What speakers to get? Focal or B&W

If you're looking at Focals, take a look at the Twin 6 BE's. I have a pair in my recording studio and brought them in to my living room to try them with my stereo. They sound incredible and are active to boot so you would save $$$ on amplification.

I used to own B&W Nautilus 804, and currently own Focal Electra 1037BE. B&W's are pretty revealing. B&W's sounded thin when the front end sounds thin. With decent front end and amplification the midrange is lush and full. If you are using a receiver to power B&W's, I can tell you right off the bat that you will probably find the treble rather thin and harsh. I don't know about the Profile's, but Electra's have all the good virtues of B&W's, but they are more balanced, and have fantastic treble that is airy and free of glare or harshness.

My experience is otherwise (ignoring your curious attempt to compare last gen B&W to current gen Focal in completely different price ranges); in my experience the Electra 1037Be is completely unbalanced - bass is obviously outclassed by the superb midrange and tweeter. In essence, the Electra outperforms the B&W 803D from the midrange on up but as a whole the B&W 803D is the better speaker. Now, when you talk about Alto Utopia on up it's a whole different ballgame (which probably explains why I own the Altos :) ).

In any case, he wasn't discussing the 1037Be or anything else in that price range.

Bar81. I love Alto Utopias, and they are one of the best sounding speakers that I've ever auditioned. But perhaps you should heed your own advise and not throw in random speakers that OP has not requested.

I don't have any negative to say about Nautilus 804 that I used to own, and if you re read my post you'll agree to it.

I'm not sure why you were compelled to bash 1037BE. I merely mentioned it because that's my current speakers. However you are the first one to say that 1037BE is not balanced. What they are not is an easy load. The impedance drops significantly at 1KHz and down. They will require amps that can supply a lot of currents at low impedance, otherwise they will sound lean. Perhaps your previous impression was hampered by inadequate amps. I'll just leave it at that. If you want further discussion perhaps you can start another thread.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion; I don't view my comments as "bashing" (rather they are a compliment to how good the midrange and tweeter are); and that wasn't my intent. I can see how someone would be happy with the 1037Be; it just wouldn't be me.

btw, the Halcro top of the line monoblocks that were being used, are, frankly, on a whole other level than the 1037Be and a best case scenario so I have no concerns that I heard all the 1037Be was capable of (although I'm sure it didn't help my opinion of the 1037Be that I was comparing them in the same system to the new Revel Studios and then the Altos).