Probably they will work even better with more space around them. I guess.
@joeling I went back to your room picture and I am still not comfortable with it if I may. Yes there is treatment, but apart from that it looks like an echo chamber. The floor bare, the ceiling bare, walls bare except for the panels. Also apparently not all that large, so short reflection times. Of course I donāt know how it looks behind the camera point of view but I guess bare except for a couch. This may well have worked with previous speakers, but now you chose the Focals known to be bright etc.
Did you show your dealer how it looks and was he ok with it or did he caution. Was the dealerās demo room similar or more damped?
Did you try with a big rug on the floor? That would be the easiest and cheapest thing to try. Then I would put something on the ceiling at the reflection points - more difficult but you seem to have the means. And not to criticize your taste, but more stuff that gives it a more homely environment instead of looking like a garage would also make the room less symmetrical and would break up reflections and modes. You know, plants, book shelves, soft furniture 
Or crazy art pieces, whatever that makes it less of an empty box.
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I think you are probably correctā¦ it would be interesting to run REW ā¦ the Naim demo room has allot of side wall treatmentā¦ I think these babies are probably beaming a bit ā¦ and with focals they take no prisonersā¦ I think you will be able to get them to work ā¦ but you may need to do some serious room treatmentā¦
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500 hours has come and gone. The sibilance has reduced significantly. Dealer told me the demo pair I listened to last year has had 8 months under its belt. Assuming 3 hours per day for the 8 months, that would be 700+ hrs. If the daily utilisation was 5 hours, the overall hours would b around 1200+ hours. Things are looking up a bit but the jury is still out until I can hear even more reduction in the sibilance department. In the meantime, I will do some casual listening this weekend. I have also removed the absorption panels at the first and second reflection points at the side walls. I prefer diffusion. Carpet remains in place. Ceiling diffusion panels remain in place. Right now, the mid range is boosted while tweeter slope is reduced. Seems to be both ok with the DCS & Audio Research. CD555 is more in your face. I am waiting for my DCS transport but I think it will be a while before coming back from the UK.
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One last thing from me ā¦ have you got a dedicated mains feed? and a good clean earthā¦
Separate breaker box & earth stake in soil yes
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Keep breaking them in ā¦ I know my little pmcās took quite a long time 100hrs + so yours could be double maybeā¦
But now itās already 500 hours and Joeling seems still not satisfied.
Iām minded to agree with the Rooster 500 hours even for a speaker is ample. Once again and I appreciate this is brutal this is just a case of wrong speaker for the room or on home listening the speaker not being to the listeners taste or in all likelihood a combination of both. Further, it pretty much accords with my experience of the combo albeit in show conditions.
Regards,
Lindsay
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Hi @Joeling, I can only bring you back my little experience. I bought a couple of focal sopra 2 for a few weeks. At first I was really disappointed. I had very big problems on the low and medium frequencies. I thought I had it all wrong. I felt a lot of unwanted vibrations and resonances and I tried a thousand tests to fix it without success. Now after a while it has improved a lot. I no longer have any problems and the speakers feel wonderful. Iām sure you will be able to make those fantastic speakers sound good
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Thanks Fcodamo for your encouragement.
frenchrooster & LindsayM, appreciate your candid views. This is of my own doing. So, I have to dig myself out of this hole.
Looking back, settling on ProAc, the speakers these Focals replaced, also took years. Those days more than 10 years ago, I was not in the same financial position as I am now. Went to many places listen to many mid priced speakers some bigger name brands than others but none met what I wanted until I heard the ProAcs. Over the last 10 years, I stuck with ProAcs albeit upgrading to the Carbon 8 from D80R more than 5 years ago.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
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I understand that the very resolving system you have needs a lot of optimization, patience, careful set up, and time.
I really hope you will succeed.
But as your speakers are now fully run in, the only possibility left is acoustic treatment change and/or isolation devices under your speakers.
But will it transform enough the sound to the level where you will be fully satisfied and feel Ā« wouah! , these speakers are fantastic ! Ā», I would like to believe in that.
But yes, maybe I am candid , as Lindsay, and canāt take the measure of the difficulties inherent in such an expensive and complicated system.
However for that amount of money I would wish myself to be in stellar euphoria, and relatively quick,Ā“not years ago.
Maybe itās easier to be happy with a simple systemā¦
Yes I think with a simpler system itās easier to achieve synergy. A chap I used to work with - assume he still has it havenāt seen him for a while - has a Rega P5/Dynavector Dyna 10x5/CD5XS/Stageline/XS2/Dyna Focus 140s and it absolutely sings.
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Well, I had a listen last night using other tracks. I had been fixated on the few tracks from 1 album which I used to audition at the dealerās last year. The conclusion is that yes, the sibilance issue is definitely much reduced but not totally gone. On well recorded songs, the system actually sounded quite decent. However, I still want to improve on the reduction of sibilance. I want to hear the same as I heard last year at the dealerās. Anyway, for now, the level of anxiety has gone down significantly. I am no longer thinking about throwing out the Focals but rather what needs to be done to get more enjoyment out of them. Make no mistake, they are not ProAcs. I will not get the same sweet / sugarcoated vocals from the Focals. I hope to have the siblilance under control and enjoy the vocal presentation but not in the same way as the ProAcs. Listened to Sadeās Smooth Operator on CD. The bass was penetrating (not sure how to describe) and itās something that I did not experience with the ProAcs ever.
Moving forward :
- more cooking / burn in for at least 200-500hrs
- placement / positioning of the speakers, trying to find the best spot
- replace speaker cables which is made up of 2 lengths connected by binding posts each side for the moment
- remove the rollers / caster wheels to be replaced by Isoacoustics footers
- Wait patiently for the Vivaldi transport to come back to me
- Hopefully, the idler wheel turntable will also turn up this year
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Major break through. My upstream equipment is the cause of this sibilance. For the last 10 years with the ProAc, I have favoured the Purepower power regenerator to power all my front end whether be it digital or analogue pieces. I have tried the PS Audio power plants but found them to be too āsoftā.
Last night, I swapped out the Purepower for a PS Audio P5 I had lying around. I think I am now on track and can start to settle the speakers in terms of positioning and placement and tuning. What a relief.
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Excellent. I found with my system it was primarily grounding.
Glad you are not still pulling your hair out!
M
The Fenestria look very interesting speakers Giorgio, I just watched a short film discussing them. Great system you have.
Everyone in my neck of the woods uses the PS Audio P10. I am the only odd man out with preference for the Purepower. Purepower has a reputation & I dread the day when they finally break down & I will need to find replacement. I have 2 units - one for digital & one for analogue. So with the new revelation, I have only an old PS Audio P5 which is doing power supply to turntables duty prior. Now, both digital & analogue will have to plugged into the PS Audio while the Purepower takes over turntable motor power supply duties.
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The other thing to remember you have such a highly resolving system ā¦ anything just anything that is not spot on will be resolvedā¦ as for music well poorly recorded material will just be conveyed as thatā¦ I am so glad you have solved your issueā¦ ps there are lots of fantastic recordings so you should be very happyā¦keep wellā¦
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