human ears arenāt linear
Is the Focal Elegia still competitive in the market at its current asking price of $299 from Adorama? Are there any known issues with the build quality, specifically with the headband breaking that anyone whom owned this for a long time have experienced? Can anyone provide information on Focalās warranty coverage through Adorama and if these headphones would be covered under the manufacturerās warranty? Thank you.
In general Focal makes quality stuff, ive owned my Elegia for a while and it gets a fair bit of use, no issues what so ever. The only real issue is if you ever want to pad swap them, even after market ones most of them get kinda pricy (around 80+) so keep that
build is good comfort might be hit or miss, if I remember correctly they come with a 2 year driver warranty from Focal, personally wasnāt a fan of the sound but YMMV
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Okay cool well thank you, Iāve been mulling around this price point for a closed back to add to the pile this is one of interest to me, but when compared to the Argons, the 99 neo/noir/classics, or spend a little more for the Aeon Closed X or the new Closed Back Sundara variant. Iām not sure where to go. These paired with EQ seem interesting.
Elegia takes well to EQ.
Also, bear in mind that just a couple of years ago these were Focalās $900 option, which should tell you about where they sit in the product stack. The reason theyāre so much cheaper now is they have been replaced entirely in the Focal lineup, and arenāt being produced anymore. In order to discourage them from being seen as legitimate competition to the newer models, the old stock is severely discounted.
I canāt say Iāve heard the other options youāre considering, but I can say without reservation that I do not regret buying my Elegias at $379, which I considered a great deal at the time.
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Yeah their ability to take EQ well make them super interesting for me. And the price is really tempting.
I paid $349 for my Elegia from Adorama. I was very happy with my purchase then, and I remain so. I paid a lot more for my Elex even with a Black Friday discount 3 years ago. Iām very happy with them as well. Never had issues with either one.
I recently bought a Lokius for those kick it up a notch moments. The Elegia responds very well with subtle adjustments. Resolve has a great video on this very topic, if interested.
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Have my Elegia for the past 2 years, donāt remember if I paid 399 or 349. Iām still very happy with my purchase, and can 100% recommend them.
On warranty, I got problems with them because I live outside the US. The cable went kaput after 2 months and even when trying to work with me paying the shipping I could not get a consistent response. Focal gave me the impression theyāre very amateur for a āinternational companyā. But since I was outside the US, YMMV.
Still, I love the sound of the Elegias and think theyāre a no brainer for 299. (If you can afford it) Even if you donāt love the sound signature, they will show you some aspects of sound that are rather unique.
What do you value in sound? Preferred genres? And what is your source chain for them. I think all these headphones have very different strengths and requirements.
I vary in genres, most of my music is vocal centric however. My source gear is IFI Zen Dac/Can, Schiit Asgard, JDS Atom, and I have the Topping D50s. And the headphones I currently own is the Sennheiser 650, 560s, Hifiman Sundara, Beyerdynamic tygr300r. And several IEMs. But I do not own a single closed back.
I think Elegia makes lots of sense at the $300-$400 range. Youāre not expecting bass-monsters, like mid-centric presentations.
Iāll ask - do you NEED a closed-back for use case, or is this just exploratory?
So no particular situational or professional means. Mostly itās just to have something interesting thatās closed-back in that price range yeah.
Well, Iāve joined the club.
I wanted an āerrand headphoneā for when I do things around my apartment, and most of my headphones are open backs, so I jumped at the Adorama deal to finally get a good closed back. Also, Iāve been wanting to try out Focal for ages, and the Clear are beyond my current budget, so I figured the Elegia will give me a taste of that Focal sound, while providing the benefits of a closed back.
The deal was for $299, but after tax, shipping, customs, and exchange, I paid about $545 CAD total, which is around $405 USD all-in. If I were to buy them locally in Canada, the current deal Iāve seen is $550 pre-tax, which is about $620 after tax. So I saved ~$75 CAD by going with Adorama.
Anyways, in terms of the Focal Elegia, itās way too early for a review, but here are a few preliminary thoughts:
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Build. The build quality is fantastic. France isnāt kidding around. These things feel like a piece of fashion. The unboxing experience was nice and the carrying case has so much attention and care that went into it. The zipper is high quality and even ships with little plastic protectors, the shape of the case is perfectly molded, and even that little velcro thing that wraps the cable has a little velcro wrap within the velcro wrap so that it latches on to one piece of cable to allow you to wrap the rest of the cable. Focalās attention to detail is really impressive. The headphones even smell like a piece of high end fashion, if that makes sense.
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Cable. Everything people are saying about the cable is exactly right. I got the updated rubber version, and it still feels well built with nice rubber and beautiful connectors, but all of that is moot because the thing is stiff as hell. It may be a nice piece of fashion, but itās terrible for actual usability.
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Aesthetics. The headphones themselves are absolutely beautiful. Even though these are the lowest headphone in Focalās lineup and they use plastic cups, theyāre still gorgeous. The colour choices. The metal yokes. The Focal logo vent. The chamfered edges. The shiny screws. The matching pads and headband. This is all beautiful stuff.
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Size. The headphones are huge. These are bigger than I expected. There have already been several occasions where Iāve inadvertently knocked the cup with my hand when going to scratch my head because the cups jut out so far. Not really, a complaint, just an observation. It might take a bit of getting used to.
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Comfort. I find these pretty comfortable, but finicky. The positioning of the cups affects both the comfort and the sound. Initially I had each cup extended to the 4th notch, and just by pulling them to the 5th notch, that improved the sound by lowering the cups relative to my ears. Also, because these things are so big and unusual, I find that whenever I go back to another pair of headphones, they suddenly feel weird. My brain needs to get re-acclimated to the feel of my other headphonesā cups each time.
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Portable Amp. In terms of amplification, I tried these with my Apple dongle and they sounded a bit congested. For a headphone that is supposedly very easy to drive, the volume on my iPhone had to be almost as high as it is for my 300 ohm Senn 6XX, and I actually find the dongle drives the 6XX better than the Elegia in terms of sound. So Iām considering getting a portable amp/dac like a Qudelix 5K for these. Does anyone have experience with an iPhone + Qudelix 5K + Elegia?
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Desktop Amp. For desktop amplification, I have a PC with a Xonar sound card hooked up to a Topping L30. Those seem to power the Elegia much better than the dongle does. And for reference, I play them on medium gain at about 9:30 on the L30ās dial, whereas my 6XX and K702 are on high gain around there. So in that respect, the Elegia require less power.
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Sound. Now, as far as the actual sound, Iāll need a lot more time with these before evaluating. My first impression is good, but a little weird. Some songs sound much better than others and there is some odd tuning going on. I can tell that thereās a fair bit of information/detail in there, but some songs have this weird recessed sound where a particular vocal might sound like itās hidden behind something. Itās strange because certain things sound really good, while other things donāt. Like others have said, there isnāt a lot of bass, but I wouldnāt consider myself a basshead anyway.
I donāt have much else to say about the sound yet because I havenāt listened enough to really form an opinion. All Iāll say so far is that the headphones sound good, but they havenāt absolutely knocked my socks off. Iām not sure where theyāll end up ranking in my list (see below), but my spur-of-the-moment first impression is that they donāt sound like $900 USD. Their build and aesthetics are the best of any headphone I own, but the sound is merely good, not mind-blowing. It doesnāt upend the below list with a Tier 0 or anything like that. These will either end up falling into Tier 2 or maybe Tier 1 for me. It remains to be seen which. And I donāt know about EQ. Iāve never been one to EQ anything, but since a lot of people recommend it, I may give it a shot at some point.
Just to get an idea of where Iām coming from with all of the above thoughts, here are the headphones I currently own and how Iād rank them:
Tier 1:
Sennheiser HD 6XX
Grado Hemp
AKG K702
Tier 2:
Denon AH-D750
AirPods Pro 2
AirPods Max
Grado SR-60
Koss KPH30i (the technicals are Tier 3, but I love the tuning so much on this)
Tier 3:
Koss KSC-75
Koss PortaPro
Powerbeats Pro
AirPods Pro
Audio Technica ATH-M50
Audio Technica ATH-A900
Tier 4:
AirPods OG
BeatsX
Nothing in the kilobuck range yet, although if things go well with work, Iām going to treat myself to an Arya Stealth in a few months. But for the time being, Iām mostly familiar with mid-fi territory.
Now that I have the Elegia, they are the highest MSRP headphone I own, although they were only the 3rd most expensive in actual cost to me, after the AirPods Max and the Grado Hemp.
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Well, Iām liking the Elegia. It sounds interesting, different and very involving. I was expecting a worse headphone. I only listen to soundtracks.
Iāll see if Iāll make a comparison with one of them.
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Interesting, especially the part about AKG K702. I feel the K700/600 donāt get enough love for their spacious and laid back sound.
As for the qudelix question, I canāt say specifically to this combo but the Elegia takes well to EQ. I used PEACE for EQ in my PC for a bass boost and some treble corrections (see Resolve EQ suggestions on YT). I find this small changes makes the headphones better at more generic music, a little less āin your faceā but still with that nice tactility from Focal.
My suggestion is trying it yourself and see how it goes, maybe try PEACE or other EQ software in the iphone (android user so canāt help much, sorry).
Enjoy the music!
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I can absolutely vouch for this. I use Peace EQ in my desktop setup and I love it. You can do all kinds of cool things with it to correct anything you wish to in the sound signature. The real nice thing, though, is if you want Peace to be off, you can turn it off and it is actually off! Now, in my bedroom system, I use a physical EQ, a wonderful vintage Realistic 7 band-per-channel unit. And the Elegia responds beautifully to both. I just feel that overall, the Elegia is a very solid performer, and well worth the 400-ish dollar price tag. I also have the Radiance, and both get used multiple times a week.
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Speaking of EQā¦
I recently picked up a Qudelix 5k for IEMs, running on Mac OS I havenāt found any parametric EQ software with all of oratory1990 / crinnacleās EQ profiles pre-loaded like the 5k has (suggestions welcome if anyone knows of one!)
Well, I thought Iād try the 5k as a desktop dac/amp for Elegiaās with oratory1990ās Elegia profile pre-loaded. Then, on OSX, I added a bit of my EQ bump - slightly more bass and highs for an exciting sound.
Holy smokes! These sound absolutely incredible once level set by oratory1990ās profile, fixes all the issues I was hearing!
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Rogue Amoebaās SoundSource
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Do you use it? Itās my first time hearing about it, I did find this reddit thread where one user claims the EQ profiles are ā10 band approximationsā of oratory1990ās parametric profiles rather than exact replicas - but this thread is 2 years old, so Iām wondering if it still holds true. If SoundSource uses full parametric EQ profiles now this is a definite purchase from me. Source for reddit thread: