High end local dealers won't stay for too long unless they have online sale and have an attractive price policy. For example, the hassle of buying bulky items online is that if you want to return, the shipping fee and insurance will be hundreds of dollars. So a local dealer can match the online price. (Again, dealers make good profit on speakers anyway.) In the case a customer wants to return the speakers, the restocking fee then will be charged comparable to the shipping fee. Anyway, In the Unites States, the high end business will die with the baby boomer generation (my generation) and may be even before that because our ears gradually can no longer hear sound in details as we did 20 years ago.
Why so many used focals?
I look on the forums to read and learn about owners reactions about focals and compared to many brands there's little action which would make me think it's a small company... til I search on AG for used focal speakers and pages of used speakers come up! Are they the type of speakers that offer a clear upgrade path OR are they short term speakers that wow the listener early and fatigue in the long term?
I couldn't be in the same room with focal's from the 90's, but the recent speakers have been very pleasing to the ear in auditions. Experienced reply's would be appreciated and please no hating on the brand. Tks
I couldn't be in the same room with focal's from the 90's, but the recent speakers have been very pleasing to the ear in auditions. Experienced reply's would be appreciated and please no hating on the brand. Tks
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It's quite difficult to draw too many definitive conclusions about why products from a particular brand might be sold at a given time on the used market. People don't possess the same ears. If they did, there would be only one brand for sale. When people reject a particular brand because of the sound, what they really mean is that the sound doesn't appeal to *their* ears. |
ozzy3,584 postsCheck out my review of the Sopra 2's. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/my-speaker-journey-and-focal-sopra-2 ozzy That matched my experience with the Sopra as well. While I was nicer to the dealer. My comment to the dealer was, "I've spent too much time with soft domes. I would not be able to listen to that tweeter for very long."He was offended and tried to tell me that "I was not used to hearing so much detail." Oh I hear the detail just fine with my tubes and soft domes. Thank you very much. In reality, that tweeter is defective. For proof, look at the Stereophile measurements of the Sopra 3. There is a serious resonance peak at 10k. It is annoyingly audible. Too bad, because I really like the rest of their voicing philosophy of the gently downward sloping frequency response. If ToneAudio says this is the best version of their BE tweeter then well, wow. IMO, they would really be onto something if they abandoned that tweeter for a ribbon or a smooth sounding soft dome. |
Agreed. The Kanta No. 2 sucks, and I could only take 10-15 minutes of it, turning the volume down (on McIntosh electronics no less) constantly. I feel the same way about the Paradigm Persona 3F. It's not the beryllium. I use Focal Utopia headphones, so I'm familiar with the Be coloration (and use them on a neutral solid state amp). |
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