"What a refreshingly honest blog about listening to music through hi-fi. So happy to see views based upon the enjoyment of music rather than so-called sound 'quality'." - Peter Comeau, Director of Acoustic Design at Mission / Wharfedale

Friday 21 February 2014

Bristol Show 2014 - Focal and Naim

It must be said, I haven't really had good experiences with Focals to date.  The likes of the Diablo always sound too aggressive and waaaay too bright, topping off a very "technical" sound that doesn't seem to offer much in the way of music.
However, today, these are the best I've heard Focals (and that includes the ones used in the Naim Statement demo) the floorstanding Aria 900 being far less bright than their usual offerings. 
Mid range Naim electronics (NDX / XPS and SuperNait / HiCap) feeding streamed music into these really bounced along with deep and reasonably controlled bass lines.  Still a touch on the bright side, but without the aggression and it wasn't overpowering.  They let you play your own music in this room too, and this was popular - had to wait in the queue of 4 other tracks on USB sticks before we got to the Malia / Boris Blank I brought along.  Yet another example of how much better Naim can sound when not using Ovators...

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