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Would you Upgrade?

Hi everyone, i'd like to get everyone's opinion on upgrading my set of loudspeakers.

I would be going from a pair of B&W 802D (the first of the diamond models, around 2010) to a pair of Focal Sopra 3's.

Is there much of an upgrade making this change?

I heard the Sopra's at an upscale dealer with a close to perfect setup: speakers about 15 feet from the front wall and about 10 feet from the side walls. Electronics were all Esoteric, including their $44,000 Grandiosa M1 monoblocks, preamp, cd player, power regenerator and $3,800 Cardas clear stereo speaker cables.

I'm not sure if these speakers would sound much different from my current 802D and my humble Classe CAM 100 monoblocks.

Also, how many years do speakers last before they degrade (speaker, crossovers, etc...)

thanks to everyone in advance.
onehorsepony
soix
8,644 posts
 
Vocals tend to wander from center to left to right within the same recording.
Maybe cut down on the merlot a bit while listening? Seriously though, I’d recommend going to give the Joseph Audio Perspective 2 a listen if you can find a dealer. JA speakers are masters of imaging/soundstage and disappearing as a sound source, and they’re small enough that an in-home demo should be possible. I’ve heard JA speakers next to B&Ws on a couple occasions and both times the JAs sounded significantly better and made the B&Ws sound congested by comparison. FWIW.

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
@mijostyn    It's quite natural you will recommend others to get home demos.  Only you can judge speakers without listening to them.
rushfan71
291 posts
 
@onehorse pony.
Notice how you asked an opinion on two speakers and an audio dealers advice was to upgrade your electronics?
The 802D's and the Sopra 3's are both great speakers. Listen to Sopras with gear thats on your level also. Let your ears decide, not people who stand to profit.
bigkidz
3,311 posts
 
You have to know what makes sound good.  If you don't understand what component in your system makes the sound they way it is, you basically are just trading one type of sound for another.  Brightness comes more from your components than the speaker.  IMO the speaker just passes along what it is feed. Sure some designs are more open, some are faster sounding, some have deeper bass.  You need to decide what you like and bring along the music to demo the speakers.  I use piano as a go to.  If the piano sounds bad the rest to me never falls into place.  Then I go from there.

Listen with your ears and if you like them better, then buy them.

Happy Listening.

  
steve59's avatar
steve59
1,640 posts
 
The listening room is so important in system synergy that buying without a home demo is like throwing darts blindfolded, not impossible for the experts but potluck for the rest of us. Focal speakers I've home demoed had huge mid bass peaks with no bass below 80 hz in room. maybe the way they port their speakers doesn't jive with my room idk, but I love their mid and upper fq reproduction.
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