Aural Bliss

Focal Elegia

- Kenny Yeo

Focal’s high-end headphone offerings have so far been impressive. The Utopia and Clear, especially, have received high praise for their neutrality and dynamism. However, these are open-back headphones that make them unsuitable for office use or listening in noisy environments. That changes with the Elegia, Focal’s first closed-back headphones.

Made in France in the same factories that build Focal’s high-end loudspeakers, the Elegia is well built and certainly justifies its high price. Because of the use of materials such as aluminum, the Elegia is fairly heavy at 430g. Fortunately, wearing comfort is good thanks to its nicely padded microfiber leather headband and cushy memory foam ear pads. Clamping force is a smidge too overenthusiastic for my liking but I didn’t feel any discomfort even after wearing it for hours.