Are Focal Speakers Any Good?

[John_B 11]

Im after some standard sized front speakers. I was all set to buy some Pioneers- their £130 larger speakers they used to have in my local halfords always sounded great. But when I listened to the 5 ones I thought they sounded awful.

 

I thought Id better listen to some before I made up my mind so after visiting all the ICE shops in Swansea and Cardiff and not liking any! I found this one shop where they recommended the Focal Polyglass 130 CV1 for £100. He said hed put them in the car and take them out if I didnt like them.

 

130 CV1

 

 

This is the only place I've found that sells them online

 

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/p...ts_id/4676.html

 

so the price seems fair.

 

 

Anyway anyone have them? Are they any good? Whats the price like?

Edited August 18, 2007 by John_B

[cybernck 400 1 Cars]

Focal speakers are one of the best out there but Polyglass is their lowest product line.

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

yes focal are VERY good speakers. I'd recommend looking at rainbow and DLS as well.

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

cant beat these for the money

 

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/rainbow-sl...2bb15547f6e16d7

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

Top advice here; Focal are indeed an excellent brand and usually extremely expensive. I had some DLS (made in Scandanavia IIRC) and have heard of Diamond too, but similarly these are better quality brands and you ALWAYS get what you pay for. The only way round this (as I did, was find an audio dealer who wanted to sell some ex-display models, or even some removed from a customer who just wanted an even newer version. A got my DLS 6.5 inch components for £50 ex-display instead of £200!!

 

I would stress however that installation is everything, and in a standard 205 - hole in a metal box - door speaker location a £15 speaker will probably sound no better than a £1500 one. I mean that at sensible volume levels, as a better quality speaker attached to an amp will naturally handle more power which some could define as better. But I think the biggest gain is to be had by improving the mounting and fixing of the speakers into the doors, the sound proofing/deadening within the doors, decent quality cabling and tweeter positioning if relevant. A high pass filter feeding these front speakers not much under 60hz (i.e. no real bass signal) will also help a great deal.

 

I think £100 is a perfectly acceptable figure to invest on your main, front staging speakers, but you'd be throwing 80% of that investment down the toilet if you didn't improve the speaker fitting in the first place.

 

I have Dynamatted my doors, and made an extremely firm 12mm MDF trimmed baffle plate to mount my 5 1/4" Sony components in and made sure not one rattle or sqweak exists in the doors, trims, in fact anywhere in the car. They receive no signal below 80hz and the tweeters are at the ends of the dash angled towards the rear view mirror. The transformation, including clarity, imaging, solid 'up front' bass reproduction and power handling is incredible.

 

I think the Focals are a good bet, where you could take your man on his word and perhaps pay him an extra £50 to £100 to fit them as I personally would recommend. Installation always makes or breaks any sound system.

 

Rich

Edited August 24, 2007 by DrSarty

[Baz 421]

I used to work in the Car audio trade a few years ago and would agree with DrS about installation, particularly in something like a 205. Focal are one of the better manufacturers. DLS/Diamond stuff is VERY good, top quality stuff, and yes expensive, but worth it IMO and from my own experience.

 

I used to have a Diamond 'M5' iirc, 12" sub powered by a Genesis (another top quality brand! ) amp, with 2 sets of Kenwood Dual Mag high end components with the tweeters strategically placed, all very well installed in my original 205, and it sounded excellent, really crisp and clear, it was a fairly basic system really, but sounded soo good.

 

Shame it got stolen!

Edited August 24, 2007 by BazGTMi