How do they compare to the Utopia? The Utopia are on sale now for $2300, making them a real alternative.
I've spent time w/ Utopia. They are very balanced like the two others. If you value highly accurate, detailed highs you'll love Utopias. They pull it off and manage to give you plenty of pump in the low-end alongside that sweetly detailed highs.
Depending on who you trust, Utopia may be the best headphone made right now. Yyll from Inner Fidelity seems to think so.
Personally, I'm a bit skeptical of any headphones that cost thousands of dollars. I've had friends over for "listening" parties. I setup a high-end rig, lay out headphones ranging from thousands to a few hundred. Basically, the result I get from just about everyone is this...
The highest end build quality (Ie. how expensive they look/feel) always "sound" better in the first minute or so.
The headphone anyone ends up spending the most time with is always the one they end up liking the best.
My thought is that our perception of sound becomes 'tuned' to the one you get used to. New becomes novel and you like it, but then you go back to the one you spent the most time with and you remember ah-ha, that's my favourite. It's how it seems to go every time from audiophile to just music fans.
Being that you're here I'll assume you've got a good idea of what you like, and want performance to match your music. It's not hard to get an idea of what to expect from a headphone if you're ready to spend that kind of money. Overall, the median review-count should let you know what any particular headphone does well vs. what it cost the headphone to be able to perform that particular 'trick'. No headphone can do it all.
If you're spending half that money... you'll end up happy if you get something quality. Personally, having listened to all of Focal's new high-end headphones, I don't think there's enough space in between any of them to really shine light through. I'd go with the Elear. I spent a lot of time with it and it sounded fantastic for a wide variety of music. Enough punch down low and enough sparkle and detail in the highs to make it totally satisfying.
I'd keep around a modest pair of Fostex TH-X00 so you can listen to something on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Elear, which will give you some joy if you switch to some electronica or something that plays with the bass. Fostex won't have nearly the soundstage or imaging but it really kicks down low with more thump than any of Focal's. But it's a nice change. The variety and not overspending is a perfect match. I just don't believe there's any one pair that will be "the one". Unless you have a narrow range of music you prefer.
But, that's just my opinion.
