Intro
Contents
Focal’s doing good. The Sopra, Kanta and new Utopia are beautiful speakers. And in the area of headphones… don’t complain either. We have been using the Elear as one of the reference models for quite some time. The Utopia was a step too far for us. Now we see that Focal puts down a closed back model in the upper class. Time to take a look at these. We put the Elegia of 899 euros on our heads. The first in a line of closed models…
Making a closed back headphone is a completely different game than making an open back. After all, with an open model there is in fact no closet. With a closed model, yes. All kinds of reflections and sound box effects play a role here. So Focal can’t just make a closed housing around the Elear to market an Elegia.
Own drivers
The heart of the Elegia resembles that of the Elear: a M-shaped aluminum / magnesium driver of 40mm. Now this one will be tuned a bit differently, because we can be brief: the Elegia sounds fundamentally different from the Elear. This driver is again a derivative of the Utopia which of course contains the Beryllium units.
The finish is also quite similar to the Elear: an aluminium frame, wonderfully soft cushions, leather headband and a fairly low weight: 430 grams. The only essential difference is the shorter cable. At the Elear it is a little bit more than 3 meters, at the Elegia it is a little bit more than one meter. Focal apparently assumes that people use these on the road. By the way, the cable can be changed, so if you wish for a longer… you can.