MASSDROP X Focal ELEX Review (headphone)

[mkawa]

you can also own your hd600s for 22 years. they loosen right up after year 10

 

[phoenixsong]

Yes, given the large ear cups & angled drivers of this open backed headphone I'd be curious how it's soundstage would compare to say the HD800s and the K702 (this one I own). I think it's one of the most important aspects of a headphone so it would be good to try to add some "science" behind it. I would imagine this Focal Elex would give the HD800s a run for it's money (in general) if it has as good a soundstage as I expect it would given the large ear cups and angled drivers.

Amir did enjoy the soundstage from the Utopia though. Same build and design concept though not exactly similar as the Elex and Clear. There is something that addresses this, somebody was guessing it's in the group response measurements

 

[Robbo99999]

Amir did enjoy the soundstage from the Utopia though. Same build and design concept though not exactly similar as the Elex and Clear. There is something that addresses this, somebody was guessing it's in the group response measurements

Group Delay, I saw that as a theory that Amir question marked in the Group Delay graph. I don't think it's that though, one reason I've seen Group Delay measurements of K702 at diyaudioheaven, and it has about half the erratic group delay of the Elex in the 2-4kHz area, yet K702 has great soundstage.
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/akg/k702/

Or maybe the fact the above measurement was done on a flat plate without a pinna means it might not be capturing that region accurately in terms of Group Delay (I don't know). I think it's something else in terms of measurements that would characterise soundstage, but I don't know what....or perhaps soundstage is characterised by a number/combination of different measurements having certain properties with perhaps Group Delay being one of them.

 

[imagidominc]

Omg, it’s one of my favorite headphones! I’ve been waiting for this review since you started reviewing headphones!!

I agree with everything you said in your review. This headphone gives you great sound with EQ, but that crackle is there and a problem if you like to listen at high levels. Super comfortable and I love the design, it feels so solid. It is SUPER fatiguing tho, sometimes I’ve had to take it off after long listening sessions. It’s just so IN YOUR FACE. But that’s part of the charm of it. It’s like a fireworks display; the music is exploding in your face. Certainly an endgame headphone for me and others that can look past its flaws and appreciate the stellar sound.

EDIT: Amir, I'm listening to the Focal Elex with your EQ (through JDS Labs Element 2) and every note is so crisp and clear. Yum.

 

[phoenixsong]

Group Delay, I saw that as a theory that Amir question marked in the Group Delay graph. I don't think it's that though, one reason I've seen Group Delay measurements of K702 at diyaudioheaven, and it has about half the erratic group delay of the Elex in the 2-4kHz area, yet K702 has great soundstage.
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/akg/k702/
View attachment 123276
Or maybe the fact the above measurement was done on a flat plate without a pinna means it might not be capturing that region accurately in terms of Group Delay (I don't know). I think it's something else in terms of measurements that would characterise soundstage, but I don't know what....or perhaps soundstage is characterised by a number/combination of different measurements having certain properties with perhaps Group Delay being one of them.

True, I've been looking at measurements (without group delay graphs though) for a long time. These spacious headphones do share some similarities, but nothing conclusive. So far this group delay artifact between 2-3kHz is the closest distinguishing trait. Either way, we need more data
Looking forward to the AKG headphone measurements here

 

[Southall-1998]

S.

 

[Racheski]

S.

This. I don't see how the Elex can be recommended in good conscience, unless Focal has addressed these issues recently.

 

[phoenixsong]

This. I don't see how the Elex can be recommended in good conscience, unless Focal has addressed these issues recently.

Yup I just checked, its rating on (Mass)Drop has also fallen from 4.8/4.9 to 4.3. Guess this is a result of purchasers' units failing over time

 

[mjvbl]

So this is why testing at 114dB (if it were only to find excursion limits) is useful for low frequencies. I would say ignore all THD in the 114dB plot above 100Hz. This may look very poor for anything above 1kHz but will be levels you won't be reaching.
If I could measure at those levels I would simply stop the sweep above 300Hz. Then again.... above that frequency one can see how bad things get even though it is of no practical consequence.

This is my understanding as well. In music bass frequencies will have the highest amplitude, so when playing music and say 40Hz hits 114dB SPL most of the spectrum above the bass region will be well below that SPL. So look at the 114dB distortion measurements from the perspective of (sub-) bass performance and the limits of the headphone there. (And this can become more interesting when EQ is applied to boost the sub-bass, which one might want to do on some open-backs.)

Another way to look at it is that averaged 83dB SPL (from one speaker) is said to be the standard level for monitoring in large rooms. I'd say that's already a bit on the loud side maybe, but we're also performance testing the headphone here so let's use that. Let's say the average dynamic range of mastered music is about 16dB. So this would mean 99dB SPL peaks. But in this review we also applied +7dB of bass boost for personal preference, or maybe just to have the sub-bass flat. This bass boost counters the acoustical roll-off in the sub-bass, so we're actually having a drive level in the sub-bass that would be equivalent to a 99+7=106db SPL reference. And so for the sub-bass we should be looking at a distortion measurement at that SPL = peak + bass boost = 106dB. So slight more than the middle 104dB level. But would we want to just absolutely max out everything at this sort of standard 83 + 16 + 7 (for EQ) level or also allow for some headroom? Add 6dB to that and it's getting close to 114.

 

[Weebster]

Read post #367 from @amirm
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s-diana-v2-review-headphone.19291/post-638365

That is an interesting article

 

[PeteL]

S.

Looks like it can be a bit different if you live in Europe. I'm in Canada and my experience don't match that. My Elex have been reliable and I don't hear a Channel imbalance neither, but my Fostex TH-X00 broke, twice already, and I have to say Drop's customer service have been top, the last fail was just outside of warranty and they replaced it anyway, they even told me to keep the broken one, so I saved shipping and have spare parts if it happens again. That's quite uncommon.

 

[sandymc]

I've had an Elex for two weeks now. For the record, I've had no clicking/crackle at any volume that I listen to. The only quality grumble I have is a mechanical creak on the right hand side, where the arm enters the band proper, e.g., if you move your head too fast.

My impressions so far is that the Elex is one of the best all-round headphones I've heard. There are others that do individual things better, e.g., the 800s for soundstage, etc. But this is a very well balanced headphone. Very neutral in its presentation, but with good treble and reasonable bass. Very, very good detail retrieval and resolution. You can hear imperfections in music, but not to the point that it's annoying for general listening. Soundstage isn't to great though - music is very "in your head". But, that's not bad for e.g., jazz vocals. My only niggle on the sound quality is that there seems to be a peak somewhere in the treble that can be a bit unpleasant. I've tried a few eq profiles off the web, but haven't (yet) found one that tames the problem.

 

[lxlx]

I know the guy who did that elex story. He owns the 4th pair of ELEX meanwhile. 3 broke before, including mine that he sold to me in mint condition. Always one driver dead out of nowhere.
He knows someone at Drop, and friendly enough, they always exchange the broken units. But it's always from US, no Europe chain or anything.
And it's a sad story, that has not been fixed afaik.
Sucks, I enjoyed it a lot. And will never buy an Elex again.

 

[phoenixsong]

I know the guy who did that elex story. He owns the 4th pair of ELEX meanwhile. 3 broke before, including mine that he sold to me in mint condition. Always one driver dead out of nowhere.
He knows someone at Drop, and friendly enough, they always exchange the broken units. But it's always from US, no Europe chain or anything.
And it's a sad story, that has not been fixed afaik.
Sucks, I enjoyed it a lot. And will never buy an Elex again.

Even worse that it's a great headphone otherwise- it's akin to having a beloved pet knowing it will die prematurely one day while not knowing when

 

[oluvsgadgets]

Let me add my 2 cents. My first Elex unit broke after less than 1 year, on side suddenly failed from one moment to the other and I never really listen at high levels I never had the driver clip and never heard the issue.
I got 4 replacement units since then and the 2nd one also broke within 2 months, one side suddenly didn’t play anything. I could at least swap the working drivers into my first unit and although I got some slight imbalance it was better than nothing. The other 2 replacement units I got all had a strong imbalance already hearable within the first seconds. Also a friend of mine got an Elex with an imbalance.
So out of 5 units I know all 5 were somehow “broken”. I would definitely not recommend getting this product although it sounds really great and doesn’t need any EQ, imagine a HD600 on steroids. But to me it seems as if they used some B-stock drivers from their Elear units which didn’t pass the tests or something otherwise I cannot explain all these issues with this product.

 

[Rottmannash]

I'm sad to hear of these Elex failures. I've been fortunate mine have been faultless so far. Fingers crossed.

 

[oluvsgadgets]

for 1 year I was the happiest owner, my very first unit was close to perfect also very consistent with left and right, and then suddenly I put it on and the right side remained mute. the day before everything was fine. As I liked it so much I begged my Drop contact to send me at least a unit which worked, but all the other ones I got afterwards were far worse.

 

[Rottmannash]

Wow- that sucks. Did you take it apart to see if a wire had become loose?

 

[oluvsgadgets]

Wow- that sucks. Did you take it apart to see if a wire had become loose?

of course as you could also see in my video, I had them both taken apart, there was no visible issue, all wires were soldered perfectly, but the affected driver was just dead. Interestingly combining 2 drivers from 2 different units resulted in some imbalance again which I could somehow improve by also swapping pads, but it is not like it was at the very beginning.

 

[Acerun]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Drop Focal Elex. It was kindly loaned to me by a member and costs US $700.

The Elex naturally follows the design of the rest of Focal line:

View attachment 123061

The headphone weighs 440 grams and has inside cup dimensions of 62x55x27 (height, width, depth). Note that the driver is angled so the cup depth varies.

Overall comfort was excellent. The owner must have a similar shape to my face and head as to have worn off the pads just right.

Note: The measurements you are about to see are preformed using standardized GRAS 45CA headphone measurement fixture. Headphone measurements require more interpretation than speaker tests and have more of a requirement for subjective testing as a result. In addition, comparison of measurements between different people performing it using different configurations requires fair bit of skill. So don't look for matching results. Focus on high level picture. Listening tests are performed using RME ADI-2 DAC and its headphone output.

Mounting the headphone on the text fixture was easy requiring very little manipulation to get left and right to match at dual frequencies (within reason).

Focal Elex Measurements
As usual, we start with our stereo frequency response measurements:

View attachment 123062

That sure looks similar to Focal Clear frequency response:

The only thing different is better channel matching in Elex which could be a measure difference as much as sample difference.

Even the Focal Utopia looks similar:

Looks like they have their own target response that all of these are matched to.

Back to Elex, the relative frequency response is thus:

View attachment 123065

Group delay matches as well:

View attachment 123066

I have noted a member's hypothesis that messiness in group delay in that 2 to 4 kHz may result in better spatial effect.

As if we need any more proof of sisterhood between the Clear and Elex, here is the distortion graph which matches yet again:

View attachment 123064

One difference though: this time I did not have my own headphones on and listened to the sweeps. I was horrified to hear the drivers crackle at 114 dBSPL! The clear must have done this as well given that signature response in green:

So whoever thinks the driver limitations here is imagined, well, they need to stop saying that.

On the positive front is the incredibly low distortion at 94 dBSPL (blue). The line literally melts into the "0" percentage. Even at 114 dBSPL, there is no distortion to speak of above 2 kHz. So as long as you don't hit the limit of the drive, this is one low distortion transducer. Maybe that is the trade off they made?

Here is the distortion graph in absolute scale:

View attachment 123107

Impedance is variable and again matches Clear:

View attachment 123067

Sensitivity is good requiring half as much drive as Sennheiser HD-650 for example:

View attachment 123068

Focal Elex Listening Tests
As with the Focal Clear, the non-equalized response was fine but nothing to get excited about. Similar equalization (created from scratch here rather than copied from Clear), resulted in major improvement:

View attachment 123069

I may be biased by distortion measurements but I constantly went "oh that note is clean!" This happened across the board in many tracks. Quiet notes were especially a delight with the Elex.

It was not long though before I got horrified with the crackling sound. Oh man is this thing scary. The only audio gear that I am scared of is my 1000 watt power amplifier which has enough juice to send a speaker to Mars! The Elex headphone had me in the same spot where I had to have my hand on the volume control. I could not enjoy any track at high volume as I kept worrying about the crackle.

So I turned the volume down and got busy with another review. A couple of hours later, I realized how comfortable this headphone was and how nice its sound was at low volumes.

Conclusions
Let's cut to the chase: if the Focal Elex did not have the driver limit with that nasty crackle, it would get the highest remarks from me. It has an utlra low-distortion driver that lends itself well to equalization. Once there, the sound is a delight as long as you keep the volume reasonable and sensible. Equalization sadly gets you closer to its limit and in my application would surely hit the limit. What a shame.

I am over the shock of the driver limit that I had with the Clear and decided to upgrade my rating of Elex to "recommended."

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