Focal Grande Utopia EM pics
Marba -- Sat, 08/09/2008 - 19:05
The pictures are from Taiwan Show, Elliot enjoy your secret is now out!
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Marba, you take very nice pictures.
I was not allowed to put pictures on the web.
I don't know why if they were going to introduce them in a public forum.
They told us they were going to have a special introduction. It matters not anymore!!!
Did you get to hear the system?
http://www.audioplusservices.com/grandeutopiaemteaser.html
Here is a video on how the speakers are made.
Enjoy
Elliot Goldman wrote:Marba, you take very nice pictures.
I was not allowed to put pictures on the web.
I don't know why if they were going to introduce them in a public forum.
They told us they were going to have a special introduction. It matters not anymore!!!
Did you get to hear the system?
Those pics are not mine, I have found them on one forum. I'll ask one of my friends who have been to the show for thier comments.
Elliot Goldman wrote:Marba,
I thought you were the one that was there. I got to spend a whole morning with a small group of dealers( in Focals sound room) and we had a lot of fun getting them set up and when we were done they sounded amazing.
I took the first customer order for a pair today in RED
Now you'll have some money for AE brand :)
Elliot-
Is the any info available on the Diablo Utopia?
I have information on it.
Please send me an email and I will be happy to send you what I have.
If there are any questions please put them in the note as well and I will be happy to answer or try to answer for you.
I have a pic or two and I think a spec sheet,
elliot [at] frontrowtheater [dot] com
E
I hope that answered your questions and if you need more help let me know.
I did hear them at Focal and they were really good!
Cool loking as well
Does anybody have any ballpark pricing on these badboys?
How about a link to the Diablo or Scala pdf.
You spend some time looking at these and reading about them, that when you go back and look at the BE's they already seem "old school"!
It's crazy how that works.
These things really are amazing! And that's just to look at.
I can't wait to hear them!
Thanks
THe Grand Utopia EM's are 180k a pair in standard colors.
I will be happy to send you the pdf on the Diablo and Scala if you send me an email.
The Diablo's are 12k a pair plus 2k for the stands and the Scala's are 30k a pair.
send email to elliot [at] frontrowtheater [dot] com
Thanks,
You won't be disappointed when you hear them!
The Grands are being shipped in the next week or so and should be available in a few showrooms by Month's end. We are not getting the first pair but either the second or third in the country.
We'll get a chance to hear the Grand Utopia ME next week at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Watch for our on-line report from the show.
The Grand Utopia is being show with some no-holds-barred electronics and sources, including the $150,000 Clearaudio Statement turntable.
Quote:the $150,000 Clearaudio Statement turntable
Wow! This will be a first, too, I believe. At least I've never heard the Statement--only seen it on static display. According to Our Man in Sea Cliff it is one of the three or four most transcendental products he's heard in one-hundred years of listening (well, thirty-five years). Pearson isn't given to that kind of encomium often, so when you add in Don Salzman's rave review I'm inclined to think that this must be some great turntable/tonearm combo. I'll be there to hear it with bells on (and vinyl in my briefcase).
That's exciting they originally did not think they were going to have a pair there. Please post pics of the room and gear!
Finally getting delivery after the long wait on these new speaker products.
I received my Diablo's today and I am told the grands are following shortly.
The Diablo's are killer!
I just got my Imperial Red Grand Utopia EM's on Friday and have been busy since SUnday burning them in. The fit and finish is superb and they are sounding better each day. I will be doing some serious listening over the holiday weekend if I get a chance and if not after the hoilday I am installing apair in S.A.o it may be until 12/4/ when I get the chance to put my ARC gear on them and take them out for a spin. The good news is they will have a few huindred hours on them and be ready to rock
Happy Turkey All
I have had the speakers since Saturday and they are constantly being played and burned in with a variety of music and burn in discs. I can say for sure that they need at least 100 hours before they start to open up. This is a large product with a be tweeter and this is a minimum in my opinion. THis morning the difference is really starting to become clear. They have opened up and there is a much smoother transition and much more dimension and space. The speaker has many controls for tuning and so far I have not really played with any of the elements except to try turning the control on the electromagnet a couple of times and then decided to get the speaker fully burned in before I do anything. I am very excited and have been trying all kinds of music today . The resolving power of the Grands and Tonality are just stunning! They play with such ease and I have moved them around a bit to get them to totally disappear in my room. ( no small feat since this is a huge 600 pound device.)
I will burn them further over the holiday and hopefully try some different electronics and CD devices in the coming few days and after my trip.
Have a happy T-day!
Do NOT turn the EM control off with the amplifiers on. Not ever!
With the EM control off, the subwoofer (the bottom EM one) would electrically have no magnet. The voltage from the amplifier would destroy the woofer's voice coil in a very short duration.
Ian
Be sure to update us on what you think of them after they are dialed-in. The next issue (TAS 190, February cover date, December 22 mail date) includes a technology preview of the Grande Utopia EM in advance of our full review in the June/July issue.
Who is the lucky one doing the review?
They keep getting better everyday!
If I have time going to try the tubes on them this weekend.
I spent about three hours with the speakers this afternoon after having been burning them in for about 80-90 hours so far and this is in my opinion the minimum time needed before trying to do any fine adjustments. THey have really started to extend in all dimensions and produce an enormous sound stage and loose any of the "tightness" to the sound.
I worked my way through my audio favorites from solo voice to opera, from rock , jazz and symphony and had a hard time making it to my thanksgiving plans on time. I have never had a speaker in my home or store that can produce the life like sounds of drums, and bass instruments like the Grand EM. The speaker is effortless, fast and tonally is just plain scary! I have not had the pleasure to play with all the speakers the JV has reviewed but I am familiar with what you have RH and have heard H.P.'s a few months ago and this product is something IMHO that a serious music lover should hear before making a buying decision. This is a statement of sound, fit, finish, packing and total adjustability to tune the speaker for the room it is in.
I am leaving the country for a few days and when I return next week will finalize the set up and try some other electronics, namely tube gear, on it Ijust didn't want my tubes to run 24 hours a gay for a week to burn them in :)
Here's a technology preview of the Grande Utopia EM that will appear in the February issue of TAS.
Focal Grande Utopia EM Technology Preview
Focal’s Grande Utopia EM loudspeaker made its North American debut at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. This $180,000 statement product incorporates several new technologies not seen before in a loudspeaker. Although we have a full review and technical exposition in the works, I’ll preview some of those technologies here.
The “EM” in the model name stands for “electro-magnetic,” a drive principle employed in the woofer. In a conventional moving-coil driver, the audio signal flows through the voice coil, generating a varying magnetic field around the coil that is an analog of the audio signal. This varying magnetic field reacts with the fixed magnetic field generated by the driver’s permanent magnet, causing the voice coil to be pulled back and forth, and with it, the cone.
This approach has limitations in the strength of the fixed magnets and the cone weight—heavier cones go lower but need more power driving them as well as greater magnetic field strength surrounding the voice coil. Focal’s solution is to replace the driver’s fixed magnets with a huge coil that functions as an electro-magnet. That is, current flow through the coil creates the magnetic field against which the voice-coil-generated magnetic field “pushes” and “pulls.” The electro-magnet produces a magnetic field strength in the gap (the area in which the voice coil sits) double that of a conventionally driven woofer. The 16” woofer weighs 63 pounds, 48 of which is the electro-magnetic coil.
The outboard DC power supply plugs into an AC outlet drives the coil. The magnetic field strength can be varied by a rotary switch on the outboard power supply to adjust the amount of bass output to the room (in 2dB steps). The result is a woofer with very high sensitivity (97dB for 1W) but a very low resonance (24Hz). In other words, the woofer delivers lots of very low bass with very little input power.
The Grande Utopia EM is a modular design that provides for angling the sub-enclosures to focus the sound for a particular listening distance and listening height. The EM’s back is reminiscent of an accordion, the folds opening or closing to create a varying arc in the front baffle to optimize the individual driver’s dispersion and time alignment for any listening distance. A crank handle on the rear panel realizes this adjustment, which Focal calls “Focus Time.”
All the drivers except the tweeter use the Focal-developed “W” cone-construction technique. The cone is made from a sandwich of materials including foams and glass coatings of different thicknesses to provide high stiffness and low weight. The foam’s rigidity and damping can be varied to optimize the drive unit for a particular frequency range.
Overall, the Grande Utopia EM is a four-way reflex-loaded system with a 16” woofer, 11” mid-bass driver, two 6.5” midrange units, and a 1” inverted-dome beryllium tweeter. The –3dB point is 18Hz, and the system has a sensitivity of 94dB. Watch for our full review in the June/July issue.
Gentleman, I have broken in the pair I have in the store, and just got back from installing a pair in South America for a client, and in my opinion this is the best speaker I have ever had the priviledge to listen to and work with. The product has many adjustments that aloow for perfect set up in a wide variety of situations and for adjustment for listeners preferances as well.
It has it all! I returned with a representative of the company for they visit EVERY installation of the Grand's, this is required not optional, and he was here yesterday and tottaly went crazy over the sound. He has ewvery pair in N.A. and France and could not believe what was possible with a properly set up and adjusted pair that was fully broken in.
I invite anyone that wants to know what can be accomplished with a dynamic speaker to hear it. As far as the old boss its time for them tomove over cause the new boss is definely here!
Had a listen to them today, at a session hosted by Elliot Goldman in Pompano Beach. My first comment was: "Surround sound without the extra speakers." Students of the art need to hear these speakers.
SundayNiagara
PS: If I could only figure out how to log in.
Thanks Niagara , it was fun!
Glad you enjoyed them as much as I do
Two quick questions for those in the know...
1. In the latest Ads by YG Acoustics, they not only compare/contrast measurements of their speakers against the "top American brand/model" which everyone knows is Wilson, but now also a "top European brand/model"... Does anyone know if they're referring to these Focals or someone else?
2. How are the Focal's woofer driver technology different from traditional Field Coil drivers?
Thanks.
Focall has literature availble on the new Utopia series available at any dealer or in North America @ Audio Plus Services or in Europe at Focal directly.
I don't know the answer to the other questionperhaps you should ask YG .
I would be surprised if they had measured the new Utopias since they are just hitting the market and every pair in the US has been accounted for.
www.audioplusservices.co
www.focal.fr
The Focal EM driver is a modern audiophile-quality Field Coil driver. They use a variable electromagnet powered by an external supply versus a traditional fixed magnet. Field coil drivers had all but disappeared due to complexity & cost but the Focal engineers were intrigued by their advantages: a reduction in distortion & increased efficiency. The EM driver has a sensitivity in excess of 100dB for 2.83V & yet maintains a low resonant frequency of 23.8Hz. And the variable power supply lets the user change the field to alter the character of the bass & the way it interacts with the system & the room.
Ian
Thanks Ian for the assist! I did not know that.
The system is on fire and I am going to try some new gear this week.
I will report back when we change amps and front end
I hope that anyone who loves music gets a chance to hear a properly set up pair of these with some really good electronics in front they are quite simply astounding.
Happy Holidays and good listening to all.
As far as you know, will they be on show at CES ?
Happy holidays to all - may our lives always be filled with music!
Probably but I have no idea if they will have a live display featuring the Grand EM's.
Come on over I would be happy to play them for you :)
You're at the top of my "places-to-go-to-in-Florida' list :) Now I have to figure out when to get to Florida ...
we can talk about it in Vegas. Where are you?
Happy New Year BTW
E
Focal Grande Utopia EM in Stockholm.
Here with BA Labo and Boulder.
And the sound - outstanding.
Thursday Evening Jan. 29th at Front Row Center - High End - Pompano Beach Florida will be a Focal/Krell/dCS/ Nordost event.
We will have the Krell Evo electronics driving the Focal Grand Utopia EM's with Nordost Odin Cables, dCS Scarlatti stack front end and we will have representatives from Krell, dCS and Focal here for that event.
Participants include David Stevens and John QUick from dCS
Brett D'agostino from Krell and perhaps some other guests
Dominic Baker from Focal with Ian McArthur
All are invited to come here an amazing system,
Elliot
I got all the gear in for the show and have set up he Scarlatti Stack, Odin cables, Krell EVO 2 preamps and EVO 900 power amps on the Grand's. I did not think that it could get better than I had heard before but it did. If you are in the area its worth the trip
I'll try to make it Thursday evening , along with DC and DB.
Mark
Hi Mark,
I hope that you guys had some fun and thanks for all the compliments on the system.
Dominic and I had a lot of fun exchanging ideas and may be we will put together a set up instruction for speakers in the future. We are assembling a cd of tests and music to point out the results and maybe we will even make it available.
I have really enjoyed working with such a precision instrument and the new gear from dCS and Krell to make the system really come to life. It just keeps getting better everyday. I guess after eading all the rediculous comments on this forum about how they are bright and do not disappear all that hear them understand just how foolish that is.
We will be doing the V.3 on steroids tonight LOL
Students of the art MUST hear this system at Elliot's store.
Mark
Today, my friend Richard and I spent 3 hours listening to the Grand Utopia IIIs driven by the Krell Evolution 202 Preamp and the Krell Evolution 600 Monoblocks all connected with Cast.
The source was mainly Linn Sondeck LP12 with carbon fibre arm and Linn Arkiv cartridge although at the end we listened to the top of the line Krell CD Player.
I don't know the difference between the Grand Utopia III and the Grand Utopia EM but they sure look the same and there must be a basic similarity in overall sound?
The set-up was in a large dedicated listening room at the Focal dealership with correct sound treatment and positioning of speakers and listening couch.
Richard and I were shocked!
The sound was so far removed from 'the real thing' or even the 'illusion' of the real thing, that we both looked at each other in disbelief?
Every record we played had a 'dense' and 'mid-bass' heaviness without any depth or transparency. The soundstage was also confined to the inner walls of the speakers without any extension beyond. There was no life to the midrange although tonally it was correct and not recessed, but the much-vaunted berrylium tweeters did nothing to aid transparency or treble extension with a decidedly deficient upper-frequency presentation.
I tested the arm/cartridge set-up with 2 tortue discs (Reiner Pines of Rome RCA and Neil Young's Harvest) the Finale of Pines and Alabama on Harvest. Any arm/cartridge misalignment renders these 2 tracks bleedingly unlistenable. The arm/cartridge was reasonably aligned according to this test.
Thinking the Linn may be the culprit, we changed to the Krell CD player only to hear sound so inferior to the turntable, that we believed we had returned to the 1980s?
There was never an illusion of the 'performers' in the room, nor was there any doubt that we were listening to 2 boxes. The bass was deep but instrumentally indefinable (an organ, a drum, a double bass all sounded similar) and when Gary Karr played his double bass down to 32 Hz on Adagio d'Albinoni it sounded less like a double bass than amplified snoring.
It's been a while since Richard and I have listened to State of the Art new equipment, but if this is it?..........we are not even speaking the same language compared to my home system which transmits the recorded information into believable 3 dimensional images of emotional sound.
When I read all the gushing statements and reviews of the Wilsons, MBLs, Magicos, Martin Logans et al, I now seriously doubt that people are hearing the same quality of sound as I am?
I had the same reaction to the EM when I heard them. I suppose you can probably get them to work in some condition, but it was not happening at the dealer showroom.
"
Halcro -- Fri, 03/20/2009 - 00:15
Today, my friend Richard and I spent 3 hours listening to the Grand Utopia IIIs driven by the Krell Evolution 202 Preamp and the Krell Evolution 600 Monoblocks all connected with Cast.
The source was mainly Linn Sondeck LP12 with carbon fibre arm and Linn Arkiv cartridge although at the end we listened to the top of the line Krell CD Player.
I don't know the difference between the Grand Utopia III and the Grand Utopia EM but they sure look the same and there must be a basic similarity in overall sound?
The set-up was in a large dedicated listening room at the Focal dealership with correct sound treatment and positioning of speakers and listening couch.
Richard and I were shocked!
The sound was so far removed from 'the real thing' or even the 'illusion' of the real thing, that we both looked at each other in disbelief?
Every record we played had a 'dense' and 'mid-bass' heaviness without any depth or transparency. The soundstage was also confined to the inner walls of the speakers without any extension beyond. There was no life to the midrange although tonally it was correct and not recessed, but the much-vaunted berrylium tweeters did nothing to aid transparency or treble extension with a decidedly deficient upper-frequency presentation.
I tested the arm/cartridge set-up with 2 tortue discs (Reiner Pines of Rome RCA and Neil Young's Harvest) the Finale of Pines and Alabama on Harvest. Any arm/cartridge misalignment renders these 2 tracks bleedingly unlistenable. The arm/cartridge was reasonably aligned according to this test.
Thinking the Linn may be the culprit, we changed to the Krell CD player only to hear sound so inferior to the turntable, that we believed we had returned to the 1980s?
There was never an illusion of the 'performers' in the room, nor was there any doubt that we were listening to 2 boxes. The bass was deep but instrumentally indefinable (an organ, a drum, a double bass all sounded similar) and when Gary Karr played his double bass down to 32 Hz on Adagio d'Albinoni it sounded less like a double bass than amplified snoring.
It's been a while since Richard and I have listened to State of the Art new equipment, but if this is it?..........we are not even speaking the same language compared to my home system which transmits the recorded information into believable 3 dimensional images of emotional sound.
When I read all the gushing statements and reviews of the Wilsons, MBLs, Magicos, Martin Logans et al, I now seriously doubt that people are hearing the same quality of sound as I am?"
You haven't come close to hearing theses speakers.
"You haven't come close to hearing theses speakers."
Now there's a response that answers all questions?
Let me be the first...............The Emperor has no clothes!
What's on your current SOTA rig? I'm curious
Here are some pictures from last week in Paris.
Tomer
Also of the other family in the High end days in Paris.
Also of the other family in the High end days in Paris.
"You haven't come close to hearing theses speakers."
Now there's a response that answers all questions?
Let me be the first...............The Emperor has no clothes!"
The speakers I heard are NOT what you describe. Time for Elliot to chime in.
We have in-depth review of the Grande Utopia in layout for the next issue of TAS. The issue mails to subscribers on April 28.
Let me guess, It will be a rave. Yawn...