Jafant,
My system:
PS Audio P10 Power Plan
PS Audio DirectStream DAC
Autonomic MMS-5A Music Server (with all hi res AIFF files)
McIntosh C50 Preamp
McIntosh MC452 Power Amp
Wireworld Cabling
JL Audio F113V2 Sub Woofers (2)
Focal Sopra No2 Speakers
Sennheiser HD800 Headphones
I would say these Focal's may not be the ideal speaker for everyone. I suspect they might sound too harsh, with electronics that might bring out too much from those fantastic tweeters.
I found them to be the most sensitive and "accurate" in the mids and highs of any speaker I auditioned which I'd characterize as being of a "musical" design.
Really enjoying my new components! |
Bill_k,
The room is 26'x26', with a 10'x10' alcove, wall to wall carpeting, very little glass.
I moved my system down from the (much smaller) living room to the "man cave" and found my old Velodyne Optimum 10 sub woofer just could not fill the new room. Some of my audio buddies let me know of the advantages of a pair of subs, heard the F113's at a buddies "man cave" and was just blown away! A pair of those might be "overkill", but with all my new toys, didn't want any of my new components to "run out of gas".
I think I'm "done" with hardware purchases for a while. |
Cdj123,
I ordered mine just after they started to ship to the U.S., glad I did, as my dealer says the wait for them is up to six months!
I took his advice and slowly broke them in, not pumping more than a watt or so into them for the first 100 or so hours.
They just plain sound awesome! Enjoy! |
I've had my Sopra No2's for about four months now. After carefully breaking them in, I tried a few variations on their positioning and got them really "dialed in" to the room. They just sound awesome! They have great dynamics, incredible detail, great sound stage, and to me are very "musical".
My JL Audio F113 sub woofers arrived and I had a terrible time integrating them into my system. The subs are just awesome, but I learned that my "man cave" acoustics, for that last octave of bass, is not. So moving the subs around (not a trivial task for an old guy like me), and applying bass traps to some of the corners and walls, re-adjusting the subs, I finally have the sound where I want it.
To me the bass that the Sopra's produce is just excellent, but the last octave or so is not strong enough, hence the addition of the subs.
I really enjoy my setup, sound great at low, medium and (for me) somewhat louder volumes, with any kind of music I throw at them.
Really pleased with the Focals! |
Stevizzy,
I had the Sopra's "dialed in" to the room, then later, when I added a pair of sub woofers and was dealing with the "boominess" in the room, adding bass trap after bass trap, the soundstage that the Sopra's were really great with suddenly disappeared. No problem, just scooted them forward an inch or two and "boom" that great depth and soundstage returned.
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Enjoying the holiday weekend, too hot and humid to play outside, halfway threw the Beethoven symphonies, with these Sopra's, they just sound awesome. I'd say that they really came into their best sound at the six month point, seemed to mellow out some, sound more relaxed. Definitely not on my list of audio equipment to replace anytime soon. I really enjoy the system, seems like I'm "done" with equipment purchases for a while.
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In my "man cave" the Sopra's are about ten feet apart, tweeters focused just in front of the listener, found when I focused them that way, they produced a "singer in the room" sound stage. They are much more "relaxed" now that they are about nine months old.
had an audio buddy over, saw the McIntosh blue meters and said that "those tube amps really make those tweeters sing with buttery smoothness", intended to be a compliment. My system is all solid state!
These Sopra's are definitely "keepers". |
Hey extravaganza,
I noticed that some pre-owned pairs are starting to show up on Audiogon...no pressure! |
The Sopra's sounded awesome in my "man cave", without the sort of low bass I enjoy in adding sub woofers, but the bass the No2's have I found to be very tight, detailed and not at all "boomy".
Now, once I added the subs, the bass they produce in that room, was very boomy. It took a lot of fiddling with positioning, settings, bass traps, etc. to get the subs properly integrated and not sounding boomy. But the Sopra No2's bass (as low as they go) sounded really excellent, again...in my room. |
I’ve used sub woofers in my systems for a while. I feel the bass that the Sopra’s have is very good, but I find that, once you get thru the process of getting subs well integrated with the room and speakers, the final result is more enjoyable. I have a pair of JL Audio F113V2 subs, with my Sopra’s in a 24x26’ room...with ten strategically placed bass traps.
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