TESTED: Focal Grande Utopia EM Loudspeaker
Standing Tall
July 8th, 2009 -- by Roy GregorySource: The Absolute Sound
The result of electromagnetic drive is a woofer with very high sensitivity (97dB for 1W) but very low resonance (24Hz). In other words, the woofer delivers lots of very low bass with very little input power. The price of this performance is the need for the outboard supply that has to be plugged into an AC outlet, along with the sheer weight of the woofer. The EM’s 16" woofer weighs 63 pounds, 48 of which is the electromagnetic coil. --Robert Harley
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SPECS & PRICING
Focal Grande Utopia EM
Type: 4-way floorstanding reflex-loaded loudspeaker
Driver complement: One IAL2 25mm inverted beryllium dome, two 165mm W cone midrange, one 270mm W cone mid/bass, one 400mm W cone electro-magnetic sub-bass
Frequency response: 18Hz–40kHz +/-3dB
Sensitivity: 94dB
Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (3 ohms minimum)
Crossover frequencies: 80Hz, 220Hz, 2.2kHz
Finishes: Black, red, grey, others to order
Dimensions: 25.74" x 79.2" x 34.6"
Weight: 572 lbs. each
Price: $180,000/pair
Audio Plus Services (U.S. distributor)
156 Lawrence Paquette Industrial Drive
Champlain, NY 12919
(800) 633-9352
www.audioplusservices.com
www.focal-fr.com
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Comments
$180 K! Are you sh!tt!n me? You can by a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in MANY cities for less than that these days! If you have this kind of money you aren't reading this online magazine. Besides, what's the 'diminishing returns' factor here? $180 K? Are you kidding me?!?!?!
products like these are made for bragging rights in the industry, and sold to millionaires or companies in the music/film industry. I doubt they had the 3 bedroom 2 bath nuclear family in mind while trying to market them.
$180 K! Are you sh!tt!n me? You can buy a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in MANY cities for less than that these days! If you have this kind of money you aren't reading this online magazine. Besides, what's the 'diminishing returns' factor here? $180 K? Are you kidding me?!?!?!
I agree Budman. Anybody paying 180 grand for a pair of SPEAKERS needs to have their head examined. Are they 180 thousand times better than a pair of $1000 towers? I don't think so. It is just about the bragging rights.
These companies should get serious send these to china to build make them for 5 hundred to a thousand a pair and sell them for 10k I would buy a set for that if they sound as good as they suggest here. Problem is most people would not even pay 10k so they are looking for some fat cats that don't have time to compare speakers, and are willing to pay top dollar for the most expensive just to say they did.
GAWDAM! The politics of envy and denigration have made it to the High End.
If you don't like the speakers, you don't have to buy them. BUT... non-specific
criticism is just evidence of having an Attitude and expecting it to be considered as
a thoughtful Opinion.
we still get cabinets made of veneered / painted MDF! Hmmm.....
Where's the aerotech advances in that?
The price of a Ferrari, yet ... we still get cabinets made of veneered / painted MDF! Hmmm.....
Where's the aerotech advances in that?
... the equation that we mere mortals make does not apply. Yes, you can buy a house for that sort of money. But in some regions in Asia or Africa, people can buy a house for the amount you and I pay for our relatively modest listening setup. So what we consider decent price/performance will be considered as silly by people who earn less than 10% of what we make.
And that works the other way around too. People who are seriously loaded don't buy 180k houses. For people who can actually easily afford to buy these speakers, they may well be worth the money.
If price/performance were a fixed equation, we'd all be listening to music on an iPod with Sennheiser PX200 headphones. And drive a Tata Nano, for that matter.
Doedrums,are you shittin me? One thousand dollars for a pair of towers? What are the diminishing returns on that? I can get great towers at sears for $99.00. A re you shittin me?( Waiting for the next guy to undercut that)
I would agree $180,000 is an offense to decency and intelligence. However, "sellability" is not really the reason why these speakers have been made. Focal has a wide range of products, a many different price points; this is an excercize in discovering what technology the business will have to focus on moving forward, technologies -- as well as materials, construction processes, etc. -- which in the future will be applied to the lower end models which is where the market is at.
This practice isn't any different from many other businesses: for example, car racing (nascar, formula 1, rallies, etc.) is a discipline established to test solutions to be implemented in the standard models for mass production. These are speakers for showrooms, for CES, for magazine reviews. Yes, someone will buy these, my local audio store has them too; however, how many listen to these bad boys -- I wonder -- and end up purchasing a Focal loudspeaker in the 1-4K range?
You get what you pay for. I bought a pair of these speakers for the bedroom to make the compressed MP3s in my iPod sound better. And they did. Well worth it.
I wonder if they make a 7.1 surround system for about 2 million dollars. I really need those for the den.
It really scares me when I read outrage regarding prices of statement products like these. I don't think this or any other company is trying to talk Budman et al out of buying homes. These speakers are obviously a labor of love for the people involved, including the reviewer. For them, selling is not the point... it's the creative process of making the best. Mr. Gregory is doing a great service to all of the people with less than movie star incomes by showing us what is among the Holy Grail products out there & letting look into them a little further if we choose. Please don't speak for me or anyone else about something being too expensive to buy. People pay that kind of money all the time for things... like cars, vacations, weddings, wives and ex-wives. So Budman et al: if you need a raise, don't complain here. Find a new job.
"People pay that kind of money all the time for things... like cars, vacations, weddings, wives and ex-wives. So Budman et al: if you need a raise, don't complain here."
Well said. I have never understood the criticism of expensive audio gear when guys spend that kind of money on fishing boats, cars and everything else (yes, including ex-wives). Does Budman write to Car & Driver, "You can buy 6 Camry's for the price of that Ferrari!"
The magazine is The Absolute Sound - not Speakers for Middle Managers.
I'll double that
I will triple that. If one cannot enjoy the state-of-the art, then please by all means, go listen to a Bose.