are focals new 807v chorus better than old cobalts

No, sorry. They did not have any of the S series speakers.
I did ask the sales person about it and he said that the V series is definitely an improvement, but being a sales person of course he would say that.
Sorry I can't be more helpful.

So you did not compare the S series with the V series?

I wish I could hear the 800V compared to a 700V series

I know how you feel. I went and listened to the 716V and the 816V. They were both fantastic, but now I have to decide if the 816V is $600 better than the 716V.
The 816Vs were broken in and the 716Vs were not. In fact they only had about 3 hours on them. Plus, they used different electronics with them, so it's not an easy decision.

I just listened to the 816S and 816V as well as the 807V. I know the driver are supposed to be higher quality in the 816S, but the 816V and shockingly the 807V sounded better to me, and they look at least 10 times better. I went in to buy the 816S on a closeout deal, but left a little confused, I am still toying with whether to buy the 816V or *07V and some stands...