Focal Speakers
Discussion
Hey!
I’ve got these focal speakers in a 5.1 arrangement (they’re about 12 years old) and they’ve been in storage for a couple of years. From memory the setup cost me about £1200.
Having not listened to the latest speakers including soundbars the question is do I try to flog them and replace with something superior or am I better off keeping. I also like the fact that newer speakers wireless connectivity so I can also use them to play stuff off my phone.
I don’t want top end sound but do appreciate music clarity and the crispness of beats and really hate any type of distortion.
Would appreciate thoughts.
I’ve got these focal speakers in a 5.1 arrangement (they’re about 12 years old) and they’ve been in storage for a couple of years. From memory the setup cost me about £1200.
Having not listened to the latest speakers including soundbars the question is do I try to flog them and replace with something superior or am I better off keeping. I also like the fact that newer speakers wireless connectivity so I can also use them to play stuff off my phone.
I don’t want top end sound but do appreciate music clarity and the crispness of beats and really hate any type of distortion.
Would appreciate thoughts.
Focal made- and still makes- a lot of speakers. It's a big range, past and present. Just saying you've got Focal speakers is a bit like saying you've got a Chevy..... it doesn't really narrow things down enough for any of us to get our teeth in to.
A couple of other points; Focal's domestic range from 10+ years ago didn't include active monitors, so was the £1200 figure for the speakers alone or the speakers plus a 5.1 channel amp? Next, if you're hankering after Bluetooth and streaming, then the place you should be looking is the 5.1 receiver; that or adding a BT receiver device to plug in to a spare audio input on the AV receiver.
If I take a bit of a guess and say you have the Focal Dome 5.1 system, then you'd be nuts to chop that in against some kind of soundbar unless you're going real high-end with something like the £1300 Naim Mu-so. This isn't a surround system, and it's not a conventional sound bar either. The closest thing it resembles is a sound base, but it's not designed to have a TV sitting on it. This is a large-ish flat slab hiding a clutch of very high quality speaker drivers and Naim amplification. Becasue of the way the amplification and speakers are matched it gives quite a few conventional stereo systems a damned good run for their money. This is serious Hi-Fi + streaming and BT in a one-box solution.
The Dome system is a tremendous bit of kit, and given some good amplification it's a bit of a giant killer too. You could partner that with the best-in-class AV receivers between £1000 and £2000 and not be disappointed.
A couple of other points; Focal's domestic range from 10+ years ago didn't include active monitors, so was the £1200 figure for the speakers alone or the speakers plus a 5.1 channel amp? Next, if you're hankering after Bluetooth and streaming, then the place you should be looking is the 5.1 receiver; that or adding a BT receiver device to plug in to a spare audio input on the AV receiver.
If I take a bit of a guess and say you have the Focal Dome 5.1 system, then you'd be nuts to chop that in against some kind of soundbar unless you're going real high-end with something like the £1300 Naim Mu-so. This isn't a surround system, and it's not a conventional sound bar either. The closest thing it resembles is a sound base, but it's not designed to have a TV sitting on it. This is a large-ish flat slab hiding a clutch of very high quality speaker drivers and Naim amplification. Becasue of the way the amplification and speakers are matched it gives quite a few conventional stereo systems a damned good run for their money. This is serious Hi-Fi + streaming and BT in a one-box solution.
The Dome system is a tremendous bit of kit, and given some good amplification it's a bit of a giant killer too. You could partner that with the best-in-class AV receivers between £1000 and £2000 and not be disappointed.
Oops sorry! I forgot to include the link to the actual speakers but your are bang on the money!!
https://www.focal.com/uk/multimedia-and-wireless/d...
I had it paired to a base Onkyo amp before that broke.
Due to new house layout, I probably won’t be able to use the rear speakers but could use the front 2 or 3 with the sub.
I definitely could do the Naim muso which seems more practical, less wires and has Bluetooth connectivity. Would modern amps allow me to connect to them through Bluetooth. Wouldn’t really want to spend £1-2k on the amp though!!
https://www.focal.com/uk/multimedia-and-wireless/d...
I had it paired to a base Onkyo amp before that broke.
Due to new house layout, I probably won’t be able to use the rear speakers but could use the front 2 or 3 with the sub.
I definitely could do the Naim muso which seems more practical, less wires and has Bluetooth connectivity. Would modern amps allow me to connect to them through Bluetooth. Wouldn’t really want to spend £1-2k on the amp though!!
The amp comment was to highlight just how good the Domes really are.
If you have only ever heard them paired with a budget Onkyo then you've never given them a chance to shine. It would be akin to someone buying a Mu-so and then forever feeding it crappy MP3s and low bitrate streaming via BT link from a phone. They'd wonder what all the fuss about it was.
Did you go and demo the Domes at the time, or did you just buy them unheard because of their looks?
Things have definitely moved on in the AV receiver world, particularly if you step up and away from the entry-level receivers.. BT is common, but there's a much better quality ways to connect via wireless. The smart money uses Wi-Fi. Your phone connects to your home Wi-Fi, and so too now do many AV receivers.
Wi-Fi offers a much wider pipeline than BT. Any music files on your phone will bypass the bottleneck to quality that is BT and use Wi-Fi instead.
Other changes include wireless streaming - so the amp.can connect directly to Spotify, Tidal, Deezer and other streaming sites, then there's app control from your phone, Apple Airplay support, and a raft of compatibility especially with the various HDR video formats and ATMOS/ DTS-X support too.
In addition, some brands are branching in to the multiroom music world that has been dominated by Sonos for so long. Yamaha and Denon/Marantz both offer multiroom gear to go with their amps. In Yamaha's case it's called Musiccast, and for Denon/Marantz it's Heos. In both cases each brand has both smart speakers and 2-channel smart amps which can be used as standalone devices to run a pair of wired speakers.... and look who just might have a pair of Focal Domes sitting around doing nothing
.
This brings us to the music performance of both brands' AV receivers. Denon is decent for movies, but it lacks the goods when it comes to playing music. It can play; it just doesn't sound like a passible 2-channel music amp. Yamaha is by far and away the most musical of all the big brand AV receivers. Your Domes deserve an amp that can do music as well as movies.
Have a look at the Yamaha RV6a - It's £650 and has the Musiccast tech built in. This means if you add further Musiccast speakers or amps then the whole system will work together. It also means that you can have a wireless connection to the surround speakers.
If you have only ever heard them paired with a budget Onkyo then you've never given them a chance to shine. It would be akin to someone buying a Mu-so and then forever feeding it crappy MP3s and low bitrate streaming via BT link from a phone. They'd wonder what all the fuss about it was.
Did you go and demo the Domes at the time, or did you just buy them unheard because of their looks?
Things have definitely moved on in the AV receiver world, particularly if you step up and away from the entry-level receivers.. BT is common, but there's a much better quality ways to connect via wireless. The smart money uses Wi-Fi. Your phone connects to your home Wi-Fi, and so too now do many AV receivers.
Wi-Fi offers a much wider pipeline than BT. Any music files on your phone will bypass the bottleneck to quality that is BT and use Wi-Fi instead.
Other changes include wireless streaming - so the amp.can connect directly to Spotify, Tidal, Deezer and other streaming sites, then there's app control from your phone, Apple Airplay support, and a raft of compatibility especially with the various HDR video formats and ATMOS/ DTS-X support too.
In addition, some brands are branching in to the multiroom music world that has been dominated by Sonos for so long. Yamaha and Denon/Marantz both offer multiroom gear to go with their amps. In Yamaha's case it's called Musiccast, and for Denon/Marantz it's Heos. In both cases each brand has both smart speakers and 2-channel smart amps which can be used as standalone devices to run a pair of wired speakers.... and look who just might have a pair of Focal Domes sitting around doing nothing
. This brings us to the music performance of both brands' AV receivers. Denon is decent for movies, but it lacks the goods when it comes to playing music. It can play; it just doesn't sound like a passible 2-channel music amp. Yamaha is by far and away the most musical of all the big brand AV receivers. Your Domes deserve an amp that can do music as well as movies.
Have a look at the Yamaha RV6a - It's £650 and has the Musiccast tech built in. This means if you add further Musiccast speakers or amps then the whole system will work together. It also means that you can have a wireless connection to the surround speakers.
Edited by Lucid_AV on Friday 30th April 11:13
Edited by Lucid_AV on Friday 30th April 12:18
Hey!!
Again thanks for the reply. Much appreciated.
I heard the domes at an independent specialist Hifi shop and they were amazing. The onkyo I bought at the time was around £450 - that’s about 12 years ago. Would that be considered budget back then? Definitely not high end I accept.
The Yamaha looks like a great unit and thank you for recommending it. In terms of using rear wireless speakers, can I convert the rear focals to wireless using a receiver type widget - not sure if that’s possible? Or would I need to get 2 new rear wireless speakers that support Musicast?
In terms of use, I have 2 options - use them for playing Spotify and old stuff I’ve got on CD in the kitchen or try to reuse them in the 5.1 setup in the tv room. Would you say the focals are better suited to one over the other. I ask because when we had it in our old tv room, the rears didn’t seem to do much to add any atmosphere but then they were set up on the wall behind us and perhaps a bit high - I’d say about 7ft high but pointing downwards at us.
Thanks again for your advice and wish you an amazing BH weekend!
Again thanks for the reply. Much appreciated.
I heard the domes at an independent specialist Hifi shop and they were amazing. The onkyo I bought at the time was around £450 - that’s about 12 years ago. Would that be considered budget back then? Definitely not high end I accept.
The Yamaha looks like a great unit and thank you for recommending it. In terms of using rear wireless speakers, can I convert the rear focals to wireless using a receiver type widget - not sure if that’s possible? Or would I need to get 2 new rear wireless speakers that support Musicast?
In terms of use, I have 2 options - use them for playing Spotify and old stuff I’ve got on CD in the kitchen or try to reuse them in the 5.1 setup in the tv room. Would you say the focals are better suited to one over the other. I ask because when we had it in our old tv room, the rears didn’t seem to do much to add any atmosphere but then they were set up on the wall behind us and perhaps a bit high - I’d say about 7ft high but pointing downwards at us.
Thanks again for your advice and wish you an amazing BH weekend!
I'm guessing then that the Onkyo was something like a TX-NR607 or TX-SR608. They were popular as the sweet spot between features and price. Higher up the range got "more"; so more inputs, more power, more sound quality. But if you were looking to tick as many boxes as possible for a minimum spend then these £450-£550 amps from all the manufacturers were the major battle ground.
The Yamaha does wireless surround using their smart speakers. You're looking at the MusicCast 20 and MusicCast 50.
The mono 20s tip in at £300 a pair. This is just like the Domes; each one is mono, so you run them as a pair to get stereo.
The 50s are much bigger. It's really a stereo speaker in a single body. They're sold singly at £350 a piece. The 20s make more sense for surround duties.
The MusicCast WXA-50 is a standalone amp for around £360. It has multiple inputs plus network streaming and the MusicCast ecosystem connectivity. For some reason I had it in mind that you could run this as a wireless amp for the surrounds, but I was mixing it up with the Denon Heos amp (£499).
The Yamaha does wireless surround using their smart speakers. You're looking at the MusicCast 20 and MusicCast 50.
The mono 20s tip in at £300 a pair. This is just like the Domes; each one is mono, so you run them as a pair to get stereo.
The 50s are much bigger. It's really a stereo speaker in a single body. They're sold singly at £350 a piece. The 20s make more sense for surround duties.
The MusicCast WXA-50 is a standalone amp for around £360. It has multiple inputs plus network streaming and the MusicCast ecosystem connectivity. For some reason I had it in mind that you could run this as a wireless amp for the surrounds, but I was mixing it up with the Denon Heos amp (£499).
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