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:
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:
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:
Group delay matches as well:
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:
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:
Impedance is variable and again matches Clear:
Sensitivity is good requiring half as much drive as Sennheiser HD-650 for example:
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:
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."
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The Elex naturally follows the design of the rest of Focal line:
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:
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:
Group delay matches as well:
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:
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:
Impedance is variable and again matches Clear:
Sensitivity is good requiring half as much drive as Sennheiser HD-650 for example:
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:
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."
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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