Anyone heard the new Focal Grande Utopia EM?

Talk2me,

I finally had the chance to compare the Scala head to head with the Alto and I stand corrected - the difference is significant. What Focal has done is pretty impressive and something I am still having a hard time comprehending given what I thought were the similarities between the two designs; the Alto remains a great speaker but the Scala just improves upon it in every way top to bottom and somehow makes the Alto seem slightly veiled (which is pretty shocking considering how veiled most other speakers sound in comparison to the Alto ime).

I have a pair of Grand Utopia EM for 5 months.
it takes a long time to break in.

The result is great in term of soundstage, dynamics. They are also very fast. The difference between CD and SACD is now extraordinay with my DCS stack Elgar Plus / Verona / La scala. I may move to dcs scarlatti but I am so happy now that I am not in a hurry to upgrade.

You need a big room to let them breath. Set up needs a lot of time (it took me tens of tests after break in before I put the spikes which improve greatly the sound).

Sound can be big or more focused depending on your set up and taste. This is also the beauty of an adjustable speaker.

I have never heard these speakers with a proper set up (placement/adjustable level are very sensitive) in a dealer shop or at an exhibition. And usually they do not have spikes. As such, most reviews are useless...

Focal should release a new model with the EM technology later this year.

Autentic, What amplification are you using?

From the specs they appear to be quite efficient.

I heard them at RMAF the last two years and they where paired with high power solid state amps both times.

This seems to be counter productive.

Do they need all that power to shine?

I am currently using a pair of Theta Citadel 1.5, and an ARC Ref 3. ; These speakers do not need a powerfull amp, but you need an amp that can go quite low. Focal demos them with Halcro but I did not heard the combination.
I heard them with Krell but did not find it was a good.
I heard them with Viola amps : very liquid but did not go low enough for my taste (some meat was missing).

This speaker is very fast and can go very low. So you need an amp accordingly. After 5 months of experiments, I can say that these speakers are so revealing that you need very carefull matching, including all types of cables.

I do not feel the need to change my amp, but as you know it's a never ending story... I am aware that I have room for significant improvements but limitation is definitely not the speaker in my set up. At this point, I still have an image too big for voices and violin (for instance), but experiments with new cables showed that it could be solved.

I'm one of the lucky ones that have a local place that has the Focal Utopia Grande speakers in the store and are willing to let common people listen to them. I've heard them alone and with a JL Audio subwoofer, I think it was the Gothom. I've also had the opportunity to hear the Chorus 706v, 816v & 836v speakers on the same system. I personally prefer the Utopia Diablo's, but all three of the Utopia's that I've heard are amazing.