Focal Open Back Over-Ear Headphone

I've listened to many mid range and high range headphones but it always takes me a while to consider a purchase due to price. After countless hours of research and reading peoples impressions and reviews I decided to purchase the Focal Elear (without hearing them first).TL:DR at bottom.Presentation:The Elears come in this large black box with shaped foam on the inside. The packaging is beautiful and functional and I definitely intend to keep this not only for storage but for aesthetic reasons. In between the headphones is the manual that comes with it. Your usual stuff. Below their logo "Focal" is the ridiculously long and heavy cable that Focal includes with these cans. A whoppping 13 feet and coming in at around .75 pounds! When you first take these cans out of the box you'll first notice the heft. They weigh in (without the cable) at 450 grams. That's .99 pounds. However, the weight didn't seem too bad and definitely seemed worth it once you get a look at them. They are beautiful headphones! They feel very solid, and you can tell that Focal took dedication into their design. The pads are comprised of memory foam wrapped in microfiber cloth. It is also very clear that these are open headphones as you can see right through the ear cups.Comfort:Despite the weight of these cans, once you put them on your head they balance well and you don't feel the weight. After some listening, you'll notice it but it really doesn't bother me. I know most of us have probably used microfiber cloth to clean their electronics but never put them on your head. They are very soft and comfortable, although get a bit warm after a while of listening, but nowhere near leather pads. While the majority of my testing had me using aftermarket cables, I did test the extra heft while using the default cables. As long as you're not standing on anything 13 feet tall so the cable is dangling, there isn't much of an issue. They seem more solid than anything.Sound:The moment you've all been waiting for. These immediately surprised me when I began playing a song. The clarity of these are outstanding! Easily the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed was the lack of soundstage. This may sound like a con, but it really isn't. Just a few seconds later when the song opened up more the level of detail and imaging were quite impressive. As the song progressed, the dynamism and musicality of these cans just took over. This made me not really care about the lack of soundstage. There are some cans like the HD800/s that have the widest soundstage and are very analytical. However, I found with the HD800/s is sometimes difficult to just listen because you'll just be analyzing the sounds rather than just enjoying. The sound from these cans just throws the audio right in your face and you'll soon be finding yourself in audio nirvana as the song just takes you. As for instrument separation, it's more like each individual note is separated. A difference experience for sure, but sounded wonderful. The frequency range of these cans are very smooth sounding. I wouldn't call it neutral because it leans more towards a slight warmth and a little dark, but with such outstanding clarity it really comes together with lots of genres. I mainly listen to rock and electronic, and this can shines exceptionally well with both.The bass is smooth and punchy; bass heads rejoice. Now from what i've heard they aren't as punchy as say the LCD3 or the Ether Flows, but they do have a great amount of bass without adjusting an EQ especially compared to my HD600 and AKG712s which virtually had 0 bass. My favorite part of the bass is that there is no leakage into the mids as I have noticed with some other cans. These headphones have an odd side effect to keep making me turn up the volume. Not just because it sounds better at higher volumes but because these are so non fatiguing even in the highs which i found my 712s to be a tad bright at times. Just for kicks, i pumped up the Sub bass by 7dB, and the mid bass up by around 5dB to see how bassy I could make these without noticeable distortion. To my surprise, these were kicking so hard with once again no bleed into the mids, and no distortion or noticeable decline in the highs. It got a little rough to listen to as it felt like a subwoofer was sitting on my head, which actually tickled my ears after a while.What I should have mentioned above, was the dac/amp pairings. The fist device I used was my Chord Mojo. I did have to use aftermarket cables or an adapter because the Elear comes with a 1/4 inch instead of an 1/8. Compared to using my phone, because of the impedance these are quite easy to drive, the Mojo gave it a wider soundstage and a richer more full sounding body. Even out of my phone, it was surprisingly great sounding without an amp. Next I decided to use my brand new Questyle CM600i with an aftermarket balanced 4-pin xlr cable. My prediction of how using balanced with a Class A amp would only improve the audio quality by about 2-3 percent. Boy was i wrong! The sound was more full and detailed as well as smoother, and to my ears feel like it threw the music directly into my brain. These are without a doubt my new favorite cans. These aren't as analytical as say an hd800 but the listening experience you gain from these are wonderful. I've only had about 20 hours of listening, so if a break in period is real, i can't imagine these getting any better sounding. Definitely worth the 1000 price tag.TL:DR- Great clarity and detail, with superb imaging and outstanding musically. These are however, slightly warm and a little dark but sound great with all 3 sources, my cell phone, Chord Mojo, Questyle CM600i. Sounds best with rock, rap, and electronic music. Small soundstage, but given the musicality you rarely notice it. Vocals sound beautiful but for some songs don't have the sense of brightness one would expect from other high-end cans. There is a slight noticeable drop in the 4k-5k. EQ the 4k up by 1-2dB and the vocals will spark back. I hope you all enjoyed this review!

I have been listening to these headphones for about two weeks now and I am thrilled.I have been using a pair of Denon AH-D7000 cans as well as JH Audio Jh16v2 Pros. The Focal Elears are obviously engineered quite differently and sound simply amazing. The sound stage and ambience is enormous and provides a clearly defined spatial representation of the music that is both immersive and expressive. The little details present themselves in a way that I am simply not used to hearing. You can close your eyes and imagine being on the stage or in the studio. So many little nuances...I cannot stress enough how much these put you into the music, particularly compared to the other models I mentioned above (which I find to be great products as well).I will say these things are power hungry as hell. For my desktop setup, I use a Schitt Audio Lyre (amp) and Bifrost (DAC). This combo powers the Elears without any trouble and they really shine. But how about portable players? That's where things get interesting...If you get into these cans thinking you can plug them into a phone or mp3 player and get big sound, think again. My Denons and JHs tackle these with no problem. However, the Elears sound closed in and muddy. It breaks my heart to hear the Elears in this way after hearing them properly powered.I primarily use an Onkyo DP-X1 as my audio player and this is where things shift. First of all, I want to say that I bought custom cables off Ebay from a company called LQi. They're about $150 a pair but they are fantastic. If you want to use the Elears in any portable capacity, you will want to consider replacement cables. The ones that come with are very long and very, very heavy.Anyway, I bought a standard 3.5mm set of cables as well as balanced 2.5mm. Again, using the 3.5mm cable with both an iPhone 7 and Samsung S7, the Elears sounded really flat. In fact, they sounded only marginally better on the Onkyo. The real difference was with the balanced cable.Using the balanced jack on the Onkyo exploits the dual DAC and amp configuration and it drives the Elears more than adequately. In fact, they sound gorgeous.I highly recommend these cans. They are comfortable on my head and ears, even after extended wear. They are open backed cans so you will hear ambient noise as nearby folks will likely hear your music. If you want sound isolation, turn them up because you will hear everything around you. That's ok with me as they are really not my go to option on a plane (check out Sennheiser Momentum 2s).Why the details about the Onkyo? I guess to make the point that you must drive these properly to get the sound quality and extract the full capability of these headphones. If you don't have a decent headphone amp of some kind and dont plan to, then don't spend the money on these. You will be disappointed.On the other hand, if you are committed to getting the best out of them and you don't have the equipment today, you may want to factor in the added cost of both cables and either a quality dac/amp and/or audio player with same. Those can easily take your $999 purchase price and double it.Anyway, I think these cans are amazing. I could not be happier with them.

Bass clips and is unlistenable on about half of music played through it on medium/high volume. Sounds great until this happens, I do not understand this headphone, it sounds good until played loudly? So so stupid sent back right away.

Not the utlimate in transparency (for that one should look to electrostatics, I suppose), but a very dymanic, very well built, and comfortable headphone. Overall it is hard to beat if one can find it for around $500 new on Amazon.

Very nice headphones impressive build and also light weight

Der Focal Elear kommt in einer magnetisch zugeclippten Box, die ganze Präsentation schreit "Das hier ist Qualitätsarbeit".Der Sound (selbsterstellte FLACs und Tidal HiFi) klingt sehr klar und hochauflösend, ohne aber den "Spaß" aus der Musik zu nehmen.Bass ist vorhanden und löst nebst sanftem "Punch" klar und detailliert auf. Wer seinen Kopf vibrieren spüren möchte, ist hier aber falsch.

Escribo este análisis aun impresionado por la calidad de estos auriculares.Ya había oído hablar de Focal y su famoso Utopia, considerado por muchos el mejor auricular del mundo, a un precio de casi 4000€. Por tanto no esperaba gran cosa de uno de sus hermanos menores costando cuatro veces menos.Considerándome un aficionado bastante exigente con la calidad de sonido reconozco que ofrecen una calidad asombrosa. De hecho los puedo comparar con los Grado PS1000e que tengo en casa y costando la mitad no salen nada mal parados, todo lo contrario. Mi fuente de sonido ha sido el TIDAL en calidad CD, DAC Schiit Bifrost uber y amplificador Asgard 2.Comparados con los Grado, estos Focal podría considerarlos muy neutros y de timbre mucho más relajado por comparación. No obstante he de decir que eso no quita que el sonido no sea rico y vibrante, con bastante buena separación de instrumentos aunque con un escenario reducido. Si algo me gusta de los PS1000e es que pareciera que estás en la séptima fila de un teatro, los Elear no son así, dando más bien la sensación de estar más metido entre los instrumentos. No obstante no creo que eso sea un defecto, los auriculares es lo que tienen y compararlos con altavoces puede ser interesante pero su sonido es bien diferente.Los graves de los Elear me parecen limpios y profundos. Hay sonidos que con los Grado no podía escuchar y que con estos cobran especial vida sin resultar agresivos. En los medios es un auricular que ofrece un sonido muy correcto y bonito y en agudos se muestra más bien contenido.Una cosa muy importante en estos auriculares es su construcción y comodidad. Se ven particularmente bien hechos y son tremendamente cómodos. La presentación en su caja es como debe hacerse: un lugar donde poder dejar los auriculares y que no se estropeen, ojalá Grado tomase nota.Realmente si no tuviera ya los Grado me parece que estos son un punto de partida excelente para aquel que quiera disfrutar de un auricular de calidad hifi a un precio asequible.

I got the Elear from HiDef through Amazon. Quick delivery and very well packaged (box inside box inside box). I am not an audiophile so I won't be describing the Focal Elear headphone in audiophile terms because I don't know really what they mean. The first time I listened to the Elear I was not impressed and I thought of returning it. I had high expectations because of the great reviews I read about it. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try for a week before I made my final decision. After many hours of listening to it, this headphone grew on me. This is the first headphone I could listen to for hours without my ears getting tired, without getting a headache and without my head getting sweaty. It is very well built: solid structure, excellent detail, and holds well on my head so it doesn't fall if I move around. The frequency range from lower bass to high treble, to me, is just right. It is like eating food that has just the right amount of salt and spices that do not overwhelm your taste buds but makes you want to go back and eat more. It is simply YUMMY! I used it on a Roland digital piano and the sound was amazing. The sound was like a real grand piano. I now call this headphone the magical headphone because everything sounds nice through it. It sounds natural to me. A headphone like Foster TH900 has more bass and treble but I found it to be tiring after an hour or so (and keeps falling of my head when I move around). The Skullcandy crusher headphone, which I refer to it as the king of bass, is very fulfilling for about 10-15mins but it gives me a headache. I tried over 36 headphones (each for a week or more) from Audeze, Beats, B&O, Bose, Harman/Kardon, Koss, Sennheiser, Sony, etc... but I didn't find anything that made me feel as happy to listen to as this headphone. They are all great headphones but to me the Focal Elear sounded the best. I can't get enough of it!PS. It works well with iPad, iPhone, Samsung Note but sometimes not loud enough with soft classical music. I tried it with AMP/DAC OPPO HA-2SE and it makes a difference but only when the OPPO is set to high-gain.My recommendation is if you don't like it right away, give it a chance. You might love it after a week or so.

For under $1,000.00,this is one of the best over the ear headphones you can buy. I use it with my Onkyo high-res player, it sounds As good as my main system that cost 10 times as much.