Focal Elegia VS Celestee! - Elegia REVIEW 2021 

Indeed. Anyway the Celestee don't sound very different from the Elegia, and many people prefer the Elegia's more lively response. The Celestee uses the same drivers and general cup design, but with a more premium feel and finish, which obviously costs more to manufacture. Their tuning is more neutral making them more suitable for monitoring but you can achieve the same (slightly boring imho) frequency response with the Elegia using a little EQ, not that much in fact.

U from Australia?

@@Fermistine USA

@@RabbitConfirmed Yes I still have them and use them regularly but I had to upgrade from the stock cable to a Cardas Corpse Cable because it is microphonic, stiff and bulky.

Hello, may I ask what DAC you are using if any, I am considering these but im unsure which dac to use with smartphone and pc

@@massty2851 I am reluctant to answer this question because my DAC/AMP is insanely priced. I am using a Chord HUGO2 with the 2Go Module with a ROON core. I have heard good things about the FiiO BTR5 or (BTR7 new model) and the Quedelix 5k for people that are not willing to spend the equivalent of 2 or more mortgage payments on a niche audio device.

I agree! He definitely should tell his impressions about the Elegia with Celestee pads!

I'm in the high-end audio business so I had the chance to try on all the pads that were made for closed-back the Focal audiophile lineup to this day. 2 years ago when you made this post the only other pads that would have fitted the Elegia were the Celestee 'sand the outrageously expensive Stellia stock pads. Since then the Radiance pads have available, as well as the sheepskin and sheepskin hybrid models from the third-party purveyor Dekoni. While the Celestee and Radiance pads offer nice comfort improvement, in terms of SQ it is not spectacular. You get more bass but you lose some treble at the other end. It's not too dramatic since all three phones use the same cup design inside and the drivers inherited from the original Clear (not from the Elear's like so many reviewers are misleading about). Then came $3K Stellia with its TOTL soft leather pads The bass improvement is very obvious but there again that damn high-mids suck-up ruins the party for me. Besides, those pads cost over $250 which is ludicrous. Finally arrives the Dekoni sheepskin and sheepskin hybrid, both of which costing $99 a pair. If vastly improved comfort, punchy bass that digs down low and clear but not sibilant highs get the Dekoni, you won't be sorry. Oh, and just in case some of wonder if the Stellia sound better than the Elegia/Celestee/Radiance the answer is yes, it does. Ballpark figure I would have to say that the Stellia sounds about 10% better than the Elegia/Dekoni pads. combo. Is it worth $2,000 more? You decide.

Oh yes in deed couldn’t of said it better myself especially with a balanced connection I can’t wait to see what happens after dekoni sheepskin pads get put on them this weekend

@@scottpolston6137 So how are the Elegias with sheepskin pads? Did the sound change much? How about the comfort?

Hello Nikolay. Elegia is good for movies too ?

@@jyexe525 I think for movies you need a bit more energy at the low end (bass). For movies you may go with DT770 Pro.

@@nikolaygramchev oh okay nice 👍

Do you run it balanced? Also, do you use xbass?

He’a a shill for Abyss and very biased.

@@chamade166 He rarely compares other headphones to the ones from Abyss, despite him working there. And everyone is biased in the audiophile community, that's how that works. Everyone hears things differently and has preferences.

Oddly enough I achieved great results with the Elegia by using the Dekoni Hybrid Sheepskin pads with them. Theoretically the Hybrid is meant for open-back Focals Clear and Elear but since they are only perforated on the inside ring they also do a great job with the Elegia compared with the originals. I also have the Clear and now both sound quite similar in tonal response, something I wasn't expecting from the Elegia. But Focal never made it a big secret that the Elegia was meant as starter base for upgrades. I use them in balanced mode so I never used the original cable, nor would I want to.

​@kavemankarl2588 I never realized Focal intended the Elegia as a upgrade platform. Where was this mentioned by Focal?

@@Assimilator702 Like most other manufacturers Focal won't say in so many words if a model is upgradeable so as to not appear to endorse third-party aftermarket parts suppliers unless they have business ties with them. That being said Focal does provide pretty obvious hints by shipping the Elegia with only a single, short cable (compare this with the Clear's $500 worth of cables bundle) while they know full well that most people don't use such cans for OTG purposes. Also, they only provide so-so pads that beg to be replaced with much better ones that are more suited for this type of phone. If Focal had shipped with such befitting cables and pads their original price would have been close to the Clear's.

I've had mine for a full year and I agree they're incredibly fatiguing. Regardless of amp or DAC, I rarely use them due to being so shouty. Getting the bass to hit just right means everything else sounds way too loud.

@@ANSWERTHECALLOFJESUSCHRIST Couldn't agree more. I would describe them as "beautiful" and they really worked for some genres. However, I never wanted to crank it.

@@Dpace111 Precisely!

@@ANSWERTHECALLOFJESUSCHRIST Update: Just purchased Drop Dan Clark Aeon X and am loving the tuning. Much preferred to Elegia.

Unfortunately, the Elegia's sound suffers greatly because of their stock pads. I promptly destroyed them in order to salvage their two-piece mounting rings: [1] a hard plastic piece and [2] a soft piece that sticks on the cup-facing side of the plastic piece. I then experimented with pad-swapping: over a dozen aftermarket pads, wrapped around the outside of the mounting rings. I concluded that the best sounding pads - by far - on the Elegia are the *Brainwavz XL Micro Suede.* To extend sub-bass and increase soundstage (and further improve comfort), I added a (4" long, 3/8" wide) strip of memory foam to the back area of the pads. The overall improvement from the stock Elegia is dramatic, to say the least. It seems that Focal just slapped on some cheapo-material pads at the last minute, without caring that they gimped the sound. No doubt, Focal would now recommend their Celestee and Stellia closed-backs, which (I'm sure) sound significantly better out-of-the-box that the (now-discontinued) Elegia. But for savvy Elegia owners, this mod does wonders. It sounds so good that I would bet that it's makes the Elegia better-sounding that the (stock) Stellia. (I don't think it would even be close!)

Thanks.

How would you rank them all?

Same!

Which Dekoni pads do you have?

@@Mark-fs7ok Elite Sheepskin - totally changed the way I felt about the headphones.

@@LakerTriangle I can only find them for the focal clear. Do you know if these are the same pads?

@@Yos115 all Dekoni Focal pads work on Focal headsets..

good for metal?

@@wolandphotography any cold sounding headphone will help elevate the metallic timbre and/or separation of guitars tbh

I love my elegias. The comfort, detail, and extension for $500 (used) is just amazing.

I just bought the Utopia after owning the Clears and people say that the Clear is 90% of the Utopia. That's just BS. I think they say that to help them sleep at night lol. The Utopia is a ton better. It's not 3-4 times better as that's how much more expensive it is but it's definitely not 10% better

@@tswizzy5526 Amen. I have the clears and tried the Stellia, miles, miles better.

@@tswizzy5526 vice versa: People spending thousands of $ for saying Utopia is miles better than clear need this to justify their extremely expensive purchase...

@@falcodarkzz For me it's the other way round: While i heard the Stellia as a little more capable in resolution and an even faster response the tonality of the clear (original) is much more balanced.

DMS literally hates the Arya. He just has very strong opinions about them, so don't expect to see them in the top of a 1000-2000 price range list. The Focal Clear is a favorite of his, probably one of his favorite headphones in all price ranges as he put them in his "S tier".

He said since he currently works for Abyss, he wouldnt review anything high-end to keep himself from bias.

I don’t hate the Arya, it’s not that special to me. I’m trying to keep my channel in the $1500 or under range for headphones. There’s some exceptions like my HD800S that I’ll probably make a video on eventually, but it’s mainly to avoid bias in the $3000+ range.

@@g1g2g3g4g5gt yeah, but although he doesn’t particularly like the hd660, it still gets ranked high up in his list. His list appears to be less subjective than his tier list. So although he doesn’t particularly prefer the Arya, doesn’t necessarily mean that it wouldn’t rank well. It was just an example anyway.

@@DMS3TV and that’s completely understandable and respectable. Would still be really nice to see the list extend upwards to $1.5k. But whatever you decide to do, I appreciate all that you do for us. Keep up the good work.

I tried prying into my elegia's with the same issue of the drivers having a slight imbalance and as to my surprise despite the solid exterior build, the housing they use to fit the drivers are just extremely cheap and the wires they soldered are very prone to breaking, and so after a few bumpy rides on the back seat of a car they are cooked lmao

Celestee has considerably better tuning. I just enjoy Elegia more.

@@DMS3TV I respect your honest opinion, definitely motivated me to try my own comparison thanks 👍

I sent my Celestee back and got some Unique Melody MEST iem’s. Best decision I’ve ever made. Not only are they way better for sound isolation/portability, but the sq blows the Celestee away. Open backs are the way to go when it comes to headphones imo

​@@dmitris77 Did you return them without breaking them in? After 50 to 100 hours of listening, the Celestees shine a lot more!

Indeed you are right. Like practically every audiophile-class cans the Elegia, along with some other phones ranging from $1K to $6K or so are not suited for studio use. The Clear Pro is the exception, since it was designed for the purpose. Personally my favorite studio cans are the ubiquitous Audio Technica M50x (by far the best in that AT series imho). Flat and neutral to sin lol. Not as comfortable as the Clear Pro and certainly not as well built but costs 6 times less and still delivers the goods, just not as well wrapped :}

Or you can get it open box for $419 on adorama. I wasn't a fan of the headphones though.

Nothing wrong owning them !

After 20 years in the hobby, I have come full circle to Beyers. They just work well for most music!

@ With that mindset you'd better just own a 2$ IEM.

@@g1g2g3g4g5gt Not $2, but $20 iems are already really, really good for the money (KZ ZS10 PRO), so good that I need to spend $100+ to get similar audio quality out of name brands, with the KZs beating them in build quality.

@ Yeah but people spending $1000+ aren't looking for the best value, they may be interested in a particular headphone that they think is perfect for them or they just want to experience the improvements even if they aren't huge. Most of them have more than enough money and it isn't that they aren't buying something else because of how expensive the headphones are. Some people would even find spending $200 on headphones a waste of money.

Use oratory eq settings with apo. Sound gets even more amazing

@@lord.of.veracity Oratory use harman target which only make it worse. I don't suggest anyway to add EQ, they don't need it. But if you listening crap music and you're crazy bass head...

Elegia need a bit of time for burn-in as you can read on the website. After 1-3 months they will sound the best, if you listen at least few hours every day. Astell& Kern SR25 looks don't have high gain setting in the EU... Maybe you can try with a balanced cable, you should get more powerful sound. If still is not enough, look at Topping NX3 portable amplifier.

I hate Harman. I wish the audio community offered more options as it affects audio products. Qudelix presets are all for Harman , otherwise you have to manually EQ which I hate since I have no clue

That’s a great deal!

Me too, great headphones came with Celeste style cable too :)

Huh... The Beyers aren't neutral. Far from it, and I've owned two sets of em at 250 ohms

Dt880 is what you want for neutral

If you're talking about the HD820, yeah, they do sound quite wider, but they are a little weird in tonality for a lot of people

Depends what you are listening to. Dont know about the hd600, but Elegia has more kick in the bass compared to the Sundara. But the Sundara sound better for classical music - especially strings. But since the Sundaras are open-back planar ad the Elegia + Celestee are closed-back dynamic drivers the sound is quite different.

The sound stage on the Celestee is awful. Totally robs certain songs of their ambiance and atmosphere. Makes epic songs not sound so epic...

@@dmitris77 is this the same case with the Elegia?

Good idea

I put dekoni sheep skin pads on the elegia and it improved the bass tremendously

I'm not him, but I have the focal Celestee paired with some burson op amps and......👌👍😁

Yea my dealer also confirmed that they updated the cable - yet still very stiff!

Same here. They must have done a silent revision prior to discontinuing them

Same here

My pair came with the old cable. The left wire started failing within a week. Rendering them unusable for the most part while I wait for my Hart audio cable to come in...

Hi! Have you tried the Elegia already? How does it compare to the Clear?

Hi Scott, I really like the Elegia phones, it's different than the Clear pros. In some ways it's not as "hi-fi" as the Clears but it's OK, still quite good. It's light, comfortable, and being a closed back, much better for tracking. The mids are great so good for listening to a wide range of music. For the price I think it is wonderful. I find myself using it more and more, for studio work and just listening to RU-vid stuff. If my mixes sound good on both the Clears and Elegia, it'll be a good mix. So far very happy.

Not slightly worse. Much much worse. Maybe the narrowest sound stage I’ve ever heard. Almost has an in-your-head sound. I have iem’s with better sound stage

@@dmitris77 I second this. I had to sell mine after a few months.

Interesting, so they are bright? I read diferentes opinions mostly about highs are fatiging like you said, and I was looking for upgrading my soft oppo pm3

Which albums? If you're listening them on Spotify, Tidal and other streaming services, usually they are remastered/edited with brickwalling compression.

28 so right in the middle lol

I agree, it makes sense o compare with the Radiance as well. Heck, why not throw the Stellia in the mix also.

Yea, the closed off Celestee sound/sound stage is very disappointing. I bought them because I needed something that I could listen to privately. I ended up returning the Celestee and got some UM MEST iem’s instead. Big improvement, and way better for sound isolation and portability. I’ll probably get a pair of the clear mg’s eventually.

@@dmitris77 I feel this whole soundstage thing is very much overrated. Headphones that are supposed to have a brilliant soundstage, make *EVERYTHING* sound like it has a fantastic soundstage / ‘spacial’, even where it isn’t supposed to be like that. Soundstage isn’t equal to “better sound”, it is just something that a lot of people seem to prefer (I don’t… I like a more ‘intimate’ soundstage). The Celestee is all about detail and neutral sound, which is why I love it. Oh and one more thing: I get the feeling that people just order headphones, take a few listens, and then return it (or not). I found that the Celestee needs proper playing time in terms of sound and even in terms of fit. What baffles me most is that the soundstage is mentioned in pratcially every review, but still people order the Celestee and then complain it has a bad soundstage. Why?

@dmitris77 Great return policy… I don’t think many stores would do that. :) I think when it comes to soundstage a lot is personal preference, and I do believe it’s a somewhat overrated quality. And a lot depends on what kind of music you listen to. I agree on the sound leak, but closed backs are also for not hearing external sounds coming through to the listener. The Celestee is pretty good in that respect. Anyway, I enjoy the SQ of the Celestee… to each their own I guess. I am thinking about buying an open back for the music that isn’t souding quite that brilliant (Pink Floyd may be an example), but haven’t decided on which one yet… and I need to save for it anyway. lol

Agreed I think the Celestees are actually great closed back headphones for closed back

I have the z7m2 and the elear I like both but pick up my Sony more..

I personally think it's the pads that are creating the Sound Stage difference, the elegia pads are probably making it sound wider since it's a more airy pad

I tried Elegia with Utopia pads. It sounds weird

where do you buy celeste pads?

Hey I was debating between the dt 1770pro and Elegia but some reviewers say that they start to clip when the bass hits deep!

I have the Elegia and used to have the HD 58X. I enjoyed the Sennheiser more even if the Focal sound twice as better.

The Elegia is amazing, but almost nothing beats the HD700 for comfort. It takes the crown for all day comfort, beating even the HD800S and only the Audioquest Nighowl/hawk coming close. HD700 is also better than Elegia for gaming, but for most music the Elegia does better.

Probably AKG K361

Same I’m thinking of getting them. Worst case scenario, I can blame driver imbalance (which is not uncommon in focal headphones) and get my money back. I’m going for it

Without.

@@DMS3TV Thank you. One other thing. How good is noise isolation when wearing glasses? It's important for me to know, since I need headphones to stop my hearing loss getting worse I live in a noisy home where I have to listen to high pitch loud sounds for hours every day

@@user-jo5fq5ln5c the noise isolation is good

Even tho you wear glasses

Sundara's sound better. But I use Elegia for work, Sundara for home.

Also, they are on sale because they have been discontinued.

Actually I ended up getting the Clear MG. Just insanely good.

@@FlamencoOz what do you like about Sundara I can't understand ... I brought them back after 10 days of trying to like them ... I tried them with 3 different Dac-Amp and only got pain in my ears.

Where do you get that kinda money that you can afford to own two extremely overpriced pairs of headphones

@@fclp67 work 2 jobs

I heard both the radiance had much more bass so the celestee sounds more clinical in comparison, but that extra bass can be fun if you're into that

@@theodorezurla496 Wow, really? I love that. Definitely into Radiance then. What Amp would you recommend with it?

@@suryapramoddev the celestee is slightly easier to drive but both of them can run and sound awesome on anything the Btr5 is honestly a great pairing, and if you go with the celestee you can always get the ifi hip dac if you want that extra bass and honestly I wouldn't spend more money than that on an amp/dac to pair specifically for these headphones you won't hear much difference

@@suryapramoddev You may also want to consider ZMF closed back headphones like Atticus, the bass is also awesome and they have better soundstage than focal headphones.

@@g1g2g3g4g5gt woah? You really opened my eyes. Thanks bruh, I'll have a listen 🔥

Yes, they are great with everything. You just need really high quality music, not the average music from Spotify, Tidal and other streaming services. Focal headphones not forgive bad mastering. Sadly most modern music on CDs and streaming is brickwalled with huge dynamic compression/loudness/clipping and most of the times sounds distorted and harsh. Elegia is really sensitive to distortion present on a lot of crap mastered music. With well mastered and recorded music they shine. I suggest to pair with dac/amp for the best sound.

I totally agree with him. The Celestee is a very disappointing set of headphones. They make songs sound small, and closed off. Like listening to music in an overly treated phone booth

@HERSEY BERRY I may be wrong but I don't think he died. Inner fidelity died but not him. He's on the road with his truck in a community thing.

Lol Hershey claims Tyll died. What a knob

Save your money just get a su 8 sound the same !

Between these two, celestee. Aeon Noire would be worth considering also though.

Yeah. 1-man production makes things like that hard sometimes.

I gamed with my Elegia. It was actually really good. Not boomy or anything. It is really clean and locating people or hearing small details like an enemy reloading near by or footstep they worked really well. I used either the Elegia (playing more seriously and actually playing the objective) and need closed back. If I want a more immersive experience and playing a campaign and need closed I go DT1770 (crazy fun bass). When I play and I don't need a closed back I use my HD700 now (my preferred gaming headphone). But to answer you question, I always enjoyed the Elegia for gaming and think it's great.

@@alan2698 hows the sound rejection of outside noise?

@@Ottobawt awsome. Very little sound leaks out and I don't hear shit coming in lol. Very good both ways.

Celeste in my country 840€. Elegia 380€.

@@tecno4u31 rarely buy things in my country. All my focal are bought in France and Austria

@@Dovndyr13 yeah. I live in Spain. You had/have both, haven't you? What are the main differences between the Elegia and the Celestee? Thanks!

rate them bro

I record my audio in mono, so it's in the music for sure.

Also why would you not want to mix with the Elegia, if its pretty flat? Also sounds like it can be EQ'd pretty well.

Not the 1540, but I had the Shure 1840 and gifted them away after getting the Elegia. I've been making music as a hobby for almost 20 years and I wouldn't mix or master on the Elegia. They're not flat nor reference-tuned.

@@ANSWERTHECALLOFJESUSCHRIST So what do you mix and master with if you gave away the 1840s and what are you using the elegias you have for