Speaker upgrade around 100k retail

I have and love the Stella Utopia EM's.  If you like the Focal sound, the Stella's will not disappoint.  I am driving them with the McIntosh MC901's so not sure how your gear would work with the Stella's.  

Rockport, Wilson, Focal 

I also own a pair Focal Stella Utopia em3's. They are absolutely superb. There's no other conventional speaker that really appeals, if - when i replace them it will be  something in a completely different direction, namely dipoles or omnis.

Before my Stellas i had Alon - Nola open baffle speakers which i adored....but i got fed up with replacing blown drive units. The Stellas manage the same, difficult room with ease, offer superior timbre, and are much more musical and forgiving than the monitor - approach of the Alons. Plus the EM subwoofer really is quite special, where previously i had to drive my OB speakers hard to get my desired spl's, the Stellas are just effortless. 

I have two final observations;
Boulder 2160 amplification with Focal Stella Utopias is a marriage made in heaven, unsurprising since Boulder use Grande Utopias at Boulder hq.
Secondly, judging from the slew of unhelpful responses above you may be better off posting on a different forum that better reflects the level of your system, i would recommend WBF, lots of CH users there

I have to agree. I love my Stella Utopias!  Before that I had the Nola Grand References, four towers, and couldn’t live with them, no mid bass impact and disappointing bass for a separate  tower of woofers! Plus having to biamp. Not a wise purchase, but now I have music, impact, and coherent beautiful sound! 

The bass is epic, isn't it?


That''s so interesting Tim...i still have the (deep breath) Concert Grand Reference Golds on my shortlist. I wonder if the more conventional two tower layout addresses the issue you faced, which has been reported by owners.

It was my previous experience Alon speakers were exemplary in the area you say yours were deficient in, it really is quite striking

I was minded to combine the CGRG's with the sub towers you had with your Grands. Carl offered me the same package with the next ones down the range, but i really felt i wanted the main towers to be big enough to do the heavy lifting wrt the lower frequencies, with the subs only rolling in sub 40hz. It's still something i may end up doing, when funds permit, but likely as a second system with Wavac power amps.

What do you drive your Stellas with?