Ordered some new speakers.

Upstatemax
Upstatemax Posts: 2,670
in 2 Channel Audio
I've loved my LSi 9's for some time.

But my 2ch system is in a much smaller room now and I've been having some doubts that the 9's are still the best fit for me...

I wanted to keep it reasonable and I have been very curious of the Focal 806 V's for some time now. They are selling for a pretty good price now and I placed an order for them!

Once they come in, I'll start to break them in and then I'll give them a full on head to head with the LSi 9's.

One of the things about the 9's, I've always found that they sound their best when you start to open them up. With kids in the house, that's rare for me now...

Plus, with the size of my 2ch room now, once they start to open up, the bass from the LSi 9's is too much and overpowering. I'm not a bass head to start with.
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Comments

  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,963
    Cool man, hope they sound and work well for you. Keep us up to date on the progress.
    HT SYSTEM-
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 10,716
    What Tony said. Almost pulled the trigger on these.
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  • Joey_V
    Joey_V Posts: 8,552
    Enjoyed Focals and am familiar with those particular speakers. You will enjoy them.
    Magico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R
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  • Conradicles
    Conradicles Posts: 6,081
    I loved my Focals at lower volume levels. The tweeter is fantastic. The French take much pride in manufacturing superb products.
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,639
    Congrats on your choice of speaker. Bet ya cant wait to get em
    ..
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  • tratliff
    tratliff Posts: 1,701
    Congrats. Those look to be very nice.
    2 Channel Rosso Fiorentino Volterra II, 2 REL Carbon Limited, Norma Revo IPA-140B, Lumin U2 Mini, VPI Prime w/SoundSmith Zephyr MIMC, Modwright PH 150, Denon DP-59l w/Denon DL-301MKII, WAY Silver 3 Ana+ Speaker Cables, WAY Silver 4+ Interconnect Cables, AudioQuest Niagara 7000 w/Dragon and Hurricane Power Cables
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  • Upstatemax
    Upstatemax Posts: 2,670
    They should be delivered tomorrow.

    Can't wait to start breaking them in!
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  • Upstatemax
    Upstatemax Posts: 2,670
    Had the Focal's breaking in for a bit now. Starting to open up and they are so far putting a big smile on my face.

    Hard for me to put together a full review right now as I've been going back and forth with MusicDirect about my Musical Fidelity DAC...

    The SDAC is about to go back and be replaced with a brand new unit, so I'll also have to break that in before I can really give a good review.

    But I think the LSi 9's might be for sale soon...

    Sad day for me.
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  • Joey_V
    Joey_V Posts: 8,552
    Cool man.... glad you're liking it and smiling about it. It's a good speaker. In general, how would you compare it to the LSi9?
    Magico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R
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  • Upstatemax
    Upstatemax Posts: 2,670
    edited March 2015
    Joey_V wrote: »
    Cool man.... glad you're liking it and smiling about it. It's a good speaker. In general, how would you compare it to the LSi9?

    It's hard for me to give an in-depth review right now with my SDAC issues but I can give an overview...

    The Focal's are most certainly more forward, however they manage to never come across as bright. Nice detailed top end and midrange that is very revealing. The Focal's are not very forgiving speakers. They will punish poor recordings, but shine on high quality stuff.

    The LSi 9's do a better job of making lots of stuff sound good.

    I'm generally I'm not a patient person, so break in periods are, well, tough for me!

    When I first hooked up the Focal's, I had a mini panic attack with the lack of low end response. I relaxed and reminded myself that these things need to break in. Now with about 38hrs of break in, the bottom end has opened up and offers a nice tight, controlled punch.

    The 9's, naturally, offer a MUCH bigger bottom end. However, in my room now, that was one of the big problems.

    On one hand, my good recordings sound more detailed and engaging to me on the focal's. But on the other, there are now recordings that I don't think I can listen to on this system anymore. Yo Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone is fabulous on the Focal's. You can hear Ma's breath as he plays. Something I could hear on my AKG Q701's, but was veiled on the LSi 9's.

    But, Streaming through my iPhone 5s used to be far more enjoyable on my 9's than on the Focal's...

    Overall, for my room and listening needs at this point, the Focal's fit the bill better than my 9's.

    When I had a larger listening room that gave the LSi 9's space to breath and the ability to turn the volume knob up, the 9's were awesome speakers. But they became muddy and veiled once the room shrunk and I had to keep a close on the power being fed to them.
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  • Upstatemax
    Upstatemax Posts: 2,670
    DSkip wrote: »
    Give the more time to break in. The X's sounded very harsh on bad recordings at first, but now they make even those recordings bearable to listen to. There are always some that you just can't do anything with, but for the most part, they should relax a lot and fill in, making those bad recordings fun again.

    I just looked at it as a reason to upgrade sources and recordings...

    Lol.

    My wife will learn to HATE these Focal's.
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  • Joey_V
    Joey_V Posts: 8,552
    Sounds like a winner!
    Magico M2, JL113v2x2, EMM, ARC Ref 10 Line, ARC Ref 10 Phono, VPIx2, Lyra Etna, Airtight Opus1, Boulder, AQ Wel&Wild, SRA Scuttle Rack, BlueSound+LPS, Thorens 124DD+124SPU, Sennheiser, Metaxas R2R
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