Long time lurker looking for HT opinions

I’m not aware of Focals being laid back.  I’ve not owned them but I’ve never read or heard anyone say that about them.  I’ve heard forward and bright though.  Not that neat helps you at all.  They are well reviewed on Crutchfield for whatever that’s worth.  They have a great return policy.  I read on an AV forum that someone compared them favorably to the B&W 805s they replaced them with if that helps at all.

Yes, the house sonic character of Focal is not laid back.

Focal's are fast too.

I do like Focal speakers and my vote goes to the L/C/R approach where all speakers are totally matched (same brand). I read that with HT movie soundtracks, when sounds move from speaker to speaker, it makes sense to have all speakers totally matched. That’s just my HT two cents…

We have all Focal speakers in our home theatre and it sounds great ! Music sounds good as well. Good luck!

Thanks all for the replies.  I suppose others listening and ears are slightly different than mine.  Imagine that.  I've heard what I would consider "bright" speakers before, and the focals seemed much more towards the sound of my old mirage OM7's.  Of course, it's been a LONG time since I was in the tad higher end of stuff with two kids for the last 20 years....lol.  From what I remember when visiting higher end stores(that seem to be a think of the past), the B&W, Spendor, Sonus Faber speakers were all much more mellow to me compared to Paradigm's, Dali's, KEF.  Maybe I am misremembering, who knows.  Like I said, it's been a long time.  Regardless, thanks all.  Now I need to figure out if I go the 300 LCR all around the TV, or try to save a bit of money and put the 300 regular 6 series for R/L and just the LCR for the center.  @ronboco, what are you using?  In walls or floorstanders and surrounds?

We have floorstanders for the mains (Kanta 3) and Kanta 1 for surrounds and the Kanta center channel. A Marantz 8805 with a McIntosh 8207 amp. The system is on my page if you would like to take a look. 

@tigheandjudi does your HT space double as a 2 channel listening area or is it exclusively for HT duties?

I’ve been into HT since I was a kid, I got into 2 channel about 7 years ago.  I had always listened to the advice that you wanted all your HT speakers to be voiced the same.  Once I got into 2 channel I shifted, ignoring that and getting left / righty front speakers with 2 channel being the priority.  I have a Dolby Atmos set up, 7 speakers total, not including 2 subs.  The only matching speakers I have are a Focal center and Focal towers I actually use for the surround sound speakers in the back of my HT space.  I haven’t ever noticed an issue with my HT set up, synergy having different brands, speakers mixed.   Now, I have matching pairs, same speakers Left / Right fronts, same in ceiling Atmos speakers, same speaker rears.  
 

The most important speakers in HT are the Center Channel, has the highest usage rate, then the Right / Left fronts.

If you are using the space exclusively for HT, I’d go with everything matching, if you are going to use the set up for 2 channel, prioritize the left / right fronts and don’t worry about matching or having the same brand.  
 

One biggie is I have always had HT receivers that have Room Correction, this may be a big reason why I’ve never had an issue with mixed brands / speakers in my HT set up. 

Good Luck. 

This is for primarily HT use and TV watching.  I use 2 channel rarely, and honestly when I do the 707's sound good enough to me.  Granted, they are pretty large to be called bookshelves, but they reach pretty low and are most likely better than most mass market brand floorstanders.  Yes, I am most definitely going with the LCR version for the center.  Once I saw that they now make a 33 degree angled In wall 6" for directional firing, it got me thinking that if I'm gonna spend the money, I may as well include those for atmos at the top of the wall where it meets the ceiling.  But that will still add ~$800 for a pair, so considering not doing the LCR for the FR/FL, but rather the base 6" rectangle 2way.  Decisions decisions.  I think in the end, it's going to sound exceptional for the majority of folks including myself that will be listening to them.  Just wanted some extra feedback from those that have experience with a tad higher end components/systems.  Thanks again all.

I'm setting up a media room based on exactly the same principle as mentioned by the poster above. I started out buying all matching speakers (KEF R-series) but later decided I wanted to upgrade my main L&R to Dutch & Dutch 8c's. They don't make a center channel and buying one to use as such is impractical (and maybe not possible anyway). So I'll definitely be testing the school of thought that matching brands is not super important with even the center being another brand. I'll be using a Lyngdorf pre/pro with their proprietary room correction called Room Perfect. Total of 15 speakers plus subs.

I should note that my priority with the room is music (2-channel and possibly multi-channel) so the center will only be used when in theater mode. If it's too noticeable I can try using a phantom center. My seating is just one enormous sofa so I'm not too worried about different seats having a problem with dialogue.

The D&D's are uniquely equipped to handle what would normally be the acoustic issue of having a 100" flat screen tv between them (they're highly directional). They also have their own room correction that'll come in handy when listening to just them.

I'm still in room prep mode so I'm anxious to get everything going.

we are a custom installer/home theater specialists.

a few points one focals are not laid back and you need a matching center channel

if you want a warmer loudspeaker that is an excellent in wall look at the dali line

Dave and Troy

Audio Intellect NJ

Focal and Dali dealers

For Home HT , you want fast clear  speakers  : Focal , Monitor Audio .

@maxwave "For Home HT , you want fast clear  speakers  : Focal , Monitor Audio ."

Totally agree. I have MA's in my main system and JBL in-wall for my HT. 

With more and more music and movies being done/redone in Dolby Atmos having a timbre-matched set of speakers is more important than ever. At the very minimum all from the same vendor as they will likely share the 'house sound'. 

@shooter41 As impressive as the D&D 8Cs are, integrating them into a HT appears to be quite a challenge as you will have 'dueling technologies' both acoustically and electronically between the D&Ds and the other speakers in the system and between the Lyngdorf HT processing and the onboard D&D processing.

I would consider doing the HT as a separate set of speakers entirely from your 2-Ch setup and using a high-quality in-wall solution for your HT needs. That way the visual intrusion in your room is minimized, and your 2-Ch listening and the D&Ds are unfettered by the competing interests of the HT requirements. 

@panzrwagn The plan is to set the D&D's up alone first, then when they're dialed in I'll set up the rest of the system with the Lyngdorf.

I get what you're saying about an alternate plan but using on-walls (it's an exterior wall so I don't want to compromise the thermal or acoustic resistance of removing insulation to install in-walls) would be problematic as getting some that are comparable to the R-series KEFS in the rest of the system would be too costly considering that I'm already stretching the budget to get the D&D's.

I could repurpose the speakers that were going to be the front wides as main L&R speakers for HT, but that would mean a pretty crowded front end of the room.

If the dueling technologies do compete I'm not that worried about it unless it turns out to be a complete disaster. It would only happen during theater use, not music since I do plan to listen to the D&D's alone the majority of the time. I'm going to give it a shot as planned and and will adjust accordingly if needed.

What is meant by a fast speaker?