Focal Utopia 3 Scala speakers

A few months ago I was very surprised to see a fellow audiogoner who moved from Focal Utopia Scala to a pair Elac speaker (costing about half the price of the Scalas) which in his opinion were better than the Scalas. Mike60 was also involved in that discussion. You can find it here:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vdone&1206294768&openfrom&66&4#66

However, this is not the reason I have started this thread. I visit regularly the www.audiomarkt.de site, and this year I have seen two-three dealers offering the Scalas still wrapped and with warranty at prices between 11.5-13.5 euros when the retail prices in Europe are between 20-25k euros. Also, in the Netherlands, I know a dealer who advertised two pairs of Scala at 15k euros/pair.

This is why I was wondering whether it is something wrong with them.

I do not think Focal will discontinue the Scala soon. Certainly not. More likely is the case of a few grey market models and/or a few dealers who have dropped the Focal line and now clear their stocks.

I am just curious to hear opinions from people who have compared the Scalas with other speakers similarly priced.

Dave, it seems to me you like having bass knobs (on your speaker, on your pre-amp). Maybe you should change your moniker to bass_knob. I hope you do not take this the wrong way. I am just joking. :)

Mike60, thanks for the suggestion. At 12k euros Scala is certainly a bargain,
but they still are too large for my room and my listening habits. First, my ears are approximately 8 feet away from the tweeters; this may not permit a perfect driver integration. I really have no intentions to change the layout of may room again. (I did it 4 times in order to get the flattest bass response). Second, most often I listen at low levels (65-70 dB); my experience is that large floor standers need to be cracked up a bit in order to open up.