I am on the hunt for a pair of speakers to replace my trusty ProAc Carbon 8 of 5-7 years. To be honest, Focal was never on my list of possible candidates.
I wanted to audition some Stenheims but dealer was out of stock. Instead, I got to listen to a pair of the latest Stella Utopias. Long story short, vocal as sweet & non sibilant (a bane for the type of music I listen to & my pet hate) and bass was extended. They were driven by FM which dealer boss told me is very similar in sound signature to my Statement. I was quite impressed.
Question - I also hear that FM characteristic tends towards sweetness while the Naim Statement does not share this. Any insights ?
Naim had the ND555 with Statement amplifier and Focal Stella Utopia Em Evos at Munich. I managed to have an after hours listen to them and thought that it was really excellent. It was the sort of system that did the “real performers there in a space in front of you” thing very well. It was also a system that I could have stayed up until late at night playing different music, which is a sure sign that something’s working well. As for Focal and Naim working well together - on the evidence of this system, absolutely.
Thanks for your insight. How would you characterise the vocal presentation of the Statement with the Stella ? As a ProAc user, I am spoilt by the sweet & beguiling vocal presentation of the Statement / ProAc combo. I heard similar when I did the audition with Stella / FM but am very curious how would Stella / Statement do in this department. Apologies for this very direct question.
It was a few months ago so apologies if I can’t be too specific. However, I did play the Benjamin Clementine album At Least For Now, and his voice on a favourite track (Winston Churchill’s Boy) was incredibly real and present - more so than I had ever heard before.
I recently replaced my 800’s with the Maestros and love them. I believe that with the evo series of Utopia the speakers have been voiced to better work with Naim. Room size will be relevant. The advise I had was that anything bigger than Maestros wouldn’t work in my room
I have no experience with Focal, but would love to hear your impressions of Stenheim if you eventually get to audition them! I’ve had my eye on that brand for some time, but no direct encounter yet.
Well, I wanted to have a listen to the Alume 5 but sadly, dealer does not have any stock. Apparently, factory could not make them fast enough.
As a consolation, I will drop by the dealer (same guy doing both Focal & Stenheim) for a second round of audition. This time round, I managed to get them to set up DCS front end & Naim pre / power to get a flavour of how the Stella will sound with similar upstream equipment.
I have never heard the Stella Utopia, but I do own their smaller sibling the Scala Utopia, although the previous generation V2s. They work very well with Naim in my opinion, although some others disagree. I have had mine for a few years now and they never disappoint, so I’d strongly recommend a demo in your own system.
Saw him play Somerset House and it was incredible!