Focal Electra 1038 BE

[Motorsport]

 

[Motorsport]

Yes, and based on the specs of Focal speakers, it doesn't appear that Focal fudges on bass response either. They don't really claim bass extension that deep for the cabinet size of the speakers. I've just gotten interested in Focal and reading quite a bit. The beryllium tweeters are almost universally praised, from what I've read so far. The new Kanta is getting lots of raves, but the 1038be ii actually is a larger speaker, weighs about 40 pounds more, goes deeper in the bass and is less expensive.

Also the 'W' glass composite sandwich cone is higher end than the flax driver used in the Kanta. To me, the Kanta is a cost-cutting speaker and a downgrade over the Electra.

"Focal explains that it wanted to improve on the performance of the Polyglass drivers it's been using – and improving – since 1985, and bring them closer to the 'W' drivers, so-called because they use a sandwich of two layers of glass fibre with a foam core. 'V' stands for 'verre' – 'glass' in French, and 'W' in French is of course 'double-V'.
Trouble is, the 'double-V' drivers are expensive to make, because their cones can still only be assembled by hand, as was demonstrated to in the Saint-Etienne factory, where I watched painstaking stretching and smoothing of fibre-glass over formers.
Now Focal isn't averse to doing things the hard way: the company has a clean-room facility where an employee in a 'space suit' supervises the moulding and cutting of Beryllium domes for tweeters – the material is ultra-light and extremely, but can be highly toxic when being worked.
However, the flax material enables the kind of mass-production of larger drive-units required to make affordable high-performance speakers.

That simpler, faster production process also makes the Flax drivers much less expensive than the W cones (which will continue in the company's flagship models). Whereas W drivers are almost for five times as expensive as the Polyglass units in Focal's entry-level speakers, the flax-based technology just about halves that price differential, while still delivering mechanical and acoustic properties closer to the high-end drivers than the basic models."

 

[WineOfTheVeins]

Thanks for all the replies, and interesting reads there Motorsport.
All I can say is, having owned these for half a year now, WOW. They are gorgeous inside and out. Tons of bass, mids are on point, and the high's, damn. That Beryllium tweeter really makes a difference. Honestly, the only thing holding these back is the media you are playing.. I have some CDs that really show off what it can do, others, well let's just say I give the recording studio/mastering guys crap when I hear it. I've ran some 192/24 FLAC songs through it, my God. Literally, the only thing holding it back is the source, true hi-fi. I can tell right away if the recording is good or bad, but given a good one, it's absolutely incredible what these are capable of; on the other end, if the recording is garbage and compressed, it is loud, shrill and unpleasant. IMHO they sound better than my friend's B&W Diamonds, which he paid a lot more for.

Everything is built so well. Tight, responsive, beautifully finished.. Very happy with my purchase. I compared the Paradigm lineup, as well as some B&W, and I liked the crispy, 3 dimensional, tight, smooth sound of these the best. France knows how to build a damn speaker..

 

[Ponzio]

Four years in with my 1027Be's and still no desire to upgrade, to the point I haven't demoed any replacements since, unlike some of the other speakers I have in other rooms.

 

[killdozzer]

Four years in with my 1027Be's and still no desire to upgrade, to the point I haven't demoed any replacements since, unlike some of the other speakers I have in other rooms.

What I would call sheer bliss.