Made the move: Focal Maestro 3 to Focal Maestro EVO


Traded in my Focal Maestro 3 and have my new Maestro EVO’s sitting in my living room In beautiful black finish. First, I want to comment on their fit and finish. “WOW” they are simply gorgeous. I would take them on a date anywhere and they would be the envy of everyone with their stunning curves and eloquent display.  Since I have less than 5 hours listening so far, I will only make some brief comments on their sonics. The evolution from Maestro 3 to EVOs not only transforms the greatest strengths of the Maestro 3: presence, impact, and scale to a new level but also fixes its weaknesses. One area of criticism of previous generations of Focal’s has alway been in upper frequencies. I lived with the Maestro 3 for 3.5 years and I can attest to this area of concern. I can say without hesitation the beast has been tamed. There’s no hint of brightness or edge with the EVOs. Other areas of improvement are lower levels of distortion, tighter bass, much easier drive capability and listening enjoyment.  These areas of improvement have only been noticed with less than 5 hours of listening to a new speaker. If there is interest in this thread I will continue to update as break in continues.

 

 

hiendmmoe

Also: with Focals (through experience), I would stay away from dry-sounding class D amplification. Other than that, even inexpensive amps like McIntosh, Hegel, and Pass Labs go well with Focal (so long as they have good peak current capability, and not just high wattage).

Hiendmmoe: congratulations.

I have owned several Focal speakers (Electra 1038Be, Sopra 3, Scala V1, and now Maestro III).

I do not like bright sounding speakers and the smaller Focals (1038Be) are bright.

However, to me, the Maestro III lean ever so much towards the warm side of neutral. Never any brightness or harshness.

I think the biggest reason for going for EVO over prior version (for some) has been that it runs better with tube amps.

With good SS monoblocks (paired with a good tube preamp), the Maestro III are amazing. It takes a high level of current delivering capacity to properly utilize the lower woofer.

I would choose the EVOLUTION series over the previous EM. What they have done with the EVOs is significant. Much lower less fatiguing sound. The EM upper frequencies could bite you in the long run if not tamed with the right equipment.

I got offered stellas (EM not Evo) in black from a dealer. New unit for $40k shipped. This was 1-2 years ago. In hind sight I probably should have grabbed them. But I didn’t have the space at that time for such a big speaker. And also thats a decent amount of cash.

If I had to choose I think stella EM even used over maestro evo. But it would be interesting to do that face off.

I will. The Evo costs $38,000. I can't seem to find the price of the Maestro 3, only the Maestro 3 Utopia, which is $49,000.

I will not discuss how much it cost to upgrade but it was considerable more. What I will say, it was worth it. With the new technologies introduced in the EVO series the noise floor is beyond anything I have heard before. Much easier to drive. They sound so much better at lower volumes.

Equipment done right at this level, especially when it happens to really be your cup of tea,  can be absolutely mind boggling.  Happy for ya!  😎   Congrats and enjoy! 

How much did the upgrade cost? I wonder if going to prior gen Stella would be similar price and if that would yield a bigger upgrade over going to meastro evo.

I am sure they will only get better with more time on them, congrats!