Range Review: A closer look at Focal speakers

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A high-end French speaker manufacturer who just might become your new favourite speaker manufacturer…

It goes without saying that Focal are probably one of the names on most audiophile’s tongues when it comes to speaking about high-end speakers. For those in the know they will be well worth a listen to at any range and for those of you who are unfamiliar with this loud speaker company, read on.

Their top end speakers, the Utopia range, will set you back around £140,000 for a set of the floorstanders but are worth every penny of it thanks to their incredible build quality, design and, of course, sound quality. Now whilst most of us can only dream of getting our hands on such an incredible product there are other ranges that might cause a few less winces at the thought of getting a set of Focals, which have been very popular.

The Aria 936 floorstanders from Focal.

The Aria 936 floorstanders from Focal.

The Chrous 705 and 706 are great speakers for all occasions and we’re proud to have them here at Richer Sounds – you can read our review here. It’s actually their entry level range and while they offer excellent sound and great value, we wanted to give our customers the chance to get their hands on some really premium speakers from this iconic company.

That’s why we now stock the Focal Aria range, which sits above the Chorus and just below their Electra range in terms of price bracket, and boy are we happy to hear them. Nothing’s been spared during the design process and constructing of these speakers and the technology that they’ve thrown at them is astonishing.

All new speaker drivers have been created for this range featuring aluminium/magnesium inverted dome tweeters with Poron suspension, injected zamak baskets, carefully designed cabinets and even the crossover wiring has been honed to provide the very best experience when listening to music from your hi-fi or allowing them to wow you as part of your home cinema setup.

They can take a bit of a pounding too, the bookshelf versions have got 125W of power at 8 ohms and the floorstanders can handle an incredible 300W at 8 ohms too, so don’t be afraid to really crank up the volume and let them sing to their hearts content. You can read our full lo-down on the Aria range here.

Focal have made headlines globally, having released yet another range of speakers to get your hands on. The all new Sopra range was shown off at CES 2015 and once again it was a case of trying to catch your jaw from dropping too quickly. The design is radical but in my opinion extremely pretty. They ooze an appeal that might give people the idea that their designers floated back to the 60’s/70’s and took a few ideas from wherever they could as the tilted top head is something that gave the Utopia speakers their signature look. Expect nothing but a premium look and feel to these great speakers!

Author – Andrew, Weybridge Store