As some of you may know, Focal recently introduced the Chora line, the replacement to its entry-level Chorus speakers. I recently got my hands on the bookshelf/standmount model, the 806, for review. It retails for $1000 USD a pair, but Europeans can get it for 600 Euro.
I immediately liked them in my first hours of listening, but was a little wary knowing Focal can sometimes underdeliver in measurements. So I did something unusual and took measurements early in the review process, in part because I was also measuring other speakers today (normally I prefer to listen for a few weeks and then measure). Thought I'd share here while I work on my proper review, as I haven't seen measurements for these yet.
Basically, they are impressively flat within the listening window and seem to have excellent horizontal dispersion, but finicky vertical dispersion may affect timbre and suggests come care needs to be taken with vertical positioning (something of a trend I've noticed with other Focal models). However, the measurements seem to largely balance each other out when accumulated for a pseudo early reflections curve.
Horizontal 0-75 Degrees + Listening Window:
Nice! Wide, even dispersion up to 10Khz. Impressively flat, and not just for an entry-level speaker (even if entry-level for Focal is more expensive than some other brands).
(Listening window here is calculated from an average of 0 degrees, ± 15/30 horizontal, and ±10 vertical. Measurements are gated at 6.5ms. Nearfield bass spliced at 270Hz and corrected for baffle step. Microphone is a MiniDSP Umik-1 calibrated by Cross Spectrum Labs.)
Vertical above and below tweeter 0/5/10/30 degrees:
Here things get quite a bit messier, with notable dips forming around the 3Khz crossover merely a few degrees off-axis. You'll want to get the vertical height just right for the best sound; you'll probably want a stand with adjustable height or angling.
(Note that the '0' graph looks a bit different here because my vertical measurement technique involves putting the speaker on its side. This has an effect on the measured on-axis curve, but my intention here is to show off vertical dispersion.)
I did take measurements all the way to 75 degrees above and below the tweeter too, so I tried making a spinorama-like early reflections curve. I've seen the angles for this curve defined a few different ways (Sausalito, for example, provides a simplified average compared to Toole's book). Since I measure in 15-degree increments, I tried to best approximate the angles in Toole's Book sans the 180 and 90-degree ones, which for some reason my gated measurements have trouble picking up (anyone have an idea why?).
In total, I averaged the on-axis sound, 15/30/45 degrees down, 30/45/60 up, and ±15/30/45/60/75 horizontal:
Subjective impressions are quite positive after about eight cumulative hours of listening. Good soundstage, stable stereo presentation, wide sweetspot, decent bass extension, great dynamics. A slight brightness to them, probably from that slightly rise from 2Khz to 9KHz in the reflections curve. Though my 28-year-old ears can hear 19KHz easily, I nevertheless do tend to prefer a touch of 'sizzle' on my speakers, mind you (I'll often turn up the treble knob on my receiver about 1 dB - don't need to do that with these).
Overall, I'm happy to see Focal didn't seem to majorly skimp on performance for its 'entry-level' speakers relative to its other products.
I immediately liked them in my first hours of listening, but was a little wary knowing Focal can sometimes underdeliver in measurements. So I did something unusual and took measurements early in the review process, in part because I was also measuring other speakers today (normally I prefer to listen for a few weeks and then measure). Thought I'd share here while I work on my proper review, as I haven't seen measurements for these yet.
Basically, they are impressively flat within the listening window and seem to have excellent horizontal dispersion, but finicky vertical dispersion may affect timbre and suggests come care needs to be taken with vertical positioning (something of a trend I've noticed with other Focal models). However, the measurements seem to largely balance each other out when accumulated for a pseudo early reflections curve.
Horizontal 0-75 Degrees + Listening Window:
Nice! Wide, even dispersion up to 10Khz. Impressively flat, and not just for an entry-level speaker (even if entry-level for Focal is more expensive than some other brands).
(Listening window here is calculated from an average of 0 degrees, ± 15/30 horizontal, and ±10 vertical. Measurements are gated at 6.5ms. Nearfield bass spliced at 270Hz and corrected for baffle step. Microphone is a MiniDSP Umik-1 calibrated by Cross Spectrum Labs.)
Vertical above and below tweeter 0/5/10/30 degrees:
Here things get quite a bit messier, with notable dips forming around the 3Khz crossover merely a few degrees off-axis. You'll want to get the vertical height just right for the best sound; you'll probably want a stand with adjustable height or angling.
(Note that the '0' graph looks a bit different here because my vertical measurement technique involves putting the speaker on its side. This has an effect on the measured on-axis curve, but my intention here is to show off vertical dispersion.)
I did take measurements all the way to 75 degrees above and below the tweeter too, so I tried making a spinorama-like early reflections curve. I've seen the angles for this curve defined a few different ways (Sausalito, for example, provides a simplified average compared to Toole's book). Since I measure in 15-degree increments, I tried to best approximate the angles in Toole's Book sans the 180 and 90-degree ones, which for some reason my gated measurements have trouble picking up (anyone have an idea why?).
In total, I averaged the on-axis sound, 15/30/45 degrees down, 30/45/60 up, and ±15/30/45/60/75 horizontal:
Subjective impressions are quite positive after about eight cumulative hours of listening. Good soundstage, stable stereo presentation, wide sweetspot, decent bass extension, great dynamics. A slight brightness to them, probably from that slightly rise from 2Khz to 9KHz in the reflections curve. Though my 28-year-old ears can hear 19KHz easily, I nevertheless do tend to prefer a touch of 'sizzle' on my speakers, mind you (I'll often turn up the treble knob on my receiver about 1 dB - don't need to do that with these).
Overall, I'm happy to see Focal didn't seem to majorly skimp on performance for its 'entry-level' speakers relative to its other products.
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