As the title says… The speakers that changed everything for me!
Sound of towers
I am not a big tower speaker guy. I completely understand the benefits of having these large, imposing speakers in your listening room. While there are bookshelf speakers that sound big, they will never have the deep, commanding bass of towers. However, my listening room is not so big, and I am not the biggest bass enthusiast in the world. Bass helps treble sound more fun, grounded, and listenable. Good coupling creates audiophile magic.
Watch or read my Focal Aria 906 review, as it is sort of part one of this review
I strongly recommend you watch my Aria 906 review, as I will frequently compare and use it for reference in this review. It can even be said that I consider that one to be part one of this review.
Accommodation
Let's return to accommodation... The amount of air being thrown out from these cabinets can be really punishing for smaller rooms. The sound reflections can make the audio muddy, requiring care in positioning, acoustic treatment, and pairing.
However, these speakers are not as hard on your room as other towers. If the room size is decent, around 20m², and you have the recommended listening distance of 3m, you should be fine.
Technical specification
While they share some characteristics with the baby brother, the 906, one interesting change is in the tweeter design. The aluminum/magnesium tweeter uses a different suspension method between the dome and bracket with Poron, which has a memory foam kind of effect. They say it works wonders for stability and precision of the soundstage.
Otherwise, there are the Flax cones, which I expressed my satisfaction with in the review of the 906, for their neutrality and how they don’t color the sound much.
Familiar but different sonic experience
There is a lot of familiarity here, but all that disappeared when I first played these speakers. These are not the baby brother’s shy first few dates, but rather someone confident in its strengths, knowing how to communicate them well.
I don't know if it's from those two speaker drivers, but there is a lot of body in the music, and combined with the new tweeter, it adds verve and an uplifted feeling.
In my review of the Aria 906, I criticized how shy and reserved they were, lacking dynamics in the treble and passion. But here, I can say those strings and drums are fun. I might stick around a bit more and listen to your sonic tales, Focal.
Insightful and big sound
These speakers exhibit what Focal does fantastically: insightful sound with great tonal accuracy and an engulfing soundstage. I was so happy to actually sit and listen to all these great micro details, dissecting the rhythm section and understanding the texture and properties used to recreate those sounds. This is a mature audiophile device, rewarding great pairing and experience.
Rewarding experience of listener
Experience plays a key role here. Let’s say you spend 2500 euros, the cost when they arrived on the scene, or maybe 1800 euros, the cost now. That is a hefty price for just speakers. As audio addiction goes, you need a great power source to feed these speakers to be truly satisfied. Not just the speakers, but you. There is always a hole you try to fill to experience more sonic wonders. That hole never gets filled, no matter how much you invest. Speakers speak to us on not just a physical level but also an emotional level. We want to be satisfied and validated with sound, and satisfied with our accomplishments and small victories in building an audiophile experience and system. As time goes on, you get accustomed to the sound characteristics of your device.
As someone experienced in listening to audiophile gear, you know what comes with that territory. You know patience and the true joy of hearing something new or sonically different. Your ear can pick up more and more as it becomes trained. These are one of those speakers that require trained ears to pick up as much of the dynamics and details. They won’t aggressively present themselves to you. They expect you to have that audiophile mileage.
Immediacy of sound
The difference from the 906 is the immediate fun you will have with them. They open the dynamics in the treble, pushing everything in front of you, rising the hair on your arms with every double bass and cymbal strike.
The large amount of air they create carries everything around like a typhoon in this large soundstage. There is a presence that cannot leave you uninterested or not in awe.
It all comes with the great qualities of Focals: great soundstage and imaging.
Balance and clarity/verve and presentation
However, we come to an interesting point about how much it can be balanced like previous speakers. The previous speakers were balanced and structured in a way that brought joy in continuous listening sessions. They were smooth and beautiful.
Unfortunately, we are dealing with a different beast here.
Don’t expect the clarity and transparency of the 906. Focal was not lying about the 3m distance between listener and speaker. These speakers need space. Not just because high dispersion will get muddy, but the bass can get boomy quickly without space.
It’s not that there are no details and separation here, but if you want the utmost clarity, the 906 wins. The 906 creates more separation spatially in the soundstage.
Imaging and Soundstage
Here you have this grand soundstage, a massive soundstage, but also a massive actors on that stage. They are big and present and you can feel textures and separation, but I could be in that production room in 906 where those instruments have been created, here I am in a concert a greatly produced concert, but still concert where it is not that you care so much about separation, how much about verve, presentation, dynamics and range. As those are incredible, but interestingly enough imaging was great.
I did not expect that, it is equally impressive here, no… with everything you know it makes it even more impressive here. Imaging is sometimes complicated issue with towers, as crossover between additional drivers can cause not perfect couplings, and sometimes imaging suffer in process. But here Focal did their magic, goddamn this Frenchmen’s are on fire.
Problems and Issues
Now, let’s talk about the inconveniences. The size and scope of these speakers require a certain type of room and listener to truly enjoy. You need to move them from walls, isolate your floor, and give space between them and yourself. Otherwise, the sound might lack clarity.
Secondly, they are not the most fun or passionate towers. Better than the 906, yes, but there are cheaper towers that deliver more punch and furiosity than the Focal Arias. They are special speakers that blew me away, but they might not be for everyone.
Thirdly, the price. They are fairly priced now compared to the market, but initially, they were a bit too expensive. There is steep competition from brands like Dali, Q Acoustics, and KEF.
Cheaper Alternatives
Actually while we are in subject of that, I would like to compare this with much cheaper speakers to drive a point. And that is Dali Oberon 5 and 7. Especially Dali Oberon 5 is like 2 to 3 times cheaper than Aria. But Dalis are so much more expressive even thou they are cheaper, they have more passion and greatly expand their richness in mids.
They can not compare to level of extraction of details, separation, soundstage and imaging of Focal. But they also do a great job to image and create soundstage. But they are much much more cheaper, they are far easier to accommodate in a room, and gives a sound you would prefer more maybe. Let me be clear they are not better speakers, I personally still think Aria 926 are better. But this are cheap alternatives to consider, as I have lived wth both Oberon and Arias for long time, and it is incredible how much you will miss one and other when listening to them. You can even see review of Oberson on my channel it will be linked down below. But Dali Opticon 6 and 8, well that is a different story. A story for some other review.
Real Life Experience - Listening Seasons
I have to mention one thing more, I know that I said in my review of Aria 906 that they are not best suited with jazz, as I was a little bit disappointed. But I have to change that opinion for Aria 926, and for good example I will take this record in my background the Miles Davis In silent Way. In silent way is a fusion jazz pioneer record, influence or not by Ornette Colman. It also beside Miles Davis trumpet have John McLaughlin on guitar. I think this is a jazz played with certain passion and psychedelia that requires a bit more live speakers to follow, and also many speakers struggle with trumpets here, that can sound dangerously high. Even Focal Aria 906 which I said smooths highs have problem completely managing them, and can sound bright at time. 926 completely shocked me with how much I enjoyed myself listening to this, the same smooth sound that I praised now have presence with dynamics, a bunch of them, and they are aimed a bit at that treble spectrum to give more spice to sound. And yet holding on to that smooth sound was amazing to me, still those highs are not complete smoothed out, as this are not warm speakers. But trumpet, guitar and drums have this giant presentation, and separation that brought big big smile on my face. I was vibing along with that galloping drum, with bunch of textures and percussions. It was lovely how Miles notes where touching me, and he is sitting right next to me, instead me looking from a far. I loved what I was hearing.
Conclusion
And that comes to moment when I have to say that this speakers changed everything for me. They really did, I loved Aria 906, but it took all the problem I had with them and upgraded it. To sound fresh, smooth but also with verve and passion. It is still not the most upfront and passionate speakers, especially not in tower level in this price range. But I will take it. I will take it all!
If you want dynamics, smoothness, imaging and soundstage come to the party Focal is inviting you. Come listen to this grand stage where musicianship is being noticed through the layers of haze and this is a concert, a finely tuned concert that is tackling your mind not just with details, but with presentation of musician as live human being who are passionate about what they are doing.
That all comes with few cones who I previously mentioned here, while I loved more passion that younger brother, it still is not at pair with some towers in this price level when it comes to live musical sound. It could be a tad bit more transparent, nothing seriously bad, but we could get a bit more blacker background. And typical issues when pairing, partnering and accommodating speakers like this it requires a bit more seasoned audiophile who knows hot to create a happy home for such a speakers. As otherwise sound can sound a bit muddy and unfocused. Which is not true as this speakers throw gigantic soundstage with great imaging, where the separation of instruments is a strongest point.
So in the end think about is this your next speaker, as this is an amazing speaker, but is your home and you ready to give it a loving place to breath and expose its talent. But when everything align, chefs kiss, it is amazing.
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