All three under €1000 total, that’s a pretty sweet deal. I was looking for an elegia a while back but is as unsuccessful, it was over €650 and I couldn’t find it used anywhere.
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Clears arrived about 10 days earlier than amazon said they would. Will probably put my old red and blue yaxi pads on them.
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Make sure to try those G Cush on the Hemps as well, really liking them on mine
They call me Mr. „G Cushon“ 
The hemp is a really exceptionally good headphone and the kph30i with the G Cusch’s is far more recommendable than any entry level GRADO in my opinion.
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I picked up another Sophia to have a pair for my Freya+ upgrade. I’ll get a pair of NOS tubes as well for a nice balance.
And I found a used Kimber Kable Select Series RCA interconnect. I’ve always liked Kimber Kable and I’ve wanted one of their TOTL cables. Fortunately I got a pretty good ‘deal’ on these.
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What type of tube is it 6sn7?
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That Sophia is beautimous!!!
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Congrats buddy! Glad you got a Sophia back.
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Are those the GS3000e and RS2e? I would love to hear your comparison between the three once you’ve had enough time with the Hemps.
Focal Celestee arrived today. Totally forgot that FedEx delivers on Sundays. Celestee looks more Greenish and less Blueish colored in person vs the pictures of it online.
The first thing I did notice is how much better the pads seal. The material is super nice feeling. The headband has a nicer suede material covering it on the bottom of the headband compared to the Elegia. Build and comfort are a step up from the Elegia.
Also, the Celestee cables are not as uncompromisingly stiff as the fabric wrapped cables of the Elegia and Clear, but they still retain that rigid bent shape unfortunately.
Comfort is very good. Same as other focal headphones. First impression is that bass has better extension than the Elegia, but still neutral and not overdone. Mids aren’t as forward as the Elegia and much more linear. The treble is warmer than the Elegia. How much warmer, I have yet to really pinpoint. I like these so far, but they are doing something different and unique that I can’t yet really figure out what it is.
Also, the Celestee are just as open sounding as the Elegia, if not more so. This is a good thing as that was the one characteristic that made me fall in love with the Elegia when I owned them.
The port is more open on the ear cups and blocking it completely changes the sound. They are more semi closed than a true closed back. The Elegia had a small port under the Focal logo on the cups, but the cup material of the Elegia was a more solid plastic. The cup material on the Celestee is more similar to the Stellia with that leatherish look.
I can see how somebody would be disappointed if they thought these would be a clear closed back. The clear has that midbass hump and small peak in the upper mids that give them character. These have neither, but the tonality, timbre and technical abilities of the Celestee are far superior when compared to the Elegia. It kind of makes up the difference between the Elegia and Clear imo.
These are still narrow and have intimate soundstage wise like most of Focals stuff, but the major difference ive notice so far is that the upper mids aren’t as forward and don’t have that metallic edge that other Focals have.
Do I recommend the Celestee? Yes, as long as the potential buyer isn’t expecting a different tuned version of the Elegia or Clear. A buyer with no crazy expectation of what these are will be very happy with them imo. These really are their own headphone. They have similarities with other Focal headphones, but they most certainly are not just an Elegia with better pad seal, like some have falsely claimed.
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Very curious on your thoughts compared to the allo!
ddHiFi TC35B came today, the final piece of my franken-headset built out of left over parts: TC35B + campfire audio inline microphone cable + Tin T2 + Final Audio tips. Creates a good experience for calls, and nice to not always deal with bluetooth!
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You guys are the worst addict enabling crabs in a bucket I have ever seen, and I love you all for it.
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Are you buying new from a retailer or manufacturer? If so, are they really charging you the PayPal fee?
Sundaras, sold them some time ago and few headphones after… I kinda need it again lol
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