It's more frustrating for me because I like Focal products. I don't know how this happened. Was it a slip up from the team at Focal and just didn't see the blemishes? Maybe we're actually demos. Not knowing is frustrating. It's like your neighbor scratching your car by accident it and not telling you. You don't want to blame him/her but you would always wonder.
I was unaware Focal made speakers with the same serial numbers, one for consumers and other for reviews. This could be the case though. Funny they would use the same number twice. I even have pictures of them with serial numbers in my listening room. I was curious and looked it up and found them. :) the serial numbers do match the review.
Anyway, I don't feel I would have paid as much as I did for demo pair. I past up a pair on Audiogon that I found that were $7,000 cheaper than what I paid for mine. Given they were used, but $7,000 I would have saved would have bought me cables, amp, ect.
I would be happy with some touch up paint and maybe an extra tweeter. The tweeters are exposed and all it take is a slip dusting and it would be nice to replace a dented tweeter.
As far as the front end, I would like to get a turn table, nothing fancy. My CD collection is much larger so that would be the first step. I am really looking in hi res content on a solid state hard drive or even an Aurender unit.
I would like to thank all who have had positive input to this tread. This would be my first one ever on any web site. It's nice to get other people opinions.
Anyone out there have Focal Utopias? I'm curious on anyone liking or disliking gear used with them. I'm looking to get amps first, then a pre and last a source. I'm doing the source last because I'm not sure which way I want to go. So far I'm looking at:
Audio Research Ref 75
Devialet 200/400
Pass labs (same pricing)
Rogue Audio Apollo monos
Thanks all again.