Focal 906 vs. Monolith 365T for large adjoined rooms, cannot treat

[tifune]

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed choosing speakers for my 2 adjoined rooms, so I thought I'd solicit a bit of advice here. Both "rooms" are about 25x15ft with sloped ceilings running from 13-18' high. They're really one big room, I suppose.

I'm trying to decide between these 2 models because I have a stack of target.com gift cards to use.

Audioholics 365T measurements:

https://www.audioholics.com/bookshe...noprice-monolith-thx-365t-thx-365c/conclusion

Focal 906 ASR:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/focal-aria-906-speaker-review.14085/

906 soundstage.com:

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...ements-focal-aria-906-loudspeakers&Itemid=153

Amp will probably be Cambridge 851W and dual subs Monolith 12" sealed because, again, target.com gift cards. The amp will feed all 4 speakers simultaneously via Niles channel selector w impedance protection. DAC likely to be Topping D10s being fed by some bluetooth bridge TBD.

The panel you see in the is just me screwing around in the room to see what effect it has, if any. It won't be allowed to stay, even if it were useful by itself (doesn't seem to be)

The rooms are the reason I'm posting here, it's a challenging environment for the uninitiated such as myself. All opinions welcome:

Does anyone use the Atmos speaker for 2 channel audio? Music is my primary use case here BY FAR. Not sure if having a speaker bouncing off the ceiling is useful in any way for music playback, much less in a room with this much echo.

I've read in passing that larger rooms, even untreated, have a tendency to diminish treble. Assuming that's true, given Focal have a sharp rise around 21k not sure if that would be to my benefit?

IMO a good speaker Is a good speaker and brand/model matching beyond pairs isn't much of a requirement, but given these 2 models were designed with such different intentions would I be shooting myself in the foot somehow if I were to mix them? Getting mini towers up in the first room will be a challenge so I'm considering mixing Focal way up high and Monolith on top the kitchen cabinets but Monolith does offer the 365B if that would better glue together with the 365T's.

I'm completely open to the idea of Dirac, etc., But because I'm feeding multiple pairs with a single amp I'm not sure that's practical? Maybe with 2x mini dsp units if they can accept an amplified signal.

Thanks if you're still reading this far - I have a tendency to overthink things so all input welcome!

 

[Ilkless]

I tried to put them on the same scale with REW. As Audioholics spins are only to 200Hz, I took only ASR data from 200Hz up, which should be instructive enough. As the Audioholics data is a tad more smoothed (1/12 octave) than Amir's, I smoothed the NFS data to the same degree. They were matched at 1kHz.

Listening window:

Early reflections:

Power response:

The Monolith has incredibly narrow dispersion in the treble compared to the Focal. It's probably going to sound discernibly darker than the Focal particularly in such a large room from further away. The 906's main flaw is not being able to play loud, but crossing it to subs will fix it in the bass. It is also unlikely to play as loud as the Monolith in the midrange and tweeter due to the single inverted tweeter (where Focal sacrifices max SPL. FR smoothness and distortion for wider dispersion) compared to the dual dome array in the Monolith. The Monolith also has a resonance around 1kHz, as well as more directivity mismatch around 3kHz. It's the Focal for me, especially if you aren't cranking it up. The Monolith, despite being 3-ways and dual drivers, has a lumpy off-axis FR of the sort I have consistently found tiring to listening to.

 

[tifune]

I tried to put them on the same scale with REW. As Audioholics spins are only to 200Hz, I took only ASR data from 200Hz up, which should be instructive enough. As the Audioholics data is a tad more smoothed (1/12 octave) than Amir's, I smoothed the NFS data to the same degree. They were matched at 1kHz.

Listening window:

View attachment 96296

Early reflections:

View attachment 96297

Power response:

View attachment 96298

This is so great, thank you so much! I have almost no REW experience so I didn't even realize this could be done - seems like I learn a little every time you post, I owe you a few!