[Vince11281]

I had a pair of Paradigm prestige 95Fs, then a pair of McIntosh XR100s, and ultimately ended up with a pair of Focal Sopra 1s. I honestly couldn’t be happier with them. My room is 20x18 with 9 foot ceilings and the rear wall opens into another room. The speakers fill the room with great sound and working them out I’ve measured them at 108db from my listening position, which is 11 feet away, and they didn’t even break a sweat. They do have relatively decent low end for a pair of monitors, but could never be considered close to full range. After letting them break in and get a true feeling for how they sound I ended up adding a pair of JL Audio fathom F110v2 subwoofers. Adding the subs was a game changer. True full range with amazing mids and highs undeterred by the cabinets trying to create low end frequencies. My idea behind going with monitors and subs, as opposed to Sopra 3s, was the best place for the speakers to be placed may not be the same place for optimum low end frequency response in my room. Some people make a big deal about integrating subs but it was honestly very easy with the JLs. I see it as I’m getting true full range and if I want a little more, or less, bass the subs have volume knobs. I have also had them powered by a variety of amps such as a McIntosh MA8000, a Hegel H360, a Pass Labs INT-250, and they are currently being powered by a Hegel H20. They have been nothing less than impressive powered by all of them. After being on the speaker merry go round for a little while, I can’t see me changing these until my listening room changes.