[alwayslearning]

Focus Audio speakers out of Canada are not well known, nor widely distributed.  As an owner, I am very happy with my fs688 monitors, and now pleased with their customer service.

I destroyed one woofer in my Focus Audio fs688's through an intergalactic anomaly (obviously having nothing to do with my carelessness).  I emailed Focus Audio (http://www.focusaudio.com) Within one day I received a response from Roger.  This led to a series of emails and a phone call, all communicated quickly and clearly.  The culmination was my getting a replacement woofer from knowledgeable and patient Roger.

In these days of big- ticket stores, inaccessible manufacturers, and reduced staffs at all levels, the exceptional customer service from Roger at Focus Audio was extraordinary. 

I write this to assure any potential Focus Audio customers that this is one manufacturer who is responsive and professional. Additionally, they build great sounding products!  (Note- I am in no way connected to FA other than as a satisfied customer.)

[Construct]

Looks like their flagship speakers use scan-speak and possibly eton drivers.

[PhilNYC]

The tweeters are scanspeak...the woofers are manufactured by Eton, but are custom designed by Focus...

(disclosure: I'm a Focus Audio dealer)...

[Fife12]

The Master 2.5 is ridicoulously good!

[lonewolfny42]

The Focus Master IS a very nice speaker....as are their many other speakers.

Thanks to Phil I got to hear most of them....

[Construct]

The Focus Master IS a very nice speaker....as are their many other speakers.

Thanks to Phil I got to hear most of them....

Stella Artois and REALLY big reference speakers...just the way it should be! 
BTW:  the dimensions of the woofers and materials were a dead giveaway that Eton probably made them.  I would love to hear those!!!

[lonewolfny42]

Yep....good beer as well...  

[alwayslearning]

It's odd to me that Focus Audio speakers seem to be so obscure.  They're seldom mentioned in reviews & discussions, and they have no U.S. dealer on the West Coast as far as I can tell.

On the other hand, Heineken beer is well known, highly recognized, widely distributed and creates many, many, many lively discussions...

[Construct]

On the other hand, Heineken beer is well known, highly recognized, widely distributed and creates many, many, many lively discussions...

Heineken has worldwide distribution, TV commercials and anyone can afford it. 

[JLM]

Don't know Focus Audio, but I like obsure brands because maybe they're hungry and investing in the product versus the advertizing.

[lonewolfny42]

It's odd to me that Focus Audio speakers seem to be so obscure.  They're seldom mentioned in reviews & discussions, and they have no U.S. dealer on the West Coast as far as I can tell.

Don't know Focus Audio, but I like obsure brands because maybe they're hungry and investing in the product versus the advertizing.

Focus Audio has been around since 1993....so their not "new"....

Here's their website...for more info. And they have a dealer in CA.

http://www.focusaudio.com/index1.htm

[Danny Richie]

Yeah, those guys have been around for quite a while. They used to make some nice sounding speakers.

I can remember when a group of us hit all the rooms at CES and kept track of the good ones. I think we could count all the good ones on our fingers so there weren't a lot for them. Focus Audio showed well though and typically made it into our top 10.

Friends of mine brought me a 68 (or 688) model that I measured and tested. It wasn't perfect, but not bade either. I did some tweaks to the network and that same group of friends cloned it a few times. They then brought me one of the clones with an Usher 9950 tweeter and I designed them a network for it too.

Here is an old pic of a pair of them:



I really liked the little woofer and ordered 250 of them that I used with a ribbon tweeter in my old Criterion and Deluceo kits. I sold those until I ran out of the woofers. You can see them in my archived models page. http://www.gr-research.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=13

And it all started with that little Focus Audio speaker.... That was a pretty good one.

I am quite puzzled with their new stuff though. Multiple tweeters will just cause cancellation between the two of them and destroy the response on the top end.    Moving the tweeter a long way from the mid is not a good idea either. I wonder if they lost their past engineer or something.

[PhilNYC]

They only have two models with the double tweeters (the Master 2 and Master 3)...and for whatever reason, that design has not proven to be problematic for the quality of sound produced by those speakers.  The designer, Kam Leung, continues to be the lead engineer of the company...

[Danny Richie]

They only have two models with the double tweeters (the Master 2 and Master 3)...and for whatever reason, that design has not proven to be problematic for the quality of sound produced by those speakers.  The designer, Kam Leung, continues to be the lead engineer of the company...

If they are covering the same range then the cancellation will be pretty extreme.

I took measurements on it one time and documented the effects. I posted them on the forum at AV123 because they were talking about stacking mini-monitors up on top of each other. So I did it (tweeter to tweeter) and took measurements so that they could see the effects. They deleted all of their own forum posts over there so I guess it is long gone.

I guess I could find the measurements and re-post them somewhere some time if anyone is interested.

[BrianP]

"If they are covering the same range then the cancellation will be pretty extreme."

Maybe they're not covering the same range, though. Dynaudio has some big models with two tweeters, but one of them is used as a supertweeter, rolling in above 12kHz or so

[Danny Richie]

Maybe they're not covering the same range, though. Dynaudio has some big models with two tweeters, but one of them is used as a supertweeter, rolling in above 12kHz or so

Yeah, I knew Dynaudio did that. Focus Audio could be doing that as well.

Seams pretty odd to use that type of tweeter as a super tweeter though. It is the same tweeter in both locations, and that's a great tweeter perfectly capable of covering a wide range. The second one will have a range no different from the first. 

For whatever it is worth, I also measured and tested some Axiom speakers that were sent to me by the Skiing Ninja. He was considering offering a crossover upgrade for them. He dropped the idea all together though as there was just no fixing the cancellation of the two tweeters. Boy was the vertical off axis response on those speakers a mess.