[mresseguie]

Last Friday I was in a city named Xinzhu (previous spelling was Hsinchu, but same pronunciation) visiting friends, visiting a Chinese Medicine doctor, and sneaking in some time at a very nice HiFi shop while my wife got her facial. It was my first time in that shop even though I've passed it twenty times before - just never had extra time before. The owner has had that shop for 21 years. His current list of wares (based on my fallible memory) is Focal, YG Acoustics, ELAC, Magnepan, Aesthetix, Roksan, and one or two French brands of electronics (not Devialet). His main floor showroom has five or six different models of Focal floorstanding speakers, a couple pairs of ELAC floorstanding speakers, one pair of Maggies, and four pairs of bookshelf speakers. The top speakers in that room were the Focal Stella Utopia speakers. I'd heard their little sisters (the Maestro) once before about 6 months ago.

Well, the owner is a chatty guy who loves to listen to music, so we started listening to the Stella Utopias. We mostly listened to classical music, but also some light Jazz, some Sax, a few piano songs, and female vocals. We chatted and listened for over two hours. What an incredible experience. Not once did he try to get me to order a pair. He never once spoke of trying to sell me anything. We just chatted and listened to amazing music.

Toward the end of my visit, I told him about my smallish two-way monitors that I had shipped over to Taiwan (and paid 21% import duty!  ). He immediately told me to bring them in the next time I visited, so he could listen to them. I told him I would be in town again this coming Friday to visit friends, see the doctor, etc. whereupon he told me to definitely return because his newest speakers were processing through customs and would be delivered today or tomorrow. His newest speakers are the Focal Grande Utopias. I'm going to get to listen to these incredible speakers this Friday afternoon. They won't be burned in, of course, but I'm sure I won't mind too much.

After returning home to my place in Taoyuan, I fired up my little 2-channel system and listened to some Eva Cassidy, some Jazz, and some cello music. Damn it, but the music sounds a bit off now. It seems to lack the fullness and definition of the Stellas. My room lacks acoustic treatment, too. Sigh. I should have known this would happen after listening to those speakers for two hours. I'll bet my speakers will sound odd this Friday night, too!

Pictures coming in a minute.

Enjoy music!

Michael

[mresseguie]

Pictures:











The Roksan TT is his 'entry level' TT. His 'good' TT is upstairs. I don't recall the brand.



I shot the picture of the name because I knew I'd forget it the minute I walked out of the store. Well, the shot was horrible, so we'll just have to wait until Friday or Saturday for clarity. The two mono amps are Linear Acoustics amps.

[Phil A]

Damn it, but the music sounds a bit off now. It seems to lack the fullness and definition of the Stellas. My room lacks acoustic treatment, too. Sigh. I should have known this would happen after listening to those speakers for two hours. I'll bet my speakers will sound odd this Friday night, too!

Pictures coming in a minute.

Enjoy music!

Michael

I heard the big ($35k) Focals several years back with Esoteric electronics.  Sounded really good. Yes, acoustical treatments make a huge difference.  At the 2015 Capital Audiofest at the end of August, Resolution Acoustics had two identical rooms fed by the same source.  One room was treated and the other was not.  It was night and day -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO3J2jdIunY 

[DaveC113]

Focals really do best with a well damped room, Boulder Amplifier's listening room is VERY damp and the big Focals they have in there sound great. Most of the time at shows the room is not treated enough to be optimal for them, imo.

[mresseguie]

The big Grande Utopias are set up and slowly burning in. To my surprise the shop's owner disconnected the Utopias and connected my LS/5-R two-way monitors as soon as I walked in the door with them. Wow.

Hopefully, this video will play properly:

Big and Small


Hurumphf! It loaded as a picture. I'll leave it up, and keep trying to get the video to play.

Even though the speakers had been in store for just 4 days, a guy has announced he wishes to purchase them. His 'old' speakers retail for $45k USD. (forgot which ones) Yes, they sounded F@#&ing AMAZING. The sound stage was immense. I closed my eyes and heard a stage that must have been 40 feet from side to side. Incredible.

[srb]

Hopefully, this video will play properly:
Hurumphf! It loaded as a picture. I'll leave it up, and keep trying to get the video to play.

I believe you can only embed photos and other graphic formats, but not videos.  You would need to upload them to YouTube or other video hosting site and post a link to them.

Steve

[FullRangeMan]

Audiophilia is an addiction.
Sure I should have try tubes more
soon to escape this carrousel.

[mresseguie]

Steve,

Thanks for the info. I'll look into Youtube, but I've never done it before. It's only 15 seconds or so. Hardly worth worrying about, I s'pose.

FRM,

This is an addiction, but it sure is a lot of fun. There's no way I'll spend $100,000 USD on anything (other than a house) in my lifetime. I've fantasized spending $13k on a special pair of speakers, but that is not realistic at this point. I wonder what is the max amount I am willing to spend - $5k? $6k? $8k?? I don't know. Until I finish traveling around and I'm ready to settle again, I'm not going to buy any big speakers. [I know you're into FR speakers and low watt tube amps. I may try that some day, too.]

[Rocket]

Hi,

It seems like you already own a pair of Fritz speakers? and you currently use Van Alstine components.  I've found that over the years I've spent far too much money on upgrading components.  I'm now concentrating on better recorded music to stop my upgraditus.

Cheers Rod

[mresseguie]

Hi, Rod.

Yes, I do own a pair of Fritz' LS/5-R two-ways. They're great little speakers, but they have low sensitivity (83.5 dB). I ought to have the AVA 400R (200+W) powering them instead of my Nuprime IDA-8 (100W). I know it's a mismatch, but they (Fritz and Nuprime) are in my flat in Taiwan where the rooms are pretty small, so it works reasonably well though not ideal. I may take the IDA-8 back to the States next March and bring the AVA back to Taiwan next October. I've got lots of time to figure this out.

Other than a strong inclination to upgrade my DAC in Oregon, I'm actually pretty happy with what I have now.