You may have thought I was joking when I mentioned needing an "audiophile-grade forklift" to move those Focal Sopras. Now you know better
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Once you have enough time listening to them, please tell us what you think. It would be interesting to know how well you think the Sopra 2s work in your room.
Photos too, please.
Here are my impressions and how I perceive them in my room.
Disclaimer: I love the Focal house sound, so YMMV.
I love the utopia headphones I have. To me they tend to be on the bright side of neutral, but I prefer that sound, V shaped signature. I feel the Sopra line sounds the same, maybe slightly lacking in the lower end, but the clarity is out of this world. I wouldn’t describe the Sopra as anything other than accurate. They are precise and replay what I feel you would expect to hear in person. Many times people describe an “airiness” to speaker sound. I’ve seen some demos on YT of various speakers and you can distinctly hear a more open and airy sound. I personally do not like that signature and am happy that to my ears these do not exhibit that sound. They sound snappy and in control. When I say snappy I mean I feel like the notes are played quickly without a lot of resonance. Think of yelling in a large room with wood walls vs thick foam on all the walls. Airiness to me sounds echoey.
My number one improvement that I notice, is how much more integrated they are when paired with my large subs. I felt before when I cranked up some music, the No1 had trouble keeping up with the subs. Now my issue is that the center doesn’t keep up with the No2s. I haven’t ran ARC Genesis yet, which will smooth these levels out more and produce a more equal level from everything. I don’t think these are too large for my 360ish sqft room. I’ve only taken these are far as -25db on my AVM70 and it’s very loud (subs on -6db
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The overall listening experience is exactly what I was looking for though. Reading reviews on these, many people say they are too bright and they pair with specific amps, or tube amps to mellow the highs out, and I can see that as a realistic criticism. A few times I found myself thinking something in a particular song is overly bright sounding, and the V shape is what suits my ears.
I’m thrilled to be likely near the end of my speaker journey, as these were at the top of my budget (if the wife knew how much they were, or any of my gear for that matter, I’d probably be single). I only need to replace my rear surrounds at some point. And I may decide to play with the subs and towers swapping positions. I’ve had them both ways but can’t decide which I prefer.
Photos coming next
