Focal, Pass XS and Lampi

Mike

Audioshark
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Sarasota, FL
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Moved the Focal's upstairs for a demo with Pass this weekend. Sounding awesome!!
 
Holy crap! The system looks incredible, Mike. How does it sound compared to the Strads and your other digital sources?

Ken
 
Holy crap! The system looks incredible, Mike.
Ken
+ 1. Congratulations Mike, you have a great looking purpose-built room! The room accents look very nice, and the Vicoustic room treatment products are always good value. That room & the great audio gear in there must bring you a lot of pleasure :thumbsup:.
 
Holy crap! The system looks incredible, Mike. How does it sound compared to the Strads and your other digital sources?

Ken

First impressions: more focused, more transparent, and BETTER bass.

Mike, think you have the wrong model up there, supposed to be Stellas.... :snicker:

Yes! Who shrunk the speakers?

+ 1. Congratulations Mike, you have a great looking purpose-built room! The room accents look very nice, and the Vicoustic room treatment products are always good value. That room & the great audio gear in there must bring you a lot of pleasure :thumbsup:.

Thank you David. It's a quirky shape, but I've worked hard to make it work (and I have some improvements to make still - Resolution Acoustics bass traps, Stillpoints Apertures, etc.)

Great looking. How does bass play upstairs

Shockingly good. At first pass - maybe even better than the STRADS. No boom boom boom at all! Has to be the downward firing ports. Just like the Salon 2's I had, the downward firing ports work fine. Hmmm....

And you know what? They are on their wheels! Not even spiked or even better, with Stillpoints.

[emoji9]
 
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Moved the Focal's upstairs for a demo with Pass this weekend. Sounding awesome!!

Mike, WOW!...you have a very impressive,gorgeous music room....I bet you can really kick back, forget the days troubles and enjoy yourself...Congrats! :congrats:
 
Mike,
That must have been quite an effort to move the big speakers up the stairs! Looks gorgeous. Am I interpreting correctly that you are liking the Focals more than your Strads in this room? Never thought that day would come!!

Anshul
 
Mike, that looks great! I love that room shape versus the standard shoebox room design. What are those panels (with 'bar code') you have installed? What effect do they have?
 
Mike, WOW!...you have a very impressive,gorgeous music room....I bet you can really kick back, forget the days troubles and enjoy yourself...Congrats! :congrats:

Thanks Gene! They are different than the Strads. I love both.

Mike,
That must have been quite an effort to move the big speakers up the stairs! Looks gorgeous. Am I interpreting correctly that you are liking the Focals more than your Strads in this room? Never thought that day would come!!

Anshul

Me either! I'm kind of glad I did. I had a friend who's set up more than his fair share of Focal's come over and help me dial them in tonight. Unfortunately he didn't bring a pair of 450iq's with him!

Mike, that looks great! I love that room shape versus the standard shoebox room design. What are those panels (with 'bar code') you have installed? What effect do they have?

Thanks Bud. Those panels are from a company called Vicoustics. They operate as part diffusor, part absorber. I want to experiment with the Stillpoint Aperture panels.
 
Simply amazing. Bet it sounds heavenly, XS on a Utopia. I love my XA.8 and Electra.
 
Looks great Mike!! I was hoping you would give the Scala's a shot with the Pass amps. I bet they sound superb.

They really do. Great synergy with Pass. My first reaction listening upstairs was "wow, these just disappear." They cast a big deep wide soundstage AND what really threw me was how good listening off axis was. My friend was sitting in the sweet spot and I was over to one side. Lovely sounding.

I may keep these up here a little while...oh yes...[emoji41]

Simply amazing. Bet it sounds heavenly, XS on a Utopia. I love my XA.8 and Electra.

It does! Great synergy. I can now see what you were talking about. The XA.8/Electra combo must be outstanding.
 
You could be right. I'm considering another pair of Focal Scala V2's or leaving these upstairs and getting a pair of Sopra No. 2's for downstairs. My Air Tight Distributor just became the Gauder distributor for North America and he has asked me to come and audition the RC7 MK2's this summer. But at the end of the day, I wanted to prove that other speakers CAN work in my room before I do anything. Demo is later....pass and focal is awesome together!

I have a few other things I'm looking at too. I do want to hear Tidal and Verity speakers again - among a few other things.
 
You could be right. I'm considering another pair of Focal Scala V2's or leaving these upstairs and getting a pair of Sopra No. 2's for downstairs. My Air Tight Distributor just became the Gauder distributor for North America and he has asked me to come and audition the RC7 MK2's this summer. But at the end of the day, I wanted to prove that other speakers CAN work in my room before I do anything. Demo is later....pass and focal is awesome together!

I have a few other things I'm looking at too. I do want to hear Tidal and Verity speakers again - among a few other things.

Mike,
Don't forget to put Kaiser Acoustics on your list too. The Kaiser Chiaras and Classic seem to be getting a lot of positive press!:)
 
Mike,
Don't forget to put Kaiser Acoustics on your list too. The Kaiser Chiaras and Classic seem to be getting a lot of positive press!:)

I heard them at Axpona and was very impressed. Would like to hear them at RMAF or CES if they are going to be there.

I have a pair of the new amazing Focal Sopra's coming (yes I've heard them), so I'm not in a big rush and really want to hear the Gauders.
 
I have a pair of the new amazing Focal Sopra's coming (yes I've heard them)
I'm curious, what was your impression? We got a private presentation on the Munich show with all-Naim electronics and were not impressed at all.

Last year they played the Grande Utopia with the Naim Statement and that was really impressive and fun!
 
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