Focal Aria

For those of you using Aria 926. How do they act by placement, compared to other conventional speaker designs, distance to back wall? My issue is the need of placing them about 1.7m from back wall, beeing afraid I should aim for one of the bigger models to fill the room properly?

Roomsize 23m2 plus 4m2 in the speaker area.

Mine are around 1.5 meter from the side walls and 2/3 of a meter from the back wall, although the back wall is also a bay window so the top of the speaker is around 2 meters from the window.  I'm not able to put the speakers further into the room even though I would like to if it were possible.  Any closer to the back wall and there is some reinforcement of bass that is undesirable for me.  Further into the room reduces bass slightly but improves sound stage.  Where I have them is optimum for my room. I did find that changing to TQ Black improved the overall frequency response considerably and especially the lower registers.  I would aim to listen in your room - these have huge scale and go very loud indeed without the tonal balance changing and I suspect they would be enough even if my room,  which is just over 3 * 4 meters, were much larger.  Any more bass would be too much.

926s here are about 1m from rear wall and slightly in from side wall. On the Focal manual for the speakers they have a  little maths equation, like a A+B divided by C will = D type thing, for distance from back wall and so forth, think this is all online.

I find the 926s sensitive to begin with regarding room position, toe in, but once settled do come on song quickly. Bass response will go a little strong if placed too close to the rear wall. Once positioned they grow nicely and fill the room accordingly. Enjoy.

Thanks a lot DayJay and Dan for taking your time, indeed very useful information. 

By the way, a s/h Naim Dac is on it's way. Will keep the SN2 for now and use Unitiqute as a source. A lot of great reviews on the Aria series makes me want to try them.

Steinar

1. I found the qute 2 made a decent source into a dac, although it was a Hugo in my case.  However, Mac Mini and Audirvana with a few enhancements is very significantly better, so maybe something to consider in the future.  The resale value of a qute easily pays for the Mac option

Do what you will but here goes the best advise in the world:

You should buy some used speakers and resell for a few years till you get that part right then you can give a good matching amp a try. 

I reckon don't eat the yellow snow is better advice to be fair 

Have decided to put an order on Aria 906 on stands. I my eyes they are pretty in white gloss, my wife agrees. Since I cannot audition the different models at home, 906 will be the lowest risk when it comes to how or what will suit this room best.

No audition made due to travel distance. As worst scenario they will be a temporary speaker that I can use in another location. That said, I suspect they will serve us well in the loft and if needed a sub can be added. They're a low cost speaker that will allow me to learn more about, to me, this new listening location. Time will tell

......... and about electronics. Dac is cancelled, I've decided to keep my NDS/555 as a source. To little money saved, compared to a new source. That's great news to me 

Thanks all! S

Hi there

I have a pair of Focal 926s in a 3.5m x 7m room, with a SuperUniti and a LP12.   They are placed along the short wall, 1m from the back wall and 0.5 from the sides.  Listening position is in the middle of the room.

It had immediate appeal to me right out of the box, and worked reasonably well for me across a whole range of genres (i listen to a broad range of music from rock and pop to electronica and classical).  On first listen, it is very open and airy, amazing detail, great sense of scale and soundstage.  Bass is also more than enough for the room (in some places in the room could get boomy).  However, I will only add that over time it became apparent that it was more on the bright / forward side (in that room, and listening position) and was fatiguing to listen to for long periods of time, to the extent to which recently I was even considering a trade-in.  

That said, I recently swopped out the NAC A5 cables for a pair of TQ Blacks, which for a relatively small outlay evened things out on the high and low end, which really brought all more detail all around (as well as being more listenable for long periods).  I have fallen back in love with them, but for me the sound needed taming.

And of course as you have pointed out they are incredible value for money.  

The NDS with SN2 and the little Focals sounds like a great system to me, and I think you've made a sound decision in keeping the NDS. Once you are used to things you can, as you say, get some better speakers, but you may never feel the need. Let's hope it all works out well. 

Thanks HH..... and Tweed.

The loft is redecorated now and my wife is very pleased with the result. So am I and the wish for a multifunctional room is accomplished, at least as far as I can see. Three boxes in the Fraim, 555 at the bottom, space and then amp, NDS makes this a neat and simple solution, despite the total cost.

Over the last two weeks I have compared loosely available sources as Qute/ Beresford, Qute/ Ndac and then the NDS was unpacked (sale cancelled). There's a huge price difference, but in the end it's worth it. NDS has a wonderful mature voice to it.

906 came in place yesterday, not run in of course, but as tweed was into, they play music beautifully from the first note. No fatiguing sound here so far and I'm pretty sure the room in the basement where Titans where placed, really isn't for music. 906 don't play the deepest bass, but I'm not sure if I need it either, the music is there anyway, so far. 

Tweed1234 posted:

Hi there

I have a pair of Focal 926s in a 3.5m x 7m room, with a SuperUniti and a LP12.   They are placed along the short wall, 1m from the back wall and 0.5 from the sides.  Listening position is in the middle of the room.

It had immediate appeal to me right out of the box, and worked reasonably well for me across a whole range of genres (i listen to a broad range of music from rock and pop to electronica and classical).  On first listen, it is very open and airy, amazing detail, great sense of scale and soundstage.  Bass is also more than enough for the room (in some places in the room could get boomy).  However, I will only add that over time it became apparent that it was more on the bright / forward side (in that room, and listening position) and was fatiguing to listen to for long periods of time, to the extent to which recently I was even considering a trade-in.  

That said, I recently swopped out the NAC A5 cables for a pair of TQ Blacks, which for a relatively small outlay evened things out on the high and low end, which really brought all more detail all around (as well as being more listenable for long periods).  I have fallen back in love with them, but for me the sound needed taming.

And of course as you have pointed out they are incredible value for money.  

 

The superuniti has a softness aura that makes music a bit mellow. I changed from the nac a5 to a kimber and found it gave back a bit of forwardness. So its strange because on my proacs 148 its a warm sound and the nac a5 makes it even warmer. Of course all my gear is chosen for beeing warm, cause I hate forwardness. You look a bit like me, maybe you dont like anything that does not have a soft dome tweeter.