AUDIO Verstärker und DACs (Vorschau)

38 Loudspeakers Floorstanders
Author: Bernhard Rietschel
It’s wellnigh a law of nature that ultimate
speakers must be big, heavy and
expensive. Nothing has changed here
during the past decade, despite an impressive
miniaturisation in almost all technological
sectors. For instance, entire
music libraries in studio mastering quality
fit easily into a shirt pocket, world-class
players can be carried away with one hand
and powerful amplifiers – see Devialet or
Linn – hang flat on the wall as design
objects. But to set 100 cubic metres of air
in motion with triple-digit sound pressure
levels at the end of the audiophile food
chain, you’ll need appropriate cone surfaces
(big) and strong drives (heavy) plus
Tough Blossom: The Power Flower
drive system exerts merciless
control on Focals own W Sandwich
cone – which in itself is almost
completely resonance free.
custom-designed, acoustically inert cabinets
(even bigger and heavier). At the
interface between electronics and acoustics
nothing’s for free, and this will also
hold true in another ten years.
But just how much has happened here
under technologial aspects, too, is exemplified
by a comparison of two Focal Utopia
models: the Grande Utopia BE from
2003 and the Stella Utopia EM from the
latest fourth Utopia generation. Pricewise
they compare rather exactly, but for round
about 60,000 EUR you got the top-of-theline
model then, whereas now this budget
will take you only to the second largest
speaker. At 130,000 EUR the Grande has
now wafted away into yet another sphere;
however, the reason for this price increase
is neither greed nor inflation, but above
all the enormous efforts the designers
have put into this whopping loudspeaker
that was introduced in 2009. The Stella
has inherited a good deal of it, and so the
suspicion that Focal might en passant
have doubled their prices, quickly gives
way to the enthusiasm for a loudspeaker
which makes its ancestor look downright
outdated in every respect – with regard
to technology, measurements, sound and
practical properties.
I’m not writing this out of a vague assumption,
but after thousands of listening
hours with the old Grande. A loudspeaker
which had been dominating our listening
room as reference speaker for years – not
truly loved by anyone, yet needed by each
of us, because with it even the tiniest of
differences, e.g. between top-notch digital
players, could be carved out with enormous
clarity and precision.
Even in large rooms the new Stella can
hardly be overlooked, although it’s slightly
smaller and lighter than the old Utopia.
„Slightly“ means that the Stella weighs
about 100 pounds less, but still puts 165
kg per piece on the casters equipped as
Rare sight: Behind the red ring hides an electromagnetic coil energized by DC
fed through the second pair of connectors (on the right side of the basket). The
acceleration possible with this drive is unequalled.