Focal Maestro Utopia , need advice for AMP/PRE

Pelo911

I hear you concerning crazy money for the XS amps. By the way you purchased a fantastic pair of speakers.

In my opinion either the 160.5 or 200.5's would provide plenty of power to drive your Focals. You can always contact Mark at Reno HiFi and audition them in your system and if they don't work out simply send them back, your only cost is shipping to and fro; truly a great person to work with.

Meljo's post suggests that the Focal Maestros will sound their best with a solid state power beast. Another heavy duty power beast is Bryston. I surmise that tube amps may not bring out the Focal's best.

Thanks Pelo ..., but I gotta pass for now. If one more new piece of gear comes into the house, it'll be like death on a cracker for me. Still tryin' to figure out how I managed to keep my head when getting the "new" ARC Ref 150 into the house and the "old" ARC VS-115 out. :-(

But as I said, I'll be keepin an eye out for the Focals and Revlon Studio 2. My biggest concern is whether the Ref 150 has the ooohhmmph to drive them to their best.

Btw, I read Atkinson's review of the Maestros. Quite impressive. But he cautioned that one needs a lot of power to get them to sound their best.

JA made special note of the Focal's beryllium tweeter. I know Focal, Revel, Usher and Paradigm use beryllium dome tweeters. Could be others too. As I have mentioned, I have Paradigm Signature 8 v3 speakers, which have the "be" tweeters. Very impressive high end.

more and more Focal owner recommend me to use Accuphase
they said it's on different class then almost anything with Utopia models.

anybody here think the same?
what model have enough power to drive the Maestro at their best?

To follow up, I can't say that the Focals require a solid state power beast to perform their best, only that the Krell gears was far superior to my ear compared to Asthetix.

I did hear one of the mid level Utopia speakers with a Pathos Logos and has no objections, but it was in a much less controlled environment and a much shorter experience.

My speakers are Focal 836v and I have heard them on the Krell amplifiers and was equally impressed and am currently blown away with the sound of my Yaqin tube amplifier and would put it on par with the Krell S-300i. I wouldn't exclude tubes from potentially sounding fantastic with any Focal speaker, but if I had the funds to get into the Utopia line I would go Krell and never look back.