AUDIO Verstärker und DACs (Vorschau)

40 Loudspeakers Floorstanders
gentle adaptations. Two other jumpers for
the mid and high range levels complete
the setting options, but ought to be used
way more rarely than the bass adjustment:
in its neutral setting the speaker sounds
so incredibly harmonious that only dramatic
acoustical problems such as an extremely
sound-reflecting room might give
point to an intervention – which always
has an impact on the tonality as well.
The Stella’s superb tonal harmony
doesn’t come by chance, for in the middle
and high range the material battle continues
on behalf of an extremely lowdistortion
and linear reproduction. The
two 6.5“ midrange drivers show the same
diaphragm construction as the woofer:
Focal’s typical “W“-compound is a sandwich
made of a special rigid foam of German
production and laminated on both
sides with a thin layer of fibreglass tissue.
The mottled grey colour is purely cosmetic
and sprayed on, thus has nothing to
do with the actual “W“ material that the
French attribute a hitherto unbeatable
ratio of lightness, rigidity and internal
damping. The grey cones are brought to
life by a drive which is in fact too pretty
to be stashed away and undoubtedly
made a second career in the high-end car
sound sector for this reason: in the “Power
Flower“ it’s not a single large magnet
ring that surrounds the voice coil, but a
group of six slightly smaller rings. The
result looks like a blossom, yet exerts an
adamant control over the diaphragm and
at the same time provides for an optimal
voice coil ventilation.
Another close-to-classic by Focal is their
tweeter with its inverse dome of pure beryllium,
which has been completely
reworked for the latest Utopia series and
now features an even higher (and therefore
noncritical) natural resonant frequency,
a better efficiency and an even higher
power handling. Thus it fits seamlessly
into a three-way speaker which will grant
itself not even the tiniest distortions in any
frequency range and leave the virtuous
path of absolute linearity only for minimal
swerves owed to the final tuning by ear.
The HF range, which shows a slight boost
above circa 6 kHz in the neutral position,
is one of those metrologically barely discernible
oddities – but it is tonally inconspicuous,
as the speaker has been tuned
to a very smooth general dropoff.
The cabinet, otherwise acoustically
dead like a piece of rock, may also contribute
a tadbit to the overall sound: the
wedge-shaped spaces between the midand
highrange enclosures act as little horns
on those sound portions deflected on their
front edges, which radiate backward a
focused dose of highs and mids – interestingly
right in the frequency range below
the treble step. This hinges the sound a
bit more on the texture of the rear wall,
but gives the sound of this loudspeaker a
certain X factor, a touch more plasticity
and depth than what may be present on
the recording. It’s those minimal deviations
from the rigid factual line which set a studio
monitor, whose sole purpose is establishing
the truth, apart from a hifi speaker
which, besides the truth, is also committed
to the pleasure.
Focal also makes excellent studio monitors,
hence masters both genres that
eventually join in the Stella: upon sliding
several small foam pieces into the enclosure
spaces at the right points and selecting
a minimally different bass tuning, the
sensual hifi speaker will mutate into a mas-
One wish: The electromagnet
supplies woul look nicer with all
connections one one side...
...and a less exposed placement
of the connector on the loudspeaker
side.