I think they make some of the best looking speakers out there. |
I heard the 1028 be 2 playing beautifully thru a bunch of dealers chosen tracks only to fall apart when I asked for some old supertramp. The Kanta’s didn’t lose their musicality under the same test. So are we dealing with a more forgiving tweeter? Will the Kanta sound as good on pristine recordings if they’re more forgiving of lesser ones? |
10:28am@kosst_amojan1 I listened to both the 926 and 936 and have photos from that session to remember what I did. My test CD was burnt with tracks ranging from Missa Papae Marcelli, through Jennifer Warnes, Adele, Bob Dylan, Kings of Leon, and Pearl Jam. They sound highly coloured in a negative way to me ears. This was early summer 2018 with the flax drivers. To _my_ears their claim that the new flax drivers are uncoloured is ridiculous, YMMV.
I suppose we have to consider how poor they can sound improperly set up. On rock recordings drums sounded live with excellent pitch definition and speed, but I thought I could hear the woofers working It was all very exciting and made me want them even more, Type A living on the edge in my listening room, lol. The review in tone of the K2 mentioned hearing the woofers working and I had no idea what he meant but I think I heard what he was referring to in my K3 demo. |
For the most part the conversation was helpful with only a few cheap shots. I have a room that made a pair of salon2's sound lean with 250 wpc so i'm opting for the kanta'3 with the bigger box and drivers, not for the deeper bass since most of what I listen to doesn't have much if any energy below 40 hz and I want spl! My question was legit because I was so impressed with the speakers at the store, but it usually takes me a bit more time than a typical dealer's going to want a pair of speakers out of his shop. I've been buying and selling used hoping the next one will be the last, but it's a slow process and even with reselling it costs money, not thousands but hundreds and it add's up. I have to sell the salons b4 I buy the kanta's and my dealer will let me take home his floor demos first, but since i'm going to work him on the price I want to do as much of my own leg work as i can first, and if i'm buying new i have to get it right. |
I'll check but I think they're ported front and back. I couldn't pass on a pair of Usher BE-20 DMD Dancers that came up locally and am really having fun with them. It never ceases to amaze me how much impact a room can have on sound. I had a pair of R 107/2's down here, the ones with 2 10" woofers inside the box eq'd to be flat to 20 hz and vented out the top, even those speakers loaded my room with decent bass tho' overall the tweeters turned out to be a little bright for my taste. I have no engineering background or prejudice to speaker design just what works in my room. |
Thanks helomech, the seller said his inbox exploded when he listed them and I was the first to offer pick up with cash in hand, after last nights listening session I believe him. I still want to hear the dyn C60 and Kanta 3 down here but i'm not in such a hurry now. Thanks for everyone's contributions. |
As a rule I don't buy anything hifi new without a 30% discount so when it comes to new releases like the Kanta 3 it might take awhile for me to own it. There's another aspect, if they have to drive the demo's to my house, shlepp them down the stairs, set them up, and then if I like them here, borrow the demos til my order arrives and then have them come back and collect the demos how much of a discount should I expect? NONE!
If they'll let me pick up and return the demos using my own time and trouble thats another story. |
The thread has been positive for the most part and my model works for me and has a pretty substantial downside as in I have to wait! Anybody who pays retail gets all the value that comes with it, something I sacrifice waiting for my price and often I don't get what I want. |
Like I said, sometimes it takes awhile. I demo’d a pair of speakers from tweeter years ago and told the dealer I loved them and when he could find 30% off the list price to call me, they were the VA beethovens and it took about 4 or 5 months but he called and I bought them right over the phone. I don’t have your price sheet in front of me and if I did it probably wouldn’t mean much to me anyhow. I know from a business perspective though a sale is better than no sale and profit margins are (generally)what the market will bear. There’s a guy who’s ears I trust tell me he considered the Kanta 2’s to be a $6000 speaker while he thought the persona 3f would compete at $12k. If I don’t like them they’re worth 0 to me. If the kanta 3 turns out to be ’the’ speaker I end up with they’ll be worth waiting for.
I didn’t realize I was implying anything when I was stating my criteria for buying hifi products. |
The thread started when I started to research focal speakers from owners by checking forums and in comparison to other big players there wasn’t much activity . for example Dynaudio has 10,000 posts on a forum that focal has 1,000 then looking on the used market for price comparisons there’s as many or more focal speakers for sale....soo if, and this is really not science, but if there’s 10 to 1 active on the forums is it wrong to expect a comparative amount of trade volume? I’m sure there’s many reasons that have nothing to do with quality. Many people go online only when somethings wrong and that interpretation would suggest focal customers are more satisfied and upgrade within the same brand or are dealer promo's. there’s any number of ways to interpret the observation that have nothing to do with bashing the speakers I was seriously considering to be my LAST speaker purchase. Since finding these Usher BE20-DMD dancers i'm tapping the brakes on changing anything.
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yea, they've changed how the search engine works. I type in Focal and 2 pages of speakers appear I hit the search button and they all disappear! then if I search from my phone I get a completely different list.
Anyhow I finally got the Kanta 3's into my basement and am playing all my old rock collection. They're sensitive and don't need a ton of power, image great and have an open clean midrange and my wife likes the way they look! If I hadn't lucked into the Usher be-20 DMD's I probably would have bought the Kanta's but the speakers are more of a trade of qualities than one being a clear winner and my room is a *itch. |
The Kanta 3's are going back! If they sounded in my room like they did in the showroom I would have kept them, but the demo showed me i'm trying to fix the wrong thing and it's my room that needs treatment. I appreciate my dealers patience working with me and I hope with some room treatments I won't need speakers after all.
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Let me know how you like the replacements. |
Funny. Let me guess you have the A3's. I heard more expensive magico's driven by some Dan'D you know 6 figure system and I liked the focals better. so much for taste. at least you know to never ask my advice. |
Just like any other successful brand Focal has a line for every budget. I didn't find them bright or forward either. I just got caught up in how good a dedicated listening room can sound and now I don't think I need speakers after all. If I didn't already have decent speakers I could happily live with the Kanta 3 so don't take my returning them as a judgement. |
