Anyone heard the new Focal Grande Utopia EM?

Pkancel:

"I am not sure in what type of setups you have hear dthe Utopias but comparing it to the usual suspects made them shine as the clear winner for me and i listen to mostly classical music."

I heard them in a good but nothing special set up. I heard the 1037s on Arcam mono blocks and CD player, 15X22X10 room, speakers were 3 feet off the rear wall and 3 feet off the side walls. Most of my auditioning of Focal speakers were of the 1037s (three, 2+ hour auditions of the 1037) because they were local. I made a trip one time to go hear the Alto (one, 1 hour audition). Room was about 15X25X8 I was unfamiliar with equipment used other than the amp was a pricey Krell amp (WAY out of my budget... so I did not get the details).

Now I am not knocking anyones choice and Focals are very good speakers. The things I did not like about them are minor but at their asking price I felt the need to nitpick (if they were $5000 less I might own a pair...).

There was one time during the audition (of 1037s) that the lack of driver integration stuck out for me.I was listening to Nora Jones' album "Its not too late" I believe the song was "Im not your friend". While she was singing a part of the song her voice came straight out of the tweeter. It was very directional and I could pinpoint the source of the sound coming from the speakers. In other parts of the song her voice shifted from the midrange back to the tweeter (the sound stage shifted).

I believe the problems I heard were caused by overly steep/low crossovers (third order at 2kHz). I did not hear this problem on the two other speakers I auditioned the same week (B&W 802D, Thiel 3.7). Both the 802D and 3.7s have first order crossover for the tweeter. The 802D's mids would cover the upper part of Nora Jones voice anyway (crossover=first order at 4kHz). I did not spend a lot of time with the Alto because it sounded like a pair of 1037s with better bass...

Anyway I really love the look of the new Focal line. I hope they sound as good as they look! At a rumored 130,000 euros ($191,000 @ 1:1.47 conversion rate) for the Grande Utopia EM they are fare beyond my reach (or desire...).

Does anyone know what the official price for the Grand Utipia EM is?

Come on guys. If you want to slam a product you'll have to do a lot better than Wilson Sophia, Dynaudio C4, Revel Studio2 and B&W 802D.

After all of this, I have been intrigued about the new Focals and visited my dealer. I saw the actual print material and photos for the new lineup and wow,, it is just plain sexy! they ae available in painted finishes and so are even more flexible in matching your room and decor. My Focal dealer had seen and heard the Grandes and Escalas as well as their new bookshelf, the Diablo. He does not speak with much excitement about many produts and this is the first time that saw him almost salivate during the explanation of the new product. Between this and the Burmester electronics, he said, you'd have a match made in heaven. granted that i already have purchased the Burmester gear, I am eager to hear and experience the new products.

I just spoke to the Focal dealer in Orange County that is the largest Utopia dealer I have seen in my travels in the U.S. they have Grande Utopias, Nova Utopias, Altos Utopias, Diva Utopias, and even the Micro+Sub. They are going to have the Grande EM's as well as the new Altos(Escalas?), and new Micros (Diablos?) Anyhow, they are talking of dong a release event that I signed up for. I am not sure when it is going to be but I am eager to hear them.

keithr--where can you get a new 3 series for 31k?