I’ve owned the Elex for 2 years and think its time to get something new.
I listen to pretty much every genre of music but my three favorite bands consist of King Crimson, Massive Attack and Portishead.
I would also pair it with the original EL stack.
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Well the first question is
What is it you like and don’t like about the Elex?
What sound is it you are after?
and the most important is , What is your budget?
From what I understand Auteur is a very neutral headphone and to me it would be a significant jump up
Others on here will be along shortly and they are going to ask these questions…
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My favorite part about the focal Elex is probably its clarity and the way it is able to bring out detail in instruments and vocals as I like having a sharpness to them as well at the same time having enough detail in the low end to hear the details in drums. I generally prefer brighter headphones and put Dekoni perforated leather pads on the Elex which made the headphone less muddy, not that they sounded muddy in the first place but brought out more of that clarity and sharpness that I enjoyed about them. That being said I don’t necessarily need this tonality on my next set of headphones as I also have a pair of ls50’s set up near field on my desk which I feel is going to be hard to beat in terms of a bright sound signature unless I move up to something like the diana v2 which is far out of my price range. My biggest concern with the Auteur is if its going to be too smooth for me, for example female vocals, brass instrements and high frequncy bells not sparkling at the top end and raspy vocals sounding soft or rolled off, A good example of these things would be Moon child from court of the crimson king for bells and symbols and Cirkus at 2.22 from Lizard. My budget is 1600$ and cant go any higher.
Sorry for This being a bit of a ramble im not great at organizing my perception of gear.
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Neither am I for that fact… I responded to prepare you for what others will ask… I own the Aeolus and Atticus and really like them, I also own the Elex and many others. From DCA Aeon 2 opens and Audeze LCD2 PF all the way to the Audioquest Nighthawks… All will stay in my collection for different reasons…As I said someone will be along so if you can be patient… You will get your answer and maybe get steered ina direction you did not consider…
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What amp do you have? If you have the amp for it the he6se is absolutely amazing. Detail is incredible and you can eq bass as high as you want and it doesn’t distort or muddy the rest of the frequencies.
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I have an original EL stack from jds labs. I know the hifimans are great and I have considered the he6se and the arya but I can’t bring my self to spend that much on headphones with poor build quality and poor qc.
Thanks for the suggestion though
It might be worthwhile. I had a Eikon on loan for a bit and it was great, certainly fairly different from the Elex. However if you put in different pads onto the elex fo more brightness and loved the clarity in particular from the elex (which isn’t really one of its selling points) maybe a hifiman Arya would be worth looking into? I haven’t heard it but by all accounts its a brighter headphone, I’ve used their lower end sundara and enjoyed tonality, separation etc to where I’m sure the Arya at least has important stuff like that down. Also it’s known for having a tall Soundstage, which the elex didn’t really focus on. Just seems like something very different from focal house sound and yet leaning towards what you like.
Sadly I never really dabbled with one since I went the opposite route with warm, warm, warm lol
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