Knocking off my backlog of speaker measurements. Next up is the Focal Solo 6 Be:
Imo, it's disappointing. The on-axis is jagged, but that's at least mostly within +/-2dB. The off-axis is a mess.
Some of you know I really like almost all focal stuff, and I still appreciate the wider than usual horizontal directivity here. That alone gives it a 'different' sound that stands out compared to neumann and genelec. But it seems to me like if your goal is to mix with these, you're likely to end up with a boosted upper mids. do to the recession that is there even on-axis, but especially off-axis. These would definitely benefit from a treated room.
It's worth noting that some of the squiggles in the lower mids may be from my setup. For some reason the impulse response looked 'messier than normal,' and I still have some growing pains from my new measurement setup (I'm increasingly convinced your choice of stand does have a measurable effect on the frequency response).
Still, it matches Sound and Recording's measurement pretty closely (behind a paywall so not sharing that one here).
Luckily, horizontal directivity is still pretty solid:
Normalized:
There's still a bunch of bunching around 6kHz though.
Horizontal early reflections:
Vertical ER:
While the Solo6 Be is the cheapest way to get Focal's highest-quality driver materials (beryllium and the W sandwich cone), it's a relatively old design now and it seems to me the speaker is due for a redesign. I wouldn't be surprised if the just-released Alpha 65 evo ends up measuring better. It at least has a little waveguide.
As it stands, unless you have a highly treated room, I think you're better off picking up a Focal Chora or Aria for less than $1000 and using that for your mixes if you like the wide directivity sound. Those have been measured by Amir and me and perform well. And if wide directivity isn't a priority, there are of course better options from neumann and genelec in the realms of FR and directivity that we prioritize here. The Solo6 Be does sound good, but I think we should expect more too.
Imo, it's disappointing. The on-axis is jagged, but that's at least mostly within +/-2dB. The off-axis is a mess.
Some of you know I really like almost all focal stuff, and I still appreciate the wider than usual horizontal directivity here. That alone gives it a 'different' sound that stands out compared to neumann and genelec. But it seems to me like if your goal is to mix with these, you're likely to end up with a boosted upper mids. do to the recession that is there even on-axis, but especially off-axis. These would definitely benefit from a treated room.
It's worth noting that some of the squiggles in the lower mids may be from my setup. For some reason the impulse response looked 'messier than normal,' and I still have some growing pains from my new measurement setup (I'm increasingly convinced your choice of stand does have a measurable effect on the frequency response).
Still, it matches Sound and Recording's measurement pretty closely (behind a paywall so not sharing that one here).
Luckily, horizontal directivity is still pretty solid:
Normalized:
There's still a bunch of bunching around 6kHz though.
Horizontal early reflections:
Vertical ER:
While the Solo6 Be is the cheapest way to get Focal's highest-quality driver materials (beryllium and the W sandwich cone), it's a relatively old design now and it seems to me the speaker is due for a redesign. I wouldn't be surprised if the just-released Alpha 65 evo ends up measuring better. It at least has a little waveguide.
As it stands, unless you have a highly treated room, I think you're better off picking up a Focal Chora or Aria for less than $1000 and using that for your mixes if you like the wide directivity sound. Those have been measured by Amir and me and perform well. And if wide directivity isn't a priority, there are of course better options from neumann and genelec in the realms of FR and directivity that we prioritize here. The Solo6 Be does sound good, but I think we should expect more too.
