Pass/musical fidelity for focal scala

You can read that your insight in audio is very limited. I will tell you one thing. In the 16 years I am in this business the most common mistake is that people spend a lot of money on speakers and not enough to amps. sources and cables. Often people get 30-40% out of their speakers max.

You make the same mistake. It is not that unique. You need to understand first of all the properties of the focals. They are able to give a wide and deep stage. They use great crossovers. But they need room to breath. And room to get the low freq. tight and controlled.

The Oppo is a great player, but there is a big but. They are not stunning in giving timbre in the mid freq.

When you go to these speakers these kind of details are needed for the level this speaker is capable of.

I owned and sold the best MF gear. I even gave MF demos at audio shows. They make great stuff. But in the world of Highend they miss the last needed details. They are not the best in depth either.

I also think the 350.8 will be a great combi with the Scala.

But.......don't forget you need a stunning source, stunning cables as well to get a good result out of the Scala's. these cost a lot of money as well.

You Always will listen to all parts togheter including the acoustics. At the end audio is about making the right combination. I call it the art of sound.

You will get the best endresult when you understand all the properties of each individual tool.

"07-12-14: Didi1606
Thx zd542 for ur exp sharing.. Nope, nowhere near my place... How about the heat?? Mf/pass.. Is it really hot so i cannot touch with the bare hand?"

"07-12-14: Didi1606
Thx jdoris.. Btw, is there any chance that a new beginner like me can hear the difference between class A or a/b one.. Regarding the heat, is it safe to use the Class A all day long? My city here don't have any audio specialty brand.. So i must prepare the time and narrow the list.."

I don't want to sound like a broken record but you did ask for advice and said you wanted to go slow getting into this hobby. By the looks of it, you are going as fast as you can go. I see one of two possible outcomes here. You will either get very lucky and pick components that you will be happy with for a long period of time, or you will spend a lot of money and have a train wreck. With equipment this detailed, a train wreck is the most likely outcome. There's no way to bypass the experiences that end up shaping your personal tastes. Its going to happen. The only variable is how it is going to happen. The choice is yours, so I'll leave it at that.

I don't recall the heat from my Class A Pass amps to be any type of problem. Yes, they get hot, but it was never something that bothered me. I don't recall whether I could touch the amps without getting burned, or not. If you live in a hot climate and don't have A/C, that may be cause for concern. Otherwise, no.

Really nice of you two to share it.. I know every equipment must be equally to get a "better sound.. Right now my budget for something around 5-10k.. So my priority is getting the amp first, later to get everything else done.. Slowly here means i get the amp and speaker first which in my opinion the " best for me now" and getting the other equipment slowly while i don't need to change the speaker and amp again in the process.. I know this hobby is kind of "every connected equipment making a different sounding result..
Anyone ever try mf ams50 or pass xa60.5 combine with focal scala?

"07-13-14: Didi1606
Really nice of you two to share it.. I know every equipment must be equally to get a "better sound.. Right now my budget for something around 5-10k.. So my priority is getting the amp first, later to get everything else done.."

I just want to clarify my last post. I wasn't saying you need to buy everything right now. Very few people have the means to do it that way. One piece at a time is perfectly OK. When I say you are going too fast, I mean that you are going to buy expensive, specialized equipment, without the knowledge and experience you need to make a good choice for yourself.

Here's a good example of a very common problem. You buy the JM Labs speaker and a Pass amp. After a month or two, the high frequencies start to bother you. They're a bit harsh and unnatural sounding. You don't enjoy listening to music anymore, and you now find that you need to fix the system so you can listen to it. At this point, you start a thread here on Audiogon asking for suggestions on what to do. Here's a list of recommendations you are going to get.

You need to buy a tube preamp.
You need to change your cables.
You need to clean your AC up by running dedicated lines to your system.
You need to buy speakers that don't have metal tweeters.
You need to buy a tube amp.
You need to buy a better source.
You need to treat your listening room with various acoustic products.

You may get other recommendations, as well, but the ones I list above, you'll definitely get. So looking at all this, what would you do? Where would you begin?

I think he needs a lot of money :)

Options to get a lot of money soon.

You need to robe a bank
You need to win the lotery
You need to find a new job
You need to find a rich woman

Or......look for a cheaper hobby!