Focal Solo6 Be Review (Studio Monitor)

[testp]

Or (less so with the inverted Focal dome, but with "normal" domes) tempt the user to get the dome back to shape with the "kiss method"...

Kiss of death..

 

[Sancus]

he Genelec/Neumann thing is based on worshiping a single number, the preference score.

OK man, we get it, you hate Genelec/Neumann because you like to be contrary.

 

[testp]

Well, yes, but don't expect me to ship my Aria 948 from Belgium to Amir and back :-S
On top of it, Amir would hate it: they are heavy.

yeah but... that's still 2 against zuzillion readers, can't beat that..

 

[Ron Texas]

OK man, we get it, you hate Genelec/Neumann because you like to be contrary.

Nope, I don't hate gear. I haven't the time for that. I just get tired of hearing the same one dimensional nonsense repeatedly.

 

[Sancus]

Nope, I don't hate gear. I haven't the time for that. I just get tired of hearing the same one dimensional nonsense repeatedly.

If you don't like one dimensional nonsense, I don't know why you would post it yourself all the time.

 

[AudioJester]

OK man, we get it, you hate Genelec/Neumann because you like to be contrary.

On a local forum I get similar throwback when I point out flaws with AudioGD. The owners cant handle it - so conspiracy theories, usual suspects, one dimensionality etc.

These Focals look awesome to me. The performanc and price is hard to argue with. I would prefer these or Kefs to similar priced Genelec/Neumann in my living spaces based on looks. Unfortunately Revel is too expensive localy.

Thanks to @amirm for continuously unearthing these gems.

 

[Ron Texas]

If you don't like one dimensional nonsense, I don't know why you would post it yourself all the time.

That's getting personal. I'm sending a moose to your house to eat up your garden.

 

[Sancus]

On a local forum I get similar throwback when I point out flaws with AudioGD. The owners cant handle it - so conspiracy theories, usual suspects, one dimensionality etc.

These Focals look awesome to me. The performanc and price is hard to argue with. I would prefer these or Kefs to similar priced Genelec/Neumann in my living spaces based on looks. Unfortunately Revel is too expensive localy.

It's got nothing to do with ownership, only basic facts, and it's wild to even consider thinking otherwise. I think these Focals are pretty good. The sub-bass performance is nice. And the wideboys like their wide dispersion, I know. Every other speaker thread turns into wideboys vs narrowboys, because it's a topic that has had almost no real public scientific investigation. So you can't really prove anything one way or the other, except to observe that stereo really sucks and therefore sidewall reflections making it suck less is a logical idea.

People compare everything to Genelec/Neumann because they do a lot of things right. They definitely do not do everything right.

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

About the SOLO6 BE, Focal says:

Protected Beryllium dome (the effect of the grille has been compensated on the amplifier to adjust the tonal balance).

I wonder if it would have measured a bit differently with protective grill installed. It seems to be missing in your photo.

 

[q3cpma]

The Genelec/Neumann thing is based on worshiping a single number, the preference score. Any speaker can be improved with EQ.

No and no. Factually. If you want detail I don't even look at the preference score, and I'm against SINAD as an objective metric (as it's unweighted, I prefer to look at the SNR and distortion spectrum); and for the second "no", I'm sure you know about directivity and distortion.

At any given price point Genelec and Neumann fall short in the dynamic range category.

Completely wrong, they are amongst the speakers with the lowest distortion for their size (not price, obviously). You're not seriously comparing big Revels with tiny nearfield monitors, I hope.
The only true thing is that Genelec's 2-way can be underpowered and/or a bit weak in LF, to encourage you to buy a subwoofer. Neumann doesn't seem to have this problem.

If they were as good as you think everyone else would be out of business by now.

Are you really resorting to the most overused and debunked fallacy in the audio market? Popularity and objective performance are barely linked; if they were highly correlated, no company would invest much in marketing. Even if a company made the best speakers by miles, that quality would be reflected in their price, making them occupy a niche.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Yes, distortion looks very good, but still not as good as the cheap JBL Stage A130

Yah, I did a lot of testing. The A130 is great for the price.
The A130 had low woofer distortion, that said the speaker did sound "hard" at loud volumes. It did not have the ease that some other speakers would have at high volume and was not as Dynamic- even with a 120-150hz high pass to 8" midbasses.
In fact even Harmans own infinity r152/162 and JBL 530 handle loud volume with more ease than the A130 and with seemingly superior dynamics.
The 530 high passed at 120-150 can play staggeringly loud if you have power (@ least 125-200watts the 530 has low sensitivity)
In any case I' d love to hear the Focal. Previous Focal speakers I have used did seem pretty dynamic.
I value dynamics a lot.

 

[Spocko]

Focal clearly borrowing Dynaudio's Jupiter testing chamber since nobody's using it.

 

[thewas]

So my experience with waveguided speakers is that unless they're designed absolutely perfectly they do more harm than good. Yeah, you're going to get some directivity error on a flat baffle, but I'd rather that than the weird upper octave diffraction effects a lot of waveguided speakers tend to show.

Interestingly in my current untreated room my personal findings are exactly the opposite, only waveguide loudspeakers sound good (while on my previous better treated room both worked well), on the other hand I guess I had rather loudspeakers with well designed waveguides (KEF, Neumann, Genelec, JBL and Kali) so I can't tell much about poorer designs.

 

[ROOSKIE]

I tend to prefer a 3-way over a 2-way, it will mostly mean less distortion and better midrange.
OT question: this is one really nice desk, is it DIY or where can I get one?

Quite frankly do not assume either lower distortion or cleaner mids or any benefit at all.
There are so many variables and especially as manufacturer design considerations are very different from what folks often imagine they are.
In other words IMHO everything is case by case.

 

[thewas]

Yah, I did a lot of testing. The A130 is great for the price.
The A130 had low woofer distortion, that said the speaker did sound "hard" at loud volumes. It did not have the ease that some other speakers would have at high volume and was not as Dynamic- even with a 120-150hz high pass to 8" midbasses.

To tell the truth I am still today not 100% sure if there was an error at A130 96dB distortion measurements as they always looked just too good for its price and size class, wish someone would repeat them.

 

[ROOSKIE]

To tell the truth I am still today not 100% sure if there was an error at A130 96dB distortion measurements as they always looked just too good for its price and size class, wish someone would repeat them.

I did and posted here on ASR.
They were excellent.
And subjectively that woofer sounds super clean (with the sub 60hrz filtered out)

*edit* Here is one link. I think I also made some further tests in another post
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-in-room-with-several-similar-monitors.18481/

 

[thewas]

A cool experiment would be to have someone design a waveguide for such a tweeter that we could tape on and off on the speaker and judge the difference. There are some challenges with this as far as diffraction and such but if we get close, it would be a very cool experiment.

Why not, would need also an switchable extra EQ as the waveguide changes usually also the on axis FR due to some different loading of the neighbouring air.

 

[thewas]

I did and posted here on ASR.
They were excellent.
And subjectively that woofer sounds super clean (with the sub 60hrz filtered out)

Could you please post the link?

 

[ROOSKIE]

if You have young children and they happened to pull a monitor down so it hit the floor. Is it possible For them to inhale or ingest beryllium and have fatal or at least a very toxic outcome?

Fire is required.

 

[temps]

There's been a few beryllium bike frames made over the years, probably the most famous/infamous was the American Bicycle Manufacturing built version in 1996 which used lugs to hold the beryllium tubing, insanely expensive at $30,000 but provided them with worldwide exposure so compared to an expensive advertising campaign it was a win for the company, I doubt they sold any that were used in anger but I still wanted one at the time, and a tioga disk drive wheel just like John Tomac rode.

And back to the topic in question........I'm now in a quandary over which monitor to get for my room, do I get the Dynadio LYD 48 with 3 drivers or the Focal Solo 6BE?, by all accounts the Dynadio's are excellent and now Amir has thrown me a curveball with the review of the Focals as they are the same price. Going in my fully treated room for near/close midfield use (no more than 2m distance), I mostly listen to electronic music - shame I can't demo them at all nor visit a store to try them out due to my multiple sclerosis confining me to the house...bugger!

Nice desk! Mine is very similar... black walnut but I got the plain steel version of those legs (or similar) and did an epoxy clearcoat on them instead.

Obviously I wanted pretty speakers to put on the desk too, so I shortlisted to same couple of speakers. I much preferred the Dynaudio sound over the Focals and went with LYD 7s myself. I had thought about the 48s, but the LYD series is not ambitious when it comes to bass extension. The Hedd Type 20 -6dB at 32hz, the 48 is at 40hz so your Type 20 audition isn't going to indicate a whole lot about the 48s.

The LYD 7 is 45hz, so you could maybe pocket some change and just go with them instead of the 48s or Focals, especially since you already have a subwoofer. One downside, if you're sensitive to it, is that the LYDs hiss pretty loud but Focals are dead quiet. My LYDs hiss 37dBA, measured right at the tweeter. In a heavily treated space like yours it might be very noticeable.