I’m currently looking to upgrade my current headphone setup (Sundaras with a JDS Atom AMP+ and SMSL SU-6). I’ve currently EQ’d my Sundaras to add a slight bit more bass to them, and while I like the technicalities of planars and definitely want to stay in this region, I want something with a larger soundstage, better imaging, and better resolving capabilities.
Looking at reviews, I’ve currently narrowed down my choice between Anandas and Edition XS’s, but due to the small amount of reviews for the XS’s, I don’t have much to go off of for this choice. Which of these two would you recommend for my use case?
(Keep in mind that I’m willing to buy used and, if necessary, upgrade my stack down the line)
This is all highly relevant advice. Thanks. I am placing an order for the Jot today. If I change my mind I have at least six weeks till they ship it and it would be easy to cancel the order and get the Asgard. But I read about the price hikes and you’re right. I don’t like waiting but I am sure it will be worth it. Thanks again.
I own the Noire and the Asgard 3 and to my ears it isn’t one of my favourite pairings.
None of the two are particularly impactful: if you’re looking for a soft, subdued tone, then you’re done and you don’t have to look further.
If you want a fuller sound Jot would be a better choice and it would be all in all a better amp.
I’d consider a Lyr 3 too: Noire with tubes are a pleasure to listen to.
My pleasure. I think you will fall in love the Jotunheim 2. I’m not always the sharpest pencil, but I always love to write something down. Glad I could help.
So, about 10 days back, asked about comparing the Meze 99 to the Apple max, got some great thoughts. Thanks all!! Since then, found a great deal on the Focal Elegia for $380 and bought them as I previously had the Empyreans and the Focal Stellia and kept the Empyreans as I enjoyed them more, but did really really like the Stellia so thought the Elegia would be a good cut rate Stellia.
Anyways, Elegia’s on the SMSL SU8, and SMSL SP200 set up was all types of bad. Base was very weak and it was way to reveling. Then gave it a try on my shelved ifi zen dac v1. Man does that base boost help a lot. But, always questioning my purchases, I also order the Clear MGs . . . They are sitting unopened under my desk as I am having doubts. This set up was for my office and the Elegia’s are great at cutting out the noise of co-workers and trucks and I am a little fearful that open back is a bad idea.
Also, I have been A/B these elegia against my simple Apple Airpod Pros and I am struggling to say the Elegia’s are clearly better. They are different but each has things I like over the other and after 60 seconds of listening I am just lost into the music and only a switch shows the difference and then boom, again lost into the music. So now rethinking the Apple max’s as they will be my apple pros, and all the convenience they bring, I am thinking of returning the Elegia’s. Questions.
1 Am I handicapping the Elegia’s with the Zen Dac?
2 Is the Elegia just not that much better than the apple pros, or at least enough so for me to tell?
3 Will the Clear’s be that jump in performance I am missing or is it safe to say, if I cant see an improvement with the Elegia I also wont with the Clears?
4 Are some folks just not capable of hearing certain characteristics differences between decent headphones and great headphones? My hearing isnt great, cuts off at 12k due to a youth spent at too many concerts and loud car stereo systems. Maybe I lost the ability to tell certain differences.
3 Are some folks just not able to tell good from great sound? I mean, I love the Empyreans, its like slipping on soft pillow head set and then this amazing, open, easily listening headset that I get lost in the separation and details I have never heard.
4 Is it okay to just go with the max as the sound is good enough for me and the rest of the convenience that comes with them takes the cake?
I agree with your take on the Focal Elegia. They are more different sounding than any of my other headphones. I did keep mine and I use them rarely. However, when I do use Elegia it is with EQ presets on HeSuVi. They are amp picky as you suggest. I have had good luck pairing with my Questyle CMA twelve, Schiit Jotunheim 2, and Darkvoice 336SE.
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I think you should return them. I also own the SP200 and the pairing leaves much to be desired. The only reason I did not sell or return mine is because I am a hoarder of headphones, and I just can’t get myself to let go of any of my gear. However, I could see any normal human returning them/selling them. The one saving grace is that they are great for blocking out sound as you have suggested. I do have fun plugging them in once in a while to hear that unique sound signature that they provide and only they can provide.
I’m currently just running a Sundara with a new Fiio K9 Pro that I’ve been testing out (which seems very well built overall). I’ve tried out various high-end headphones including the VO, Clear Mg, Arya, and LCD-X to name a few, all which I owned and either returned or sold. While I liked certain aspects of all of them, I’m finding it hard to justify keeping the money tied up with them for either the diminishing returns of what could arguably be considered more about sound than quality, at least at this exact moment in time. (I also acknowledge that the K9 Pro isn’t a cheap amp/DAC by any means.)
I work from home, but various noises can get distracting and I’m coming around to the idea of getting a closed back for some variation and isolation, and the Noire has really stood out to me over the last few days. My impressions are that the LCD-XC is a “better” headphone, but the much lighter weight and supposed comfort of the Noire seem to be worth the difference. Another option in the $900-1200 price bracket is the Celestee, which I recently heard in a shop, but wasn’t immediately wowed. It was brief but it just felt “ok” in the moment and wasn’t super comfortable.
I like the clarity of the Sundara but I think the natural treble can get a bit fatiguing at times. I’m not really much of an EQer. Any thoughts on the Noire are welcome though. I might be able to give the regular Aeon 2 a test run if a demo unit is available, but I’d have to see.
I used to own the Elex (sold them) and demoed the Elegia. I didn’t like the Elegia at all, as its closed cups and exaggerated dynamics led to rapid hearing fatigue. I sold the Elex because they were bad enough as open backs.
I own the Clear OG and it’s on another quality level – far more nuanced than the Elex or Elegia. I have no intention of selling my Clear. I’ve never heard the Clear MG.
You aren’t handicapping the Elegia, they are just “okay.” You likely won’t warm to them, so I concur with @hottyson about returning them.
So odd, I have seen so many great reviews for these, including resolve saying he dailies them at home.
I havent A/B the Elegia/Zen vs the Meze/SP200. But have the Elegia/Zen and my Pros. The Elegia have more punch in the bass, obviously, but not creating base levels I cant at least hear in the pros. Treble I am bad with but they both are clear and if you mess with apple setting I can make the pros more alive. Mid, I hear more detail in the Elegia but only when A/B. 2 mins in and I dont know what I am issing. Sound stage the pros are in my ears and the Elegia is one inch further out, nothing like the Meze feeling like feet out. Separation is not really a think on the pros and the Elegia are okay when compared to the Meze, again, another level. Any way you slice it, they are going back.
Now down to giving the Clear’s a try and seeing if I can tell the difference, also have to consider how handicapped I am going with the Zen amp. Or going with the max for convenience and likely more than good enough for a work set up. That and its best to keep a healthy spread between my $3.5k set up and anything else so I dont regret that price
The Elegia are not a general-purpose can like my HD 6XX and Edition XS, at least not for me.
They only work well in a narrow range of music, such as strings, acoustic, classical, piano jazz, bluegrass, alt-country and other mids- and treble-focused genres. I LOVE them for those genres, but I never bust them out for rock, classic rock, indie rock, EDM or anything with bass or aggressive mids and treble. They’re just not tuned for that, at least without EQ.
Another thing I’ve found about the Elegia is that they improve with use. My mental jury remains out on the concept of headphone burn-in – no, I’m not trying to open a can of worms here – but my new Elegia did seem to sound better after 20-30 hours of use.
I dig the Elegia for specific uses. But I understand why people are disappointed when they’re a fan of many different genres of music and buy these as a prospective daily driver.
As for Resolve, he specifically says in his reviews of the Elegia that he uses EQ with them and that they suit HIS preferred genres, which lean toward strings, classical and jazz. I don’t use parametric EQ, but I agree with him on the genres in which these babies sing.
As long as I drive them on tube amp I love them.
It’s 3/4 months I’m using them only to listen to music, both for job and for fun.
I can wear them from 8am to 8pm with no problems at all: very comfortable, lightweight, perfect seal, no sound pressure on my ears which is one of the thing I appreciate more.
They’re not as transparent as the Sundara but I need closed backs when I listen to music for work and when I study (very often in specialised department library where silence is a must).
They are the perfect solution for me.
I haven’t heard the Fiio K9 Pro so I can’t tell you about synergy.
For my tastes they sound the best when paired with my Mogwai OG and 6L6 SL GTR or EL34 B, both listening to vinyl (Rega P3, Denon Dl 103, Auditorium 23 Step Up Transformer, Lehamann Audio Black Cube) or digital (Innuos Zen Mini MK3 with LPSU, Chord Qutest).
As much as I love the sound of the Celestee what stopped me from getting one was the sound pressure. If I was to use them for one hour it would have been ok but after that it was a pain to me.
The LCD X are better headphone in my opinion and they have a punchy nature that Noire totally lack (except on tubes) but 1) Too heavy for long listening sessions 2) Can’t take them with me when I’m away for study 3) They somewhat need EQ and I really don’t like to EQ my headphones. I’m not a purist about EQ it’s just that if I spend my money on something I don’t want to have to mess around to get the sound I want, just “straight, no chaser”.
Noire are very well tuned to my ears and a little on the warm side which always sounds like a plus to me.
Consider you can get a pair of standard Aeon 2C used for a very good price and then swap the pads with the (half side) perforated used on the Noire and have very similar results.
Customer service from DCA is top notch and to me it is a plus when I have to decide how to spend my money.
I hope this helps you and good hunt.
Thanks for the input! I’ve read about the good customer support which is great.
While I work alone at home I find that external noise (outside, pets, etc.) can be distracting and I might like having better isolation. The LCD-X sounds nice, but it’s definitely a heavy headphone and if I were to upgrade from the Sundara, I might just save up and go ultra high end with something like the LCD-5 instead in the future, assuming I liked its sound.
While the Sundara are a pair I can wear for hours on end, they do have a sort of fatigue that’s hard to explain. I’m still not really much of an expert so I couldn’t say where it stems from. I’m not really an EQ person either. I listen to a wide variety of music that can span from modern pop to orchestral game music, but as long as there’s sufficient bass and non-fatiguing treble without too much loss in the midrange, I’m probably pretty content.
If I had to rank some of the higher end headphones I’ve tried, I’d probably go VO > Clear Mg > LCD-X > Arya v3. The Arya had the best soundstage of them all, but long term I don’t know if I’d have really loved it, or rather that it wasn’t good enough to me to be worth the full price. The open box price is a better proposition, but it doesn’t really feel well built enough for how much it is. I don’t believe the LCD-X was EQed but I recall enjoying it, with the weight being the major detractor for long term comfort. I imagine it probably could be better with proper EQ if what everyone says is accurate. The Clear Mg had good punch to it as many will say, and the VO if I recall was a little warmer but still a clean listen and extremely well built. I mainly sold it for personal reasons a while back.
I could probably get the Noire new for a bit less than full price which I don’t mind paying for. The aesthetic and weight along with the positive reviews I’ve seen on various forums have just caught my attention as this stuff can often do.
Given you have a good experience with some of the best headphones around, give the Noire a try.
While they’re far from being perfect as I wrote they are a very good solution if you need a closed back and they totally lack what I would call “harshness” or “dryness” of the Sundara that gave me fatigue during long listenings. Noire are very smooth and this can be a plus or a minus according to source/amplification.
The comfort is very good and if you wear a pair of headphones for hours and hours it is an important plus.
Absolutely! Find the headphones you enjoy the best and stick with them. Reviews and advice are all well and good but at the end of the day its your opinion that matters most. I have a pair of APM and I really enjoy them for travel.
Was ready to buy the Fiio BTR5, but when i saw the product, this have 4 options, i really want to know if the price range make any difference in the performance or basically in the output of the sound. The price goes from 119.90 to 139. I add the link down below.
I also wish someone could give me some thoughts on the ES100, or can link me to a review or something, just want some context on them sinces it´s the first DAC/AMP i would try.
sometimes we get really lucky and find a set of (budget cans) that resemble the qualities of more expensive higher-end cans… With me, the Stellia is so far ahead of the Elegia every time I put on the Elegia the lack of detail and areas where the Elegia doesn’t stack up would be blatantly obvious. My Elegia has found a place on the rack since I bought the Focal Radiance I find it difficult to listen to the Elegia at all so coming from the stellia wow that’s a huge step-down in several areas of sound quality. could that be part of what’s happening and that’s not even to mention the fact the word “Empyreans” was also used in that sentence…
