What are you driving your Focals with?
 

Hi all,

As per title really. Just interested o hear from fellow owners. I am driving my Maestro Utopias with a Devialet D Premier. Sure you can make the Focals sound more relaxed and perhaps deeper soundstage but for resolution and sheer excitement, I love the combo tbh.

If I had the spare $$$$, I would love to try them with Vtl Siegfrieds.

Cheers,

Bill

Still one of the top combos I have heard with them was with the Halcro monoblocks.

But, something more down to earth?

Bryson, Boulder, Cary, Aesthetix all good choices...

Then again so is the Devialet - I heard the Scalas on those no more than a few weeks ago. It ran outta gas at higher volumes, but the concept was sound. Not to mention such a high WAF - it's a hard to beat combo if you are space/wife constrained.

I had my Alto Utopia Be for more than 6 years, was first driven by Pass X-350, then Audio Space Ref 3, followed by Mac MC452 and currently Goldmund Telos 250. Each combination has its strength and weakness, IMO Goldmund make the Alto sing like she never sang before.

I have driven my focals with belles mb200 power amps and sounded just great . very organic
used many pre amps and funnily enough the VTL pre was the only one that I didn`t like at all !!!

Is the maestro because of the additional bass driver harder to setup in the room as compared with the scala possibly where rooms are not neutral and tend to boom with more low frequency energy?

Scalas and Mac 601s
 

No surprise that this combo produces immaculate reproduction of all forms of music.Smooth AND detailed! Steve

I'm driving my Focal CMS65's with a PC sound card Asus Xonar DX7.1. Terrific sound.


Later on I'll get the Creative EMU-0404 external DAC for my PC.


cheez

I don't ever hear the Maestros boom per se but then I never had them in a small room. They have 2 11" bass drivers per speaker and can shift some air for sure.

I think Scala is easier to install for most rooms though. That said, I used to own Scala and the Maestro offers much bigger scale image, bass depth, and slightly more balanced overall.

Thanks for your input. Was there any particular reason motivating your upgrade to the bigger speakers, i.e shortcomings of the Scala?

Having both in your system for some time. Was there any particulars strengths of the Scala over it's bigger brother as i they are not similar sounding at all.

"Maestro offers much bigger scale image, bass depth, and slightly more balanced overall" --- Does this apply to all recordings or more so on very good recordings as poorer recording may not show these strengths?

I am powering my little 816vs with a Jolida 302BRC 50W tube amp. Tubes and Focals seem like a nice combo.

powering my 1028s with a Crown XLS802 fed by a Cary SLP05

afridi... Welcome! :wave:

I'm powering my 716's with my Pioneer Elite SC-35. Not super high end but for HT usage it sounds great.

Welcome Afridi.
There are really good people here!

Mike.

I am using MC275's monos to drive Utopia III Stelas. Not the best for the bass but great musicality. I am using a pair of REL G1's to fill in the bass. The best of tubes and solid state!

4 Alto utopias & center driven by boulder 850 monoblocks. Amazing combo!

Don't get me wrong the pair share certain sonic traits, which are:

Fast and punchy bass
Ultra resolution
Precision imaging

The maestro delivers an overall darker presentation with bigger sound field and slightly more relaxed across the bandwidth. The bass is much deeper and potent. The advantage of the Scala IMO is only if you can't accommodate the Maestro. The maestro does everything the Scala can but with the ability to provide all recordings on a grander scale, more natural timbre and increased resolution.

Very nice, have either of you posted pictures here on the site anywhere? I have heard a pair of Alto's and really liked them, silky smooth mid range and very good bass response. phunge, with the Alto's being a fairly big speaker, you must have a fairly large room to accommodate 4 of them.

It sounds overall you are happy with improvements in all areas from the maestro over the scala.

I have read in detail on your discussions on another forum.

Its seems at first this member found the maestro draker as well and not drawing any attention in any areas. I.e. more natural which i also find from the demo of the maestro.

However, from your now long ownership of the maestro, do you in anyway find less brilliance in the sound on maybe lesser or duller sounding material which is not audiophile quality recordings which allow the more tilted scala to excel in its own, in otherwords, maestro giving a less hyped but at the same time doesnt catch ones attention as much in say shorter listening sessions.

The scala can sound wonderful on better recordings but less grand and showing some etchiness and overemphasised highs on recordings which have been titled up by the sound engineer.

After months of ownership, are you totally knock by the improvement by the bigger speaker? Bass wise way punchier and deeper than the scale everytime. Worrying that a room not large enough will be overloaded with bass.

Thanks in miles for your opinion and view.

I have not specifically ever felt that either speaker did not catch my attention. They always manage to catch my attention due to the fantastic resolution even on short listening sessions. I think the differences between them would definitely manifest more obviously pending on your preferred genre - if you like orchestral music and you have a decent room, then maestro is a must IMO. The Scala does have a beautiful balance overall and I would happily own either as long as I had a sub for the Scala.

When listening to music, there are certain aspects that I find important to knock me out / really excite me to keep listening. One of these is scale - there is nothing quite like having your room awash with sound in an enormous 3d field. The maestro just delivers this in spades and if it is important to you then the Scala will not suffice. I like impactful, fast, clean, deep bass - the Maestro has never boomed in my rooms. I have had them in 2 rooms. Tbh, one of the outstanding traits of focal IMO, is the ability to deliver clean, fast, punchy bass without timing errors. If you have a carpeted room, you must get the Stillpoints ultras instead of spikes - they are startling.

At the end of the day, in your position, I would go for the Maestro and be dine with it. Otherwise, you will lust after that scale and bass. Oddly, I don't lust for Stellas. I would love some but ultimately my room would not take them - they would over drive the room I reckon. Anyway - maybe go listen again if you can. Take lots of your material and take your time.

I feel you have hit the nail on the characteristics of these speakers having owned both.

My view mirrors yours and find the mids up superior to the scala and the big sound staging. I did find however that the scala has a triat which gives a snappier hitting upper bass with the maestro more mellow. It could be room and positioning and Scala much easier in placment for it to show its fundamental sonic character. E.g the footer you recommend may have make a shockingly large difference/improvement.

Meastro on the other hand, imho may require much further tweaking in all areas and can attain a much higher sonic score but what seems any flaws in room, placement andassociated gear could make or break it.

To add, does more bass come at any expense of slightly subjectively perceived less spped and pace. I would imagine the stillpoints added more highs and less darker.

The natural clearer highs and mids of the maestro does sound a db or two lower but with tremendous naturalness.

To answer your bass question - yes I think it does sound just slightly more laid back. The only analogy that I can muster - think of the Scala as a sports car tweaked with oversteer and a little fidgety, powered by a tuned flat 6. The maestro has the refinement and v12 of an Aston - remains sure footed even when you hammer it.

In musical terms, the Scala bass can lean a fraction towards the "hifi" sound but you only notice after hearing the maestro.

The Stillpoints are crazy - they actually clear the entire frequency response. You get immediately more resolution across the whole spectrum and things just seem to time even better. It was not a small upgrade at all. Startling - but then I use mine on a heavily carpeted room so maybe that was why.

Also bear in mind that one of the lovely things about these speakers is that they take on the character of what you feed them so profoundly. Hearing these with vtl mb450s sounds nothing like devialet. Under blind conditions you would not believe it.

Seems my posts doesnt get through.

The Scala is a great speaker too, guess the maestro just trumps it to another level. Naturalness is always the case when going the next level up and losing the brightness and artificial sound is always good.

Hope its not just genre related an improvement over time

OP have you thought about upgrading to the Devialet D500?

Before I changed to Magico, I owned the Focal Electra 1037Be for 4 years, enjoyed them alot especially with E-550/E-560 from Accuphase.
Accuphase and Focal work well together.

Olaf

Many times :thumbsup:

Just have not the spare cash @ the moment for that upgrade. Instead, I am pursuing the room treatment route. Expecting a gik monster bass trap today in fact.

Driving Scala Utopia III v1 with a pair of LAMM ML2.1.

Burmester 909's on a friends system.

http://www.audioaficionado.org/attac...1&d=1389828221

Uhhhhh yeah, that'll do pig; that'll do.

http://www.audioaficionado.org/attac...1&d=1389839150

:)

Are those Siltech cables Ivan?

Yes, all Siltech cables.

Very nice, do you know which models are being used? Given the thickness of the speaker cables I'm assuming they are at least a King if not one of the Emperor variants. Same with the power cord plugged into the wall, it must be at least the Ruby Mountain.

I am driving my Focal Electra 1007 be speakers with one of the cheapest integrated amps I could find . . . . (but one that actually sounds pretty good). A Peachtree Audio - Nova 125. ($1495.00)

This combo is at a vacation house and it sounds, well, at least OK, make that "better than I thought it would".

I wanted the Burmester, but the $100,000± difference in cost did become a deciding factor. :yes:

.
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https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...FmgnkftEPUif6Q . . . . .http://www.peachtreeaudio.com/media/...a125se-cat.png

I am driving my Diablo Utopia monitors with CJ LP140M monoblocks. This combination was recommended by my Focal dealer and works well.

DANG!!! That's a very nice system he has there. Those amps are monsters. It's also nice to see the larger Focals and I spot me some Siltech Royal Signature cables there.

LOL...I already posted about that picture...a year ago :D

Alto Utopias
 

Originally driven by Nagra VPAs.....probably the best sounding amps I've ever had, but the left channel went pyrotechnic on me; 3 months and $4000 later they were back, sounding good, but I guess I had amplifier PTSD and went to BAT 600SE. Liked it....never could love it. Now running a pair of Manley Snappers...sometimes feel like I should have more expensive amps considering the rest of the system, but they sound so good, I'm having trouble getting motivated to change....

Steve