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Focal Vestia No. 1 - First Impressions

GXAlan

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1) First impression is that Vestia No. 1 has a much more rolled off treble than the previous generation of Focal tweeters (original Cobalt era) or the JBL 708P.

2) The light wood color is a yellow cream/beige. It’s definitely not as white as the marketing pictures suggest.

3) The bass response is nice. Feels like I would be satisfied in an office with this level of bass.

The woofer is supposed to be identical to the Chora 806/Chora 816. What's new is the tweeter. I tried to take nearfield measurements. There is only a single binding post, so these are just different positions of the microphone vs. the true response. There is no smoothing at all so that you can get a sense of the quality of the UMIK-1 recording.

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In my recording, you don’t see the 8 kHz peak. That might be the improvement in the new M-profile tweeter although the 4-7 kHZ is probably the woofer.

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In my listening position, you have the room node at just above 55 Hz or so. The treble rapidly rolls off after 10 kHz
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If I look at the Chora 816, we see the Sound Power DI and Early Reflections DI rise at 9 kHz.
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So, my guess is that the M-profile tweeter as opposed to the inverted dome design improves dispersion by 1 kHz (meaning it gets up to 10 kHz instead of 9 kHz before the SPDI/ERDI increases, and it reduces the peak at 8 kHz that was present in the previous models.
 
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maty

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A photo of the crossover would be appreciated.

Must be very similar as Focus Alpha Focal Aria 906, I suppose
 

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maty

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Same tweeter.

 

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GXAlan

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I returned mine to the retailer. I had a 60 day trial but it was pretty clear that it wasn’t a good fit for my room so I packed them up to ensure it was truly good as new.

It’s interesting to see how YT reviewers described the sound subjectively too. It seems one of the strengths is the speaker’s ability to hit high SPLs which wasn’t a scenario I tested.

For me, I wasn’t listening at high volume but the midrange clarity/vocals felt compromised. I agree that the tweeter was good, but the reviewers talked about wanting to use a subwoofer. I wonder if they <80 Hz content adds IMD somehow and what they think was the absence of liveliness actually part of what I was hearing in room

I am also making an unfair comparison to the much more expensive JBL 708P ($4k) and much more expensive Onkyo Takamine D-TK10 ($3k adjusted for inflation). For my room, though, a white speaker would have been nice.
 

maty

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Maybe...

Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX - $1500
 

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GXAlan

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Interesting. I had that same dip at 5-10 kHz in my nearfield and my room measurement had that dip 1-10 kHz. I just thought it was my poor room and poor measurements.

I did state it correctly it in my May post
“but the midrange clarity/vocals felt compromised”
 

badspeakerdesigner

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“but the midrange clarity/vocals felt compromised”

Every single focal speaker I've ever heard. I have no idea why they are all in on their inverted domes. Really don't know why they spend so much time and effort making new drivers so much, I don't see other companies promoting new driver materials as much as them. Nuemann gets better results with pretty inexpensive peerless stuff so what is focal doing?
 
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GXAlan

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Every single focal speaker I've ever heard. I have no idea why they are all in on their inverted domes. Really don't know why they spend so much time and effort making new drivers so much, I don't see other companies promoting new driver materials as much as them. Nuemann gets better results with pretty inexpensive peerless stuff so what is focal doing?

I really liked the old Cobalt line and the Electra and Utopia line. The inverted dome does give a distinct dispersion pattern which is different from the standard smooth directivity.

You should take the blind test and see what you pick. When I hit 50 votes, I will release the identities publicly but I will message people with the identities once they have voted and made a comment.

 

badspeakerdesigner

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I really liked the old Cobalt line and the Electra and Utopia line. The inverted dome does give a distinct dispersion pattern which is different from the standard smooth directivity.

You should take the blind test and see what you pick. When I hit 50 votes, I will release the identities publicly but I will message people with the identities once they have voted and made a comment.


Done.
 

capdec

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Anyone else here that got a chance to listen or own these speakers? Would love to hear your comments...
 
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