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Pre/Power or Integrated for Focal Utopia Scala?

Hi, been shopping around for quite awhile but would like to get more ideas from you guys. Budget is about $30k+.

Primary music is classical, jazz and trance. No vocals. Key emphasis on dynamics and tonality. I am not particular about soundstaging and so on but expect a degree of detail.

I have tried these few brands:
- Chord
- Spectral
- Karan
- Goldmund
- Passlabs
- Jeff Rowland
- Plinius
- Octave

Each has some plus and minus.

- I find Goldmund power to be very good but not convinced about their pre-amps which can be abit dry. In comparison, Spectral and Karan are abit heavier and have their own tonality.
- I also liked Plinius power amps but their highest end pre-amp has a performance limitation (though good for the price).
- Chord's pre was good but the power abit strange. Not the last word in aggressiveness but good otherwise.
- Octave, as a tube, is missing the low end bite of solid state and not that expressive.
- Passlabs and Jeff Rowland are abit slow for me.

I intend to give Gryphon and Orpheus a try and perhaps ASR.. hope to have some other recommendations.
quest88
mceljo
983 posts
 
Quest88 - My experience with audio equipment at the level your talking about is extrememly limited; however, the deal that I work with is a Focal dealer a I have heard the Scala a few times. I've actually listened to the Grande and Diablo models more.

What I can tell you is that when the Diablo and Grande were powered with Krell mono-blocks the sound simply blew me away. Those amps were sold and replaced with a Asthetix amps and even though they sounded good I was never blown away after the Krells left.

If it were me, I'd use Krell as the baseline and make another brand prove that they sounded better.

By the way, the Scala is a great sounding speaker. I've seen the Stella in the store, but have never been in long enough to get a listen. My favorite Utopia combo is actually the Diablo with a JL Audio subwoofer.
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drrsutliff
299 posts
 
You may wish to add the VAC line of amps to your list for consideration. They should provide many of the qualities you seek.
inna
5,245 posts
 
I would try Gryphon, VAC and LAMM.
focalfan
53 posts
 
any of the vtl amps preamp/ amps combination is also very good with focal speakers.
i use the sigfired ampsand the 7.5 preamplifier with the g.u em.
quest88 OP
7 posts
 
Mceljo: Any idea what the Krell you heard was paired with in terms of cabling? Interesting choice as I've not heard the latest Evo series.

Anyway, Scala is indeed a good speaker but I now kind of feel I should have considered the Maestro.. no end to this. :)

Guys, will take Gryphon, VAC, VTL into my list for audition, thnks. LAMM was too slow for me.

Anyone have any idea on Audionet?
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