Thanks alot
I think this was the first review of yours that I have watched. I am a little disappointed that you were pretty underwhelmed with everything about them except for the sale price. But we all hear differently. Or, maybe I will feel the exact same way and sell them on, but I hope not. 
I am curious to try them out. I like the idea of bassy and mid forward. If they have reasonably good detail, I will likely be happy. I am thinking that they might replace my T60 Argons. And maybe even get used more than my Cascades.
I don’t know why they are doing such a big discount as they are really just devaluing their product. I guess I shouldn’t complain as I LOVE my HE6se V2’s that I paid $599.00 for. I likely would never had tried them out at well over $1,000.00
knowing hifiman they always make money, sundara was $500 now it’s $300 and they still raking in the cash
At the reduced price, it begs a comparison to the reduced Elegia.
hmmmm it really depeneds on which end of the spectrum you value more, R9 has smooth not that resolving treble but nicely controled bass and mids. Elegia has okish bass and low mids but very nice upper mids and trebble.
Also depends on if you need the isolation and can accept the hard soundstage limit with the elegia. With the R9 its more of a soft boundery and it extends outside the cups while with the elegia everything stops at the cups.
For indoor use I would generally rec R9 because it has a more spacous stage while if on the go and you dont mind the bass being abit wonky with the decay just disapearing mid decay elegia.
3 Likes
I hadn’t even thought about that, but you are right. I had thought more about head to head with the T60 Argons.
I don’t think they would travel as well as the Elegia’s though. The R9’s would attract a Lot more attention out and about or even at work.
Pretty close though money wise. $379.00, plus shipping and Stellia pads vs $369.00, plus shipping. These are going to be the cheapest new headphones I have bought in a long time.
1 Like
Agreed!
Bear in mind that it has been well over a year since last I listened to an Elegia. The biggest consequence is that said time gap reduces my ability to be accurate in commenting on detail retrieval or soundstage. I suspect the Elegia is more resolving, but…caveat just mentioned. From memory, there aren’t huge differences in soundstage size, although odds are good the Elegia has a more wrap-around staging effect than the R9 as that is a trait of Focal’s house sound. The stock tunings however are easy to compare. The Elegia is bass-lean and mid-forward in its tuning. The bass is active and punchy (it’s a Focal headphone, afterall) but is a bit shy in presence. Also, overall Elegia is more aggressive in its presentation. The Elegia can have a bit of a mechanical bite to it. The Elegia takes very well to EQ. I found the iFi Bass Boost to match to it splendidly, turning it into a much more well-rounded, fuller, more complete sounding headphone. I think bass boost is almost a must with the Elegia. It’s true the Elegia isolates better and that makes it more OTG/office friendly. The only issue with that is if your OTG system does not have any sort of EQ, the Elegia goes back to being bass-lean and having that mechanical bite to it.
The R9 has a much more bass-heavy tuning with a more relaxed top-end than the Elegia. It does not isolate sound or stay on the head as well as Elegia. It’s also not built as well as Elegia. However, I think it is a friendlier match to a wider variety of signal chains because it does not require EQ (IMO) to sound good.
I think if you’re primarily into hip-hop, EDM, dubstep, or other electronic music, R9 is the way to go from a match-to-music standpoint. Elegia is the better choice for acoustic music like jazz, classical, or folk. The R9 would be my pick for classic rock, hard rock, & heavy metal if you don’t plan to EQ. I might swing that back to Elegia if you are able to EQ up the bass and maybe take the mids down 2ish dB on whatever system you plan to listen to.
Hope this helps you all!
5 Likes
I am curious how the R9 compares to hifimans other two dynamic driver headphones - the R7DX and the R10D (which is also on sale)
Anybody listened to each of these for a comparison?
hmmm personally after listening exclusively for a full day I would say it doesnt go well with EDM, Something like D5200 with its slower more enveloping bass would be my personal rec for strictly EDM.
That being said interestingly I would rec the R9 for the same things @WaveTheory says they arent good at namely string and wind tribal/folk/american country/swing/slow jazz. The way it adds texture without dragging the music is so addictive.
That being said it might be be sauce being kind of blend being the Fiio K9 pro AKM and Tri TK2 so add salt as needed.
I wonder how they compare to the R10D’s? As of yesterday the R10D’s were about triple the cost.
My music is new rock, classic rock, horn jazz and a bit of blues. Curious to see how the R9’s handle it.
All weekend I have been LOVING my HE6se V2’s. It has been a while since I gave them a lot of use.
A bit less than that, I think it comes out to a bit less than 2.5x but yeah the R10 is significantly more than the R9…
Also one wierd thing about the R10 I noticed is that it looks like it only has a cable input on the left side? So you need special cables for the R10 and it wont work with your other standard balanced cables?
The R9 has the same thing, although it can also take dual cables.
I am curious if my T60 Argon cable will work with these.
Yeah, tbh having the flexibility to use other dual 3.5mm cables like other hifiman cans is a small thing but nice to have since hifiman cables are not great and most likely I would want to swap out the cable with one of my other cables
1 Like
I am hooked on the Hart Audio Cable system. It is awesome, especially if you have numerous headphones.
1 Like
I will check it out… I have a bunch of headphones but find myself listening to hifimans and focals the most because of the convenience of sharing the same cables
Well, also Hifiman and Focal pretty consistently make good headphones.
1 Like
True, I really like hifimans and focals
My dual 3.5mm gets the bulk of the work. It is without a doubt the most common connector.
