The Focal Elear headphones cost around £800 and are an open back pair designed headphones. The Focal Elear feature many innovations from Focal.
For starters the Elear offers the world’s first, full range and fully open back loudspeaker, built-in to a pair of headphones. They are made from an Aluminum-Magnesium blend, in a formed shape, brand new “M” shape dome speaker. This new dome shape has originated from the research performed during the £3,500 Focal Utopia headphone. In fact the Elear also benefits from a lot of the R&D done on Utopia.
The acoustic quality and design of the Elear means that Focal menaced to avoid the use of any crossover or passive filtering process in order to achieve a frequency response from 5Hz to 23kHz.
So what does all this fancy tech mean. Quite simply the headphones virtually disappear and provide a truly unique high-fidelity audio experience. The headphones are also very comfortable too.
The Key Specifications
– Impedance 80 ohms
– SPL 104db
– Frequency Response – 5Hz to 23kHz
– Loudspeaker – 137⁄64“ (40mm) Aluminum-Magnesium “M” shape dome
– Weight – 450g
The Musical Experience
One word for these headphones. Incredible. And like nothing you have listened to before. The Focal Elear headphones are also relatively easy to drive but do need a separate amp for optimum performance. My LG V30 and even my Fiio Q1 mk2 were powerful enough to drive these. However, upping the ante to a £400 Audio-gd USB DAC/Amp and the bar gets raised again.
What makes the Elear so special to listen to? Everything appears as if its being performed in the room. The headphones disappear. Singers appear in front of you, instrument separation and soundstage is off the charts good. Bass is fast, deep and impactful. The experience is staggering. Every genre I tried was a new experience and rediscovering every song in my collection.
Video Review
Conclusion
In your lifetime you owe it to yourself to own a pair of these. Highly highly recommended.
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