Need feedback from Focal 1027Be owners


I'm considering purchasing a discounted Demo pair of Focal 1027Be Speakers from Sound Advice/Tweeter. They don't have anything comparable in the store that I could audition against them. They sounded very good via Krell KAV Stereo, but I noticed that certain female vocals were coming straight out of the tweeter, rather than the midrange or an optimal balanced combination of the two. I mostly listen to acoustic, non-electric music with female vocals and DO NOT WANT bright sounding Speakers. This Demo pair is fairly new which might explain the predominant high frequencies. Over two seperate lengthy auditions, the 1027Be came across as lean/light/very-smooth with lots of air/space but "tweeter centric" + a clear midrange and good tuneful bass-just not that much of it.
The Speakers are quite small and seem to have a focused soundstage vs big/wide/deep (vs B&W 8XX).

I'm afraid that when I get them Home they'll sound lost in my Living Room. In this price range and pysical size there doesn't seem to be many other choices. The B&W 803Diamond sounded a bit hard and coarse to me in the midrange but awesome in the bass and highs.

These two Dealers are right next door to each other so the 1027Be & 803Diamond are easy for me to audition and purchase, both are within my $8,000-budget (prefer to purchase new from Dealer with warranty) and have front-firing drivers and Ports that make them easy to place 12" from the front wall (a must for asthetic reasons).

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
davyboy9354
If you are going to actually place the speakers within 12" of the front wall and not have the freedom to move them out at least 2-3 feet from the front wall, I would try very hard to get a home demo.

I have the 1027 Be's & am quite happy, but I have found that they are rather picky about placement in my 16x24x9 (and somewhat "live") room - just an inch or two one way or the other can make a big difference.

Also, I suspect the brightness you describe is more likely due to setup (position and/or electronics) at the dealer than needing breakin, although they do improve with some hours.
I just upgraded from a pair of 927Be's to the 1027's. The 1027's are fantastic. In my small room they just fill it up. Bass is real good. And the rest of the spectrum is just so fine to listen to. I have about 50 hours on them so far so I know I have a ways to go. But I am a very happy music istener now.
I don't have the 1027Be's but I do have the 926's. I owned the Krell showcase processor at some point and found that it made everything sound extremely bright. I switched to a Pass Labs pre-amp and have been very pleased.
Both of those speakers need a lot of break-in time - much more than Tweeter would give them. I have read a couple times that the Be tweeter needs at least a couple hundred hours to get into its groove.

Both are great speakers with proper component matching. The tough part will be getting them to work with your room. My guess is that the 1027s would tolerate being closer to the back wall than the 803Ds - you may get boomy bass with the latter.