Focal Solo6 Be Review (Studio Monitor)

[Andreas007]

I'm surprised I haven't seen the video linked here yet. There is a two hour factory tour of the Focal factory on Youtube.
Here the reporter compares the tweeter materials:

The whole video worth a watch.

Fascinating, dispensing small adhesive amounts by hand.
There are automated and volumetric based solutions on the market which would be much more precise. I think at least for the tweeter such an approach would be reasonable to get a reproducible amount/weight of adhesive on the tweeter.

On the other hand I appreciate the handcraft of a skilled worker and also the fact that not every person is replaced by a machine. If the end result is ok and checked, then it's fine for me - even if it costs a few $ more (but supporting an employment).

 

[Jim Matthews]

Fascinating, dispensing small adhesive amounts by hand.
There are automated and volumetric based solutions on the market which would be much more precise. I think at least for the tweeter such an approach would be reasonable to get a reproducible amount/weight of adhesive on the tweeter.

On the other hand I appreciate the handcraft of a skilled worker and also the fact that not every person is replaced by a machine. If the end result is ok and checked, then it's fine for me - even if it costs a few $ more (but supporting an employment).

I expect the scale of production dictates a human operator. They're also performing QC at each station, so there's one less handling step.

They're not making these in great number.

****

Paired with an RME ADI-2 DAC seems a real value.

 

[Puddingbuks]

Nice!

Imagine Focal building a studio monitor with waveguide and dsp.

I sold my Focal Electra 1028BE a few months ago and switched to Dutch & Dutch 8M. Whilie the 1028 is a great speaker, the D&D have a much more open 3D sound and do not sound as coloured. Love them.

 

[Xyrium]

Thanks for this and the time domain measurements Amir! I had a pair of these years ago, and if the amps in each speaker hadn't died in three years, I'd still have them.

 

[3125b]

Is anyone else making 3-way monitors that have the T&M section rotatable?

There are some: https://geizhals.de/?cmp=1983261&cmp=1226982&cmp=1982950&cmp=2116606&cmp=1934236&cmp=2050614
Those certainly look like it.

 

[Xyrium]

Very nice. Any audible hiss with those?

Now I'd love to see measurements of the Focal Shape series, particularly 65 and the Twin.

When I had them, there was zero hiss at 1m.

 

[rmsanger]

Whenever a beryllium tweeter is discussed there is inevitable handwringing about the toxicity of the metal. No doubt it is a pretty nasty element, but the level of fear sometimes encountered is somewhat over the top.

Beryllium is a pretty amazing metal. Lighter than aluminium and stronger then steel. It is a significant step up from titanium. As an airborne powder it is fiendish. Otherwise not so much. A beryllium tweeter very little risk.
Don’t grind your tweeter into a powder.

This Is a very comprehensive guide.

a quick summary from it is this:

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?

 

[pierre]

Here is an automated EQ for the Focal Solo6. I had the speaker for years and they are quiet good. I now have the Trio6 which is good too.

The score is optimized from 5.1 to 6.3.

          SPK auEQ
 -----------------
 NBD  ON 0.46 0.28
 NBD  LW 0.39 0.21
 NBD PIR 0.36 0.31
 SM  PIR 0.76 0.89
 SM   SP 0.82 0.88
 LFX       44   40
 LFQ     0.98 0.95
 -----------------
 Score    5.1  6.3
 -----------------

Visually the eq looks like:

You see the effect on the spinorama:

and on the PIR (Predicted In-Room Response):

EQ for Focal Solo6 Be computed from ASR data
Preference Score 5.1 with EQ 6.3
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.8
Dated: 2021-08-01-13:10:11

Preamp: -0.2 dB

Filter  1: ON PK Fc  2636 Hz Gain -3.69 dB Q 0.10
Filter  2: ON PK Fc   974 Hz Gain -1.78 dB Q 11.75
Filter  3: ON PK Fc 11051 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 8.09
Filter  4: ON PK Fc   786 Hz Gain +1.53 dB Q 11.24
Filter  5: ON PK Fc   406 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 8.23
Filter  6: ON PK Fc  2372 Hz Gain +1.22 dB Q 12.00
Filter  7: ON PK Fc  4874 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 9.73
Filter  8: ON PK Fc  3050 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter  9: ON PK Fc  1510 Hz Gain +1.00 dB Q 9.35
Filter 10: ON PK Fc  4008 Hz Gain +1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter 11: ON PK Fc   514 Hz Gain +1.00 dB Q 11.02
Filter 12: ON PK Fc  9384 Hz Gain +1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter 13: ON PK Fc  7106 Hz Gain +1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter 14: ON PK Fc  2790 Hz Gain +1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter 15: ON PK Fc  2590 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter 16: ON PK Fc   912 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter 17: ON PK Fc  1343 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter 18: ON PK Fc   456 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 12.00
Filter 19: ON PK Fc  1211 Hz Gain +1.00 dB Q 10.50
Filter 20: ON PK Fc   482 Hz Gain +1.00 dB Q 12.00

 

[Ajax]

For a very short while in 2019 they were actually $650/ea, over 50% off.

https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B0044KKJGW

That is ridiculously cheap when you consider that amplification is included. Even the most humble hypex N-core D class amps will set you back $US700. Just add a Tidal account, a Raspberry PI and one of the more recent Topping DACs and you will get unlimited music and excellent sound for under $2k.

I have always had active speakers (Adam A7) in my home office and always will - the performance to $ ratio is a no brainer.

"What was such a pleasant experience was the ability to play as loud as I wanted with nary a sign of distortion or strain. This speaker just does what you ask it to do. You don't have to bend to its limitations. It follows you. So many small powered speakers run out of amplification juice, woofer excursion or both, ruining an otherwise excellent speaker. Not the Focal Solo6 Be."

 

[dfuller]

The really interesting thing here is how much the speaker doesn't lose its composure, even turned up quite loud.

 

[Frank Dernie]

The really interesting thing here is how much the speaker doesn't lose its composure, even turned up quite loud.

Superb driver and enough power.

 

[napilopez]

When Revel manages to be wide while still using waveguides, you know it's only an excuse.

Eh, kinda. Revels do tend to be wider than the typical waveguidey speakers, but this speaker, like other focals, is still noticeably wider up to higher frequencies. The inverted dome makes it such that the typical focal is only down about 10dB at 90 degrees and 8kHz, while the typical revel is down about 15dB. It's substantially wider in a frequency range where it still counts imo. This is readily apparent in the horizontal SPL graphs for various focals vs various revels.

One could argue that the width isnt worth it, but that is focals 'house sound' imo and what'll make it sound different even if it isn't necessarily technically better. Maybe it's splitting hairs but to me these directivity characteristics are fundamental to a speaker's sound.

In the case for this specific speaker the problem is more in the vertical directivity throwing off the overall balance. The horizontal directivity is comparable to many waveguided speakers imo.

I do still agree that this should be better for the price though, and I think the lack of DSP is dumb. Likewise, a very shallow waveguide, as seen in the Chora and Aria, or a curved baffle, as in the Sopra line, could likely smooth out the bunching seen here without narrowing directivity too much.

 

[daftcombo]

? If you ignore H2, it's certainly quite good. In a comparison with the 8050B, it's clearly better in the deep bass, but a lot worse after (where it matters, because subwoofers exist).

True, but my remark was also a question: how did they do that in the deep bass? High-pass?

 

[FeddyLost]

Is anyone else making 3-way monitors that have the T&M section rotatable? Also, I hope it clicks into place.

Neumann 420, PSI A23 and A25, JBL 6332 for example ...

 

[dfuller]

Likewise, a very shallow waveguide, as seen in the Chora and Aria, or a curved baffle, as in the Sopra line, could likely smooth out the bunching seen here without narrowing directivity too much.

I think even Focal is aware of this as the more modern designs have a shallow waveguide (see: Alpha Evos, the ones you mentioned)

Superb driver and enough power.

That on top of a less-than-aggressive limiter, I think.

 

[napilopez]

I think even Focal is aware of this as the more modern designs have a shallow waveguide (see: Alpha Evos, the ones you mentioned)

That on top of a less-than-aggressive limiter, I think.

Yep, they seem to be paying more attention to directivity with recent designs. The waveguides on the Chora and Aria are so shallow they're barely noticeable, but they're clearly there for a reason.

I do wish they could improve the vertical performance with the waveguides without affecting horizontal, as I suspect that tends to be what throws of tonality a little bit for me.

 

[Francis Vaughan]

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?

The answer seems that it is unlikely. The tweeters are metal, not a ceramic (there are plenty of beryllium ceramics out there, they have very high thermal performance and are used in high power semiconductor applications), and so may fracture like a metal, but they won't create a powder. If a child were to ingest parts of a tweeter there would be cause for concern, but the report I cited suggests that it is unlikely to be a path for significant toxicity. But unlikely is perhaps not as comforting as "not". The really nasty issue with beryllium is inhalation. The warning for people working in electronics is to be very careful with ceramic packages for high power devices. Never be tempted to grind or abrade such a package. High power packages include some CPU packages in PCs, so there is some likelihood your have such packages in your home. There were high performance thermal pastes based on beryllium as well. These came with warnings. They were a skin cancer risk if it got into a cut. I haven't seen them on the market for ages, and maybe they have been overtaken by pastes like nano-diamond.

 

[Grooved]

... 8330A for $900 (can get a pair of those with a 7350A for the same price)

Right in the USA :
$3,050 for 2x8330A + 1x7350A in USA, so right, same price than 2xSolo6
But in Europe :
- 2x750 + 1,060 = €2,560 for Genelec (or €1,500 without 7350A)
- 2x900 = €1,800 for Focal

 

[richard12511]

In a way. My understanding is that they emphasize maintaining wide horizontal directivity more than anything. They aren't going to sacrifice wide directivity in the name of a slightly smoother crossover region with a big waveguide for instance. Often that means there's some bunching in the presence region from diffraction, but their higher end models tends to smooth that out, such as the Sopra 1(perhaps simply because of the strong cabinet curvature) They also seem to be using shallow waveguides more often, as seen in the new Alpha Evo. Hopefully a revision of the Solo6's will tidy up the directivity more.

I think we agree. That region is seemingly responsible for sense of spaciousness. Focal seem to be aiming for that super spacious sound, and they're willing to sacrifice a bit of directivity uniformity to get there. The level of sacrifice required is greatest for their 2 way models, but gets less and less as you move up their lines into 3 and 4 way models.

This seems to be a deliberate strategy to differentiate themselves from competitors. Compared side by side with Genelec, Focal is much less uniform, but much wider. I can easily see why both might be preferred by different people.

The Genelec should image tighter, but the Focal should have a wider soundstage. Preference depends on what is more important to the individual.

 

[Ron Texas]

Comments as expected. Someone disses the LS50 and the usual suspects are giving free advertising for Genelec.

The only thing I see missing here is the built in subwoofer integration and EQ that comes with the JBL 708P and some other studio monitors.

Thank you @amirm for another great review.