Why no love for Focal?

[joeling]

The prices are amazing

Wow this is news to me. However, the prices as shown are really not realistic.

I own a pair of Stellas but it took me years to get tame it. I really like it now but my next pair of speakers are unlikely to be Focals. Too much work and time to get them burned in. Time is a diminishing commodity for me. Maybe this is an end game speakers for me (or maybe not)

 

[KeithR]

Their tweeters are love it or leave it.

That said Albert Porters Grands sound awesome, but most don’t have his room nor setup. Not a hint of brightness.

 

[joeling]

Their tweeters are love it or leave it.

That said Albert Porters Grands sound awesome, but most don’t have his room nor setup. Not a hint of brightness.

See, that's why I mentioned elsewhere that the Focal Utopia is easily misunderstood. When I took delivery of the Stellas, they sounded thin, bright and sibilance a plenty. Less than well recorded music sounded excruciating. I wanted to throw them away but could not afford to. Wanted to swap with my friend's Magico S7s etc etc. Self doubt & complete loss of confidence in my judgement because when I auditioned at the dealer's with similar amp & exactly the same CD replay system, the speakers sounded great. Little did I know that the dealer pair had already been there for months & had thousands of hours of run-in.

2 years have gone by & I am starting to appreciate their transformation. The nasty sibilance, brightness etc are all gone. I am starting to enjoy them but the journey took too long.

 

[steve59]

My dealer is always taking trades and he sets them up for quick resale. I was listening to a pair of focal 1028be's and was completely stunned by how much new information the speakers were delivering. I asked him to play a track from Supertramp 'Breakfast in America' and all that resolution turned to a look of horror on his face as he couldn't turn the volume down fast enough. Great for some music or heavily damped rooms? idk

 

[itay123]

Focal's elements are among the best there is,
The problem with Focal Speakers is that they don't know how to make all together speakers that can play music (sorry)

 

[F208Frank]

I just got the focal scalas evo and they are damn amazing. I am surprised there is not more focal fans. With that said I dislike their headphone sound so I was surprised to like the scala!

 

[Gregadd]

Focal speakers are some of the best I've heard
Their beryllium tweeter is probably the best I've heard.
And there's seem to be little talk about them around here .
Why is that ?
Are they not "hi end " enough ?

They sued a a customer for complaining about a product.

 

[Johan K]

What did he complain about… -Frogs in the speaker box, jumping in and out through the bass port.. ..??!!

 

[Gregadd]

I bought Focal Stella Utopia Evo, but...

However, the focal does not take any action and does not respond to my e-mail, just reading it. And that is one of the reasons that I would have named Focal . . they are the ones who can make a phone call and have a blue pair at your door, or at least stand behind their product. Good luck...

www.whatsbestforum.com

 

[lordcloud]

I've heard the Grand Utopia in an amazing system.

It struck me as being very resolving, very fast, and incredibly free of distortions.

It was also very flat sounding (though, like most systems, I think it was more a function of the distance from the speaker and the speaker to the wall).

It wasn't a speaker I thought I would love to have.

 

[Kingrex]

A good friend has a Focal that was about $14k. His system kicks butt. Its very alive and has excellent bass. He feeds it with a Krell KSA250. All digital. He worked on his room to tune it all. His $25k system is up there wirh systems I have heard in the $200k range.

 

[KPC]

I do own Focal Clear headphones, am I now on the other side of the fence aka considered a Focal fan?

 

[Motoman]

They sued a a customer for complaining about a product.

Yes, I remember the thread. Really messed up. I had a pair of Focal Diablo Utopia III's and remember thinking that if that is the way that they stand behind their products, screw them. But the issue was not just complaining . . . the dealer sold him a pair as new that arrived damaged and neither the dealer nor Focal would replace them and the customer after a bunch of hassle had to sue the dealer and Focal.

I personally liked my Focal's, but they needed a tube amp to tame the tweeter. Very high WAF. I swapped them out several times for my Joseph Audio Pulsars, and with a tube amp, the Focals edged out the Pulsars at 3X the price, but with SS gear, the Pulsars edged out the Focals. The Pulsars put out a lot of bass too. Bottom line . . . Focals have a house sound, like most brands. If you like it, and you have the right system, they will sound excellent to you.