Focal Elegia Review (Closed Back Headphone)

[Peterinvan]

The sturdy cable is annoying, but it can be replaced easily. Worse problem is a broken headband. Mine broke spontaneously, unexpectedly and without abuse 2 days ago - a few months after the warranty expired :-( And according Uncle Google I am one of many users who have the same problem...

See my post on Headfi showing how to retrofit a Chinese Audeze type headband. My headband broke after 5 years of rough use

 

[Montrealer]

I'm not sure why anyone would try that considering that Elear and Elex exist.

Because the Elear and the Elex suck.

Seriously now, despite sporting a name that starts with "El" the Elegia has more in common with the Clear OG; same driver, same magnet, which are different from Elear and Elex. This can incite some enterprising audiophiles to believe they can transform their Elegia into a Clear for little investment.

Personally, I don't think that would work. I am a lifelong collector of headphones; I have all the "muscular" type Focals from Elex to Utopia, except for the Celestee and the sponsored models. They all exhibit their very own personality, some I like, some I don't. I like the Clear, I don't like the Elegia OOB. I seriously doubt the latter could be made to sound like the Clear, but one is welcome to share their musings about it

On a side note, having the same driver as the Clear is the major reason why Focal designed the Elegia as a semi-closed unit. A compromise to avoid having to research a proper driver otherwise, so Focal wouldn't have been able to MSRP under $1,000 without sustaining a loss, considering that they had expended a lot of resources on the Elegia's "vented labyrinth" cup design. I'd wish they had spent as much on re-tuning the driver. I suspect it was left exactly as tuned as for the Clear OG, hence the less-than-impressive SQ of the unit's OOB experience. One can't expect much from a driver that was tuned for an open-back to perform well in a closed-back without user tweaking. Also, Elegia's pads are horrific.

 

[Robert996]

Good Morning

I have the Focal Elegia and have been trying to implement your equaliser settings on my Auralic Altair and I get a warning not to exceed 0 DBFS. on the auto setting the graph I get is 6db down on everthing and if I take the auto setting off I get the same graph suggested in the review. Since I am not really sure what I am doing and don't want to damage anything could someone advise

Many Thanks
Robert

 

[Rja4000]

Good Morning

I have the Focal Elegia and have been trying to implement your equaliser settings on my Auralic Altair and I get a warning not to exceed 0 DBFS. on the auto setting the graph I get is 6db down on everthing and if I take the auto setting off I get the same graph suggested in the review. Since I am not really sure what I am doing and don't want to damage anything could someone advise

Many Thanks
Robert

You need to lower overall by 5dB

 

[Robert996]

So I will be 5 DB down on the graph Amirm showed in the review his baseline is 0 and the changes are positive and mine the flat line is 5 db down and the peaks get to zero