My new Focal Sopra 1 speakers

[blueoak]

The Focal Sopra 1 speakers have arrived. I'm so excited. :banana:


Old:





New:



The Focal Sopra 1 speaker are so big compared my old McIntosh XR50 speakers. Such a different sound and I love it.


I'm full on Focal in all of my systems now.


The office - Focal Sopra 1 speakers:





Also in the office - Focal Utopia headphones:





And in the living room - Focal Sopra 2 speakers:





Anyway - back to the subject at hand: the Focal Sopra 1 speakers in my office. I've been listening to them for about two hours this evening as I browse AA and write this post.


I'm driving my office system with a lovely McIntosh C2600 tube pre-amplifier:





A McIntosh MC275 tube amplifier:





I'm absolutely in love with Focal and their amazing highs with the beryllium tweeter and meaty, lifelike midrange with their custom drivers.






The driver is just as accurate and beautiful sounding as the Focal Sopra 2 speakers, just in a smaller package.





The Focal drivers have such a unique design and texture, you can get lost in it:





The Focal Sopra 1 bookshelf is large by my standards, but it's acceptable. The woodgrain is absolutely gorgeous and stunning. On pair in terms of build quality with its big brother, the Focal Sopra 2s.





The Focal Sopra 1 speakers do not support bi-wiring and only have a single pair of binding posts, which is fine for me. I'm driving them with my McIntosh MC275 which is more than enough. I love the small details such as the oblong binding posts which allow you to tighten it without a tool. Are you taking notes, McIntosh? :scratch2:





In terms of speaker isolation, I of course went with IsoAcoustics. However, I noticed that the Focal Sopra 1 speakers only have three screw holes on the bottom of the speakers. I prefer to have four isolators per speaker, so I decided to use the IsoAcoustics ISO-PUCK instead of the smaller IsoAcoustics GAIA III isolators.





I have both the IsoAcoustics ISO-PUCK and GAIA III isolators. I wasn't able to tell a difference between the two isolators in terms of sound quality. However, the IsoAcoustics ISO-PUCK isolators were more stable (because I used four) compared to the IsoAcoustics GAIA III isolators, because I could only use three. So hey, save a few bucks and stick with the IsoAcoustics ISO-PUCK isolators. They got the job done and removed all the resonant frequencies from my desk.


Overall the Focal Sopra 1 is a truly great sounding and beautiful bookshelf speaker. If you've been thinking about new speakers, I highly encourage you to check out Focal. They make all their speaker components in-house, including the drivers.

[Mike]

Nice!! Congrats.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[joeinid]

Focal and McIntosh go superbly together. Love the photos.

[Projectman]

Just installed a new pair of Focal Sopra No.1s tonight. Very nice sounding, open, fast, sound as good or better than my Wilson Audio Sophia 2s. Will run the Focals with my subwoofer to extend the bass. Also, will run the burn in track from the Audiophile Hi-Res System Test disk overnight for the next couple of weeks to help break them in.

They seem to work well with my:
Classe Sigma 2200i Integrated amp, Aurender N100H, and PS Audio Directstream DAC. If these are going to sound better after burn in I can’t wait!

I think the Focals are going to be a perfect fit for my smallish listening room (11.5’x15’x9’ ceiling). You can probably see my disabled Wilson Audio Sophia 2 speaker in the corner. The midrange is out for repair to get a new voice coil. Once the Sophias are back in service I will put them up for sale. The Sophia’s are just too big for my room.

[MDP]

Loved the Sopra 1's when I heard them at RMAF 2015.

One of the best rooms there!