OK bro, you got me curious enough to try out the beast out of a smartphone. using a miniplug to USB adapter. The phone was the the trusty old phone but audio enthusiasts favourite iPhone 6s, which was the last to come with a miniplug jack making it the most versatile iPhone audio-wise or so i was told. Apparently its DAC has soething others don’t but don’t ask me what. First I ran a test run wit the Hifiman Sundara to see how the phone performed with ULI and it worked much better than I thought but the Sundara (another interesting can btw) is only 37-ohm and the Elear is twice that and dynamic rather than planar, would it make a tremendous difference? Not really, although it seem to me that it was a tiny bit slower to react (trailing LF?) but that’s really splitting hairs and since I only use a Senn on-ear Momentum when I wear phones outdoors or in public paces (not often) I am hardly an expert when it comes to iOs audio. Also I don’t like Bluetooth phones, way too many interference in public space it get annoying,
In every day listening both the Focal Elear and Clear are my favourites even though with True-Fi set on the difference between the to models is not dramatic, Not that surpising because once you remove the $400 worth of accessories including with the Clear you end up with a price difference of less than $100 between the Clear and Elear, peanuts for high-end phones. Both use the same drivers, just tuned differently and the Clear has more fancy trim, nice phone but I can’t stand the color when I look in the mirror so when I use the Clear I don’t look in the mirror lol, But this thread is about the Elear not the Clear so let’s move on.
You can’t talk about the Elear without mentioning its tight, yet deep and well controlled bass that never bleeds into the low-mids, Of all headphones I ever owned and tried never did I encounter anything like this, It wraps your head ins a heavy but civilized, punchy, lively, present and never muddy low end unless material is poor, Like all high-end cans Elear doesn’t like bad recordings and will let you know mercilessly, consider yourself warned lol. Low mids and mids are neutral and relatively clear, wile high mids and treble are slighly recessed, giving it a darkie nature. This vanishes wit True-Fi though, and other ESP like jlnunoob mentions above. These will yield a clean, linear response from top to bottom delivering first-class sound very few phones including much pricier ones can match (steadying for flak).
Construction wise the Elear is the same basic design as all high-end Focals: everthing is metal, adjustment click-stops are hidden under the headband which is lined with real soft leather making for a very comfy fit despite the weight of the phones (1 lb) not counting the 9-feet long, havy 18AWG cable terminated with a large high-quality a neutrik 6,35mm standard plug. The Y cable allows for the use of thrird-party cables however but unless you want a balanced cable the standard one is calibrated exclusively for these cans and impedance-matched according to literature. The enormous display box covered in faux leather is perfect for storing or displaying. It contains some literature, the phones and the cable. That’s it. It’s pretty obvious that Focal had seen the likes of Hifiman coming and done its best to offer a superior performing phone without going over$1,000, a veritable Tour De Force that worked so well it forced other manufacturer to lower their prices before HFM would have caused them to. But nevertheless even Focal was taken abash when Hifinan released the now legendary Sundara. More on that on the Sundara forum. Last but nout lease the 89-0hn load is easy to drive on all but but high-impedance output. Lamp amps are a gamble at low impedance, try before you buy. Personally I went “brand-loyal” when I bought my DAC. Naim belongs to Focal so I went with the recommended but not cheap NAIM V1 DAC which works wonders but costs twice the twice of the phones. Considering I mostly use the DAC in bridge mode this was too expensive for the benefit. A $400 Micromega would have accomplished the same for a lot less.
At today’s price of qround $700 USD the Elaer is a steal, but remember that proper DSP is require for optimal performance. highly recommended, 4.5 stars out of 5 Categorie: audiophile headphone.