Focal Scala Utopia vs Wilson Sasha?

theese two are very diferent speakers. sasha smoother somewhat rounded in low midrange and "in your face" and bright and rough in higher midrange lower treble(not so bright like watt puppy but still quite bright) bass is punchy.

Scala have more dark presentation in higher midrange , high frequencies more crystal clear , not so spizzy, also less coloration in bass/mids than sasha. overal lower midrange higher bass is endlessly neutral by itseld with most natural intruments (like lower wind instruments which sounds amazingly clear and true) . bass goes deeper than sasha but not so strong , but it does not atrack atention to itself. sasha's soundtage is big but thin, scala soundstage have more "real bodyweight"

bad records sound much better on Scala than Sasha. on very low volumes sasha more lively.

overall I would call Scala conservative inspite it lively and crystal clear in hights. but still- comparing to Sashas Scala doesnt have very impressive first demo. its speaker -keeper which does everyhting very well and only after while we notice how right it does music. I would choose sashas if i play mostly energetic music with slamming bass and I wouldnt pick Scala as a home theater speakers..

pick up your poisions carefuly.

I wouldnt call Scala just "less of grande em" or let say less of Maestro(which is realy diferent from Scala- in both smoothness and ability to play loud without stress,and without loosing soundstage. )

IMHO Scala is quite diferent from either Diablo, Maestro and Sella EM. the only similarity to other utopia II is technical performance of speaker drivers, but Scala have slight diferent signature than other models- its litle bit more agressive/hot in higher midrange(thought by no means its not yelling in face-its just when compare side by side with Maestro or Grande EM) , and more leaner in midbass- its perfect in small or problematic rooms with resonanse modes at 50-60hz or to "ligt music listeners" (small jazz groups, vocals, opera)

""Elviukai,

How many times have u compared scala and maestro head to head? You seem to have formed a form view scala is not quite there. Would b interested in learning more."""

around 4-5times, also had them in my studio for a week with my equipment where i listened them,did comparision and also measured them. I have ability to test speakers before instaling them. by no means Scala is "not there" its very carefyly balanced speaker with tons of audiophile details. Just I am not a fan of of recessed midrange "tunel" and more prefer presence "tunel" where sound is also liquid and not anoying or shouty but also have feeling of intruments presence and palpability. for my taste its the most critical aspect- balance- to have ENOUGHT stage deepness (most sonus faber speaker does that trick) perspective but at the same do not lack midrange presence (wilson audio wat puppy, sasha speakers for example). in this respect i found Maestro superior to Scala and Grande EM. I had Diablo in bedroom but replaced with Sonus faber auditor M,- Diablo is speakers which also have some signs of big brother Maestro(trying to achive that presence) and it is not good for evening listenings- its just sounds too atracting and require atention-in another words - its not for background listening.

""""""07-06-10: Mert
Elviukai,
The thing is not buy a loudspeaker and accept how it sounds.
The thing is buy a loudspeaker and direct how it will sound.
There are variable factors that you may affect by choosing gear, powerconditioning, cables which will decide the character of overall sound.
When we talk about speakers around 30k usd range, simply we talk about a few exceptional designs available to end users. Most of them are well above certain level and capable 90-95 percent what Hi-End all about. Rest of the job is finding electronics and cables according to own taste.""""""""""

Mert, good point. however from my expierence nothing (except some changes- room acoustic) at whooping level will change speaker primary nature. yes hights can be smoothed out, or bass gripped up and so on. but some things is just against nature and physical laws. I myself for example prefer big orchestra and especialy wind bands -very few speakers on the market can reproduce scale ,presence and detail of wind instrumets(walthorn for example) focal has stuning ability to reproduce lower tone wind instruments in clear, non discorted or muddy aspect. for example when compared Scala and Maestro I listened listening Dallas wind orchestra "Strictly Sousa" and "Marches I've missed" albums- Scala does it clear and "audiophile" way-none detail is missing, while Maestro have the same, but also frigtnening presence of performance- I can feel wind instruments the energizing and vibrating air , and feel moments of dynamic outtakes when orchestra swings from fortissimo to pianissimo(not the backward-its the most enjoyable dynamic swing for me-when i hear "silence" in pause) I listen live performance one or two times in 2 weeks and would be silly to claim any speaker reproduce windband life like at all aspects but theese dynamic outtakes are damn close and this single aspect is enought for me to "take me there" - convince in musical performance.

Kw13> actualy my preference is also to have exciting expierence when listening to music, but in the evening time i like to read a book or do some other activity where music should be as background- not to draw atention to it. And Auditor M does this (except for the top octave - where its too "fresh" and too airy - i use tone control to atenuate high frequencies a bit)

as for maestro and grande EM-i sent email.

Well Phaelon, I do not see anything wrong(assuming they both know about each other) having good looking chick for fun, and good cooking wife for resting after the first :-)

same goes for the speakers (except fact that they do not nessesary need to know about each other, as i didnt find speakers very curiuos or jelous, just honest ones and liar ones)

Kw your diferencies on listneing the same model but diferent pair is quite diferent (too much for speaker as a system component I think) I assume you used the same jumper position? I would not consider Scala very hard to set up or critical to position placement.unless there is some BIG problems with room acoustic maybe something wrong with speakers technicaly? sometimes it just happens on assembling stage. anomality can be small enought to notice in general but big enought to spoil speaker abilities.