Focal Sopra, Kanta, Aria
I’m confused. I’ve been in the market to replace my B&W 802D speakers. I’ve had them for 10 years and finally cannot take the brightness of them anymore. I’ve replaced amps, preamps, cables, sources, and yet the fundamental brightness is there, fatiguing me after only 1-hour of listening.
I auditioned the Focal Sopra 3 which I am told are not as bright and more musical. LIstened to them a few times, and honestly felt that they were also on the bright side similar to the B&W’s.
Another time I listened to the Focal Kanta 3 speaker. Like the Sopra it also has the Beryllium tweeter. Yet the one time I listened to these, they didn’t seem as bright.
Anyway, recently a friend of mine was in the process of moving, and I stored his Focal Aria 936 speakers at my home. I decided to hook them up to my electronics in my listening room just out of curiosity.
What I found were loudspeakers that were not bright (non beryllium tweeter), a warmer sound, probably due to a better mid-bass then the big 802’s. The extreme resolution was not there, and the midrange seemed congested at times. Yet, I found I could listen and enjoy these speakers for hours at a time. Bad recordings sounded good, and great recordings sounded, well, good also. Speaker placement made minimal difference.
My questions is at what is the sweet spot for Focal speakers. The point where they sound wonderful with extended listening, vs the point where they become a finicky pain in the ass to live with (aka 802D).
I was expecting to spend around an equal amount of money as the 802’s as a starting point, now I’m not so sure if I need to.
Thanks in advance for everyone’s input…
IBryston BP-26. Another point mentioned in another forum, which is more severe in my system is the Bryston BP-26 connected to the Classe CAM-200 via XLR, my volume range is literally from 6 to 7 (clockface speaking) This is very annoying when trying to adjust the volume on the remote, but is this causing any weird sound issues? |
I have auditioned both the 802D3 and recently the D4. Honestly, the 802D3 I felt was the worst of the series. I felt like I was listening to each of the drivers separately and not as on speaker. The D4 seem to have fixed that issue, but it does seem like each new release is brighter than the previous version. I know it is their house sound, but they have this hyper resolution nowadays. I'm kindof restricting myself to Focal at this point. I tried listening to the KEF Blades, but could only find them at Best Buy setup terribly with some teenager annoyed that I wanted to listen to more than one song on them. I never liked Vanderstteens, felt they were too layed back in their sound. I have heard some Sonus Faber that I've liked, but they were above my budget.
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my electronics are as follows: Classe cam-200 monoblocks, bryston bp-26 preamp, mark levinson 5101 cd player. all xlr audioquest water interconnects audioquest indigo bi-wire cables (2 cables per speaker) |
Tried connecting a Cambridge Audio integrated amp up to my 802d's, Rated at 100wpc, wow what a difference. Not saying good/bad, but what a contrast. my Bryston BP-26 is bright and light on bass, where the Cambridge Audio is not bright at all, with a huge amount of bass. Question: what is causing such a difference? |
I still haven't chosen a pair of speakers to replace my 802D's. To be honest, I haven't found anything that is enough of a difference to justify the cost. I did replace my Bryston BP-26 preamp with a PSAudio BHK Preamp and things have calmed down quite a bit. I can truthfully say that the Bryston BP-26 is a bright sounding preamp. But, I still ultimately listen to the B&W 802D's. No matter what the electronics, they are voiced bright. The diamond tweeter says 'look at me'. Also, I continue to be listening to 3 speakers per cabinet, instead of one full range speaker. Maybe this is a function of 3 different speaker materials used?
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