FWIW, listened to a pair of Sopra 2’s at a local dealership yesterday; my impressions vs my Olympica 3’s
Initial impressions: stunning bass, doubt a sub would ever be required by most people, tight fast deep authoritative powerful
Soundstage - impressive size in all directions, realistic and well proportioned
Midrange - tons of detail, got the impression that whatever’s on the recording is reproduced in the musical recreation, vocals extremely detailed, maybe not as natural sounding as the SFs but extra clear and immediate
High end - here’s where I might have an issue owning this speaker; borderline hyper detailed, I truly believe if it’s on the recording the speakers reveal it, I didn’t hear anything I hadn’t heard before but the details were forward, super clear, and compared to the SFs, often bright, certainly brighter than via the SFs. The beryllium tweeter definitely makes a statement. All this in a treated, carpeted showroom....my guess is in my acoustically challenged room, minus the treated walls, plus the hardwood floors and multiple windows the Sopra 2’s would sound even more forward. This impression could be the result of two speakers on opposite ends of the acoustical spectrum.
Have to now sit down in front of the SFs and listen to compare the two with the Focal experience fresh in my mind. Obviously these are two very different audio products.
So what speaker sits right in the acoustic middle between the hyper detailed Focals and the ultra smooth SFs?
Initial impressions: stunning bass, doubt a sub would ever be required by most people, tight fast deep authoritative powerful
Soundstage - impressive size in all directions, realistic and well proportioned
Midrange - tons of detail, got the impression that whatever’s on the recording is reproduced in the musical recreation, vocals extremely detailed, maybe not as natural sounding as the SFs but extra clear and immediate
High end - here’s where I might have an issue owning this speaker; borderline hyper detailed, I truly believe if it’s on the recording the speakers reveal it, I didn’t hear anything I hadn’t heard before but the details were forward, super clear, and compared to the SFs, often bright, certainly brighter than via the SFs. The beryllium tweeter definitely makes a statement. All this in a treated, carpeted showroom....my guess is in my acoustically challenged room, minus the treated walls, plus the hardwood floors and multiple windows the Sopra 2’s would sound even more forward. This impression could be the result of two speakers on opposite ends of the acoustical spectrum.
Have to now sit down in front of the SFs and listen to compare the two with the Focal experience fresh in my mind. Obviously these are two very different audio products.
So what speaker sits right in the acoustic middle between the hyper detailed Focals and the ultra smooth SFs?