Focal Utopia Scala V2 or Persona (9H/7F)

If the reason you’re considering anything other than the Scala V2 is that they might be bright, I wouldn’t sweat it much - there’s a jumper on the base in the back that shelves treble down slightly if you have any issues. I’m really sensitive to treble and that took away the brightness. Same option on bass if you need it. It’s a great feature that Focal has included on all of their current Utopia models that almost completely reduces the risk of the speaker not working in a room.

In 50+  years of this game, I never heard a French speaker I didn't like .

Your room is way too small for almost all of these speakers. The Personas 9H might work due to the room correction of the speaker and their ability to tune out bass nodes and standing waves. 

The Persona 3F are similar the 9H, in many ways, the 9H do indeed sound better, the biggest issue with the Personas is setup many dealers are not up to the task of showcasing a speaker system with this kind of resolution. 

As per the Focals sounding bright they are a bright speaker it is only with setup that speakers with high resolution tweeters Personas, Focals, etc will sound good, the Dynaudios are a much more laid back sound without the incredible clarity that the Focals or Personas have so they are much less likely to overwelm a listener with too much treble information.

The Wilson Sashas are a bit over blown in the bass and will probably sound very boomy in that size room.

What you need is either a smaller reference speaker that won't overload the room or some kind of room tuning either in the speaker or external.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I don’t agree. The Scalas will work just fine. Any treble or bass issues should be able to be handled by the jumpers. Please stop promoting your goods on these forums.

Bar we are not selling this man anything! He lives in Canada where the Personas are made therefore it is impossible for a US dealer to make that sale.

Just a bone of contention:   this mans room is 12* 16
                                           the Focals bass in room -3db at 27hz
                                                                                  -6db at 24hz

You misunderstand that the Focals allow for basic boost/cut in reality this is a very primitive way of helping make a bad situation slightly less bad by offering a few positions of bass boost or cut, even in the EM Focal models you are controlling damping which can create tighter or looser bass but still can’t magically create in reality a totally shelved bass response, with tighter damping you will create a bit less bass, but the amount of air a large cone makes is why people use large bass cones in the first place.

If you notice I said the Personas might work, they are also go too deep in the bass for that size room. The only saving grace with the Personas is that they have very advanced room correction which is a sophisticated way of creating numerous digital filters in the bass frequencies designed to tame standing waves.

In a digital filter you can create a many position parametric equalizer and can therefore precisely affect the room in the ways you want to with the end goal of creating a flat bass response.

The ARC (Anthem Room Correction) measures numerous positions and then calculates the null points in the filters to compensate for the higher room gain caused by room positioning.

We had a pair of Personas in small hotel room that was about 13 wide by 16 deep and the sound in the bass was shocking, it was deep, tight and tuneful without boom. All the room’s participants were just stunned at how good the system was sounding. So we have direct experience that this system with careful tuning might work.

Without electronic room correction I would never venture to put that large a speaker in that size room.

Traditionally a room that small can handle bass to 30-35hz with out severe issues with bloat and boom.

As per Focal speakers they are great we really like them they are a bit more colorful than the Personas, personally the Personas image better, the Focals have always been tuned to offer punchy bass, a full bodied midrange and a bit aggressive treble with great clarity and a bit of air.

The Personas are the more neutral of the two and require a bit more work to add some color to their sound, we have found that when setup correctly they are very, very, hard to beat.

So Bar if you want to come to the shop and take a listen then maybe you might see things differently.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ