Audiophilepure

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/2017-focal-diva-utopia-streaming-active-loudspeaker-system

This past summer, I heard rumblings that Phil Collins’s health was rapidly declining. But these rumors seem to have been unfounded, with recent updates confirming he’d had knee-replacement surgery. All this attention motivated me to listen to the 2016 remastered version of his 1982 album Hello, I Must Be Going! (24/96 FLAC, Rhino / Qobuz). The famous track “I Don’t Care Anymore” opens with Collins’s signature solo drum sequence, followed by synth notes with an unmistakable 1980s sound. Through the Focal system, the snap of the drumsticks against the skins was vivid and visceral, with each percussive punch followed quickly by the hollow thud of the drum shells. Echo and reverb were copious, contributing to a generous soundstage that went beyond the placement of the speakers. The overall sound possessed a natural warmth and fullness. The Diva Utopia delivered excitement and musical engagement along with detail and nuance on this classic 1980s track.

Speaking of delicacy and finesse, I concluded my listening with a jewel of an artist I discovered only recently. Cécile McLorin Salvant isn’t new, but she’s new to me, and WomanChild (24/96 FLAC, Mack Avenue / Qobuz), her 2013 debut album, has been in heavy rotation in my listening room. Through the Focal system, the opening patter of the brushes on the drumskins in her rendition of Rodgers and Hart’s “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” was delightful; the light slaps and papery scrapes of the bristles against the skins were extremely refined. The cymbals were similarly pristine, their gentle shimmer faultlessly delicate and extended. The Diva Utopia system produced a beautiful and extended treble—something I’ve come to expect from Focal’s beryllium tweeters, which have been refined over several generations. Salvant’s voice sounded sumptuously natural, coming across like a warm cappuccino on a cold morning. The Diva Utopia expertly presented her careful phrasing and mesmerizing voice with beautiful tone and presence. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t praise the authentic image size, generous texture, and timbral accuracy of the double bass.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/dynaudio-contour-20-black-edition-loudspeaker

I started my critical listening by playing the diagnostic tracks I created for the various Stereophile Test CDs (footnote 2). The 1/3-octave warble tones were cleanly reproduced down to the 80Hz band. The 63Hz tone was slightly lower in level, the 50Hz and 40Hz tones slightly higher in level. The 32Hz tone was boosted by my room’s lowest-frequency mode. I couldn’t hear the 20Hz tone. The half-step–spaced tonebursts spoke cleanly and evenly from 4kHz down to 32Hz. The lower-frequency tonebursts and warble tones sounded clean, with no “doubling” (second-harmonic distortion), and there was no wind noise from the port. Listening with a stethoscope to the enclosure’s sidewalls while these test tones played, I could hear some resonances in the octave between 250Hz and 500Hz.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1284-acora-acoustics-mrc-2-loudspeaker

 won’t go through all 28 tracks in my new playlist, which includes “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from John Wilson’s new recording of Carousel; “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Street Fighting Man” from the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet; “Diamonds & Rust” by Joan Baez; “Something” and “Because” from the Beatles’ Abbey Road; the second movement, Scherzo, from Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9; and a violin concerto by J. S. Bach, a Haydn symphony, and a Shostakovich string quartet. On every one of these tracks, the YGs held a slight edge, but the price difference was out of all proportion to the sonic gains.

The Haileys threw a wider and deeper image, had greater definition in the bass, displayed increased resolution, and were cleaner on difficult percussion sounds. The differences were greater with bass-heavy material, where the YGs sounded cleaner and more tuneful, and on percussion-heavy jazz. But the YGs and Acoras sounded far more alike than different. You might well think they came from the same manufacturer if you were blindfolded. I would recommend the YG if cost were no object. But it almost always is, and I consider the MRC‑2 sensational value for money.

The In-room average response measurements are derived from an 18-point spatial average taken from around the listening position (11 ft away), with the microphone capsule placed at ear level. The overall in-room response was measured with a Bass Boost setting of +3 and a Tilt setting of +2.

Caveats: Unlike measurements taken outdoors or in an anechoic chamber that measures a speaker in isolation, in-room measurements give a sense of how a speaker behaves in the actual environment in which it’s used. Both types of measurements are valuable (make no mistake, a properly designed speaker in an anechoic environment will hold up much better in an average listening space), I just find in-room measurements interesting as they help shed light on what I am hearing and why. Note that no in-room measurement will ever match an anechoic measurement, and a measurement taken in my room won’t necessarily match a similarly done measurement taken in your room. But, after measuring dozens of speakers here, I’ve acquired a good understanding of how this space interacts with the speakers under test, and some general performance observations can always be drawn.