20 replies to this topic

[sonofstarstamps]

Hi All,

Almost finished purchasing items I require for build.

Saving up for the Front Speaker set and have hit a hurdle, realised I might not have enough money to finish installing products if I spend it all on hardware, means have to wait a couple of months extra.

Anyway, was planning on purchasing a Kit 7 but am wondering if they are three times better then the KRX3's.

I have heard the utopias and loved the sound in the setup i listened to it in, but am wondering if they are really worth getting over the KRX3's.

Is it best to buy the Utopias and not install hardware for another 3 months or is it better to buy the KRX3's and install now.

Patience is a virtue I do not have.

Any feedback on the KRX3 or Kit 7 welcomed.

Regards,
FP

[~Samuel~]

Im going to say 1.8957832465234 times better

How much money do you want to spend? Whos doing the install? I think its more install and tuning but obviously the Utopias are going to probably sound a fair bit better holding other factors constant.

By the sounds of it your decision is based around time, if this is the case then i say wait and buy the Utopias, other wise you will probably regret not waiting a few months, the upgrade bug will bite, it always does

[Aris]

I've experimented with most Focal Drivers, as well as most other brands and I rate the Focal Kevlar Drivers (no longer available for OEM) amongst the best.
The kevlars drivers sound more dynamic & detailded compared to the Utopia drivers which are mellower and less involving.
Depends what your after as far as sound goes, but me personally I would choose the KRX3 over the Utopias. Don't assume the Utopias are necessarily better because of their higher price.

Edited by Aris, 23 March 2010 - 08:52 PM.

[muzzy66]

I haven't heard the new KRX series focals, but I've heard the old K2 series and they were brilliant. The K2P's are easilly one of the best component sets I've heard - very brilliant midrange, great midbass and above average highs.

On paper, the KRX3's appear to have pro's and cons compared to the old set. The tweeter (as long as it's at least 30deg off axis) has a much smoother frequency response then the old TN52, and the midbass drivers also look to be a significant improvement over the K2P versions. The downside here appears to be the actual midrange - the old K4Slim had a nice smooth response through the midrage (not quite ruler flat, but pretty good). The new 3" has a potentially nasty shelf in the response right dead in the key midrange region (+4dB from 2khz - 3.5khz), and a 3dB-4dB peak over so broad a frequency range woud result in very noticable colouration - could lead to some serious harshness in the vocals.

The Utopia Be's I've heard, but it wasn't in the same environment as the K2P's so I can't really compare them based on my subjective experiences. On paper however, the BE's really do seem superior in pretty much every regard. The midbass looks to be about as good as you'll get for a 6.5" in an IB arrangement - it's got a perfect qtc (~0.7) for a car door, excellent xmax (and thus, displacement) and a relatively smooth response. I haven't seen distortion figures, but I'd image they are probably quite decent. The midrange (o paper) looks to be worlds ahead of the KRX version - it has a nearly ruler flat response (on OR off axis) from 200hz out to about 5khz and from all reports they have quite low distortion as well. The Be tweeter is (once again) a massive step up from the TN53 - It's probably the best car tweeter I've heard - (definatly in the top three) and I'd imagine it most likely out performs the TN53 in close to every imaginable way.

These are just my thoughts - thought I'd chuck them out there for you, and hopefully there will be some information here you can use! But basically in conclusion, if I had the money spare I would absolutely go with the Be's over the KRX3's - to me they are worth the extra money. I'm not at all big on car audio speakers - imo they are rediculously overpriced in relation to their performance levels. I see the KRX3's and Be Kit 7 as two of the very rare exceptions - two that I hoestly feel are good enough to justify their price tags.

[Gonadman2]

Get the Be midrange ($580/pr) and couple that with a nice tweeter that you like/can fit and you're set. Grab a good 8" midbass and you'll be streets ahead of the Be set in terms of price anyway. Personally I believe the Be midrange to be the best part of the whole Be set!

[muzzy66]

Gonadman gives some good advice - and I tend to agree with him about the Be midrange.

I may have even ordered one recently...oh no, did I just say that

Edited by muzzy66, 24 March 2010 - 11:49 PM.

[Tiger]

What the??

[muzzy66]

Haha I decided what the hey, may as well let the cat out of the bag lol

The Focal is one of the two drivers I originally considered, and is essentialy identical in dimensions to the Fountek - it'll be a straight slip in

Edited by muzzy66, 25 March 2010 - 12:10 AM.

[Diogo Ianaconi]

I am sorry, but in my opinion the Utopia is on a totally different level if compared to the KRX3. I don't like the KRX3 too much.

There are other speakers also with similar price (compared to the KRX3) that would give you very nice performance.

[wazzab4]

Muzzy66 do you have on and off axis for all the speakers in a kit 7 Focal and specs on drivers i cant find it on there website. I am new to on and off axis and would like to read up a little.

[muzzy66]

I do - I'll post the FR charts for each of the drivers in the Be Kit 7 and the KRX3 up here, since it seems to be relevant to the thread.

Remember that a lovely response doesn't always mean the speaker will sound perfect - though a poor response usually does mean it will sound nasty.

[wazzab4]

I just found them muzzy but thank you all the same now to learn how to read them.

[muzzy66]

I'll chuck them up here anyway, since this i a 'KRX3 vs Be" thread it might be useful to someone.



Note that the 3W2 Be midrange is pretty much +/- 2dB from 200hz - 5khz, regardless of whether it's on axis or 45deg off axis. The KRX3 midrange on the other hand has a masive shelf starting at around 1.8khz and spreading out to around 5khz (on axis) or about 3khz (off axis). The Be should be pretty much brilliant out of the box, while the KRX3 midrange would likely require heavy EQ to smooth it out. The new KRX3 midrange looks to be completely different to the old K4Slim (from the K2P range) - this one actually looks like it uses exactly the same basket as the Be, and possibly a very similar motor as well. I'd say it's probably the the different cone material is probably to thank for the Be's smoother response. If the motors are similar, then distortion may also be similar - though again the different cone material could easilly have an impact on that too.

As far as tweeters go, the Tbe is nicer on axis, while the the TN53 is better off axis. This tells us only about frequency resonpnse, and tells us nothing at all about distortion. I'd imagine that the distortion is probably signifiantly lower on the Be (especially at lower frequencies) but this is pure assumption...i have no data at all to base it on.

With the midbass drivers, the K3P driver looks to have a smoother response on paper - however when I model them out in a simulated Infinite Baffle environment the perfect ~0.75 qtc of the Be causes it to model out next to perfect - straight almost like a ruler, with a nice extended response down to about 20hz. The KRX3 driver has a qtc of around .6 which should be close enough to optimal, and displacement is pretty much identical to the Be woofer - but for some reason it comes out very odd when I try to model it...like a pyramid. No idea why, but for some reason the listed TS specs just dont seem to want to model properly. It looks like it should be just as good as the Be woofer as a pure midbass, but hard to say without being able to model it.

This is all a little half arsed really, without any distortion information to go off...but it's better then nothing.

[~thematt~]

muzzy66, on Mar 25 2010, 07:06 PM, said:

....straight almost like a ruler, with a nice extended response down to about 20hz...

Ha, yeh. Like at 50dB...

To the OP, the jewel of the Utopia kit is the midrange. Its a wonderful design, and incredibly good motor. That being said, the best midrange Focal have is their 5.25" Utopia in their overpriced Home Audio tower. This is just a smaller version, modified for cheaper cost.

The midbass isnt bad, but too small, and the tweeter is nothing special.

[muzzy66]

Quote

The midbass isnt bad, but too small, and the tweeter is nothing special.

I tend to agree with you about the tweeter. It's definately better then most car audio tweeters I've heard, but I definately don't think it's $1,000/pair good. If I ever did run a 3-way Focal front stage, first thing I'd is sell the tweeters and replace them with some SB29's or Illuminators.

The midbass isn't going to give you the performance of a great 8+ inch woofer naturally, but it'll wipe the floor with most of the other 6.5" woofers out there. It's designed to play low and clean in a car door with minimal install effort, and it serves that purpose probably as well as anything else out there.

Edited by muzzy66, 25 March 2010 - 10:45 PM.