Na... You didn't actually listen to 936's. They sound nothing like that and nobody who's ever listened to them would say that. |
I just looked... Excluding all the head gear, there's less than a page of actually Focal speakers listed (viewing mobile). About a third are older generation models and many newer ones are sold by dealers. |
wqgq_641,
You're ears either do not function correctly, or you simply don't know what uncolored sound sounds like. Every single professional review of every F cone speaker I've ever read or watched points out their neutrality and transparency. Making your kind of statement about a speaker renowned for it's neutrality really hurts your credibility. |
So far as I can tell, 8" drivers make virtually no difference at all over 6.5" drivers in Focal speakers. The 948 has a -6dB 1Hz lower than the 936 and the Kanta No. 3 only offers 3Hz lower response over the No. 2. Insignificant. |
Focal aren't designed to work well with transformer coupled amps, especially the sorts that McIntosh uses. That's pretty obvious looking at the measurements. |
The old engineering saying that if it looks right it usually is, is usually wrong. That thinking produced lousy aerodynamics on cars. It produced a lot of lousy speakers, especially in the 60's and 70's. It's produced plenty of architectural and structural failures. Good engineering hardly ever produces things of fine esthetic beauty. |
I picked up my white 936's new, in the boxes, directly from Audio Plus Services, through an authorized dealer in Michigan, for $750 off the $4000 price tag. That's 18% off. I was offered $900 off 948's and 1008 Be's, 18% again. 20% discounts aren't at all hard for me to believe. |
Well, except there really aren't that many Focal speakers listed.... |
Look at the impedance and phase angle plot. Speakers with high impedance will always sound bright on a transformer coupled amp due to their high open loop impedance. Beyond that, Mc amps are designed to be power sources, not voltage sources like what Focal designs their speakers using. The Sopra and Kanta lines were voiced using big Naim solid state direct coupled amps.
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@rlovendale
That's exactly what McIntosh amps are designed to do with the autoformer regardless of the load characteristics. That's why you aren't going to get the best sound from Focal using their amps. Let me try to explain it...
With a typical direct coupled voltage source amp the goal of the amp is to just drive the voltage into the load regardless of impedance. If the impedance is high, it just pushes the voltage with less current. If it's low, more current. That's not what McIntosh amps do.
McIntosh autoformers are designed to maintain constant power regardless of load. When it sees a high impedance, it doesn't just maintain the voltage and let the current float. It will drive try to drive the same level of energy, both voltage and current, into that higher impedance load. The same for low impedance loads.
The problem is that Focal designs their speakers to be powered by a voltage source that lets the current float around a bit. Focal uses low impedance through the bass region to get the better bass response by letting the amp drive more current into the speaker. Beryllium tewwters cover a wide range and as a result swing from 8 ohm up to 20 with phase angles that swing downward. You see that bump in their response at about 10KHz because that's where the phase angle is about 0 degrees and the impedance is pretty benign. You're getting good energy transfer, plus that where 1 inch tweeters begin to become very directional. If you're driving it with an amp that only seeks to achieve flat output power, you're going to get overwrought highs as the impedance rises sharply past 10KHz and the phase angle goes more negative. The speakers is expecting to get less power in the form of less current. That's what it's trying to tell an amp that's acting like a voltage source. But that's not what autoformers do. |
Glancing over various measurements for Bowers and Wilkins, DeVore, Wilson, Harbeth, GoldenEar, and KEF, many had various lumps and bumps in their impedance, Wilson being among the flattest and B&W often going clean off the graph past 20 ohm. Generally though, the group didn't see big lumps in their tweeter regions. My Focal 936's would fall into the group too. The big lump Focal Be tweeters exhibit is at least somewhat unique based on my randomly pulliing measurements out of a hat.
So, while a McIntosh amp would probably play well with most of the speakers who's measurements I glanced at, justifying their philosophy on autoformers, speakers with those Be tweeters might not be a good match. Not so sure about those off the chart upper mid-range lumps some B&W make either. |
I'd say there are lots of brands that are disproportionately represented in forum chatter. Take Tekton for example. They Dell a tiny fraction of what many others do, but their costumers are absolute fanatics on forums. |
Focal sells a LOT of speakers compared to most other companies out there. They basically dominate every price point they sell at. If you're building $200,000 speakers, the FGU is the product to beat. If you're selling $10,000 speakers, the Kanta 2 is the product to beat. They're not necessarily perfect in one way or another, but Focal does a really good job creating a very well rounded product. |
