Thanks for the response. I think they would fit well for me. I’m building a new house but it’s not huge. The only reason I was wondering about room size is that the main floor is going to open; minimalist modern. The reality is that the listening position will be well within range. I listen to a wide variety of music, like you. Everything from jazz, classical, electronic, rock, some heavy stuff, ambient, you name it.

I’m a vinyl junkie too. Not as large a collection as you have but I love it. Don’t give up on the turntable just yet. I think I read in one of your posts that you couldn’t believe you had been spending time changing discs all these years. For me there’s a certain tactile quality to vinyl and even cd and sacd that makes it enjoyable regardless of convenience.

Keep up with your posts when you can. I think we have some similar tastes/styles and I’m always interested to see what others are doing with their hi fi.

See you from Canada.

Steve

I still love these sepakers very much. The room is quite large for Swedish city apartment standards (34 square meters, or 366 square feet), but has an irregular shape with non-parallell side walls and I sit in the middle of the room rather than with my back against a wall.

They can fill a room much larger than one might think, but they are of course standmounts and as such don’t go to 20 Hz. If you sit 25 ft from your speakers in a huge room and are used to full range sound, they might not fit. But if you’re a little bit closer, 10-15 ft, and like myself value ultimate control and accuracy over the very last depth in bass, then I think you’ll have difficulty finding anything better at the (admittedly hefty) price.

And by filling the room I’m not even discussing pure loudness; These go way beyond what I need in terms of sheer pressure and do so with no signs of compression or distortion. But a larger speaker will indeed “fill” the room in a different way, especially concerning the bass.

One thing to keep in mind if you audition them is their fascinating inability to trigger listeners fatigue. I can listen to the harshest possible music for hours on end with these, which is really quite amazing consider the mindboggling detail they deliver. So absolutely nothing is smoothed over, but nor is anything abrasive or uncomfortably sharp.

Oh, and thanks for the compliments! I should write more here, but for some reason I never get around to…

I found your blog while doing some research on the Focal Diablo’s. I’m looking to upgrade the speakers I’m using with my Marantz Reference and my Marantz dealer carries Focal as well. I’ve auditioned a couple of their line, just not the Diablo’s.

I love the design and I’ve heard great things about the sound. Do you still like them? I’m guessing your room is a bit on the small side. How big a room do you feel they could fill nicely?

Keep up the posts. Very interesting, and pretty funny. Cheers.

Now is too late but i would have suggested you an amp like this : McIntosh MC275 , the digital world just doesn’t do it for me yet, and i will always chase analog stuff + valvular amplifiers :). But that’s just me.

My current setup includes a Sansui AU 919 as amplifier and soon some Klipsch RF-83 as speakers (now i have some cheap Indiana Line of the price range of 500 eur for the couple). (I tested Lunar Civilization on these speakers and was blown away).

In the future my ideal setup would be McIntosh amplifiers and a couple of Tannoy Prestige (any model i guess), that’s the best one can get in my humble opinion. But I like warm sounds all around and I listen to a lot of sang stuff ;).

PS: reading your blog made me understand what you’ve been up for all this time.