Focal Aria 906 Speaker Review

[Dimifoot]

If I understand things correctly, the answer would be both yes and no.

If you see distortion in the klippel graphs at the frequency f, it is caused by the frequency f/2 or f/3 of the test signal (assuming test signal is a 1 tone sine sweep).
As such, handing off frequencies below 80Hz to a subwoofer would definitely ease the strain on the driver and reduce distortions displayed in the diagram up to 240Hz.

Crossing over to a sub would do nothing for the distortion between 1-2 KHz though, since these are caused by by frequencies way above what you would feed a subwoofer. Which is probably why Amir Senpai wrote "ideally this would not be here".

I would like to see measurements of this scenario, THD of a speaker like the 906 when crossed at 80Hz compared to THD when playing full range.
@amirm is this possible with the Klippel? Would you consider trying it?

 

[GelbeMusik]

If I understand things correctly, the answer would be both yes and no.

If you see distortion in the klippel graphs at the frequency f, it is caused by the frequency f/2 or f/3 of the test signal (assuming test signal is a 1 tone sine sweep).

Most probably the formulation went wrong. The harmonic distortion is displayed at that frequency which produces it. It produces a frequency of two times, three times, four times of itself.

Take 100Hz for example: second is 200Hz, 3rd is 300Hz and so on. All these are displayed at 100Hz, though, as HD2, HD3, HDx at (!) 100Hz.

In this case the speaker gets out of breath at 100Hertz up to 140Hz. A sub would have to overtake the workload up to that high, in order to make the little one keep pace.

 

[amirm]

I would like to see measurements of this scenario, THD of a speaker like the 906 when crossed at 80Hz compared to THD when playing full range.
@amirm is this possible with the Klippel? Would you consider trying it?

Well, this speaker is shipped back. I can hack this to happen with a fake microphone calibration maybe. Can someone give me a excel spreadsheet with a handful of sample points for the crossover you want me to try?

 

[youngho]

How could a dip be absorbed? From my experience it is not easy to absorb sound below, say 1..2kHz with just a carpet, even if it was a fat Nepalese or so. These dips are something we see with nearly every design. It is the back side of multi-way speakers, except they are coaxial and named KEF.

Hi GelbeMusik, specific directional dips are typically caused by cancellations in specific directions, due to destructive interference from differences in phase resulting from path length difference between direct and specific first reflections. You could reduce a dip by absorbing the relevant reflection, resulting in less destructive interference. Sometimes, people refer to "floor bounce" as a relative cancellation or dip resulting between 100-300 Hz from such a path length difference from the bass drivers to the floor, which typically occur in a relatively predictable fashion in most rooms (assuming that the speakers aren't elevated significantly and that the listeners are positioned within a relative distance from the speakers). Obviously, ceiling heights are much less predictable.

Floyd Toole published a relatively important book called Sound Reproduction: Loudspeakers and Rooms. If you have access to an early edition, perhaps you could look at Figure 21.3, which is captioned "At the top is shown the isolated infl uence of a good carpet underlay— 40 oz/sq yd (1.4 kg/m2) hair felt, which is typically about 0.43 in. (11 mm) thick. The same thickness of common rubber, plastic, or foam cannot deliver this level of acoustical performance. There may be other materials that are comparably good, but check for acoustical measurements. The shaded area in the bottom curve combines this underlay with different kinds of high-quality clipped-pile woven carpets (with porous backing because the sound must be allowed to penetrate into the felt underlay)." Here is a screenshot:


Since Amir was referring to the dip above 2 kHz, which is very clearly shown in his graph showing Early Reflections and which has the sentence that you reference before your comment "From my experience it is not easy to absorb sound below, say 1..2kHz with just a carpet, even if it was a fat Nepalese or so," I don't understand why you wanted to discuss your experience about absorption "below, say, 1.2 kHz with just a carpet".

Floyd Toole's book, which is worth reading if you haven't done so, also shows absorption data for a number of other materials and scenarios, which appears to be significant above 500 Hz, though decreasingly so below that, depending on the material and variations in mounting.

 

[Hiten]

I would like to see measurements of this scenario, THD of a speaker like the 906 when crossed at 80Hz compared to THD when playing full range.
@amirm is this possible with the Klippel? Would you consider trying it?

I am interested too. had posted somewhat similar query here.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ike-to-see-reviewed.10943/page-10#post-309022
Since these days most BS speakers are ported and may contribute to distortion and response at high level. At low end they distort anyway. Would closing the port be meaningful and then measure ? With measurements it might benefit people who want to add a sub or two to the ported BS speakers.
Some use foam bung, some use solid material, I think some use straws too. That would also be interesting to look at.
regards.

 

[Xyrium]

What did you all think of the additional woofer-only and port only measurements? Useful? Can't do tweeter only as the mic can't get close enough to it with the protection cage, allowing fair amount of woofer bleed.

I find them very useful for correlation to other effects. THat's one of the reasons why I asked for Step response. Some of these don't need ot be included in the posted charts, but if they can be enclosed in the zip file, that would be great!

I can't say enough great things about what you're doing with this stuff, Amir!

 

[aarons915]

Well, this speaker is shipped back. I can hack this to happen with a fake microphone calibration maybe. Can someone give me a excel spreadsheet with a handful of sample points for the crossover you want me to try?

I don't think it has to be the Focal, any smallish bookshelf speaker would be interesting to see how the distortion is affected full range compared to high passing them.

 

[Rja4000]

they are an old model

Well, they are not.
They were launched beginning of 2014, if I'm not mistaken, which, for loudspeakers, is nothing like "old".

The big discount, which is unusual for that kind of product, may be linked to the marketing target customer and therefore the distribution strategy : while you find them in traditional Hi-Fi shops, you may also purchase them from bigger shops, like Darty, Boulanger,... or big discounters like Cobra or son-video.com.

The low price is most likely possible due to low production costs, facilitated by highly automated production and a reasonable number of units being sold.

 

[Rja4000]

There's plenty of research, much of it from harman to suggest directivity plays a role.

Is that explaining why I (we?) don't like correcting mid/high frequencies with room correction like Dirac?
The sound seems more focused, but loses 'life' somehow. ( A very un-scientific word for 'random reflections and phase combination effects' ?)

Which then leads to:
Does wide and uniform directivity also mean more phase-related effects (a mix of partial cancelation and combination) and are those effects what gives the feeling of a natural sound ?
After all, any natural sound produced in the room would have the same effects.

 

[Rja4000]

I don't understand the notion of bi-wiring at all.

+1

 

[Rja4000]

Listening window is wide and smooth to -6 dB level:

So you don't have to worry too much about exact toe-in. And the room sides will be illuminated with response that is close to direct sound.

Similar view exists in directivity plot:

Vertical is chewed up as it typically is:

Directivity is basically omnidirectional below 350Hz.

Is that correct to say that, if you use room correction like Dirac and the like, you shouldn't worry about peaks in low frequencies ?
They will just be compensated by room correction.
You may still worry about dips, though, since raising some frequencies with EQ typically leads to other problems.
Correct ?

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Most probably the formulation went wrong. The harmonic distortion is displayed at that frequency which produces it. It produces a frequency of two times, three times, four times of itself.

Take 100Hz for example: second is 200Hz, 3rd is 300Hz and so on. All these are displayed at 100Hz, though, as HD2, HD3, HDx at (!) 100Hz.

In this case the speaker gets out of breath at 100Hertz up to 140Hz. A sub would have to overtake the workload up to that high, in order to make the little one keep pace.

I was wondering how to read the graphs, thanks.
In your scenario, a sub won't help much
Suffice it to say: they don't like it loud.

 

[amirm]

Directivity is basically omnidirectional below 350Hz.

That is a function of physics and is true of just about every speaker.

Is that correct to say that, if you use room correction like Dirac and the like, you shouldn't worry about peaks in low frequencies ?
They will just be compensated by room correction.

The room and EQ will certainly impact them a lot.

You may still worry about dips, though, since raising some frequencies with EQ typically leads to other problems.
Correct ?

Yes although some research shows that correcting them may be better than not.

 

[amirm]

How could a dip be absorbed?

If the reflection has a significant dip in that frequency band, absorbing it reduces that impact relative to sum of direct sound and other reflections. You may have to turn up the volume a bit but you would have a more even response.

 

[Voo]

amir, do you see any evidence why some might call this speaker thin in sound? or has sibilance?

 

[amirm]

amir, do you see any evidence why some might call this speaker thin in sound? or has sibilance?

Not sibilance but thin, a little. As I mentioned in the review, they have made a choice of not trying to produce deep bass. This allows it to play it much louder without bottoming out.

 

[ROOSKIE]

I don't think it has to be the Focal, any smallish bookshelf speaker would be interesting to see how the distortion is affected full range compared to high passing them.

The focal is interesting in particular because the speaker has such high distortion at 96db, it makes it (seemly at least) more obvious if there is a difference. If you take something like the KEf R3, it has such low distortion at 100+db that I see no point in trying to do better with that one.
So in other words hopefully another speaker of similar distortion (to the Focal Aria 906)characteristics can be used for a test like this in the future.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Bi-wiring just sells wire.

Perhaps the author is confused. There is no issue bi-wiring with the staps in place.
For bi-amping, your looking at fuse replacement and possibly a trip to the amp repair shop.

- Rich

I would be to hard on the "instruction" manual & if I wrote it for the common audio person I would tell them to remove that strap for bi-wiring knowing that they might easily get confused and leave it there while bi-amping - just safer to say pull it.
Obviously bi-amping has some potential advantages as you discussed.
Since the speaker is designed for bi-amping why not at least mention bi-wiring is an option in the manual, average folks will be curious about using the two post sets. I know some folks who understand that bi-wiring doesn't likely improve the SQ in anyway and they will do this just because wire is cheap and now you have two runs so extra gauge. Does it sound better this way - who cares, wire is cheap.

The main reason I advocate that all speakers have this option is so Amir and others can easily measure the drivers independently.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Does it sound better this way - who cares, wire is cheap.

I don't think so. You know that people doing bi-wiring are in general, precisely the same who not use cheap wires.

The main reason I advocate that all speakers have this option is so Amir and others can easily measure the drivers independently.

I didn't see it that way, but yes!

 

[Dimifoot]

Well, this speaker is shipped back

Could you try it with your next one?