Focal Aria 936

EQUIPMENT REPORT
ROBERT DEUTSCH
Focal Aria 936
LOUDSPEAKER
ounded in 1979 by Jacques Mahul, Focalfonnerly known as J Miab and as FocalJ Miab-is one of audio's success stories.
Beginning with a single speaker mode!
produced in a small workshop in Saint Etie1me,
France, the company is still headquartered there, but
has expanded to employ over 250 workers, making
products exported to over 160 countries. All Focal products are engineered in France; only a few
lower-priced multimedia models and headphones are
assembled in the Far East.
Focal makes products in six categories: 1) highfidelity speakers, 2) home cinema, 3) multimedia
and wireless, 4) head phones, 5) monitoring and pro
studio, and 6) custom and public address. Of course,
our interest here is in No.1. The 2014 Stereophile
Buyers Guide lists 21 Focal speakers, with priees
ranging &om $549 to $190,000/pair. The Aria 936
is too new to be listed in the Guide, but its priee of
$3999/pair puts it at just about the median.
Although Focal makes sorne very expensive
speakers, one of their priorities has been to
incorporate the teclmology developed for their
top models into more modescly priced products.
This was true for the Focal Chorus 826W 30th
Anniversary Edition loudspeaker (I reviewed it in the
November 2010 issue 1), which used the proprietary
W-sandwich-cone rnidrange and woofer technology
found in Focal's more expensive speakers.
Focal describes the idealloudspeaker cone as
being: 1) light, to allow rapid acceleration; 2) rigid, for
pistonlike movement; and 3) well damped, for low
coloration. In their view, these o&en con.ilicting goals
are best met by a "sandwich" construction of different
F
1 See http:l/ tinyurl.com/nnzljb.
stereophile.com • November 2014
93
FOCAL ARIA 936
materials. Their W sandwich takes this approach, but its
production is laber-intensive and thus costly. ln a search
for a Jess expensive alternative, Focal developed a new
composite material in which flax fibers of various densities
form the core of the cone, in a sandwich construction with
fiberglass. Unlike for the W cone, manufacnu1ng of Focal's
F cone can be automated-and France is apparently the
largest European producer of flax. {If; like me, you're a bit
uncertain about what flax is, linen is made from flax fibers.)
Having developed this new way of making midrange
and woofer cones, Focal turned their attention to tweeters,
and came up with an inverted dome made of an alloy of
aluminum and magnesium. lt's sirnilar in these respects to
the tweeter used in the Chorus 826W, but in the Aria 936
the suspension between the dome and tl1e bracket is made
of Poron, a "memory foam" of microcellular urethane.
This suspension method has been shown by Focal to
reduce distortion by a factor of tluee in the critical range
of 2-3kHz. A polyurethane plate witl1 waveguide is said to
i.mprove the new tweeter's horizontal dispersion.
WhichAria?
Focal's Aria 900 line of speakers comprises five models. I'd
heard-and been quite impressed by-the Aria 926 at the last
Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show. My only reservation was that, while the 926 generally sounded very good at
TAVES, one of the demo recordings was Copland's EYmfore
for the Commou Mau, and 1 found that the bass lacked sorne
weight. At 45" H by 11.5" W by 14.5" D, the Aria 936 is as
wide and deep as tl1e 926, but it's S" taller, to accommodate
a third woofer. The 936's claimed low-&equency extension
is 32Hz vs the 926's 37Hz {both - 6dB), and that could make
a difference with bass-heavy material. 1 requested a pair of
Aria 936s.
The Chorus 826W was a nice-looking speaker, but
the Aria 936 has a more elegant appearance. The finish is
impeccable: Black High G loss on the sides and top, with
leather &ont, rear, and bottom. {lt's also available in Walnut.)
There are two ports on the &ont panel, "for more impact,"
and a downfiring port in the base, "for increased depth."
Setup
Because the Aria 936 has roughly tl1e same footprint as the
Chorus 826W, which I'd reviewed, 1 thought positioning
the Arias would not be a problem-and it wasn't. With the
help of Audio Plus rep lan McArthur, who delivered them, 1
placed the speakers in more or Jess the usual positions, along
the long side of my listening room, and played with their distances from the walls, the listening seat, and each other, nntil
we felt that the soundstage and bass character and extension
were about right. The Aria 936 cornes with a plinth that
conveniently allows you to withdraw and extend the built-in
spikes, fust by hand, then using tl1e included plastic wrench.
This worked very weil-l wish other speaker manufacturers
had a sinlilar arrangement.
The Chorus 826W has a removable grille that covers the
bass and rnidrange drivers but not the tweeter, which has its
own, apparently fixed grille. Fairly late in my auditioning
MBASURBIIBNTS
used DRA Labs' MLSSA system
and a calibrated DPA 4006
microphone to measure the Focal
Aria 936's frequency response in
the farfleld, and an Earthworks QTC40 for the nearfield responses. The
Earthworks microphone has a small,
14• capsule, and so presents m1n1rnal
obstruction to air flow in the ports.
For logistical reasons, 1 rneasured a
different sample from those auditioned
by Robert Deutsch. The speaker was
bolted to its plinth for the rneasurernents, so that the downward-firing
port was the specified distance from
the floor. Ali measurernents were performed with the grille removed.
1
My estimate of the Focal's voltage
sensitivity was 89.Sd8(8)/ 2.83V/mdose to the specifiee! 90d8, and usefully a little higher than average. The Aria
936 is speclf1ed as having a nominal
impedance of 8 ohms and a minimum
impedance of 2.8 ohms; my rneasurernent (fig.l) confirrned the minimum
value at 108Hz. but as the impedance
stays below 4 ohms from the upper
bass though the lower midrange, where
music has high levels of energy, 1would
recomrnended using a amplifier rated
into 4 ohms wlth this speaker.
The small wrinkle at 22.9kHz in the
impedance traces indicates that this is
the frequency of the metal-diaphragrn
tweeter's primary breakup mode. The
traces are otherwise free from the
midrange discontinuities that would
suggest the presence of enclosure
resonances. Nevertheless, investigating the cabinet walls' vtbrational
behavior with a plastic-tape accelerometer uncovered modes at 234, 332.
and 344Hz. These resonances were
lowest in level on the sidewalls (fig.2)
and highest on the rear and top panels,
where their effects will be less audible.
The Focal's impedance-magnitude
trace has a clearly defined minimum
value at 40Hz, wh1ch would be the
tuning frequency of the port in a reflex
,._..,...
flc.2 Focal Aria 936.~ ~
fl&.1 Focal Aria 936 electncal impedance (solid)
and phase (dashed) (2 ohm$/Vertical div)
stereophile.com • November 2014
plot calaUted from output of accelerometer
futened to center of side ~ leve! with top
woofer (MLS drivina wltage to speake~: 7S5V
musumnent bandwldth. 2kHz)
~
Foal Am 936. nurfleld responses of:
mldranae drive-unrt (black). top woofer (blue).
middle woofer (green). bottom woofer (red), front
port (purple), bottom port (gray).
95
FOCAL ARIA 936
of the Chorus 826W 1 discovered that the tweeter grille
co11ld be removed with the tip of a ballpoint pen or a paper
clip. I did, and was rewarded with greater treble clarity and
improved specificity of imaging.
For the Aria 936, Focal has changed the griUe
arrangement-perhaps because of customer complaints.
A single grille covers ail five drivers, and it's attached
magnetically. What hasn't changed is the fact that the
speaker sounds better "vith the grille removed, which is I
how I listened toit {and is what Audio Plus recommends).
lan McArthur told me that, as far as he knew, the review
samples had come straight off the assembly tine, with no
break-in. But they sounded good out of the box, with only
minor improvements after more extensive playing. Focal
speakers that use a beryllium tweeter have a reputation for
needing a longer-than-usual break-in period if they're not
to sound too bright, but that wasn't the case with the Aria
936's aluminum-magnesium tweeter.
When selecting electronics to use with speakers, I often
find myself in a quandary. Should I use equipment at a priee
leve! that represents a typical or likely pairing, or should I
use higher-end equipment that lets the speakers really show
what they can do? At various audio shows, Focal's Aria
models have been successfuUy demonstrated with Devialet
D-Premier DAC-integrated amplifiers, which are also made
in France and distributed by Audio Plus. I was sure that
Audio Plus would have loaned me a Devialet for this review,
but that would have introduced a second unknown factor
into the equation: Before being able to assess the sound of
design, however, with its three woofers
and two ports, the Aria 936's lowfrequency behavior is complicated.
Fig3 shows the nearfield responses
of the midrange drive-unit (black
trace), top woofer (blue), mrddle
woofer (green), bottom woofer (red),
front port (purple), and bottom port
(gray), ali with their levels plotted rn
the ratros of their radiating diameters.
The midrange crosses over to the three
woofers at around 150Hz. though the
top woofer roUs off a little slower m the
midrange than the lower two woofers.
The middle and top woofers appear
to be loaded by the front-flring port,
with very sim1lar minimum-motion
notches rn their outputs at around
44Hz. The bottom woofer's minimummotiOn notch occurs sl1ghtly lower m
frequency, at 39Hz. 8oth port outputs
are commendably free from midrange
resonant peaks..
The complex sum of these nearfteld
responses takmg into account both
acoustrc phase and the d1fferent
drstance of each radiator from a
nommai farfteld microphone position,
is shown as the trace below 300Hz in
frg.4 A large part of the upper-bass
peak apparent m this graph will be due
to the Inevitable exaggeration of the
= t~l~:-
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filA focal AN1936. anechooc response on twMter
50 - . c l iiOOSS )()- honzDntal window
ilXlS .t
Mid corrected for moa ophoue response. wrth
complex sum of ne«fieed responses plotted below
300Hz
stereophile.com • November 2014
nearfield measurement technique. But
with the overlap between the outputs
of the three woofers and the midrange
drrve-unrt in the same region, it is hard
to escape the conclusion that the Ana
936 will have too much upper-bass
energy rn ali but very large rooms- 1
note that Bob Deutsch found that the
Focal's bass sounded extended, but
without the low frequencies sound1ng
"boomy or bloated," which suggests
that the woofer ahgnrnent is on the
overdamped side. Though the tunlng frequencres of the ports bracket
40Hz. close to the frequency of the
lowest stnng of the electric bass and
double bass, RD did comment on the
...., foQI ANI936.1atera response bmily .t 50
normalized to response on tweeter ~JS. from bKI<
to front differences on response 90-S" off ~ls.
reference response. differences ln response 5-90"
off axiS.
'~-Il·1 s.- -
.....::-:· - - -=.:-,_______.
_ _:-:'____,
"-A Focal Am 936. wrtial response family .t
50 normalized to response on tweeter axis, from
bKI< to front differences m response
abowe
ax reference response. differences on response
1o-s•
5-10" below •• s.
97
FOCAL ARIA 936
·'
the Aria 936, I would first have to compare the Devialet
with oth er equipment that I was already familiar with, so
that I could get a handle on the Devialet's contribution to
the sound {see sidebar, "Confounding, Cables, and Room
Acoustics"). That would turn the process into, in effect, a
second review-something I wasn't prepared to do.
So I went with the familiar: my own Convergent Audio
Technology SL1 Renaissance l?reamp {$7995), Mclntosh
MC275LE power amp {$5500), and loan samples of
PrimaLuna's ProLogue Prernium integrated {at $2299,
a real-world OJ?tion) and Simaudio's Moon Evolution
740P preamp ($9000) and 860A power amp {$14,000).
TI1e Simaudios, being new models, weren't entirely
known quantities, but I was farniliar with their respective
predecessors, the Moon Evolution P-7 and W-7. At one
point I'd had both sets on hand for comparison, and knew
that this pre/power combo was representative of today's top
solid-state electronics, the 740P/860A having even greater
finesse than the P-7/W-7. My comments on the sound of
the Aria 936 represent a kind of "averaging" of the sound
with the various ampli6.ers, with differences as noted.
Sound
Smooth. Very smooth. Not smootll in the sense of glossing
over or subduing the sharp transients that characterize the
sounds of certain instruments, but just not exaggerating or
sharpening them. 11lls was my initial impression of the Aria
936, and it persisted throughout extended listening.
One of my favorite tests of transient response is track
3 of the Cllesky Records j azz Sampler & Audiophile Test
Aria 936's excellent low-frequency
extens1011, 1suspect that thiS 15 actually
related to the spealœr's exagerated
upper bess.
Higher tn frequency 1n figA, the
936 s midrange and treble are extraordlnanly smooth and even. The nse '"
response due to the tweeter's pnmary
diaphrqm resonance occurs above
15kHz. and it can be seen that there 1s
a sharply defined antiresonance above
20kHz. but below the frequency of the
tweeter esonance. A louc:lspeaker's
percelved tonal balance depends not
just on its frequency response but also
on how that response changes off axis.
1- 1
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10
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Fig 5 shows the Ana 936's horizontal
rad1ation pattern, referenced to the
tweeter-axiS response. Oespite the
midrange dnve-unit's relatively large
rad1atmg dtameter, there 1s only a relatlvely shght off-ax1s tiare at the base
of the tweeter's passband, and the
contour hnes tn th1s graph are evenly
spaced and uniform. As is always the
case with a 1" tweeter, the output falls
off to the Sldes above 10kHz. but this
w1ll not lead to a lack of top-octave a1r
1n rooms of normal s1ze. ln the vertical
plane (fig 6) a suckout at the upper
crossover frequency occurs 10° above
the tweeter axis but as the tweeter
1s a h1gh 43" above the floor, this will
not be a problem. The average ear
___.
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10
1
Compad Dise, Vo/.1 0D37): Brazilian singer Ana Caram's
''Viola Fora de Moda." It's not the sort of music I normally
listen to-and in terms of absolute fidelity, this 25-year-old
recording it may not measure up to the resolution of the
latest 24-bit196kHz sources- but l'rn very familiar with it,
and it features lots of percussion instruments that challenge
the ability of speakers {and other audio components) to
reproduce their sounds. Through the Aria 936, the belis,
cymbal, etc., rang out &cely, with delicacy and without
any harshness-much like the real thing. The sound of the
cymbal at 0:54 was particularly telling in its clarity, with
a crisp onset and a graduai decay. And while the Aria 936
couldn't match the startling dynarnics of the horn-hybrid
Avantgarde Uno Nano, it came surprisingly close.
In tonal balance, speakers have come a long way from
the days when you had to choose between East Coast
{mellow, muted highs) and West Coast {bright, punchy,
forward) sounds. As a group, the speakers I've reviewed
lately-Monitor Audio Platinum 200, MartinLogan Montis,
Wharfedale Jade 7, Focal Chorus 826W, GoldenEar Triton
Two, PSB Imagine T2 Tower-offer tonal balances in the
"neutra!" category, and the differences among them fall into
a fairly narrow range. The Aria 936 definitely joins them in
this category. In olden days {when, as Cole Porter fans will
recall, a &lirnpse of stocking was looked on as something
shocking), one was likely to adjust an ampli6.er's bass and
treble controls to compensate for a speaker's departure from
tonal neutrality. Tone controls have pretty well disappeared
from high-performance audio gear, but if wc had them,
with the Aria 936 I would be inclined to leave the dials
l'--
v /
1
A&.7 Foal Am 936. step response on tweeter axiS
.. 50 (Sms time window 30kHz bMdwidth)
stereophile.com • November 2014
,... Foal Am 936 Clll'l1lllatift sp«trakkeay
plot on tweeter axis at 50 (0.15ms risetime)
he1ght for a seated hstener ls 36• from
the floor, so it s JUSt as weil that the
upper-frequency suckout doesn't start
to develop unt1ll0° below the tweeter
ax1s.
Tum1ng to the t1me doma1n, the
Focal Aria 936 s step response on the
tweeter ax1s (fig 7) shows that the
tweeter and midrange dnve-units are
connected 1n positive acoustic polarity,
the woofers 1n 1nverted polarity. But
more 1mportant than the 1nd1vidual
dnve-unit polaritteS 15 the tact that
the decay of each unit's step smoothly
blends with the start of that of the
next lower 1n frequency Th1s suggests
optimal crossover design, given the different d1stance of each unit's acoustic
center from the miCrophone position
RD commented on the Aria 936's
superb transparency, which 15 what 1
would have expected from the dean
decay seen '" the speaker's cumulative
spectral-decay plot (fig 8).
The Focal Aria 936's measured
performance would not be out of place
1n an expenSIYe louc:lspeaker. That
it costs JUst $3999/palr makes it an
extraord nary value.-..... ...._
99
FOCAl ARIA 936
in the Flat {or bypass) position. Bass, midrange, and treble
were ail present in a well-balanced way, with no part of the
audioband jumping out at me or sounding too muted.
One thi.ng the Aria 936 was 1101 was "bright." 1 mention
this specifi.cally because, in my occasional browsing of
Internet audio forums, I've encountered the statement
that "Focal speakers tend to be bright." Based on my
experience with the Aria 936, and with the earlier C horus
826W, 1 must disagree. Extended lùghs, transparent to the
tonal characteristics of the recording and of the associated
cquipment-yes. But from w hat I've been able to determine,
the Aria 936 did not add significant brightness of its own.
1 can certai.nly in1agine that w ith a cheap-and-not-sochecrful amplifier, and a parti.cularly "digital"-sounding
source, the resulting sound could be brighter than ideal.
1 prcfcrred to set my Ayre Acoustics CX-7eMP CD player
to it' Li~tcn rather than its Mcasurc filtcr- but then, th at
was my preference with other speakers as well. And while
therc wcre differences in the sound depending on whether
the elcctroni.cs were the solid-state Simaudio Moon pair
or the rubed CAT and Mclntosh, in neither case could
the sound be described as too bright-or too soft, for that
matter. Vocal sibilants are, for mc, the most telling indicators
of exaggerated treble-a "spitty" character that 1 find very
atmoying. However, the treble of the Aria 936 was d ean and
cxtcndcd but not overly bright, with no emphasis added to
sibilants-a tribute to the design ofFocal's new tweeter.
I noted earlier that one of my reasons for choosing the
Aria 936 over the smaller Aria 926 was that the 936 bas an
additional woofer and a claimed bass extension to 32Hz,
or 5Hz lower than the 926. I was concerned that the bass
mi.ght be too much for my room, but that wasn't a problem.
{The pair of ASC Bass Traps in the front corners probably
helped in this respect.) The bass sounded extended- not
qui.te as low or as room-filling as the GoldenEar Triton
Twos, but at !east comparable to the PSB Imagine T2s.
The Aria 936 went low enough to pass my usuallowfrequency test-the 32Hz synthesizer note at the beginning
of "Temple Caves," from Mickey H art's Planet Dnmr {CD,
Rykodisc RCD 10206)-with maybe a bit more assurance
than the PSBs. Double basses, bowed or plucked, were
firn1, not weak or exaggerated, and no obvious unevenness
manifested throughout the instrument's range.
Colorations- a speaker drawing attention to the fact that
the sounds beard are not being made by musicians playing
instruments in the room but are emanating from a box
and result from vibrations produced by transducers- are
endemie to loudspeakers, and controlling them represents
perhaps the greatest challenge in speaker design. The Aria
936 did exceptionally well in this departrnent, mi.xing
very little "speaker sound" in with the music. For the
most part, 1 found it easy to pretend that the sounds in my
CONFOUNDING, CABLES, AND ROOM ACOUSTICS
IN DESIGHING AN EXPERIMENT, one of the essential reQUirements is the avoidance of confounding. If you want to
determine the effect of a smgle vanable, you must change
only that variable, and keep everything else constant. If you
change more than one variable (unless it's part of a more
complexly designed, multivariable experiment), then any
differences in outcome may be due not to the variable of
mterest, but to the other, confounded vanables.
This concept is relsystem component has had
evant not only to scientifiC
to break in,/warm up, the
number of people in each
research but to conclusions
drawn from everyday obserroom. and a variety of psyvations. A typical example in
chologtcal factors, mcluding
aud o involves listening to a
the listener's mood and level
system featuring a particular
of aurai fatigue (the latter
speaker in one room at an
an important factor of show
audro show, then hstening to
conditions), etc. lt is 111 consideration of these potential
another speaker in another
system in another room. If
confounding factors that 1
your focus is on speakers,
tend to be cautious about
tt's tempting to attribute
drawmg conclusions about
any sonic differences to the
the sound of specifie audio
speakers, but the comparicomponents at shows.
son is rife with confounding.
While the methodoiUnless the two systems use
ogy used in the subjective
reviews of audio gear may
exactly the sa me components, each component is
not satisfy the most rigorous
a confounded variable-as
scientiftc criteria. 1think
are the rooms. the acoustJmost reviewers do their best
cal treatments (If any) in
to ensure that their conclusions represent the sound
each room, the posrtions of
the speakers, the position
of the component being
of the listener in the room,
reviewed, and not the result
the amou nt of trme each
of a farlure to eliminate
stereophile.com • November 2014
confounding. Whenever 1get
a new component to review,
1make it a point to keep the
rest of the system the same.
But sometimes there are obstacles to this practice. If the
component is a speaker, the
designer or marketing rep
may want to send me cables
that they've found work
particularly weil with that
speaker. 1can appreciate
that they want their product
to sound its best, but changing the cables involves obvious confounding. Of course,
1could listen to the speakers
with my usual cables as weil
as the ones the speaker de-
Robert Deutsdl's renovated
listeruna room.
signer recommends, but l'd
then be reviewing the cables
as weil as the speakers, and
1don't want togo down that
road. Unless there are solid
technical reasons for not
using my usual cables-eg,
the speakers need to see a
specifie characteristic cable
Impedance -1 prefer to stay
with cables whose sound is
familiar to me.
For several years now, l've
standardized on Nordost
Valhalla speaker cables. interconoects, and power cables.
101
FOCAL ARIA 936
room were of real voices and real instruments, and not
of electromechanical contrivances mounted in wooden
boxes. The use of fl.ax in the sandwich construction of the
midrange and bass drivers, and judicious internai bracing of
the cabinet, must have played major roles in allowing the
Aria 936 to be so free of any characteristic "speaker sound."
The soundstage presented by the pair of Aria 936s and
the precision of the images within that soundstage were
first-rate. Depending, of course, on the source material,
the soundstage was deep as weil as wide, and had good
specificity of images within the soundstage. Listening to the
series of"Depth of Image: Acoustic Clicker" trades on the
CheskyJazz Sampler & Attdiophile Test CD, Vol2 QD68), 1
could hear ali of the increases in depth up to 70',just one
step short of the maximum 80'.
Most of my listening to the Aria 936 was with the CAT
SL1 Renaissance and Mclntosh MC275LE. Tb.is was a
very good combination: there were no obvious "tube"
colorations, but a very liquid, "musical" sound. 1 also listened
quite a bit through the Sirnaudio Moon Evolution 740P
preamp and 860A power amp. Although my preference
remains with the tubed combo, 1 had no di.fficulty getting
accustomed to the sound of the solid-state Simaudio
gear, and came to appreciate their highly detailed but still
nonclinical sound, and their ability to drive the Arias to a
higher leve! than the tubed gear without strain.
Of course, the CAT/ Mclntosh and, especially, the
Simaudio preamp/ arnp combos, while not crazy-priced,
are still on the expensive side, costing more than most
potential buyers of the Aria 936 are likely to spend. Do
you have to spend big bucks to get the Aria 936 to sound
good? 1 would say the answer is ''No." My go-to product for
a moderately priced integrated amplifier is the PrirnaLuna
ProLogue Premium ($2299). lt worked weil with the Aria
936, its 35Wpc not a real limitation at the levels 1 normally
use, and while it had just a bit more tube character and
CONFOUNDING, CABLES, AND ROOM ACOUSTICS continucd
Are they the best? 1can't say.
There are a lot of cables out
there. and l've listened to only
a few of them (albeit sorne
other highly regarded ones}. l
haven't heard anything that is
more transparent to the signal and more reveafing of musically relevant sonic details
than the Valhallas. By sta)'lng
with them, 1know that at
least there has been no cable
change that would involve
confoundrng- and white the
Valhallas are more expensive
than the cables likely to be
used with a speaker such
as the Focal Aria 936, l'rn
pretty certarn that my cables
weren'tlimiting the speakers' performance in any
significant way.
But no audio product line
stays the same indefinitely,
and during my time with the
Aria 936 word came that
Nordost was replacing the
Valhallas with the Valhalla
2s, and the company offered to swap my loaner set
of original Valhallas with
Valhalla 2s. lt made sense to
rnove to the latest models.
but 1wasn't about to change
stereophile.com • November 2014
cables mrd-review, so 1
delayed using the Valhallas
untill'd fmished listemng
to the Aria 936. Once the
forrnallistening was done.
1wcts ready to swap cables.
And since the review was es·
sentially finished, confounding was no longer an issue.
And then 1thought As
long as l'rn making changes,
1 might as weil brte the bullet
and undertake the longoverdue renovation of my
listemng room. So out came
ali the equipment. CDs, and
LPs, to be temporanly stored
in other parts of the house.
and our renovation contrac·
tor set about removing the
wallpaper (sorne of it three
layers deep}, painting the
walls and ceilrng. tnstalling
crown moldings (which,
as weil as being attractive, may have sorne sonic
benefrts}, and replacrng
my hodgepodge of CD
racks with floor·to·cerlrng
shelves painted the color of
the walls. Another change
that 1expected to provide
acoustical benefits was the
replacement of two sets of
louvered doors that lead mto
a large closet on one side of
the room. The replacement
doors are much more solid.
and are marketed for therr
soundproofing properties.
The hardwood floor was
refinished, and the extrathrck rug that had covered
most of the floor (and
presented a challenge to
speaker cones and spikes}
was replaced with a smaller
one that would allow speak·
ers to be placed on the part
of the hardwood floor now
left exposed. When ali the
equipment. CDs, and LPs
were brought bacle. 1also
returned the pair of Tube
Traps to the front left and
right corners, and Cathedral
Sound resonance·controlling
deviees to the room's top
four corners. Finally, part of
the wall behind my main lrstening seat was covered with
sound·absorbing panels
from Vicoustics. l'd previously used packing foam for
this purpose-effective, but
not exactly decoratiVe. The
photo shows my listening
room after ali these renova·
tions. l don't have a •before~
photo, but if 1drd, trust meyou wouldn't want to see it.
1stlll had the review
samples of the Aria 936s,
and of course 1had to hear
what they sounded hke in
the revised environment
and wrth the new Valhalla 2
ca bles.
ln a word: great! And thrs
was without the speaker
spikes berng extended. and
without having gone to any
special trouble to set up
the speakers just so. The
sound was more open, more
dynamically free, more
lively, and perhaps a touch
brighter than before, but
still nowhere dose to being
too bnght. Keeprng rn mind
the multiple confound ings
represented by the changes
in cables, doors, carpet.
wall surface. moldrng. and
furnishings, 1can't say
what role each played in
producing the differences,
but the combined effect rs a
significantly more realistic
sound- and my greater
musical enjoyment.
-aallert Deootsdl
103
FOCAL ARIA 936
a bit less ulcimate ttansparency than the CAT/Mclntosh
duo, the FocaVPrimaLuna pa.iring is one I could live with
quite comforta.bly. I'm not experienced with solid-state
integrated a.mps at about the $2000 priee point, but a perusal
of the most recent edition of Stereophile's "Reconunended
Components" and ta.lking to a good dealer should help to
idencify sorne likely contenders.
Conclusions
''A big, spacious sound, tonally neutra!, with irnpressive
dyna.mics, and powerful bass for the size of the speaker."
That wa.s my capsule description of the sound of Focal's
Chorus 826W 30th Amùversary, and it also describes the
Aria 936, which is ali of those tlùngs- and more. As befits
its somewhat larger size and addicional woofer, tl1e Aria 936
reaches further down into the bass, witl10ut the bass sounding boomy or bloated. No longer havi.n g sa.mples of the
Chorus 826W on ha.nd for compa.rison, and tlms having to
rely on my memory and listening notes, I may be on tlùn ice
here, but I'm comforta.ble saying that the sound of tl1e Aria
936 i.s more detailed and more transparent, and its highs are
particularly clear and extended without sow1ding in any way
forward or clùùcal. Soundstages are bigger, and aurai in1ages
withill those soundstages are more precisely defined.
1l1e word 11oiœ ha.s long been associated witl1 tl1e
reproduction of music, goù1g back to His Ma.ster's Voice,
Electro-Voice, and Altec's Voice of the Theater. It is thus
most appropria te iliat Focal ha.s named their newest lù1e of
speakers Aria, a term that refers to vocal music. With the
right source and suitable partnering electronics, the Aria 936
sings witl1 a beauti.ful voice. •
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stereophile.com • November 2014
[email protected]
105