Focal Elear v Utopia

I recently had the chance to compare these two sets of headphones. It was fairly brief, but FWIW: The both have the same sonic signature. At four times the price, one would hope that the Utopia would be better and it was, but no where near four times better. If I push it, maybe I can say 20% better. More detail, more musical, singers sounded more life-like. I think in a short listening session, it would not make that much difference to have the Utopia instead of the Elears. But for a longer session, I think the Utopia would make for a more enjoyable session with less listener fatigue. One would have to have a pretty good budget to justify the expense, with one proviso: I did not know (and now cannot recall the name of) the DAC the store was using, price-wise it was middle of the pack (around $1000, as I recall). So perhaps with, say, a Hugo 2 the Utopia would have a bigger lead.

 

In that scenario, I’d be trying out the Focal Clear model - probably instead of the Elear.

 

The Focal headphones are good. Good sound and easy to drive. Soundstage isn't as big as I would like and it's a little difficult to get them to do the out of your head style of headphone sound that I like. But they can do it with the right amp. The HD800 does that sort of out of your head sound better.

The Elear has a midrage dip between 4 kHz and 8 kHz. Not so noticeable in a quick audition with rock music. But play a solo violin recording and you'll pick out the missing 4-8 kHz range very quickly. The Utopia doesn't have that dip and has a much better and more even frequency response. The Utopia is a nice headphone for classical and rock and jazz and pretty much anything.

The Focal Clear also doesn't have the midrage dip that the Elear has. If you're looking for a Focal start with the Clear and ignore the Elear. Then consider the Utopia if your wallet is deep enough and you have an amp and DAC that can get them to demonstrate why they're better.

Here are InnerFidelity reviews for the Elear, Clear, and Utopia
Enter the Next Generation: Focal Elear Headphone
Focal Clear Over Ear Open Headphones
World's Best Headphone: The Focal Utopia

 

Massdrop also has the Focal Elex.

 

I have an Elex, it's a nice phone but not perfect by any stretch. I feel it's an upgrade from the sennheiser hd 650, 600 line.

Utopia is very amp dependent in my brief time with it, if the amp synergy doesn't nail it you won't get the magic. I think the elear and elex are less picky in that regard and the utopias price does not help in putting together a reasonably priced setup.

Need to have a listen to a Clear, should be the best compromise I am reading.

 

I have the Utopias and up until recently was using them with my desktop rig (Benchmark Dac2 HGC). A few weeks ago I bought a Woo Audio WA22 headphone amp, which is now in the rack with my ARC and Ayre gear. I got the amp primarily so I could listen to vinyl through the headphones. All I can say is - WOW! The WA22 pairs VERY well with the Utopias. Next thing, though, is I see myself doing some tube rolling...

 

I agree that the Elex can be considered as an upgrade to the HD600/6XX. I find the ear cups a bit too shallow for my large ears but I like them a lot.

 

You need to be careful here, as there was quite some controversy over the response of the Utopia's Inner Fidelity reviewed versus the response of Utopias out in the field. This is all documented on Inner Fidelity's site. In the end Tyll was forced to pull the Utopia from the Wall Of Fame because what he reviewed was not representative of what people were buying.

I agree with all those who think that the Utopia is not worth the premium over the Elear/Clear, not unless you value the build quality of the Utopia, which is substantially better than the cheaper headphones.

Diver110, if you are considering headphones of the price of the Elear/Clear, you may want to take a listen to ZMF Auteurs:

ZMF Auteur Over-Ear Headphone Pure Bliss: ZMF crafts a worthy flagship and a musical masterpiece! Review By Dave Hanson

 

The sonically unique Utopia that Tyll got for his first review of the Utopia did cause a kerfuffle. It had a sound that no other retail version of the Utopia had. So it made his initial review a bit misleading. Unfortunate.

Here's an article where Tyll measures seven Utopia headphones and compares them to that initial one he got: Seven Focal Utopias Measured

The Utopia measurement that is in the InnerFidelity measurements archive is one of the Utopias that measures like the other Utopias. It isn't the one he got for the first review. So when comparing the different measurements for the Elear, Clear, and Utopia on InnerFidelity you're getting representative samples and a more fair comparison.

All that drama about the Utopia doesn't mean it's a bad headphone. It's very good. But still has some flaws. All headphones have sonic flaws. Even the $4000+ headphones. The Focal headphones have a good dynamics. They sound punchy for an open headphone and the bass goes down deep. The advantage for the Utopia over Elear is that it has a frequency response that can play a violin. And the Utopia presents low level details in the music that the Elear masks. But to hear those low level details you need an amp and DAC that are up to the task. It takes a very good amp and DAC to take advantage of the Utopia.

I still haven't auditioned the Focal Clear yet. I'll do it eventually. I expect that it will play violin and classical (and rock and everything else) to my satisfaction. I'm not in the market to buy one right now so I'm not in a hurry to hear it with my gear. My amps and DAC do sound very good with the Utopia. Good synergy. If I wanted a Clear or even Utopia I've got gear that will work very well for them.

 

Thanks for all of the feedback. I own the Elears. I bought them for listening when I stay with my girlfriend in Denver (I live in Baltimore). But, I am about to downsize to a condo, just sold my beloved Legacy Aeris (boy did that hurt, but at 200 pounds each, too hard to move around, and in any event not really useable in a condo). I listened to both classical and Eva Cassidy during the comparison, but the classical tended more to symphonic and piano, not solo violin (which I don't tend to listen to, to begin with). I also own Sennheiser 650s, which I never have been crazy about. I think the Elears are a major upgrade. But I have never heard the Clears. I have a Hugo 2 on order for a trial. I will put that up against my Mytek Brooklyn. Any words of wisdom on headphones that match well with either DAC?

 

Well, I compared them again, this time through a better dac, a Hugo 2. I still might say the Utopias were 20% better, but now a firmer 20%. Even the guy in the Grammaphone store acknowledged that the price was a little over the top. He felt that the Clears, at $500 more, were really worth it, however. I have not checked out the Clears yet.

 

After having Clears for 10 months I sold my HD800S's.

They sound really good with Violectric solid state amps from Germany.

 

I think it was a bit more than a year ago that I had the opportunity to listen to both the Utopia and the Elear during a local audio show. I thought that the Utopia were gorgeous and sounded breathtakingly good. I almost bought a set on the spot f it was not for the eye watering price. But then something strange happened on the way back home: when I had a bit of time to cool down and think about it, I came to the conclusion that the Elear wasn't that far off from the Utopia. They both shared the same sound signature and while the Utopia was better I sure wasn't able to qualify the difference or put a price tag on it.

It bothered me and when the Clear were released I got even more confused, because if the Elear and the Utopia are not that different, then what's the deal with the Clear? Having a master degree in procrastination I let time pass without doing anything until Massdrop released the Elex and then I ran out of excuses and went for them. I really don't know how the Elex stands in the evolutionary tree of Focal or if they are bettter/worse/identical than the Elear or like the Clear but not like them. What I know is that they became my favorite set of headphones, displacing the HD600 and this is something which I didn't think could happen.

Oh, and like @ls35a, I drive them with a Violectric amp and I agree that focal headphones are a good match.

 

I had the Utopia in my listening room. The Utopia needs a powerful amp. After two weeks listening, I kept the Hifiman 1000 V2. Thi Hifiman sounds more natural without any weakness.

 

FWIW, the Elex is thought to be between the Elear and the Clear. I have heard that the Clear clearly (sorry, I couldn't resist) is a step up from the Elex, but the Clear costs almost twice as much (and less that the Elear...who would want to buy the Elear now?).

 

I'm not sure that I follow the above, but the Elear is $1k and the Clear is $1.5k. Are you trying to say that:

(a) the Elex is $750;
(b) the Elex is better than the Elear;
(c) who would consider the Elear given that that Elex is both cheaper and better?

To answer the last part, those who are not aware of MassDrop.

Companies are going to have to be really careful getting into bed with MassDrop -- they risk disenfranchising their customers!

 

You can't buy an Elex right now. It is not currently available on Massdrop. Don't know if/when it will be available again.

 

They Massdrop Elex are up now for 699.00 + tax. I just ordered a pair. It shows 9 hours left on the drop.

 

There is something going on with the Utopia. On sale now for 3500 bucks or 3000 with any kind of clean trade in headphones.

Upscale Audio is throwing in a Questyle QP2R DAP (list of 1295) for the sale 3500 or trade in price of 3000 on the Utopias. 3999 list cans and 1295 list DAP for 3000 w/trade in? Focal must be pushing these out.

Focal Utopia Headphones w/ FREE $1299 Questyle QP2R Player

Also, there is some rather unflattering postings about the Utopia over at Super Audio Best Friends. Non-transferable warranty and some other issues.

 

The Elex is in the Massdrop Made program. Meaning that the items are in stock and ship the next day. So each drop lasts a day. Then the next day a new drop till stock is gone. The Elex has been available for about a week like that already. So don't panic if the drop only has a few hours left. It will be back immediately and good for another 24 hours till stock is gone. I don't know how much stock they've got of the Elex.

 

I own the Clear, after having HD650's for years. I absolutely love them, a fantastic sounding headphone that I'm driving via an RME ADI-2 Pro FS, signal comes into the RME balanced from the record out on my ARC LS28, allows me to select any of the sources in my system and route to the RME. The Clear headphones are just that - clear. The sound is very detailed and a joy to listen. I use them quit a bit, once my daughter is down for the night, I can keep listening to music at volume as opposed to having to cut the volume way down (we live in SF, so not a whole lot of room).

 

This is not the first time that Focal has offered the Utopia at a sizeable discount.