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2 Channel Listening Focal Solo 6?

post #1 of 24
10/18/12 at 4:19pm
Thread Starter 
I'm kinda going from head-fi over to speaker-fi and am completely clueless on bi-amping etc. Was wondering if the focal twins required another amp besides it's own amping, and is bi-amping as simple as many people say they are?
Edited by AuraBullet - 10/18/12 at 4:31pm
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post #2 of 24
10/19/12 at 5:53am
These Focal speakers are fully powered and active. No, you do not hook them up to external amps of any kind. The amps are all internal.
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post #3 of 24
10/19/12 at 10:15am
Those are near field studio monitors. Those are both amazing speakers.
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post #4 of 24
10/23/12 at 1:38am
Thread Starter 
hey thanks for the reply, is the twins worth the upgrade over the solos? Anyone know how these sound? Warmth? Analytical? Depth? Soundstage etc.
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post #5 of 24
10/23/12 at 4:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuraBullet View Post

hey thanks for the reply, is the twins worth the upgrade over the solos? Anyone know how these sound? Warmth? Analytical? Depth? Soundstage etc.

I wouldn't. I would put the money into getting subs. biggrin.gif
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post #6 of 24
10/23/12 at 4:12am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AcuDefTechGuy View Post

I wouldn't. I would put the money into getting subs. biggrin.gif

thing is, I only have a dac and those two solos are self amped, and how would I connect the woofer then tongue.gif
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post #7 of 24
10/23/12 at 5:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuraBullet View Post

thing is, I only have a dac and those two solos are self amped, and how would I connect the woofer then tongue.gif

You could get a sub with high-pass output; DAC->sub->speakers

You should listen to the Solos before you buy them; then you could tell us if you think they are warm

You could also get an amp and passive speakers instead of the the Solos
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post #8 of 24
10/26/12 at 12:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by rick240 View Post

You could get a sub with high-pass output; DAC->sub->speakers
You should listen to the Solos before you buy them; then you could tell us if you think they are warm
You could also get an amp and passive speakers instead of the the Solos

thanks for the input, I wanted to try out the twins too but theres no place around me besides like 100+ miles away that has it. Aren't these monitors supposed to be extremely flat? Also, theres another thing that I wanted to try it was the mini maggies I've heard them with a really transparent dac (anedio), and the dealer's 200$ receiver and it had the detail and all but there was no body to the music at all.

Also, dac requirement for the solos / twins warmth? flat? any curves on the eq?
room width is about 9 ft, length is about.. 18-20

I know theres sound reflection while using speakers but with a width and a room length like that near field shouldn't have a problem right? I'm not a professional mixer or one at all so I just want the best out of my music.

Twins vs Solos vs Maggies (maggies require an amp + dac), also has anyone heard the sm11's? theres a good deal that I just passed by @ 4k on them.

Lastly, aren't solos and twins class D amp'd themselves? So in essence, as you said about the passive speakers + amp should sound better right? So thats where the maggies came into thought.
Edited by AuraBullet - 10/26/12 at 12:10am
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post #9 of 24
10/26/12 at 5:42pm
Thread Starter 
any other inputs?
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post #10 of 24
10/26/12 at 8:38pm
An amp and passive speakers are not the same as active speakers. An active two way speaker has TWO amps, one amp for the tweeter and one for the woofer and a crossover not powered by the amp. This design allows the amp to be perfectly matched to each driver, plus an electronic crossover that won't change characteristics as it heats up like many do. Also, the crossover is not taking 30-60% of the power coming from the amp. The drivers have a faster attack since some of the power isn't lost powering the crossover and they are directly driven by the amp. Active speakers have advantages over passives even if they have the same drivers and crossover. Passives main advantage is cost and convenience.

With that being said I'd take a well designed passive speaker and amp over a poorly designed active speaker. But if all else is equal active beats passive. The Focals are not poorly designed and no matter whether you choose the Solo or Twin, I bet you'll be happy. And if you are not I'd look at fixing problems in your room:eek: Either is a great speaker with fantastic imaging, soundstage and depth.
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post #11 of 24
10/31/12 at 12:48am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobL View Post

An amp and passive speakers are not the same as active speakers. An active two way speaker has TWO amps, one amp for the tweeter and one for the woofer and a crossover not powered by the amp. This design allows the amp to be perfectly matched to each driver, plus an electronic crossover that won't change characteristics as it heats up like many do. Also, the crossover is not taking 30-60% of the power coming from the amp. The drivers have a faster attack since some of the power isn't lost powering the crossover and they are directly driven by the amp. Active speakers have advantages over passives even if they have the same drivers and crossover. Passives main advantage is cost and convenience.
With that being said I'd take a well designed passive speaker and amp over a poorly designed active speaker. But if all else is equal active beats passive. The Focals are not poorly designed and no matter whether you choose the Solo or Twin, I bet you'll be happy. And if you are not I'd look at fixing problems in your room:eek: Either is a great speaker with fantastic imaging, soundstage and depth.
\

have you heard of the maggies? would you think they'd be better than focals w/ mono + a dac
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post #12 of 24
10/31/12 at 4:20am
I have heard a number of maggies but not the minis. Bi-polar speakers can be nice but can present with some acoustical challenges as well. If it were me I'd probably go with the Focals but YMMV.
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post #13 of 24
10/31/12 at 12:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobL View Post

I have heard a number of maggies but not the minis. Bi-polar speakers can be nice but can present with some acoustical challenges as well. If it were me I'd probably go with the Focals but YMMV.

one of the problems is my room, it's about 9' wide, and 20' length and 7' height without any room treatment (in the garage with very thin walls)
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post #14 of 24
10/31/12 at 8:07pm
The Focals have a great off axis response which helps in untreated rooms. The maggies use the room for its off axis response because of its bipolar nature, acoustic treatments are usually helpful with them especially on the front wall behind the speakers.
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post #15 of 24
11/1/12 at 8:39pm
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I am demoing the focals in my room as of this moment, my dac makes it sound a little eh.. when I listened to my friends emm dac 2 it was so amazing.
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post #16 of 24
11/1/12 at 9:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuraBullet View Post

I am demoing the focals in my room as of this moment, my dac makes it sound a little eh.. when I listened to my friends emm dac 2 it was so amazing.

Lol...it damn better sound amazing, considering that you are talking about a $10K DAC.
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post #17 of 24
11/2/12 at 6:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuraBullet View Post

I am demoing the focals in my room as of this moment, my dac makes it sound a little eh.. when I listened to my friends emm dac 2 it was so amazing.


This is likely not due to the DAC, as most modern day DAC's all sound the same, to some extent. The difference you heard at your home compared to your friends home was likely due to the difference in room acoustics, not differences in the DAC's.
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post #18 of 24
11/6/12 at 9:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobL View Post

The Focals have a great off axis response which helps in untreated rooms. The maggies use the room for its off axis response because of its bipolar nature, acoustic treatments are usually helpful with them especially on the front wall behind the speakers.

I actually found that the focals had pretty bad off axis, it might be just me but if I moved about 1-2 feet to the right of to the left, imaging is like off completely lol. As for the maggies I wouldn't know what to amp them with since they are neutral any suggestions on a neutral amp? I'd probably go with a mastering type of dac i.e zodiac / metric / invcita(maybe not mastering).
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post #19 of 24
11/6/12 at 10:10pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martycool007 View Post

This is likely not due to the DAC, as most modern day DAC's all sound the same, to some extent. The difference you heard at your home compared to your friends home was likely due to the difference in room acoustics, not differences in the DAC's.

I find the dac statement quite false, different dacs in different or same price ranges on average sound completely different. W4S vs anedio warmth vs analytical or other high ends tonal balance vs detail retrieval etc, it's such a big difference. The acoustics of my room was probably the problem but I did do a xlr > rca converter so that might've bottlenecked quite a bit.
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post #20 of 24
11/7/12 at 1:40pm
I've measured the Focals they do very well off axis, only a small amount of HF roll off which isto be expected. But no big anomalies off axis that I find with many other speakers off axis. Your room can have a big role in your imaging. As far as DACs amongst good quality DACs the difference is usually not that great. However, opamps and other analog componentry that happen after the DAC can have a big difference. I'd rather have a decent DAC with great analog circuitry then a top of the line DAC with average analog circuitry. In reality it is very difficult to comapre DACs as they are rarely paired with the same analong circuitry. You have to compare the components as a whole and not get caught up in which DAC is best.
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post #21 of 24
11/8/12 at 4:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuraBullet View Post

I find the dac statement quite false, different dacs in different or same price ranges on average sound completely different. W4S vs anedio warmth vs analytical or other high ends tonal balance vs detail retrieval etc, it's such a big difference. The acoustics of my room was probably the problem but I did do a xlr > rca converter so that might've bottlenecked quite a bit.

Most people cannot tell any difference at all among DAC. But if you can, then you can. It's not a false statement or a true statement. It's just one statement vs another, like an opinion vs another.

The Audio Critic documented that DBT has been done and showed no differences in DAC when volume matched. The key is precise volume match - not by some $100 SPL meter.

But if you can tell the difference, then you can.
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post #22 of 24
11/8/12 at 9:59am
I don't doubt he could hear a difference but sometimes I think people focus on the wrong part of the circuitry. There are so many good DACs and if you used the exact same circuitry I think it would be very difficult to tell the difference between DACS. But, that is rarely the case. That's why one shouldn't get caught up in the specs of which DAC is used in a given component. The question is how well the component performs overall not which has a single better part on a spec sheet.
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post #23 of 24
11/8/12 at 10:20am
What kind of music is being listened to and how well was it recorded. I have found with monitors, what is input is very close to what is output. Some songs just aren't recorded well and the monitors let you hear that.

The room in which the system is being listened to is also important. Those two factors probably outweigh the differences in DACs.
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post #24 of 24
11/9/12 at 4:24pm
Thread Starter 
i listen to 16/48 and sometimes 24/96 on if I really look into hi-res tracks. Like I said my room acoustics are quite abysmal.
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