That's makes them un listenable?

I have active Focals and to my ears they are great!

My mate has micro utopia bes on an all Ayre system and they are pretty awesome too!

Component matching is a must and I know focals are a bit fussy but if u can get it right they can sound really good.

hard

Focals are not hard. They merely reproduce what's in front of them. If one could point a finger, one could say that although they don't put a foot wrong, they don't necessarily put a foot right. At least one migfht say that about the lower end Focals. This makes them very forgiving and therefore easier to match to most brands. Of course, get a bland sounding brand and the whole shebang will be bland., Get something with a bit of life and guts, then hopefully some of that will come through.

The better ranges such as the Electra Be and the Utopia range are very listenable, but I find that they are ruthlessly revealing and will simply sound awful when the electronics is not up to scratch.

I wouldn't go as far as say "un listenable"..

...... but, accuracy can go too far sometimes..

Quite often, the truth hurts, be it in the recording or the driving electronics, when it comes from such revealing speakers.

I've never got on with them, mind you ive only ever heard the top models where they sounded like cats nails running down a board a ruthless and aggressive midrange with no bass, a very odd sound, I couldn't live with it, I prefer a more warmer sweeter sound, I can't see how you could listen to that type of presentation for a long time, they obviously need very carefully matching equipment, cables and room to get them to work well.

I always come away with a migraine, they lack any kind of musicality and emotion and thrust upon you a barrage of screechy highly pitched treble, I never heard them sounding like I could sit and listen for a longer period of time.

I agree I would like them to be warmer sounding but I do like their revealing character, they dont have the warmth that my KRK's do!

Was thinking about adding a good tube pre in front of them?

They match Naim kit very well...

really! Is that good or bad in ur view Frank?

Good

Do they work well those two? I'm surprised, I didn't think they'd make such good bed fellows.

Crikey, no accounting for taste. I'd have Focals over KEFs any day of the week - and any KEF!

And indeed, the beryllium tweeter is fantastically clean without being bright, at least in my experience. whereas all a KEF's tweeter does is ring and ring and ring, awful.

Funny how we can have such diamtrically opposite views aboutt he same things isn't it?

Adam, perhaps it's the Naim drive allied to the Focal's resolution? I don't know, it just seems to work. I was talking to the Focal man at the show and he was saying that it's the preference for quite a few Naim dealers apparently.

Im looking at a nac 152xs to go with my active focals now, unfortunatly I cant demo one so I am hoping that it will be a good match.

As I am using an in-built amp from focal do u think I will get the effect u mention from having the naim pre Frank?

I dont know who make the focal amps...