0
Old setup:
Focal Utopia 3 ways 165W3's
Focal Midbasses powered by a JL300/4 (bridged)
Focal midrange and tweeter (using passive crossover) powered by the Phass HP475 (bridged)
Phass AT20(ambient) - Alpine V12
New setup:
Phass MW6521(midbass) - Phass HPp4.75 (bridged)
Phass AT28(tweeter) + MW4415AL(midrange) + PX220HGW (crossover) - Phass HP100(dual mono amp)
Phass AT20(ambient) - Alpine V12
All crossover settings are set at my processor, amp crossovers aren't used at all.
The major change here is the midbass, midrange, main tweeter and passive Crossover.
The front stage amps also changed, which resulted in less power to the midrange+main tweeter combo. i'm sure they play a part in the differences i'm about to describe, (although some will argue they cannot possibly make a difference)
Anyway...
Build/appearance:
Both are certainly built to impressive standards,
The 165W3's have a chromed bottom plate, with Focal etched into it, and a grey hammer tone finish over the cast baskets. the magnets are large, making the midbass look like a mini-subwoofer.
The speakers have grey cones which are smooth, thin and light, almost semi-transparent, with a black fleck.
The tweeter has a titanium inverted dome.
Crossover is large and fairly well constructed, however there's some small rattles. Casing is solid and made from matte black plastic. Components are of good quality, and there's an attentuation switch for the midrange and tweeter (0, -2 and -4db from memory)
Note: This crossover has known issues with some Alpine amps, which see it to be of insufficient impedance and shut down. There's a simple fix availabel if you speak to the distributors.
The Phass Alnico's are fully machined, with a mid-blue multi-AlNiCo magnet array (similar in appearance to the multi-ferrite array on focal subwoofers)
The speaker cones are dark, appear thick and reasonably heavy, the front surface is rough textured, yet the back is smooth.
Even the tweeter has a machined casing, which at first appears to be quite deep, but when the rear cap is unscrewed, it is no longer much deeper than the focal ones
The crossovers are very impressive with wooden casings, which appear to be veneered. Silk screened perspex cover shows off the quality components inside. The cover is secured by gold plated allen key bolts, they screw into a thread which has been inserted into the wooden casing, big :thumb: for attention to detail. Not one rattle to be heard, however, the perspex cover needs to be removed to affix speaker wires. No adjustability
Note: The alnico's seem to be mostly 6ohm speakers (some state it, I haven't checked those that don't)
Listening test:
Focals
The focals have a "dry" sound. With agility and accuracy, they have little trouble articulating any form of music. The midbass woofers are authoritive, clean punchy. The midranges can re-reproduce horns without glare, yet with an edge that makes you sit-up. The tweeters sound smooth, but a tiny bit "cold".
This set is incredible for all forms of music, especially techno/electronic. Due to the tweeter, some astute listeners may find that Jazz/orchestral music lacks a bit of warmth, but i'm being highly critical here
It took a while for me to get these setup right (18months) but with a bit of tuning i was very impressed.
Phass
Now that the Phass set has run-in, i'm blown away. One of the midbass drivers sounded scratchy at first, but with time this sound has gone. i can only attribute it to "excess glue" and was only audible due to the extremely small tolerances (exceptional build quality)
Resolution and articulation would only be challenged by Golf_Bht's crazy horn setup, yet authority and power handling is well beyond that.
Recorded distortions (guitar, voice effects) take on a new level of texture and refinement that i've only previously experienced in home audio setups.
Horns have more edge than the Focals, yet still don't have the annoying glare i hear with other speakers.
Windchimes "drip" from the soundstage, seemingly more inspiring than the original recording. Warmth from the tweeters is spot on (for my taste) and tonal accuracy is incredible, i'm not sure if it even need much EQing.
Sounds which previously were heard as a "tish" or even static, turn out to be tambourines and maracas!
i can only attribute this to average recording quality, which the Phass have "made the most of" wheras other speakers didn't quite resolve the sounds with the same level of accuracy.
All in all, the Phass set is notably dearer, a 2 way set with crossover will set you back around $1800, a 3 way set isn't available, midbasses were purchased seperately, bringing the total to close to $2500
wheras the focal 3 way set, retailed for $1450 at the time.
But for a purist SQ nut, the difference is WELL worth the extra $$$.
