Demo #2 Focal Stella Utopia EVO, Gryphon Essence pre & mono power amplifiers - rec’d with Shure MV88
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- Опубліковано 19 бер 2022
- A mix of short pieces of different tracks. Please compare to my other video using iPhone built-in microphone.
Source component is Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC. Streaming Tidal via Roon Nucleus. Full loom of Triode Wire Labs cables.
![McIntosh MC1.25KW | FOCAL Scala UTOPIA Evo | Holly Cole - Hum Drum Blues [4Kᵁᴴᴰ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wVF4RiX2Co0/mqdefault.jpg)
Simply awesome. Great set up and great taste and class also for the whole environment.
Thank you Alberto
What a lovely sound. Focal always been my favourite speakers. I gotta move up the utopia line
wow... i can hear everything .. very natural sounding speakers system
😂
Magnifique système, je suis jaloux, profitez en bien.. ❤❤👍👍
Always very impressive Rob!
Thanks for the videos man.
Amazing sound and setup. Beautiful room. Subbed to hear more. Ty.
Thanks. Any suggestions on what you’d like to hear?
@@robsaudiophilejourney try Hugh Masekala, Coal Train. Great song, incredible range and dynamics.
This looks just fantastic , I’m so jealous !
Thanks for the compliment!
Wow, that’s so nice!!
That's a very resolving system there
very good synergy beautiful room ,me like alot ....
Focal UE is the best sounding speaker in the world! It outperforms even the most expensive ones.
I worked in a high-end dealership for almost a decade and it was there I first discovered the special synergy between Focal & Gryphon.
I remember quite vividly: it was the original Diablo integrated, first with a s/h pair of Alto Utopias and then with the Diablo standmounts which had just been newly released. Focals are quite amp dependent and I never found a better match than Gryphon, likewise Gryphon speakers are good no doubt, but the best Focals seem to add a further dimension.
All the best, thx for posting 👍
Thanks for chiming in Bill. Any further recommendations based on your experience?
It's all depends on many factors, but did you get the best results will lots of toe in or none at all? How about distances to the rear and side walls?
My best results were with Scala Utopias & Diablos in relatively near field listening positions, sitting 3-4m back, about 2-3 feet from the rear wall but with plenty of space on the sides. Looking at your room I would be tempted to push them back quite a bit closer to that wall and give them a little toe-in, not too much. Of course every room is different, so you never know.
Even with quite big Focals I always ended up thinking of them almost as a pair of really good headphones with the sound surrounding you rather than sitting in front of you.
It's also worth mentioning that we were the first dealer in the UK to get Grand Utopias, and we could never get them right no matter where we put them or whatever amp brand we matched them with. So, in other words, don't be tempted to 'upgrade'!
I'm sure the Grands can sound great but they are very very tough to get right. If I was picking from the Focal range it would be your Stellas or Scalas (and admittedly I've never heard yours in person).
(P.s. If you search for Grand Utopias/The Music Room you'll find a short video I made of them with Burmester electronics.)
👍👍
@@billarmstrong5568 Thanks Bill. I saw your video of the Grand Utopia, can imagine it’s hard to get them right. And a mammoth expedition to deliver and install!
My front baffles are currently 2.6m away from the rear wall.
My right side wall is 3 meters away: thin single pane glass in folding doors (I do have thick curtains there). The left wall starts at the front wall and is only 2.7 meters long, then it opens to a 5 by 5 meter kitchen. I suspect the lack of close-enough side walls is the reason I’m not really getting that intimate, immersive, three dimensional sound. It all plays in front of me; vocals and instruments lined up along the front wall with not much difference in depth. Any ideas?
And in your experience, what’s usually the optimal distance from tweeter tweeter?
Hi Rob. My experience was that it isn't so much about the side walls as it is about giving them a little bit of re-enforcement from the wall behind. . .
So first thing I would try with your set up is...
- push them back as far as your comfortable with, sit quite a bit closer to them than instinctively might make sense, & finally toe them in so they're pointing about a foot outside of your head...
Worth a go😉👍
@@billarmstrong5568 Thanks again, speaker baffles are now 1.8 meters from the front wall (was 2.7 meters). I’m getting fuller sound, especially in the lower midrange and bass.
My listening spot remains at 3.2 meters away, with tweeter to ear about 3.8 meters. Can’t get much closer as I have to fit a living room seating area.
More toe in gives me more intensity and more details, especially in the high frequencies. But at the expense of soundstage width and openness. I settled for a little less toe in, aimed to pass 50cm besides my ears.
Any comments on distance between speakers? Tweeters are now 3 meters apart.
I love the aesthetics... neutral tones, calming and for god sake no rats nest of cables. Everything is neat and intentionally placed. Exactly how my listening room is set up! Also the sound is fantastic 😁.
Thank you. I’ve moved them closer to the front wall. Front baffles are now 1.8m into the room vs. 2.7m previously. Sound is much fuller. Will record another demo soon.
@@robsaudiophilejourney My Scansonic MB6B are designed to be within 11" from the rear wall. I haven't tried them that close yet
Imagine buying this and you actually just listen to mp3 files from your childhood
I'll cry
Id do that
MV88 GOOD Quality. Amazing..
Amazing
I am in LUST!!
I like the low end I am hearing in some songs
Life. Accomplished.
sweeeeeeeet!
magnifico.
Thank you for the compliment Gady
Beautiful room and perfect speaker. Thank you for the share!
I want my Utopia one day ☝️😁
(From France)
Bonjour Remy! Thanks for the compliment. I'm sure one day you will own Utopia (if you're on a budget, wait for a good second pair to come to market).
@@robsaudiophilejourney just the Diablo will be enough for me... Your videos are motivation to me.
See you for the next 🙂
sounds really good. You even notice the high quality when you hear the recording on your cell phone! unbelievable how good the speakers must sound in real life. Congrats!
one question regarding your room: is it acoustically optimized? are the walls specially insulated or are the walls pure concrete? Thanks BR from Germany
Edit: At least in the recording you don't hear any negative room modes (e.g. disturbances in the bass range). What are your experiences with room acoustics?
Hi Sam, thanks for the compliments. All walls are solid concrete. More about the room and treatment here: ua-cam.com/video/WojMNTSMe8s/v-deo.html
@@robsaudiophilejourney I see, thanks I will watch that video
All Jays favorite test tracks…
Those music in demo #2 sound much better than the one in #1. So the muffle I heard may be because of the music itself
Omg I want to hear this in person. Looooove the gryphon essence line. The imaging is amazing but the speed is just right where it’s the proper speed for all music. What is the dac? If using the gryphon dac do you find the decays of hoghs to be too wet and liquidy?
DAC is the Mola Mola Tambaqui. Very happy with that unit and no issues with the decay.
My living/listening room is large and I don't have much acoustic treatment. So the reverberation time (RT60) is quite long. May give a bit of a hollow, echo-y sound, reminiscent of a large hall rather than an intimate, padded room.
@@robsaudiophilejourney yes I noticed the room and expected the hall kind of sound before the music started. I was simply saying that the gryphon dac module in particular has a liquid and wet sound to it especially in the highs.
you are listening through youtube, How can you comment on imaging,timing etc, you are a hifi salesman dream CUSTOMER,and Yes i do own a decent hifi.
@@geoffwalmsley3066 I think you misread what I was saying. I have experience with these systems personally and was talking about what I’ve heard in real life not over UA-cam.
@@robsaudiophilejourneyGreat choice, Tambaqui plus Focals is also my dream system though I’ll only be able to afford the Scalas used.
I want to hear some electronic music through these bad bois!! Badass system! Are you using any subs with this system? O hell yeah 4 min In and you bust out some electronic music love it
You know even through the iphone that it's a high end system. So who really believes that diminishing returns sets in early. You still get what you pay for.
Dream Setup.. would love to listen to it. (Sopra 3, Boulder over here)
Great choice, enjoy. I had the Sopra No 2's before this.
@@robsaudiophilejourney what is the reason you went even bigger than the scala EVO? Have you listed to both?
I have a big room to fill. The Stella is in another league compared to Scala. 85kg vs. 174kg. I’ve heard both.
@@robsaudiophilejourney i can only imagine. Whats your take in Sopra 3 vs Scala EVO?
@@robsaudiophilejourney how big in sqm is your listening space?
Nice ISO Acoustics Gaia Titan’s
Thanks, these are the Rheas by the way
are these better than goldmund or Nola grand reference with ribbons and alnico midranges?
At this point it’s all personal preference.
it is very tempting to tickle your foot on the left...😁/ These are so-called "forever - speakers", the other stuff is interchangeable (maybe something from "Kondo" for a change, since it looks like you got a few bucks more to spend🤑), tasteful decor, sound ?... you know best(is probably a little better than what we hear from UA-cam), I'm jealous (and am happy for you) - long live high end❣
Haha, yes I didn't check properly and it ended up in the video! My famous UA-cam foot. Thanks for the wishes.
Awesome 😍
Name of the first song please?
ua-cam.com/video/v40DPWip3Wg/v-deo.html
Please what is those grey boxes that are on the speakers cable? Thank you :)
Those are power supplies for the electro magnetic woofers
@@robsaudiophilejourney Thank you! 😊
Hmm, to me it sounds like this would benefit greatly from room correction. Some good systems are the MEN-220 by McIntosh and the Wavelet by Legacy Audio. Your room seems to be producing some resonances around the 300-2000 hz region.
Thanks. I did try DSP in Roon but I could hear music getting distorted. Piano for instance. Is what you mentioned very different from Roon DSP?
@@robsaudiophilejourney Yes for sure. A proper DSP room correction system will measure output from the speakers at different points and correct for it both in the time domain and the frequency domain. For example, the Wavelet DSP from Legacy Audio corrects a moving average of samples over a 40 millisecond period to account for secondary reflections in the room in the time domain, so it is much more than a simple room correction equalizer.
Simpler room correction systems like Paradigm's ARC system will have the user place a measurement microphone at the listening position and play a series of test tones, then they'll measure the output from that microphone and create an "anti-EQ" to cancel out the peaks and dips introduced by the room's geometry. The issue with a system like this is that it only really works for one listening position and is more of a band aid to the problem posed by the room rather than a holistic improvement.
If you want the real deal, you'll need a more advanced system, and the only two that I know of which exist are the McIntosh MEN-220, which is a box you put into your signal chain in between either the preamp and the power amplifiers, or the Wavelet DSP which also functions as a DAC and Preamp itself. Both of these systems are very powerful, the MEN-220 uses the proprietary Steinway-Lyngdorf room correction system (since McIntosh owns Steinway-Lyngdorf), the same system used on the best home theater systems in the world, but I can't describe how it works because they won't tell anyone. The Wavelet DSP on the other hand uses Böhmer room correction method. If you really don't want to change your preamp I'd go with the McIntosh system, beware of it's bad owner's manual though, you'll have to look on forums to really know how to set it up properly. However, from what I've read the Wavelet is a fundamentally better system as far as performance is concerned, and it doubles as multiple components thus represents a better value. On top of all of this, the Wavelet takes a digital signal input (though it can take an analogue one as well) so it can do all of the DSP on the original digital data itself, whereas the MEN-220 only takes in an analogue signal and thus must convert it to a digital signal, perform the processing, and then convert it back into an analogue signal, so that means you must have more components for a similar price and I'd imagine the quality of the analogue output might not be quite as good as what's on the Wavelet.
Anyways, I know that's a big info dump but I hope this helps.
wow... i really want your ears to hear "room resonances" in a room on youtube... played back on a computer or tablet or even better...a cell phone... kudos / Poor Rob, I already feel sorry for him when he realizes that 80% of the frequencies in his room simply cancel out, because they resonate
@@thenorthcrown2144 It is true, it could be the mic's frequency response, but I was led to believe what I do when I looked at how relatively untreated the room was. Resonances can happen at many frequencies, it all depends on the listening position and what the room is like. Personally I saw a lot of bare walls, no bass traps, hardwood flooring that wasn't covered up, etc. With systems as high end as these you have to make sure your listening environment is acoustically damped, or you have to compensate for it not being ideally damped with DSP. Ideally you'd have both. I just wanted to help a guy out, make sure their very, very expensive system could live up to its full potential.
Thanks for the 'info dump', very informative. McIntosh has a good dealer here, so I may see if an in-home demo is an option (although I'm not fond of the back and forth conversion). No representation here for Legacy Audio to try the Wavelet II DSP :(
Definitely hear some reverberation, especially when you end the songs. Have you done REW measurements? It would be interesting to see them if you have. It might not be a problem and might make the music seem more lively, hard to tell as a UA-cam quarterback. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds amazing, just trying to see if there is another couple of percent for improvement.
Yes, I did measurements. RT60 is around 950ms. Around 400-600 would be ideal. But hard to achieve unless I cover my living room with 6 inch thick absorbers.
Understand. Still sounds great!
@@robsaudiophilejourney just for your information, my system was measured with 500ms in my 65 square meter living room. I have them reduced from 600ms, by deploying GIK absorption panels around
Jay's Audio Lab playlist?
I did discover a lot of these songs by following Jay, yes!
Hello, what is the name of the song in 3:45?
Balbala - Yahel Sherman
Name of the 4th song please?
Get Lucky by Daft Punk
W domu
RICH
They have to be that far into the room?
Front baffles used to be 2.7m / 9' into the room. Now 1.7m / 5.5'. But generally, yes, your speakers need to be at least 1.5m / 5' away from any (side) wall.
Really great sound ..very nice choice of music.
Unfortunatelly interraptions of audio tracks and pauses between them are bit of annoying.
Yeah, I want to play many different tracks. If I let them all play in full, the video would be an hour long.
you floor vibrating 😃😃😃
Sounds amazing, how can I recreate this with a $2000 budget lol 😅.
You can’t 😁
Schönes Bassfundament mp Sound Angel munich
!
Good but better with Najm’s
I don't frequent making comments on other's UA-cam videos but it seems you are requesting opinions? My apologies in advance if my opinions seem too harsh. It is not meant as an attack but merely a brutally honest opinion based on a UA-cam video. This last part is important as I suspect (or hope) your system might sound much better in person.
In any event, my immediate reaction would be how bright and/or digital the sound is. In other words, it is the opposite of warm and organic which is the sonic signature I favor. It doesn't help that many of the recordings used are typical audiophile variety meaning that they are borderline over-processed or hyped up for effect.
The room appears to be part of the problem. There is too much slap echo. Too reflective. It sounds like an echo chamber (ok not quite, but almost)
Best regards and very sorry for my less than enthusiastic comments. They are meant as constructive criticism.
Thank you. I asked for opinions so I should be able to deal with constructive criticism. You're right about the echo. It's a living room and I'm trying to get the best sound without installing a dozen 6" thick absorbers around the room.
The bright and digital part is harder to recognise. Here it's not bright or harsh. I did play loud when recording this so maybe I "overloaded" the room a bit. Will try a next video at lower SPL.
BTW, do you have any suggestions for tracks to play? Ones that are not overly processed?
Osel
pawel on r
Its good to have money. I see you happy feet lol.
Very good, a beautiful system. However I think it’s too much expensive. I have the triton reference by goldenear and probably have the same level with 1/10 of money. In any case my compliments a beautiful system and and amazing room.
Don’t talk what you do not know. Triton reference is a mediocre speaker in the grand scheme of things. It’s dark, not that detailed and has zero finesse. It is no where near the capability of these speakers.
@@t.j.bennett6454 dear Mr. Bennet, I know very well these loudspeakers...it’s my work. I’m a gentleman and so I want apologize with you, but in the grand scheme of things Triton is well positioned...only that they are too much economic and so the “experts” don’t love them. There are 40 years that I’m studying the Loudspeaker technology, and I’m an engineer. Have a good day.
@@reasilviacostruzioni5883 yes they are priced well but they simply aren’t on the same level. Your credentials mean nothing. Joe Biden is a president but he’s an idiot. At least I stayed examples as to why they’re not in the same level. You gave none. There’s not one experienced person who would do a side by side comparison and say the tritons are in the same level.
74
Pleasure
Pwael
Question from the crowd; is it possible to have a romantic evening with your partner and some music without spending all time adjusting toe in on speakers? 😉😅
Yes it is possible :)
Focals are too bright for me with that beryllium tweeter sounds like knife sharpening
Have you heard this latest generation Utopia EVO?
@@robsaudiophilejourney yes, except for the grande I have heard the whole line up, I also owned the Sopra and Utopia. Very, very detailed sound but found it too bright and fatiguing. I am not saying it is bad all I am saying is that I personally didn’t like them.
@@glichasasha750 For Berryllium Tweeters you have to use copper speaker cables not silver. then it wont be bright. i was using silver now im using copper and it sounds amazing with my focal scala utopia evo lll
The idea that you can assess the audio quality of speakers through a secondary device is laughable!
It's good for a rudimentary impression, although it only works if you've heard similar high end speakers so you can imagine the sound in your head.
Echo
Agreed. I wish the room was slightly smaller and dedicated to listening. Then I’d install absorption panels to reduce echo / RT60 times.
@@robsaudiophilejourney Still super cool, enjoy it the way you want! Live the dream for the rest of us :P
All I hear is echo🤷
That’s the room before treatment. Check out the newer videos ;)
I lost my concentration when I saw his foot.
Too many people can’t make the ends meet to waste time after these toys for millionaires
Why is audiophile music always a low energy depressed woman?
Crappy demo music dude
Yawn worthy music
Thanks for your opinion mate 👍🏻
All these speaker demos are so boring always playing the same song tracks.🤢🤢
That's on purpose, so you can compare with other videos here on UA-cam. You'd have no frame of reference if I'd only played obscure, unknown tracks.
Слушаю и слышу хороший 👍 звук, но нам его цена недоступна, слишком 🤕 дорого💰