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Made the move: Focal Maestro 3 to Focal Maestro EVO

Traded in my Focal Maestro 3 and have my new Maestro EVO’s sitting in my living room In beautiful black finish. First, I want to comment on their fit and finish. “WOW” they are simply gorgeous. I would take them on a date anywhere and they would be the envy of everyone with their stunning curves and eloquent display.  Since I have less than 5 hours listening so far, I will only make some brief comments on their sonics. The evolution from Maestro 3 to EVOs not only transforms the greatest strengths of the Maestro 3: presence, impact, and scale to a new level but also fixes its weaknesses. One area of criticism of previous generations of Focal’s has alway been in upper frequencies. I lived with the Maestro 3 for 3.5 years and I can attest to this area of concern. I can say without hesitation the beast has been tamed. There’s no hint of brightness or edge with the EVOs. Other areas of improvement are lower levels of distortion, tighter bass, much easier drive capability and listening enjoyment.  These areas of improvement have only been noticed with less than 5 hours of listening to a new speaker. If there is interest in this thread I will continue to update as break in continues.

 

 

hiendmmoe
james633
888 posts
 

Nice, enjoy. 

smodtactical
967 posts
 

I got offered stellas (EM not Evo) in black from a dealer. New unit for $40k shipped. This was 1-2 years ago. In hind sight I probably should have grabbed them. But I didn’t have the space at that time for such a big speaker. And also thats a decent amount of cash.

If I had to choose I think stella EM even used over maestro evo. But it would be interesting to do that face off.

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,124 posts
 

Congrats on your new speakers.

I can only dream…

hiendmmoe OP
197 posts
 

I would choose the EVOLUTION series over the previous EM. What they have done with the EVOs is significant. Much lower less fatiguing sound. The EM upper frequencies could bite you in the long run if not tamed with the right equipment.

Ag insider logo xs@2x
reg19
80 posts
 

Hiendmmoe: congratulations.

I have owned several Focal speakers (Electra 1038Be, Sopra 3, Scala V1, and now Maestro III).

I do not like bright sounding speakers and the smaller Focals (1038Be) are bright.

However, to me, the Maestro III lean ever so much towards the warm side of neutral. Never any brightness or harshness.

I think the biggest reason for going for EVO over prior version (for some) has been that it runs better with tube amps.

With good SS monoblocks (paired with a good tube preamp), the Maestro III are amazing. It takes a high level of current delivering capacity to properly utilize the lower woofer.

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