same issue continued. I even swapped the drivers, still the same issue, on the same sideā¦ WTF
I got the parts to solder up a new cable myself and hey presto everything is perfect and the bass response is noticeably better.
I cut that focal cable up with a pilers so no-one else even has to look at it let alone use it or listen to itās microphonic sweeping brush.
I still canāt believe that a cable can fuck up a headphone so badly, let alone from a āreputableā audio company.
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Glad you r hearing them now!
Iām not here to demean your experience with focal but personally I actually had a great customer service experience with them. They had helped me in the past with a elegia that I jacked up. I think I only had to pay shipping to and the rest was handled by them. Such a shame that your experience differed so much the customer experience I got with them is actually the main reason I continued to buy their products
Yeah, thatās really sad. The Clear was on my bucket list, right after trying planars and a better tube amp. I think it boils down to me being outside the US. Still, I think they shouldāve at least give me an option like to pay for shipping. Instead, they maintain radio silence and just said āweāve never dealt with a case like yoursā, without offering solutions.
After this shit-show of ācustomer serviceā, Focal headphones are off the table unless I find a really nice deal, and probably used. Dealing new with a company who had QC problems in more than one product, and that has this bad of CS means the risk is too high for me, even if their house sound is quite to my liking.
Bought a pair used off of Adorama. Also order replacement cable off of Amazon because the stock cable looks awful.
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Oh believe me, itās worst. Still, the headphone is great.
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I went with this silver plated off Aliexpress. Its pretty solid for the 40 bucks I paid for 2 metresā¦
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Well Zeos finally got around to reviewing these. Better late than never I supposeā¦ XD
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So interesting, some people said that Elegia is the worst of the Focals 
Itās on my list of āheadphones to try outā tho.
It is neither the worst or the best of focals lineup. Itās somewhere in the middle. Really great headphone but it does not perform better than a clear for instance, the clear is just more picky to source gear. And Iāve been told itās the same with the Utopia, but much more so.
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Its a great headphone, Iām using a loaner one, but does anyone else think they sound āfakeā? like the timbre seems quite a bit off/inflated on most songs, which is actually good for some mixes
I canāt say Iāve noticed. Some people mention a āmetallicā timbre, which I tried to listen for when I bought them, but couldnāt hear anything wrong in that regard, so I kept them. Perhaps thatās what youāre hearing, even if I couldnāt (or maybe my music library isnāt affected by it)
Generally Iām pretty happy with them.
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I had the Elegia for a while before selling them.
As a glasses-wearer, losing the seal was a huge contributing factor because the minute I slid them on I could hear the bass drop to practically non-existent levels. So that was a bummer but something other users commented on and I 100% agree.
I also 100% agree about the timbre. Iām not really well-versed in the best way to describe audio phenomena only to say yes, it had an oddā¦ sometimes āmetallicā timbre that didnāt feel natural. I donāt know how to describe other than it just sounded a littleā¦ off, and not on all tracks.
Ultimately I found it to be a great headphone that just didnāt suit me well, personally.
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Yeah thats what I mean, it feels off, the treble does sound a little metallic but I actually like that, the problem for me is in the vocals, they donāt sound natural to me, which again could be good in some recordings.
Also as a glasses wearer, in my case the seal is great with and without them, the bass is more than plenty even for club bangers and EDM, actually Iām enjoying edm the most with these as some vocal tracks sound way off.
I never got the metallic sound. Thereās something slightly āoffā about the FR to me but itās not a bad thing depending on use-case scenario. I find them incredibly easy to listen to for long periods of time without fatigue which is a big deal for an 8 hour workday. And they do it without sacrificing resolution. Not a reference can for sure and not the last word in technicalities but thereās a lot of goodness going on. I also found they scale with amplification which is a bit weird because everyone says the opposite. Zero regrets about buying them.
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I think my number of posts in this thread speaks for itself. Despite some issues, I really love what the Elegias does with music. You feel the note in such a impressive way. Itās at the top of my small collection and I donāt plan on selling them.
About the timbre issue, there was some string musics that where really off with me. One of them was "Tamacunā by Rodrigo y Gabriela. Itās strange though, other songs were just fine, so Iām guessing is some note that in frequency response gets to amplified and it makes sound off. Still, 99% of time itās awesome, and definitively no fatigue for me.
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Your observation is why so many of us have multiple headphones. There is no one perfect headphone that maximizes the experience for all genres.
Elegia is a good headphone, though, no doubt.
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One note: what I meant to say was āother similar songsā, like other guitar arrangements of the same Rodrigo y Gabriela.
But yeah, I 100% agree. The Elegia covers a lot of stuff for me, but unless you listen to a very narrow selection of music, there is probably not a single perfect headphone for you.
Elegia is a great headphone. Still rocking one in my headphone rotation.
One of the most comfortable sets I have.
I wear glasses and I do not have āsealā issues, but everyoneās head is different so of coarse, it may not be true for all.
Genre I get it out for most often, Jazz/Jazz fusion but, thatās me.
Three words: Fast, Dynamic, Impact
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