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Focal Sopra, Kanta, Aria

I’m confused. I’ve been in the market to replace my B&W 802D speakers. I’ve had them for 10 years and finally cannot take the brightness of them anymore. I’ve replaced amps, preamps, cables, sources, and yet the fundamental brightness is there, fatiguing me after only 1-hour of listening.

I auditioned the Focal Sopra 3 which I am told are not as bright and more musical. LIstened to them a few times, and honestly felt that they were also on the bright side similar to the B&W’s.

Another time I listened to the Focal Kanta 3 speaker. Like the Sopra it also has the Beryllium tweeter. Yet the one time I listened to these, they didn’t seem as bright.

Anyway, recently a friend of mine was in the process of moving, and I stored his Focal Aria 936 speakers at my home. I decided to hook them up to my electronics in my listening room just out of curiosity.

What I found were loudspeakers that were not bright (non beryllium tweeter), a warmer sound, probably due to a better mid-bass then the big 802’s. The extreme resolution was not there, and the midrange seemed congested at times. Yet, I found I could listen and enjoy these speakers for hours at a time. Bad recordings sounded good, and great recordings sounded, well, good also. Speaker placement made minimal difference.

My questions is at what is the sweet spot for Focal speakers. The point where they sound wonderful with extended listening, vs the point where they become a finicky pain in the ass to live with (aka 802D).

I was expecting to spend around an equal amount of money as the 802’s as a starting point, now I’m not so sure if I need to.

Thanks in advance for everyone’s input…

onehorsepony
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,344 posts
 

I owned N803 for many years and listened to 802D3 several times. B&W has its own sound. Some like it some don’t. But the 800 line of speakers is resolving and dynamic. I would not classify it as bright. There’s some midrange hump that emphasizes the vocals and goes into the presence region. Could be pleasant or fatiguing depending on your set up and room acoustics  

I ran my B&Ws with Pass X250.5 amplifier and ARC LS-25 preamp and that set up sounded amazing. 

With Diamond or Beryllium tweeters, or any high res tweeter, slightly less toe in would help tame the top end but if you don’t have at least some room treatment in critical points, fuhgeddaboudit

james633
914 posts
 

The measurements show the 802D4 is bright. I listened to them today on McIntosh 2700 tube pre and 611 amps. I would say they sounded bright. Sounded like the measurements below. Very high resolution and enjoyable but flawed. Great bass, great highs, good mids but sounded like 3 different speakers playing the same song. Came home and listened to the same songs on my Revel 228be with subs and McIntosh 462 and felt the resolution was close (not as good in the bass without subs) with a much more cohesive sound which lead to better imaging and soundstage. Adding in the subs I had better bass too. The highs are much softer on the Revels. Vocals popped on both speakers but were thinner on the 802D4. Maybe take a look at the Revel 328be. They sound a lot like Focals with softer highs. ASR has full measurements in their “review”.  
 

 

havocman
350 posts
 

if you want a speaker that's not bright at all listen to the monitor audio gold G5 series with the AMT tweeter or the platinum series incredible three-dimensional very natural sounding speakers, I never did like BMW or focal I found them both bright.

havocman
350 posts
 

also change all your cabling to OCC single crystal wire that has been now showing for over 50 years to be the best wire for audio. far better than anything ofc on the market at any price.

fatdaddy2
368 posts
 

We can always trust havocman to chime in about OCC!

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