Amps-Cables for Focal 1007 BE


I have a pair of Focal 1007 BE speakers, which after the ridiculous break in time, have some rather incredible attributes I have only heard from other planner speakers in the past. However, I am getting a bit of hardness and edge to the lower treble, upper midrange which is affecting the vocal and making the speaker sometimes very strident. Any Focal fans listeners or people in the know that may help with an amp and speaker cable selection. I am using a Classe Cp-50 pre amp and highly modified Marantz amplifier and cd player, along with Ocos speaker cable. Would love to hear any feedback! Thanks greatly in advance.
jim2362
I've heard people say that they had trouble 'taming' the highs in the various Be series, and surprisingly found good results in treating their digital source with something like Shunyata products. Only 2nd hand word though...
For ICs try the Van den Hul The First Ultimate. One of the very top ICs , detailed but very smooth. Also one of the cheapest top interconnects, about $450 a pair new, often seen used for $200. Now in MK2 version, which I have but not broken in enough to judge the change from MK 1. When we subsisted it for the digital link in my friends system the top end was softer without losing detail. I use it everywhere in my system, it had a wider range of compatibility than most ICs as it has very little character of its own.
JMlabs are quite easy to drive and love tubes. Tubes should help tame any glare and brightness. I am currently running a pair of original Micro-Utopias with a 24 watt tube amp and they sound fantastic. A quality tube amp from 10-50 watts should be a great match for your speakers. Happy listening!
Thank you all for your responses! I will look at some tube gear as suggested before I consider abandoning these speakers, and will them take the info on cables. Thanks again.
Good idea, try the tube route first. Cables will only give a very small change and it sounds like you need more than a very small tweek.

Cary and Quicksilver tube amps tend to be more forgiving in the midrange. Audio Research and CJ's tend to be a little more analytical. These are just generalizations.