Focal 165W RC 2 Way Component Speakers Review

56 Focal
20-millimeter, 6-ohms voice coil that is wound
on an aluminum former. Around this motor is
a specially designed multi-chamber labyrinth
that angles back waves away from the underside of the dome while on the side are two
clear Perspex terminal plugs with small gold
plated terminals.
Starting at the top of the larger driver; the
165mm composite “W” fibre cone is actually
a far improved version of the early Poly-K
sandwich cone material developed during the
eighties and used on the old Utopia speakers. The ‘W’ design is quite a complex one
and starts with two fine tissues of woven
glass that are lighter and thinner than aramid
fibers commonly found in other cones. The
molecular bond between these materials is
also far superior and the resulting cone design
mechanically boasts far superior strength and
stiffness against compression force. Between
these two layers is a third foam layer and, by
varying the thickness of the foam, the internal
damping of the moving structure remains very
controlled. The relationship between the thickness of the glass tissue layers and the foam
core allows engineers to carefully optimize the
performance range of the cone structure for
certain frequencies depending on the particular application the driver will see.
165W-RC
2-way component speakers
AUDITION
Reviewer: Marty Price
Top class components
at a middle class price.
Focal point
The Beryllium series of components are the
pinnacle of Focal’s car audio drivers, demonstrating the epitome of French engineer-
than concentrating so much on the material. It
was here that the engineers developed the reverse dome design and, because of the shape,
you get extreme strength against physical
deformation in addition to superior dispersion
characteristics. So much so that Focal patented and began designing all its high-end tweeters in this way. The rest as they say is history.
The design hasn’t changed in years because,
after all, if it isn’t broken then why fix it? So
when the time came nearly a decade ago to
start on a new flagship range of components,
Focal retained the diaphragm shape but began
looking for a superior material to the titanium
and silk it had been utilising. Hence the Beryllium concept was born – here was a material
that was stronger than most other elements
and at the same time much lighter. Beryllium
only has two real downsides; the first is that’s
its extremely rare and hard to refine and the
second is that it’s quite toxic to humans. It has
a density 2.5 times lower than Titanium while
its rigidity is roughly triple.
Sure it’s more expensive too but in using
a Beryllium dome Focal achieves rigidity
around seven times that of titanium despite it
having the same mass. The surround holding
this inverted dome in place is made from a
material named Poron and the simplest way to
describe it would be as synthetic rubber which
is extremely strong but ultra-flexible at the
same time. Turning the tweeter over reveals
a robust machined zinc alloy frame which
was chosen for its magnetic properties. Living
within this frame is the tweeter’s powerful
motor which is comprised of a neodymium
magnet assembly surrounding a double layer,
Moving away from the cone the speaker has
a butyl rubber surround and a soft material
dust cap that has the Focal logo embossed on
it in the centre. The entire magnetically-inert
Zamak frame is constructed from aluminium
and is powder coated grey while the machined
The Dynaudio Esotec System 242 is
a price point lower at $1149 and has
been around for some time
If you want to jump into hyperspace,
the Audison Thesis 2-ways are at
the far reaches of the Universe at
$4947 and actually compete with
Focal’s Utopia range
actually sitting between real bass drums.
Even when playing actual extended notes,
from the lower tuned acoustic and electric
instruments such as tuba, viola, oboe, bass
guitar and so on through to the higher range
flute, violin, trumpet, guitar and so on, this
component set adds a lifelike sound I’ve
not heard in years from a component set.
Another thing, also quite unusual with component sets, is the crossover’s performance
in the transitions from the lows to the highs
is almost flawless. Most crossovers need a
partial or complete reworking to achieve a
seamless blend between driver roll-offs once
the car’s interior is factored in.
Listening to the highs you again appreciate why these tweeters have amassed
such adoration. They’re clinically accurate
and crystal clear to the point where you’ll
hear details never before noticed. But there
is something else about their output that
makes them so special. It’s that their sound
is as close to the real instrument as you’ll
get a speaker producing – to the point by
which you may need to be a musician, or be
intimately familiar with musical instruments,
to truly gain an appreciation of just how
impressive they sound.
57
Conclusion
Okay so the Utopia component sets might
be a little beyond Mr and Mrs Joe Citizen
fiscally speaking. However the 165W-RC
component set has been designed with this
in mind and, thanks to the price tag being
significantly less, Focal has now given the
aforementioned Citizen family a chance to
buy into this prestigious class of what can
only be described as speaker royalty.
Focal
165W-RC 2-way
component speakers
Type: 6.5-inch and 1-inch 2-way
component speakers
Power handling: 80 watts
continuous, 160 watts maximum
Frequency Response:
60Hz – 30000Hz
Impedance: 2-ohms midrange,
6-ohms tweeter
Cost: $1999
Contact: Focal Australia on 02 9724 6070
Web: www.focalaustralia.com.au
• Astounding sound quality
• Extraordinary build quality
• Large main driver may be difficult to install
TECH SPECS
Fancy exotics
ing technology and, although the 165W-RC
are technically a level below, they employ
so much of the same technology that they
almost deserve placement with the Beryllium
family anyway. Removing the components
individually allows you to again appreciate the
unprecedented build quality. Sadly you don’t
get an alloy rifle case with these components
but what you do get are two 165mm midrange
drivers and two crossovers which are large
but still a far cry from the titanic ‘crossblock’
included with the Kit-6 component set. Last
but not least are the tweeters that give the
component set its title. Also contained within
is plenty of mounting hardware and fasteners
which are silver plated to complete the overall
design look.
Seeing as the entire range derives its
name from the tweeter material, let us start
by examining what makes this smaller driver
so unique. Both the Beryllium material and
the inverted dome diaphragm shape are
trademarks of Focal and are the result of
decades of experimentation and development.
The biggest enemy of any moving diaphragm
is physical distortion, so for years companies
have invested big dollars in looking for more
and more exotic materials which offer strength
and light weight. Despite their diminutive size
this rings especially true for tweeters because
they have to change direction literally tens of
thousands of times a second and retain their
shape with near perfection.
Starting out in the early years researching
various fibre and elemental materials for the
tweeter designs, Focal soon turned its attention to the actual shape of the dome rather
SIGNIFICANTOTHERS
Let us start by posing a
hypothetical dilemma most
companies would die for. In your
2011 stable you have arguably the world’s best
component speakers and subwoofers, as evidenced by the enormous number of accolades
Focal’s Utopia drivers have accumulated over
the years. However faced with the challenge
of producing something new for 2012, where
do you go from here? You don’t achieve the
tentative title of ‘best speakers in the world’
without investing a heap of coin and, to this
end, some of the Utopia range (such as the
Grande drivers); are well into six figure territory. So making them superior (and ultimately
more expensive) would achieve boasting
rights but wouldn’t elevate the company’s
sales figures a significant amount.
Ever the innovator, Focal instead decided
to go the other way; taking the technologies and materials utilised in the acclaimed
Beryllium range and injecting them into a
new range of speakers designed to sit a level
beneath the flagship model. The issue though
was typical of Focal; the further it ventured
off into designing the new range, the more of
the Beryllium technology was employed at no
extra expense to you – to the point where if it
wasn’t for the magnet and crossover looking
completely different, you’d swear the new
165W-RC components were in fact the full tilt
Utopia Kit-6 component set.
surfaces are all brightly polished. Keeping the
motor concentric below the cone is a raised
progressive spider and hanging below this is
the key component that sets this midrange
aside from the flagship midrange. Here it
features a larger strontium magnet rather
than the neodymium one. Around the frame,
just above the magnet, are the air expulsion
vents and these coupled with the 8mm intake
pole vent allow the motor a continuous power
handling of 80 watts. The suspension is stiff
enough to handle peak bursts of 160 watts before you run the risk of bottoming the Kapton
32mm former containing the 2-ohms copper
voice coil on the machined back plate. The
terminal plate is also located on the side of the
frame next to these vents.
The largest component of the 165W-RC
set of course are the crossovers and although
these come housed in a beautifully-finished
Perspex case, sadly they’re not a patch on
the cross-block. They run an open wall design
with four posts holding a smoked black
Perspex cover featuring the Focal logo on top.
Removing the cover for inspection I found that
despite the crossovers being from the lesser
component set, the high quality standard is
still retained. From the two large air-core coils
and capacitors that form the 12dB/octave
switchable 2.5kHz/3.5kHz filters through to
the two massive resistors which form part of
the 0dB/-3dB tweeter attenuation circuitry, the
components are all top-notch although now
they all just have Focal printed on them as
opposed to their actual brand names.
Installation of the 165W-RC might not be
so straightforward in your target car because
of the midrange’s large physical size. Because
of the strontium employment the midrange’s
magnet diameter overall is larger although
the mounting depth still remains at 72mm.
However, when it came to installation and
setting these up in the test car, it ended up
being a reasonably easy fit as we use the
Kit-7 as our reference. It was just a case of
swapping drivers. This also meant that there
was a set of A-pillars ready to hold the 165WRC tweeters too. So after bolting both the
midranges and tweeters in place we headed
out for a day of listening.
Given their strong pedigree we did have
extremely high expectations and they didn’t
disappoint provided you do a little experimenting with the settings in order to optimise the
sound. Once you do have them finally setup
though, sit back and you’ll immediately start to
appreciate why the Utopia sound has become
famous worldwide. The midbass drivers are
very strong and extremely accurate in their
articulation and, thanks to the combination of
smart suspension design and the sandwich
fibre cone, they resist physical deformation
extremely well. This is especially important
during the ultra-high speed reciprocating
tones such as those associated with the
blast beats of someone like Gene Hoglan or
Raymond Herrera. Indeed they kick with such
force and accuracy that you’ll believe you’re
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