Pulled the trigger on a Moon 861! Hope it pairs well on my Focals


Well, I pulled the trigger and ordered a Moon 861 amp! I am very excited! It will be coming next week. I have a pair of focal Sopra n1 speakers that I'll be using on it. I've never heard them paired before. I heard a moon audio 761 on dynaudio towers and so that's what turned me on to The Moon North collection.

 

I'm feeling a little bit nervous. Hopefully it pairs really good with good synergy with the focals. Has anyone ever heard the moon north gear on Focals before?

dman777

@fastfreight yeah, you’re right. I’ve heard Focal on Macintosh which is supposed to be warm and even on that some recordings sounded bright. It really depends on the recording in my opinion. I find that with my Luxman 595, guitar music will sound a bit hard to listen to after a while because it’s recorded with a lot of treble in my opinion. But other music like classical, jazz, and reggae, the brightness of the focals turn to pure magic 

 

Just to note I haven’t got my new amp yet talking about the Luxman that I currently use which is a great amp to. I’ll be keeping it as a extra

@dman777 it sounded bright because your speakers have a more present presentation to their mid treble and upper treble. So combine that with records that may be mixed and mastered bright and yes some stuff will sound bright

it is not an annoying brightness as it isn't peaky but a gradual uplift in their balance beyond lower treble.

I've had the Moon North on Focal beryllium (Kanta, Sopra, and Utopia) and it's a great match. The Moon is never harsh and everything is controlled well. Warmer than I expected. I have not tried your pre. I've only run with Moon North 891.

My friends that don't like Focal beryllium were not run out of the room with only two setups: the Moon North, and Classe Delta power/pre. Everything is smooth and well balanced and never offensive.

Moon products are great and neutral with no coloration. Like others have mentioned, your preamp will soften the sound. Also, moon and dynaudio pair great together. 

Mac does have a mellow sound, but there’s only so much they can overcome. A few years back, I listened to a lovely system that was all new Macintosh equipment and the newest B&W 80? Speakers. No matter where I sat, no matter how I readjusted the speakers, they hurt my ears at levels in the 75-80 db range.  
Everyone’s hearing is different, but for me, I can’t listen to any metal tweets. That’s why I got rid of my KEF Reference 5’s.  They had aluminum tweeters and midrange drivers.