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  • I've heard that  Focal is quite good, but is it too much to ask for a distortion plot and a copper cap?
    BrannigansLaw
    But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
  • rjj45 said:
    I've heard that  Focal is quite good, but is it too much to ask for a distortion plot and a copper cap?
    I’d say it’s likely there is some form of motor treatments. Maybe they just don’t advertise it. Impedance rise is minimal.. 

    What is up with the impedance dropping at about 19k, right before the end of the chart?
  • rjj45 said:
    I've heard that  Focal is quite good, but is it too much to ask for a distortion plot and a copper cap?
    And yet when I post about a new company that does provide a lot more data it is met with apathy, go figure.

    This focal driver is not even on the radar for me. Found listed at Crutchfield and Sonic for $550 lol, I wonder how it compares to a Vifa TG9 at $20, or Scan 10F at $65.
    kennyk
    I'm not deaf, I'm just not listening.
  • clearly expensive,  but looks uniquely tight on and 30 deg off axis out past the 1-5,000 Hz (highest ear sensitivity) range 
  • Hard to sell drivers from $multi k speakers at an attractive price.
    ............. could you hum a few bars.
  • dynamo said:
    rjj45 said:
    I've heard that  Focal is quite good, but is it too much to ask for a distortion plot and a copper cap?
    I’d say it’s likely there is some form of motor treatments. Maybe they just don’t advertise it. Impedance rise is minimal.. 

    What is up with the impedance dropping at about 19k, right before the end of the chart?
    For a VC that small, I would argue ruler flat impedance is to be expected. 
    I have a signature.
  • dcibel said:
    rjj45 said:
    I've heard that  Focal is quite good, but is it too much to ask for a distortion plot and a copper cap?
    And yet when I post about a new company that does provide a lot more data it is met with apathy, go figure.

    This focal driver is not even on the radar for me. Found listed at Crutchfield and Sonic for $550 lol, I wonder how it compares to a Vifa TG9 at $20, or Scan 10F at $65.
    Probably not measurably better, but similar to Morel, Focal has serious customer loyalty. They could shit in a box, write some ad copy describing it as the next great thing in room treatment tech, and their followers would eat it up.


    I have a signature.
  • edited June 2019
    Well the shit in a box would be a "damp" material ;)
    jr@mac
    I'm not deaf, I'm just not listening.
  • dcibel said:
    Well the shit in a box would be a "damp" material ;)
    Truth
    I have a signature.
  • guess then kudos goes to those speaker companies that use other's off-the-shelf drivers for their 6 figure speakers


  • Not many use off the shelf,actually.... 

    Of course, some commercial guy will always cock off implying they know something we don't (pro tip: if someone selling speakers implies he or she knows something you don't know, it is either a case of snake oil or outright charlatanism). Truth is, they don't. Focal is notorious for their passive aggressive marketing. Caveat emptor if you drop a mortgage payment on these.
    I have a signature.
  • edited June 2019
    Guess we'll need to watch out for those French capitalists. 

    But I have to say prices aside of course, I and many were impressed by a pair of smaller floor standers Focal exhibited at AXOPNA a couple of years back, very balanced (compaired to many other rooms that were awful), and...

    I'm taking 'most speaker companies use third party manufactured drivers for $100', Alex
  • Cut through the BS and it is obvious Focal knows what they are doing - but they are hardly alone in that. Many of the folks in the DIY world can and do go toe to toe with the best commercial guys.

    That said, it is unlikely this little driver outperforms the competition - there are just too many options at substantially lower prices that are objectively its equal. It does look cool, and I'm the first to admit that matters quite a bit.
    I have a signature.
  • I lost the ability to follow the spec sheet after the text: ‘M’-shape ‘W’ cone. What does that even mean? I can physically see the M shape, but W? What?
    = Howard Stark: "This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out."
  • edited July 2019
    "W" is what focal calls one of their proprietary cone materials. They've used "W cone" in their product literature/marketing for years.



    I'm not deaf, I'm just not listening.
  • Oh, you mean it is a Glass Fiber Composite, GFC cone? :dizzy:
    = Howard Stark: "This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out."
  • Double-U sandwich, very different.
    I'm not deaf, I'm just not listening.
  • edited July 2019
    Its an ancient Chinese secret way of trapping unsuspecting W's in a tangled web of marketing ingeniousness. I think they derive the W's from smelting them from unicorn horns.
  • Of Focal's 30 patents, 'smelting from unicorn horns' has yet to make its way to an EPO, or USPTO, application... so maybe the Chinese were first to invent.... an expensive process, and yet now in the public domain...

    "Since 1980, Focal has been a driving force in high-end speaker design, developing many driver technologies, earning 30 patents. Unlike [most] speakers who use drivers from one supplier & enclosures from another, Focal makes almost all its speaker components. For most of its 35 years, Focal's main business was supplying drivers to the world's great high-end speakers 
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