I find that with a lot of new music (say last 5 to 10 years), it often sounds noisy. There always seems to be something going on in the background. Exceptions that come to mind quickly are Florence and the Machine, Trombone Shorty, Kamasi Washington, new Sturgill Simpson, etc.
Although I am too lazy, I really should go through my collection and build a playlist just off of sound quality. It would be a LOT of work, but it would be awfully satisfying in the end. 
Also Vampire weekendâs most recent album. In this case I think itâs purposeful. Some of it is just too 9bvious
I agree with the noise. I ended up just going on a mass deletion compaign where I went one by one deleting all the albums that sounded harsh. Probably not the best idea in case I want to hear them in the future with another pair but at least now I have more disk space and can hit random song with less skips lol
All the skips lol
Well, thatâs pretty extreme! 
I have been thinking for a year or two that I should make a playlist of 500 to 1,000 songs that all sound great.
With some bands, noise is their trademark. I just watched Austin City Limits with St. Vincent. WOW, that had a Lot of noise. I have three of her songs and love them, but I would NEVER go to see her live. It would just give me a headache. I have some music from Deap Valley and Sleigh Bells that I like, in small doses.
I like nine inch nails and have a LOT of his music, but I canât listen to it for more than an hour or two. I can do all of With Teeth and a few more songs and I have to change over. I wonder if a lot of bands didnât copy Trent Reznor, because there is a lot of music out there that, I think, intentionally has noise, distortion, sibilance etc. put in or left in.
Is there anyway to circumvent exposing the flaws in music with these headphones out of curiosity?
I mean, you could tube them but it would kinda mess up the sound, or get a lower resolving dac and amp but you would be really shooting yourself in the foot there
The only thing that I can think of is creating a playlist (or however you organize your music) and call it the Elex list. 
It might take the best part of a day, but I would probably come up with a bare minimum of 1,000 songs. I think all jazz will be okay. Blues can be rough and the same with rock and pop.
If your thing is hip hop, electronica, trance, etc. Good Luck! 
You could have two headphones, the Elex for well recorded music and another not so resolving headphone for other tracks. The second one could have a different complementary signature if you want to mix it up.
Im starting to wonderif i got hearing problems. all my music sounds great in the Elex. even older stuff from the 80âs sound great.
I kinda agree with that mostly everything sounds good on it, and thatâs the case with other headphones as well. I guess I donât see too resolving as a downside, as I have never been inclined to shift my music tastes because of my gear
I do have several headphones and changing up is an option. I just think these sound great with great material. My Gradoâs are probably not clear enough to point out all the noise and flaws.
âToo clearâ is not a bad problem to have.
I have been trying to build up to this for years.
It also may be that in a few weeks I donât notice it as much.
Yeah I would say the only thing that usually sounds bad is poppy crap youâd hear on a generic âhitsâ radio station. But thatâs usually to be expected imo.
Was posted today on drop as an update.
Hi everyone, We are still working with Focal on a resolution and wanted to give you an update on the issue. As mentioned in the previous update, an error on Focalâs end caused our order to be fulfilled with a single earpad instead of a pair. The result being that we received half as many pads as we had ordered and paid for. We are currently trying to get clarification on how long it will take for Focal to expedite the manufacturing and shipment for the remaining half of the order and will post an update as soon as we have more information. For those of you who ordered, you have two options moving forward:
You can wait until we receive the remaining half of the order, and we will ship you the missing pad. (Some of you ordered multiple pairs, in that case, youâll get multiple replacements). When we ship the missing pad, youâll also be given a $10 credit as an apology for the inconvenience. Your second shipment will be marked as an âRMA replacementâ so there should be no duties/customs/handling fees associated with it.
You can request a full refund immediately by contacting customer service from your transactions page (https://drop.com/support). If you do, you can keep what you currently have on hand.
A handful of orders came through after we began fulfilling, but before we became aware of the single earpad issue. These orders have not been fulfilled and are eligible for an immediate refund, otherwise, they will be shipped/fulfilled when the rest of the Focal order arrives. The default option is the latter, please contact support if you prefer a refund. Thank you for your patience as we actively work with Focal to get this remedied. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to customer service or post in the comments section.
Yep, I got my single earpad today. I emailed drop and received my refund within 10 minutes.
Then I sold my earpad on eBay and came out ahead in the deal. Lol.
Dang if only you ordered two pairs, you wouldâve had the full set and couldâve gotten a refund on both. Free pads! (Assuming pads are interchangeable from left to right, I actually donât know since I donât own any focals
I mean fair play to drop. I bitch about them but they so deliver in the end.
I have been using these every day for two weeks. These things are amazing! They are everything I had hoped for, which is a rarity in life.
Barring any mechanical problems, these are a keeper. I think I now have a 1a and 1b, The Elexâs and the Grado GH2âs. I am one happy camper!!
These are ruthlessly revealing and the same goes for my SMSL SP200 amp. No A-Bâing yesterday. I just spent hours just listening to jazz, which is usually pretty âcleanâ music with no extra noise VS pop and rock. I have to say it was a Really sweet combination. Everything was so crystal clear. I had the amp in low gain at 10:00. Wow! The SP200 has not won me over totally and does not work well, IME, with all my music or all my headphones. But this combo was smokinâ yesterday.
Today I was just going through my music alphabetically with my Burson Fun-Classic, which consists of a lot of rock. Not as crystal clear, due to the sources, but man it was good. Then near the end of my listening session, I ended up on James Heather, a pianist. I discovered this guy accidentally on iTunes. He had been listed under Alt. Rock. I never listen to classical so I never really hear music like this. It really is awesome. It is just as clean and clear on the Burson Fun-Classic as the jazz had sounded on the SP200 yesterday.
These headphones will certainly point out distortion, sibilance or ANY other noise more than most, but when the material is great the sound is amazing! It is by no means terrible with âlesserâ music, but you will be aware of every flaw.
I will stop writing every single thought I have on these headphones now.
This was a VERY good purchase for me and I am happy.
Now is rnhp time lol
Now is waiting for my MAD amp. 