Focal?

[jdjohn]

The inverted-dome tweeters sound very good. Focal speakers are one of France's best products :D

[Bob257]

Garpt,
The Tannoys run 2,300 for a pair of the XT 8F. I was also considering the Ohm Walsh 1000's. The Foacal Choral 716 are around 2,800 (?) I believe. The Ohms are around 2300. Any other suggestions? My EPI's sound decent for being made in the 80's. I've replaced drivers on them for the midrange and woofer. I'm open for suggestions.

[bernard1]

Are you talking about the Focal Chorus 716 ? They are 1465,90€ in the country where they are made.
https://www.amazon.fr/s/?ie=UTF8&keywor ... chorus+716
Looks like some taxes and margin are added by passing from the ancient to the new world.

[jdjohn]

Bob, you might also consider looking at Usher and Polk Audio in that price range.

[garpt]

Garpt,
The Tannoys run 2,300 for a pair of the XT 8F. I was also considering the Ohm Walsh 1000's. The Foacal Choral 716 are around 2,800 (?) I believe. The Ohms are around 2300. Any other suggestions? My EPI's sound decent for being made in the 80's. I've replaced drivers on them for the midrange and woofer. I'm open for suggestions.

Strange. I think you mean Focal Chorus 716, they are $1599/ pair including shipping on Amazon. But- anyway, I know KEF is a hot brand right now, Klipsch, Polk, Elac, but I'd explore some of the lesser known boutique brands as well. See what shops are within comfortable driving distance of you and the brands they carry. Speakers are probably the most personal of all devices in the audio chain, and YOU have to love the way they sound. Nothing much else matters. There are SO many little independent companies making some innovative and kick- a** products.With $3K you can likely afford to listen to some. If something really knocks you out and they are a few bucks more, save a bit more and wait. Speakers are really that important. My budget started out at 5K and I ended up spending close to 9K.
Best of luck. Gary

[lini]

(...) They are 1465,90€ in the country where they are made. (...)

Not really - 'cause that Amazon price is anything but representative. Usually a pair of Chorus 716s is more likesome 1100 Euro max. (incl. VAT), and if you look around a bit e.g. on some of the French price comarison sites, you can also find these for a good bit less...


jdj: Afaik, there was no merging - or at least not in the sense of a company merger. I.e., as far as I know Focal merely offered their complete speakers under the JMLab brand for a while, while their separately available tweeters, woofers et cetera remained Focals all the time.


Bob: Is there are local hifi shop, where you could listen and compare, before you buy? Because then I'd suggest to do that.

For example, when I bought my JMLab Opal 607s, I originally went to that shop, because I was interested in some of the smaller Infinity Kappas (6.1i/6.2i or 7.1i/7.2i - not quite sure anymore) - but it only took me a short listen to find that these weren't my cup of tea, so the sales guy demonstrad me JMLab 615s next, which already sounded pretty well. However, then I became curious and wanted to hear the bookshelf model version, they also had ready for demonstration, in order to compare - and that Opal 607 to my ears sounded better than its larger brother, namely a tad tighter and more precise, while there was hardly any loss of bass depth with the 607. So, in case the room or respectively listening zone you'd use these in would be around 20 to 25 m², decently sized bookshelf models can actually be a good alternative to smaller floorstanders - and depending on the manufacturers' line-up, this may mean, that you could afford to go one or two model ranges up.


Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

[bernard1]

(...) They are 1465,90€ in the country where they are made. (...)

Not really - 'cause that Amazon price is anything but representative. Usually a pair of Chorus 716s is more likesome 1100 Euro max. (incl. VAT), and if you look around a bit e.g. on some of the French price comarison sites, you can also find these for a good bit less...

That's quite possible, I was simply pointing the fact that this model was much less than 2,800 (dollars ?) as Bob257 said.

[lini]

Benard: Yup. Just wanted to point out, that in fact the price difference is even higher...

It generally unfortunate, that foreign market pricing can differ quite a bit - and that both ways. For example, the last two North american distributors for Fehrenbacher-Dual turntables asked rather ridiculous prices over there, while, when I brought my Grado headphones home from a half business, half vacation trip to the US, the corresponding models were about twice as much in Germany each.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

[tep392]

jdj: Afaik, there was no merging - or at least not in the sense of a company merger. I.e., as far as I know Focal merely offered their complete speakers under the JMLab brand for a while, while their separately available tweeters, woofers et cetera remained Focals all the time.

My understanding as well. The drivers in my JMLab speakers are all branded Focal on the back of the magnets.

[theclosetguy]

Spinner
do you have a picture of a plastic driver. I've only seen stamped and cast metal drivers.
Thank you

[jdjohn]

He said 'plastic' (to make them sound cheaply made), but I think 'molded composite' is the more appropriate term. His reference to warping (from heat) and blown tweeters sounds more like abuse than cheap. Sounds like a sub-par amp that distorts at high volume was being used. With good, clean, high-current power this would not happen, since a lower volume setting could be used to achieve excellent sound. Just because a speaker responds poorly to being abused does not make it a cheap or bad speaker. And conversely, just because a speaker can take abuse does not make it a good speaker.

[theclosetguy]

jdjohn
I have to agree with you. Focal makes exceptionally good drivers. No how good a driver is a bad source will kill it.
Mike M

[tep392]

jdjohn
I have to agree with you. Focal makes exceptionally good drivers. No how good a driver is a bad source will kill it.
Mike M

I learned this the hard way when my NAD amp failed with DC output to one channel. I didn't realize it happened until it had cooked the coils in both midbass drivers in my JMLab Daline 6.1. Distorted the coils so they dragged in the magnet. I fixed the speaker, but didn't bother fixing the NAD because I no longer trusted it.