Recently, I bought a used pair of Focal Elegia. It is a high-end product, going for $900 at launch. Mine is used, about $500. It came in a premium-looking cardboard box and carrying case. The headphones themself weigh about a pound, beautifully crafted with thick micro-fiber memory-foam pads. But headphones are less about the look, more about the sound. Different headphones have different sound characteristics. One wouldn't know what he/she wants without going through different options. I also started from some cheaper headphones that are not necessarily worse in all aspects:
The Focal Elegia (Nakamichi CR-2 in the back)
A few years ago, I picked up a pair of Sony MDR-V700DJ from a thrift store for $1. That was my first time trying a better pair of headphones. They supposedly went for about $200 back in the 90s. As the name suggests, they were DJ headphones designed to groove out in a noisy club or something and thus very bassy, full of rhythm. They were fine, just not very comfortable, and maybe too bassy.
So at some point, I bought a used pair of Grado SR 80. They are open-back headphones and do not have a resonance chamber inside the cap, creating this really clean, really clear experience. Unlike the V700, the SR80 doesn't have a particular emphasis on the bass. It's just about right. I really like the sound.
Sony MDR-V700
Grado SR80
However, being open-back means the lack of sound isolation. You can only use it in a quiet place. The design is also not very comfortable or cool looking, really only meant for home private listening. So my next headphones of choice went to the Sony MDR-1R. Cost me about $60 (about $300 msrp) (I'd have preferred the successor 1A, but 1R was what I found for cheap locally). Designed to get some beats headphones off the street (joking), it is very lightweight and looks kind of cool. It sounds great too, full of details. So I was happy for a while.
Of course, 1R has some flaws. 1R being the more expensive headphones doesn't really sound better than my Grado. Particularly, the bass doesn't feel very clean/quick in some instances. 1A is the improved version of 1R with cleaner bass and boosted high. I thought and about moving to 1A, but did it really make sense to buy 1A? It would not be an upgrade as 1A and 1R shared the same price at launch (MSRP).
Sony MDR-1R
So I am looking for something else. And then I noticed the Focal Elegia.
The Elegia comes from the Legendary hifi company Focal. Focal is well known for making great speakers. In recent years, they venture into the headphone world with their speaker technology. Other than the fancy Focal drivers, the Elegia has this interesting grid-like pattern on the internal side wall of the cap. That is designed to simulate acoustic materials in a recording studio and absorb&dissapate unwanted reflection. This design makes the Elegia sound like open-back headphones while actually being close-back.
The headphones have a very quick and clean bass response that is almost flat down to the sub-bass region without exaggeration. Listening to it, other than the impressive deep bass, what hits me hard is the instrument separation and the full spatial distribution of sound, an illusion of surrounding. Thanks to that, watching anime/movies with it is an interesting experience.
That said, the Elegia is probably too bulky for listening in the street (leave that to 1R), but still awesome for office/public listening.
Guess, it will take a while before I want something better (well... might want to try out high impedance or ribbon headphones at some point).
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