I had the opportunity to borrow a pair of Focus 68 SE monitors from PhilNYC of Sonic Spirits. Besides being a true gentleman who I hold in high regard, he is very good audiophile and Focus speaker dealer.
It is my good fortune to know Phil and my good fortune to have had some time with these speakers.
I like tubes, simple as that, I like the way they sound.
My system is comprised of a VTL ST 85 amp
Mapletree Ultra 4 SE preamp
Empirical Audio Turbo modded Sony 7700 as transport
Channel Islands vda 2 DAC
Stealth audio speaker cables
Stealth audio Varidigg digital cable
Silver Audio appasionatta interconnects
as well as a custom pair of interconnects
and various vibration tweaks and NOS tubes
Power condition is PS Audio Duet for digital.
First off I have heard these speakers before at Phil's place but there is no substitute for home.
Some people have complained that these speakers can be a bit "tipped up" or the tweeter was a little hot.
This I have not found to be true in "my system" Perhaps because we had heard these speakers with solid state equipment or a less than stellar synergistic match. Highs were very refined in my system.
The first day I hooked them up I couldn't stop listening. I love my little Vienna Acoustics Haydn's with the big ass Mundorff cap, they have great tone for sure but what I was hearing now was a real professional speaker, really top flight. A very well made speaker that had extremely high quality components in the crossover and the drivers.
What I heard was a very full rich and satisfying sound, Extremely clean, not analytical , but allowing tremendous detail and air. And this was throughout the entire spectrum. Bass was very detailed and fast. it had layers to it, something my little Vienna's could not do, layers and layers of sound, I loved what I heard.
My Vienna's share the same Scanspeak tweeters although the Focus were higher up the range than mine, they had the similar house sound I really like, very smooth and extended.
The bass driver, I believe an Eton was amazing, this little woofer had to do so much and it did it all so effortlessly.
I think that was what impressed me so much, how effortlessly they delivered so much layered music.
I guess it has to do with the quality construction(first class) all the way, and the great drivers and getting the crossover right. That little speaker delivered music like a big speaker.
We had played with them one night with the VTL and a Modwright preamp for classical music. It was friggin
amazing, the orchestra was in my room it was so real. Frequency extensions of instruments from violins to tympani drums were displayed with such realism and such air you felt you were in the audience, it was a magical night indeed.
This is my first review of any audio equipment, and while I love audio equipment and have learned a bit of the audio lingo,that by no means I know anything about audio, but I have two ears and I use them, and these are my honest impressions after having the speakers for about a month.
Are they perfect, well I have not found anything perfect yet, but they are damn good and they love tubes, tubes lend a warm breathing character to these speakers that I think they like, BTW they like power, my VTL at 85 watts had no problem, but lesser amps couldn't really make them shine, but that holds true for all speakers at this efficiency level.
Now Phil has a pair of 788 Focus two way floorstanders that are truly magical, they take the little guys to a much higher level. Of course these are more expensive than their monitor brothers but they deliver more extension with such finesse and ease and naturalness that they must be heard. At one hearing I was floored!and that was with a tube integrated!
