New Focal Headphones - Any Naim Involvement in Design? Any impressions?

Thanks to a local friend who has been away on vacation for the last week I have had my hands on the Focal Elear and Sennheiser HD800 S.  The Elears had about 150 hours on them and the Sennheisers had many more hours than that when I got them, so both a fairly well broken in.

The conclusion first: the hype around the Elears seems well-founded.  These will be my next headphones.  They appear to be a game changer in the sub-$1000 headphone market (and slightly above).

The sound of the Elears are very close to that of my Ovators - excellent PRAT, very good midrange, more than sufficient and very deep bass.  The 800S still has a little more clarity and much wider soundstage, but just is missing the fun factor compared to the Elears.  If I was mastering an album I might choose the Sennheisers, but for any other use I would clearly pick the Elear.

Potentially the greatest value of the Elear is how easy it is to drive.  They sound excellent with the HL/NAPSC combo, whereas the HD650 (my current cans) and the 800S needed the HCDR to come alive and really were almost unlistenable without it.  Adding the HCDR with the Elear almost seemed unnecessary in comparison and I think many people could happily live without it.  I imagine the Elear would perform phenomenally well with the DACV1, as well.

Now if I can only get my hands on the Utopia... 

Tried both the Elear's and the HD800s at the weekend, to my probably age restricted hearing, I thought the HD800s were the better across the board after 1-2 hrs auditioning.

And by far the more comfortable, the Elear's becoming distinctly noticeable after 10-15 mins listening.

But, that could of course have been my head in both respects .

KR, J

BTW the HD800s impressed me enough to make a purchase 

Dr_J posted:

Tried both the Elear's and the HD800s at the weekend, to my probably age restricted hearing, I thought the HD800s were the better across the board after 1-2 hrs auditioning.

And by far the more comfortable, the Elear's becoming distinctly noticeable after 10-15 mins listening.

But, that could of course have been my head in both respects .

KR, J

BTW the HD800s impressed me enough to make a purchase 

Fair enough.  I thought the 800 S was a great headphone, but needed the HCDR & Powerline on the HL just to be listenable and still was quite "clinical" sounding, especially in comparison to the Elear.  I felt it was a very hifi sounding headphone, but just didn't get to the heart of the music like the Elear did.  As I said, my prior reference is the HD650 and I preferred it (shortcomings, flaws and all) to the HD800 years ago and to the 800S now.  To me the Elear sounds like an HD650 with deeper, cleaner, punchier bass & slightly less grainy treble, better soundstage and imaging and substantially easier to drive.  If Sennheiser were to create a reference with the HD650 sound signature I feel the Elear is it.  I've logged about 10-12 hours on the Elear in the past week and had minimal comfort issues.

What headphone amp were you using?

I auditioned the headphones on both the built-in headphone amp. In the Superuniti and the DAC-V1.The latter was undoubtedly the better option, but perhaps not by the predicted margin. 

As for comfort, different heads I guess.

KR, J

HD800 are hard to drive where Elear is quite the opposite. You need something more adequate for HD800 to be at its best, powerful but warm sounding amp, where Elear is a joy with everything even with 272 headphone amp...

So it is not only the headphones but the match.... For Dac v-1 Elear or Fostex 610/900 are best matches in my humble opinion..

try to use other amplification than naim, i dont know if the new focal headphones were developed with naim headphone amplification, headline, dacv1...i have hd 650 and with dac v1 isn't briliant, you hear something but not all.  when used with dedicated headphone amp that's something else.

Adi Stefan posted:

try to use other amplification than naim, i dont know if the new focal headphones were developed with naim headphone amplification, headline, dacv1...i have hd 650 and with dac v1 isn't briliant, you hear something but not all.  when used with dedicated headphone amp that's something else.

Nothing wrong with Naim amplification, especially the Headline with a NAPSC, HCDR or SCDR.  The DAC-V1 is no slouch, either, but not to the same standard as the HL, in my experience.  However, the headphone amps built into the SU, SN, SN2 & 272 (those are the ones I personally have tried) all fall flat with high impedance headphones.  As Adi said, "you hear something but not all".

Since my original post I've spoken with a Focal NA rep and the flagship Focal dealer in the US.  Both said that the Headline & DAC-V1, among others, were used in the development and voicing.  I would believe it.  I will find it difficult to return the Elears after this week.  The holidays can't come soon enough for me.  If I don't find Elears under the tree I will be very disappointed.