Audiophilepure

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“This kind of music has always been the stumbling block for closed-back designs, collapsing that beehive to a scaled-down image no wider than your eye sockets. The best mass-produced designs, familiar to a wide audience for air travel, don’t even come close to expanding this space limitation. The Sony WH-1000XM3, one of today’s most popular travel headphones (it includes active noise cancellation) is most non-audiophiles’ idea of a high-end headset, and at $350, it packs a lot performance into a very small, portable and lightweight package. But it highlights the limitations of closed-back headphones. A quick comparison of the Sony with Focal’s “budget” closed-back model highlights that the Elegias are serious headphones for music lovers who demand fine reproduction. The Sonys’ relatively thin and lightweight sound is exposed, making it easy to affirmatively answer the typical non-audiophile question — “But is it really three times as good?” The tradeoffs in added weight and size bring a dramatic increase in musical authenticity — depth of musical texture and dimension that make the listening experience more than shutting out the outside world.

The Elegia packs up in its handsome carrying case, and the short cable is perfect for portable listening. I plugged it into an AudioQuest DragonFly DAC and iPhone full of music copied from CDs. Alisa Wailerstein playing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks [Decca 483 0835] transported me back to hearing her perform the piece live in the Concertgebouw a few years ago. Bass, high-frequency extension, gorgeous tonal accuracy and explosive dynamics were all in abundance, needing only about half of the iPhone’s volume range. The Elegia’s 105dB sensitivity makes it easy to run with an iPhone (the Stellia, at 106dB, is just as sensitive). The hard-shell case is the size of a small man-purse and is covered in the same fabric as my preferred carry-on luggage, a small backpack from Peak Design.”

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