Focal Utopia 3 Scala speakers


I am just curious to hear peoples' opinion on these speakers. I am not interested in purchasing them, but lately I have seen quite a few of them sold for less than half the retail price (all in as-new condition). Is there anything wrong with this particular Utopia 3 model or is just a coincidence? The Alto Be models that Scala has replaced was a wonderful speaker.
nvp

Showing 3 responses by mike60

Wonderful speaker. One of the best you can buy in that price bracket from everything I heard, and I heard a lot. I would say it works best in a small or medium room so it is possible some might be looking for the next model up for increased bottom end for a very large room. It seems way too early for a new model, but I guess that is possible. The Scala is superior to its predecessors by a wide margin.
The bass on the Scala is very clean and tight but not overwhelmingly powerful. Perfect for a medium size room. The bass is also selectable high-med-low. The only way I can imagine a muddy bass is an underpowered amp trying to drive them in a large room at high volume and possibly set to high bass. I really did a lot of listening and research and this speaker is very special in its price bracket. Nvp, I did listen to a nice high end Elac model but forget the model. The only brand I would have liked to hear more than I did was Dynaudio. Heard most of the other 'usual suspects' and the Scala was a stand-out to me. If these are genuine offerings at those prices and you have a suitable amp and room, you have a high end bargain!
Nvp, reading that link to our previous conversation, I pick you up on one point. You say the Scala is too expensive, and also too big for your room. Only point I make is that if you have a decent powerful amp to control the bass driver, and set the bass on Scala to low, I think you will be amazed at how well it integrates into a small room. If you meant aesthetics of that big animal dominating the living room, then that is a whole other story :)