Utopia Skala / Alto speakers anyone hear them both

Elviukai,

Thanks for your insightful comments on the Diablo. However, both Sonus Faber models are lower priced than the Diablo and SF does have a reputation for being colored although in a very pleasing way. Have you read Chris Thomas' review in HiFi+ (there is a link to it on Focal's website) and if so, do you concur with his observations?

saying coloured i ment not only by tonal balance,its also for fundamental discortions. I do not read too much rewiews while I find them very enjoyable to read i still better trust my own ears.. I drop quick look at that rewiew now- its prety accurate and they are also right about new speakers sounds mad. Diablos woofer have special asymetric spider which is very hard/stiff when new.when I first time hooked it on generator it sounded muddy and hard, I even was able to hear swisting mechanical noises from spider and surround . I hope dealers run them on generators before showing to public, if the burning them by listening music it can took 500-800 hours at least.

Maybe it was just me, but when I heard the last generation Nova Utopias BEs at the NYC show, the bass seem to pummel me,
a real pounding sound.
Whenever I read about JMLabs,
I never seem to read many comments about the bass, with
most discussion centered on the tweeter.
But I always liked the JMLabs on vocals, especially female ones, and thought the 1st generation Mezzos were sweet.
So I would be curious about the bass on the new generation
models. Thanks.

it will be diferent on Nova EM believe me :-)

I know I am reviving an old thread but the original question was never answered and I finally had the chance to compare the Scala head to head with the Alto the other day.

What Focal has done with the Scala is pretty impressive and something I am still having a hard time comprehending given what I thought were the similarities between the designs of the Alto and the Scala. While the Alto remains a great speaker, the Scala improves upon it in every way top to bottom and most impressively, makes the Alto seem slightly veiled in comparison (which is pretty shocking considering how veiled most other speakers sound in comparison to the Alto ime).

Were the prices the same, it would be the Scala hands down, but given the marked price differentials between the Alto on the used market and the Scala new, it's a decision that will be personal to each buyer.