Speakers suggestion help

Your room, and the amount of space you can give them, to the sides as well as behind, matter.

OMG! You want superb midrange yet have no Tekton on your list??!!?! When they are to be powered with a PL integrated that will absolutely enthrall with a Double Impacts or Moabs??! Seriously wwinn007 you need to look at my system https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 read my review https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/tekton-design-moab-2?page=24 and search around for reviews and comments on DI and Moab.

The room around 15' wide 18' long and 9' height.

Seriously. Disregard Capt Irrelevant, drop everything and start looking into Tekton.

Might look at Revel M126be. If adding a subwoofer consider DSP to integrate it. 

Sticking within the choices you mention (which I presume what you want us to do), I think the room dimensions could matter a lot. If you have a sub, one of the Focals might conflict with your sub -- the Focal Electra 1038 BE. Figuring out which will cross-over best with the sub will be important. Folks here might have some good advice as to how to make that estimation.

should be good combos... those are bright leaning speakers, but balanced by nice beefy tube amp...  i would think focals have slightly more nuance than b&w

For clear vocal midrange you really should listen to Maggies or Martin Logans or other electrostatics before settling on Focals.

Millercarbon - some people have said he gets paid for each reference to tekton  speakers. He thought they were the cats meow before he even heard them. Stick with your 3 if you want better speakers.
I would add revel to your list, not including the salon or studio, they need more power.

Just buy some tannoys and be done....

The B&Ws have the better midrange and treble so if you don't care about bass they're the clear choice, pardon the pun. 

+1 on Tekton

I have Primaluna Dialogue Premium separates HP amp on par with the Evo 400 (8 power tubes). I have Tekton Double Impacts that extensively upgraded. The midrange gives voices, strings and horns a realistic lifelike sound.
They're pretty good stock too.

Auditioning speakers is not easy.  I went to a dealer a few weeks ago and listened to a pair of Vivid Kaya 90’s.  I was very impressed and identified them among the short list of speakers I might buy.  I then asked the dealer for a second audition but at a store branch that was much closer to my home.  The difference in sound was night a day.  Of course everything was different ... the room size and shape, all of the equipment used (amps, cables etc).  My lesson here was that I will not buy a new speaker unless I have an in home demo or it can be returned.  The room and equipment just make too big a difference.  This has been said on this forum a thousand times but it’s the first time I have been confronted with just how dramatic a difference it can make. Suggest you do the same.  If the dealer is not up for either option find a new dealer or new speaker options (Tekton, Revel, Tannoy, Maggie’s, ML, Vivid) are all great sounding speakers.  They just need to be heard in your home, room, equipment. 

You should also listen to the monitor audio gold 300 generation 5.they are much better than any one of those speakers much more three-dimensional and natural-sounding very good mid-range and then use an AMT tweeter which in my opinion is the best tweeter on the market now. Will sound very good with your prima Luna.

Bottom line is there are plenty of good choices available for
fine vocal sound. What Chilli says is the most important comment
you have so far. Buy on a home trial basis only. If you pay freight both ways and a 5% restock fee, that is fair and what you should pay for the privilege. That cost could be $600 in this price range. It will be the
best spent $600 in your system. Good luck and keep us posted please.

Hi millercarbon
What $$$ do Tekton pay you for each sale?

Your stylus is stuck in the groove, it's pretty boring for the rest of us reading the same stuff every 1.8 seconds.

Are you intellectually capable of making a posting without mentioning Tekton?  Try it, it might widen your horizon.

I have the exact  B&W system you are referencing.  I have the 805's plus a B&W sub to match.  I have this in my bedroom setup and it sounds fantastic.  Great midrange and highs and the subs fill in the rest. My sub is the ASW10CM.  I definitely recommend the floor stands for the 805's. Great choice!!

Look at SALK.  His speakers are much better.  Then add a pair of REL S2 SHO Subwoofers.

Have the 1038 Be with a Carver 1725 tube and Ayre SS - both give impressive upper range clarity.   A potential issue is the unprotected tweeter with very fragile Be membrane and the $1K replacement.  .   

I wonder how much money Eric Alexander took off the price of MC’s
Tekton speakers since he seems to be their spokesperson for them? According to MC, if you want a great midrange, then Tekton is the logical choice. Laughable at best. I wouldn’t buy Tekton if they were the best sounding speakers in the world as I feel a speaker has to look good as well as sound good The Tektons are not in any way, good looking speakers.

without the sarcasm, i would submit here that it would be a good practice for folks who have a financial interest in making the recommendations they do to disclose that fact in every post in which they make such a recommendation

as a forum we expect that most of us here are just hobbyists and end use consumers, but reality is there are many ’industry people’ here posting as well, and also there is the grey area of high-dollar, long-time ’up to the waist’ hobbyists who have connected themselves in some way to some retailers/dealers/menufacturers... those who have done so should identify themselves as such when suggesting products or services to unsuspecting posters here who assume we are all just ’regular joes’ sharing our collective experiences and preferences

to be clear, industry people are rightfully knowledgeable, have a lot of share in terms of their opinions and wisdom - they simply should plainly identify themselves and what they say as financially incentivized when they say it

scott at verdant is a best practice example, obviously the good folks at audio connection in nj do so in their very username - others should follow this practice

i - for one - have no financial ’dog’ in any hifi gear ’fight’ - i buy stuff listen enjoy, recommend if i feel it is deserving

Vandersteen Treo CT may be worth a demo, nice top end from the carbon tweeters...

Or, if you like the beryllium tweeters on the Focals might look at the Magico A3 but they usually pair better with higher current amps,PL monos might do the trick. They are 89db efficient, 4ohm nominal

Best,
-JP

There’s a nice pair of Joseph Audio Pulsars in beautiful Sepeli finish for $4300 on US Audio Mart.  Just buy those. 

Among those three you are looking at, I would probably get the Focal Utopias.  I have listened to the B&Ws driven by a PrimaLuna and they are not the best match and I personally have never been impressed by the Electras.  The Kantas are a better speaker.  Among those three, Utopias, no question.  

Two alternatives that I offer:

For the same level of detail but with better imaging and soundstaging look at the Raidho X-1s.  Your room is plenty big enough for them and they need a little space to breath.  I offer these new and there is a pair of the XT-1s out here used on Agon.   The XT-1s are not from me and I don't know the person that is selling them.  

Another alternative would be the Verdant Audio Bambusa AL-1.  The way the crossover is designed, it has a slightly emphasized mid-range which will deliver exactly what you are looking for and have a full, 30 day return policy on them.  

I understand people are passionate about audio, and I myself have offended users in here, it was not my intention.

So I will state as jjss49 asks, I was an employee of a well respected loudspeaker manufacturer in Australia (almost completely unknown elsewhere). I have no financial reward for any of my suggestions.

People stating that millercarbon has a financial interest in or from Tekton, are rumor creating, and it first appeared as an insult in the Tekton Moab thread millercarbon started. There are quite a few posters (myself included) who have found devices or technologies that punch much higher than their cost, and met with controversy in posting in this forum.

If you have felt that someone like myself or millercarbon or others have an attitude or you don’t like our message, and you decide to get on your high horse to fabricate hearsay, from personal bias..
I assure you that other readers are intelligent enough to remember the incidents that created the feud, and see through the "Fake News".

Whether or not you like a person, their posts, their opinions or not, when you fabricate a rumor, you become a liar.

Liars, defame themselves. Especially hypocritical ones.



Regardless, the Tekton Designs speakers were not on that list, and others posted other models after Tektons were introduced, they were not called out.

In such a sized room I would personally go with stand mounts and a DBA system, however that was not what was asked.

The Utopias are a pretty old design. Focal's tweeter has come a long since these were introduced. Also, with the Electras you probably don't need a subwoofer at all. The Electras were a great series - in some respects superior to the Kantas that replaced them. Easy to position, exciting "up front" imaging and great prat. Just my two cents.

@millercarbon  does not have a horizon to broaden.

I've heard Focal a number of times and own their desk top ($700!) and never was impressed. To my ears kind of lifeless. I own B and W CM9 and find them excellent. But the top of my list is Monitor Audio PL 100 II, which I got here for 1/2 price when they were less than a year old. Superb all round speaker--warm, clear, wide stage. They go down to 40 but I have a PSB450 sub and that peels the paint off the wall. 
So, for what it's worth, my rec is B and W if it's those three, but check out MA as well. 

Diva utopia that’s it . And only only only utopias you will never ever look for anything else 

Guy, thank you for all your feed back, I finally acquired the Focal Electra 1008 BE, it's sound great even without the sub.

Congrats, very good speakers.

very nice

enjoy