Focal speaker for home theater?

[pete085]

Like mentioned in the subwoofer thread I plan to get rid of my Senheiser soundbar in summer to get a set with real speakers. Had a conversation with a buddy yesterday who has to downsize his set up due to his wife and he wants to sell trade in my senheiser soundbar for some focal chorus 714 floor standing speakers and his onkyo tx nr5100 avr.

Focal seems to be famous brand in the music listening community but how good are these speakers for home theater usage and gaming only?

And is the onkyo avr any good.

I would be pleased hearing a few opinions from the more epxerienced folks.

In general I would not mind getting a avr and some speakers now already. I just need to get a center channel speaker and subwoofer later.

I have not made a decision as of now. I told my pal that i will think about it.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I would do that deal with your buddy. Good speakers are good speakers no matter what they’re playing. Games and movies have music and all kinds of cool sounds, and the speakers don’t care. They just do the job. IMO, Ht or music and games benefit from better speakers. Some people’s opinion is that with ht you can just use whatever. But to me that’s ridiculous.
The AVR is definitely entry level, but should work nicely for a long time, until you feel like it’s time for an upgrade.

 

[pete085]

Thanks for sharing your opinion. I also think the offer with the focal chorus is good. I will take it.

I also think that the AVR should do the trick. Before getting the offer with Focal I planned to build my future HT system around the Denon X 3800.

But the Onkyo should work fine for a 2.0 and then later a 3.1 system.

 

[Bodywonderful]

William already said it best.
A great sounding speaker will produce great sound no matter what type of activity. You won't regret the Focal speakers.

 

[pete085]

@Bodywonderful Thanks for sharing your impressions as well.

I have already talked to me buddy yesterday. We will seal the deal next weekend.

@all At some point in the future I am going to ad a center channel speaker and a subwoofer to set up.

Is it a must to get a center channel speaker of the chorus line to have the best experience or would anothe focal center speaker that is a bit more modern do the trick as well?

If not I will try to get one of the Chorus CC 700 centers used.

 

[Bodywonderful]

In the ideal world you have all speakers match. That eliminates chance that they will have audible and annoying differences. That being said, I have had totally different brand center channels and have been happy, MOSTLY (probably blind luck). The time when it was not good was when I did the first upgrade of my tower speakers. The sensitivity of the new towers and output destroyed my poor old and small center. That was before room correction software which would have lessoned the deficiency. You don't know what you don't experience.
My LCR are from the same product line now, and it really is audible bliss. Surround music tracks also benefit from matching speakers, plus it looks better.
Worst case, try to match specs and driver materials as best you can and be happy.

 

[TankTop5]

I used Focal Chorus speakers in a 2 channel home theater for years and it was fantastic. Focals image great with a pretty wide sweet spot or fantom center as it’s generally called. I didn’t see your post about subs but they will definitely benefit from a sub. I ran a SVS PB1000 with Chorus 704’s and it was great in a medium sized living room. The Chorus are also great looking solid cabinets that last years. My only caution is not to run them too loud as the tweeter is very delicate but luckily Focul has a warehouse in the States (probably in Europe as well) with plenty of replacement parts, I think the tweeters are about $100 and you can replace them in about 5 minutes.