[lovethatsound]

I believe it to be a ripoff compared to the TT, Hugo and Mojo. £8000 is comical. I'm happy to accept that's not what you think mate. Be happy to accept that's what I think. You don't need to blame the other things I used with it. By all means just blame me and my ears.

£8000 is too much,i agree with you, £3250 for utopia is that not too much as well?It seems to me,we are all paying too much,yet we keep on paying it,don't we.

 

[guitarrules]

My plan is a centrance m8 with the elears

 

[potkettleblack]

Yeah I shouldn't have brought it up because before we know we get into a diminishing returns/ Ferrari vs Aston Martin conversation. I just think for the performance I heard doesn't justify the price difference in this case for what else Chord offer.

 

[comzee]

How much better is Utopia than Elear?

 

[x RELIC x]

How much better is Utopia than Elear?

$3001 better.

 

[pkcpga]

I believe it to be a ripoff compared to the TT, Hugo and Mojo. £8000 is comical. I'm happy to accept that's not what you think mate. Be happy to accept that's what I think. You don't need to blame the other things I used with it. By all means just blame me and my ears.

It not always price or what's best overall. Some equipment works better with different equipment, my chord Dave sounds great with my nautilus speakers and most of my full size headphones but the Dave is not perfect with my ls50 speakers or some of my IEM's. So there's no end all be all, if your equipment works well with the Dave it's truely incredible.

 

[meomap]

It not always price or what's best overall. Some equipment works better with different equipment, my chord Dave sounds great with my nautilus speakers and most of my full size headphones but the Dave is not perfect with my ls50 speakers or some of my IEM's. So there's no end all be all, if your equipment works well with the Dave it's truely incredible.

So Dave is for big boys only.

 

[pkcpga]

So Dave is for big boys only.

I just find the mojo or Lynn or rega works better with my IEM's and the Lynn and ls50 mesh better. And my dynaudios mesh with the rega. So more like sound signatures and supporting equipment.

 

[Stillhart]

  How much better is Utopia than Elear?

 
Significantly better.  More balanced tonality, much more resolving, faster sounding, build quality is amazing, etc etc.  It's better in every way except price.
 
And since I know you're going to ask, the comments above are ignoring price/performance/value as a factor.  Everyone has their own value system and nobody can tell you whether it'll be worth $3k more to YOU.  But you know... diminishing returns is a thing.

 

[Audio Addict]

Just get Chord DAVE and be done with it. Well, that's what I'm contemplating, though not in a rush.

I wonder if that combination will be available to listen to at CanJam London. Seems unlikely unless you bring your own DAVE.

 
Unless money isn't a concern, I could not justify that route for a DAC again.  I went that route with a Meridian 808.2 but digital improvements still keep happening and the $16K Meridian might be worth $2.5K now.  While it sounds great now and most likely in the future the technology keeps improving.

 

[murphythecat]

It not always price or what's best overall. Some equipment works better with different equipment, my chord Dave sounds great with my nautilus speakers and most of my full size headphones but the Dave is not perfect with my ls50 speakers or some of my IEM's. So there's no end all be all, if your equipment works well with the Dave it's truely incredible.

I couldnt agree more.
just like with amps, dac/speaker or dac/headphone synergy is real.

 

[Currawong]

 

  I'm not saying anything new here. It is just common knowledge.

 
Whilst I agree with most of your thoughts and I too believe the Elear can potentially be categorized as mid-fi (especially if we're talking about Tyll's wall of fame, for example), one thing I find a little jarring is that the Elear may be a better match for the WA8 than the Utopia based off of the fact that the latter requires "TOTL amp/DAC" to sound its best.
 
Sure, the WA8 is closer to the price tag of the Elear than it is to Utopia's and my experience with really expensive gear is quite narrow (I own a WA7 for example) but I find it hard to believe that a 2 thousand dollar amp (possibly paired with an external DAC) crafted by arguably the most respected valve device manufacturer in the US cannot adequately drive the Utopia. I refuse to believe you need to spend 16 grand on their WA234 Monoblocks, which after all is their TOTL product, to get the Utopia to sound as it should. Of course, the better the chain, the better the headphones will sound, any properly built headphones nowadays will scale fairly well in my opinion but is that last 1 or 2 or however much % really worth paying 3 times the price of the WA8 to get the WA5 (which isn't even their TOTL) instead? Maybe, but I personally didn't take @Currawong 's claims that far.

 
I don't think I'd call $1k headphone "mid-fi". I'd say my Sony Z7s are "mid-fi". The Elear were absolutely wonderful-sounding to me when I tried them at the SF meet. It will be interesting to compare them to $1k-2k headphones in the future as I reckon they might just be very competitive.
 

  I personally can't stand the notion of using 'mid-fi' today, as there really is no such thing.  People are using mid-fi, hi-fi, and summit-fi to denote price of headphones and their respective 'exclusivity.'  In fact, Currawong wrote in a post a while back in regards to moving the LCD2 thread from summit-fi to full-sized headphones that he defined summit-fi as headphones that 'cost thousands of dollars' or ones that were rather esoteric- such as electrostats, which required their own unique amps-- two things which have absolutely nothing to do with sound quality.

 
Sort-of. Summit-Fi, from memory (as I didn't create it, so I might be slightly wrong here) was created out of demand by long-term members who wanted somewhere apart from the regular forums to discuss more exclusive, properly high-end gear, where there was less noise (there we go, I said it!). Now that space has been thoroughly invaded by manufacturers, and members, I may as well consider suggesting a dedicated "Budget-Fi" forum as well, for <$100 stuff to balance it.  However in regard to less noisy and more exclusive forum discussion, I have suggested adding a "groups" link at the top of the forums, and promoting interesting groups where people can have more freedom and more exclusivity at the same time in what is discussed, eg: forums/communities within the forums that are self-guided and self-moderated.
 

  Another question to those who can answer. 
Focal Elear with the CHORD/ MOJO or IFI iDSD micro ???? i know the IFI is more powerful. But what would be differences in sound be ? I wish i got to experience more gear in person. But every dealer is located so far from where i'm located. 

 
I was listening to them out a Mojo with no complaints at the SF meet. I didn't try any demanding music, but at worst if you get dynamic compression, then there are plenty of good amps around at all price ranges. 

 

[Mediahound]

   
I don't think I'd call $1k headphone "mid-fi". I'd say my Sony Z7s are "mid-fi". The Elear were absolutely wonderful-sounding to me when I tried them at the SF meet. It will be interesting to compare them to $1k-2k headphones in the future as I reckon they might just be very competitive.
 
 

To me it's all semantics. Sony would call their Z7 high end since it's their flagship model. And the Elear is definitely quite above them. 
 
When I had the LCD-2 I never considered them mid-fi and Audeze didn't ether. Both the LCD-2 and 3's were high-end. 

 

[up late]

Re: HP categories. Yeah, I can concede that summit-fi/mid-fi/budget-fi  tags serves no purpose except to sow confusion and encourage useless debates.  The relatively neutral Flagship HP and non-Flagship HP works better. We all know which HPs are flagship HPs and which aren't. It is just a statement of fact. In this case, Utopia is the flagship headphone of Focal. The Elear isn't. There. No controversy.

that's not a concession, that's just a face-saving attempt to dismiss a discussion out of hand after you were shown to be mistaken. terms like budget, mid-fi, high-end and flagship are commonly used and understood in this community. the $1000 price point for headphones has never been regarded as mid-fi here to the best of my knowledge. now that might change in time but it certainly isn't the norm currently.

 

[jude]

 
Significantly better.  More balanced tonality, much more resolving, faster sounding, build quality is amazing, etc etc.  It's better in every way except price.
 
And since I know you're going to ask, the comments above are ignoring price/performance/value as a factor.  Everyone has their own value system and nobody can tell you whether it'll be worth $3k more to YOU.  But you know... diminishing returns is a thing.

 
I'm one of the people who'd Elearize the tonal balance of the Utopia if I could. For me what the Utopia does better is resolution--it is no doubt the more resolving of the two. However, the Elear's tonal balance is more to my tastes, which have shifted a bit toward a fuller sound (than what I'd deem neutral) over the past couple of years.
 
Even still, to my ears--shy of a direct comparison with its sibling--the Elear is still among the most resolving electrodynamics out there, in my opinion. Textures, timbre...wonderful from the Elear.