Focal Elex - Official Thread

I wouldn’t say this is a straight progression from the HD6xx. The HE-560 and Elex are technically competitive with each other, but have different characteristics. The biggest step up is build quality: HiFiMan cut every corner except the drivers while Focal spared no expense on the frame, hardware, and pads.

I’m listening to the HE-560 on the P20 as I write this – it’s really, really pleasant! This may be the best <$500 combo on the market.

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Old-school HE-560 is available for $299 on Amazon, so I guess that makes this a $400 combo. Pretty nuts.

@pwjazz thanks, didn’t know that!

Guess he had in mind the $99 for the balanced DAC needed to make the Loxjie P20 shine (Behringer SRC2496 being the most unexpensive).

Here’s an EQ I’ve been working on for the Focal Elex. It’s really meant to be used with the Monolith THX-AAA Balanced Amp since it uses a combination of shelf EQ for the low frequencies and parametric for the treble.

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Heck, I’ll throw my hat in the ring.

For the last couple months I’ve demoed the Elear with Clear pads, so basically an Elex. My preferred sonic signature would be more to the relaxing, smooth, and warm side of neutral without being too “sleep-encouraging”:grin: My default setup is the HE4XX’s without grills with ZMF Ori pads, coming out of the Vali 2 with a EH6922 tube. I find the HD650s a good deal too veiled and warm. The vali was used testing the Focals.

Anyways, I couldn’t have been happier when the Elear’s first arrived. I wouldn’t say I DISlike them, but–they’re not the jump up in quality I was expecting. I think a lot of it doesn’t have to do with even the 'phones themselves as it does my preferences, but I’ll get to that later.

First of all, the build is great. Not much needs to be said that hasn’t, they’re well-built and stylish.

As far as sound–they are very well-balanced overall. Good midbass impact, solid sub-bass, dry forward mids, inoffensive well-extended treble. GREAT imaging with a very well-defined if not smallish soundstage. Great detail retrieval, like you don’t feel like you’re “missing something” with these phones. It’s all there. Overall, on a purely technical basis, I wouldn’t even disagree if someone argued they soundly best the HE4XX’s in most areas.

So what’s the deal than, why not keep them?

One, the price. The Elex is $699 right? For that much, I could get 4 $169 HE4XX’s and still have $23 left over! At that metric, I just couldn’t justify keeping them.

Two, tonal preference. I fully think I can say everything positive I said above and still confidently say for the most part I prefer the Hifiman’s. The Focals helped me realize that I listen more to wind down and relax. I appreciate a sound that you can “listen to in the background but also reward you when you pay attention”, and auditioning the rather energetic and forward Elear’s, their in your face sound DEMAND you pay attention especially as compared to more laid-back phones, and I guess that’s not what I’m looking for. I used to think in my naivete that the sheer awsomeness of this or that mega-headphone would trump my sonic tastes into loving them, but I don’t think I believe that anymore. Diminishing returns probably have something to do with it as well.

Having said all that, I would recommend them for someone looking for a no holds barred aggressive sound signature with great technicalities and a tone that truthfully conforms to the rough geography of the soundscape without being artificially smooth, as compared to say the standard planar sound (man I can’t help but feel pretentious writing that! oh well).

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Welcome.

I’d give the Elex/Elear another try with a neutral amp. Tubes and noisy amps exaggerate their already strong dynamics. Everything you say is true, but it can be managed and minimized. My Elex had too much glare or intensity until I switched to a balanced setup (and then I went balanced-bonkers).

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Hi @chrolls and welcome. Nice impressions by the way. I kinda agree with your point about expecting to be blown away whenever you get some new headphones to listen to. With me there’s always that expectation bias and I do tend to always talk myself into liking something, at least in the early honeymoon stage that most of us love.

I’ve not heard the HE4XX’s but I do know they get a lot of love. Personally I like a different sound to the laid back headphone, having said that I do like my HD650. It’s great to hear from you and I hope you keep posting now that you’ve got your first one out of the way. :grin:

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Good to be here. I must admit I frequent other headphone sites as well, but I appreciate the help and insight I’ve found on this particular forum. Look forward to posting more :grinning: , thx for the gracious welcome!

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Well hey, thx for the advice. I might just give 'em another try!

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Hey guys,

I am very sad I am going to be returning my Focal Clears and Eliga’s to get the Stellia.

Love my Clears, so what i was thinking is… I would get the Elex to replace the clears.

How does the Elex stack up to the clears in your own O?

Lmao didn’t see there was an Elex thread and posted this in headphones you own, but here ya go, my elex impressions.

Elex are an insane value, but aside from their price point they’re just legitimately good.

They retain my favorite thing about Utopia, which is its dynamics. They do lose the detail and imaging of Utopia, but they’re not bad by any means in those departments, easily beating HD650 and coming in slightly behind HD800. Soundstage isn’t great, much like Utopia, so if you’re an HD800 fan, you probably won’t like these. There’s a significant sonic wall effect so you can expect an intimate presentation. Layering and separation was significantly better than I expected, given this is an area where its close sibling, Clear, struggles, sounding rather congested and closed in. It’s not on the level of Utopia or Stax in this department, but I don’t think anyone expected it to be, and aside from absurdly priced sets like that, it’s near the top.

The bass is impactful and tactile, but it’s not overpowering. For some it might even be a little bass light, as the overall tuning is close to neutral. Unfortunately for huge bassheads it will distort if you EQ bass past 90-95db (which you shouldn’t do anyways smh). Mids while occasionally a bit shouty are nicely textured and have spot on timbre. Treble is extended and neutral, tho Audeze (read: darkfi) fans will think they’re bright.

These are easily my favorite set of headphones under $1k, but beware, my first set came with a dead left driver because of which I refunded the unit and bought another used. This set has been ok, thank God. Give em a try if you haven’t, you might end up falling in love like I have.

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They’re even better through a hybrid amp. I want to see what they can really do. Lyr 3 and Bifrost 2 should push their capabilities hard. Coming this week!! Excited to see the upgrade over the CTH + SDAC which I think already synergize fantastically with the Elex.

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I got these a few months ago and they have become my favourite headphones. Wonderful out of my Liquid Platinum and going all day today out of my Violectric V220.
I keep hearing that the Clears are a definite upgrade since they scale better. However, I am done with buying amps and these are amazing. Every time I put them on, they get stuck there for days. :grin:

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Hey guys im back have choosen theses head set what would you guys remove from the list. Im licensing to Rap, Hiphop, Reggeaton,Trap, Spanish Music . Focal ELEX vs DT 1990 PRO, hifiman ananda, HIFIMAN SUNDARA, HD 6xx. Like some bass, vocals and highs dont like bass overpowering my music

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I bought these from Massdrop and run them through a Topping D70 > balanced > THX 788 via Audirvana and oh my! I feel the same as you regarding their qualities and find them my favorite HP. Great review!

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Just finished doing my review of the Elex.

Here are the measurements from the GRAS43AG for those who are interested.

Just for fun I used the Elex off the Cayin HA-1A MK2 tube amp, which has higher output impedance, and this is what I ended up getting. Really fun out it changes depending on OI.

In short, this is a fantastic headphone that’s like 99% of the Clear (I hate reducing it to a number like that but in this case it may be appropriate) - potentially better in some areas of its FR.

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Wow. I’d rate the Elex as about 80% of the Clear. Honestly. Before I got the Clear I often avoided the Elex in favor of the HD-600. To my ears the Elex has too much glare, exaggerated dynamics, and not enough air. So, I seem to be more sensitive than you in the top 1/3rd of the frequency range.

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Well, keep in mind there is some unit variation with these. The first one I evaluated was wayyy more like what you described. This one on the other hand is very similar to the Clear.

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Thanks for this review Andrew - well done as always. I’ve been saying the Elex is darn near the Clear for a while now, but I’ve always been told they sound nothing alike, even by some folks on this forum. Thank you for validating what I’m also hearing and proving I’m not crazy.:slight_smile: I’m still loving my Elex and think it’s one of the best values in this hobby. Cheers!

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Waiting for your EQ profile for the Elex! It seems like we have very similar taste, your Elegia EQ profile is fantastic.

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