Maybe it was the same as this launch thingy you attended, but the AE has the upgraded WBT binding posts. I can’t even imagine using bare wire, but it wouldn’t be my first time recently.
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I’m talking about the internal wiring between the binding posts and the crossovers and then from the crossovers to the drivers, which was Van Damme Blue.
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The fact that any given audio equipment designer/engineer cares little for the abilities of cables to improve the sound of their products within the context of a particular system isn’t a very compelling reason to give up the search for the best partnering cables one can afford. There’s a long list of principals at the head of various audio equipment brands who either don’t believe in or don’t care about the ability of cables to affect the performance of their products. Personally, I find it difficult to understand how anyone with a functioning auditory system and a revealing system can’t hear that different speaker cables sound very different depending on the speaker/amplifier interface. Speaker cables that sounded wonderful with my BHK250/Tidal Piano sound horrendously bright with the M1200/Tidal Piano combination and vice/versa.
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Hey Vince…
See there …didn’t even know that you were “chosen” by a pair of Focals…
you are probably captivated by these… 
There are probably a few more who have not shared much regarding them.
Simply that there is very little said in this forum from Focal speaker owners themselves,
except for a very brief mention of owning them…not much on whether owners are
enjoying them with little to comparison to what has been auditioned or owned
previously.
Particularly when you compare with Maggie, Harbeth as examples…
Best wishes everyone
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Maybe speakers that are designed and tested on the bench with $2/m 79-strand basic copper cable can quite happily be used with that cable. Many brands make the stuff, Van Damme, QED, Atlas, Chord etc.
Harbeth are one of the most popular audiophile speaker brands in the world and known for their neutrality. If you are going to use speaker cables as tone controls, you are probably going to make them worse.
They are also designed with 40+ year old Quad amplifiers, regularly serviced. One of the great things about those speakers is that you don’t need to go crazy with esoteric cables and mega-powerful amplifiers.
Focals are some of the prettiest speakers I’ve ever seen and never heard. I just adore the tilt their upper level speakers have. Someday, I must hear them.
…but, started chasing the Harbeth 40.2 or 40.3 (or a Maggie 20.7 or 30.7) after a very specific comment in this thread about a year ago, and having already purchased the M1200s. Tickled with my own results, but my room is really inviting to most speakers…save the monster, super sensitive, speakers.
Look forward to seeing if people drive FR30s with M1200s. Bet that’ll be fun.
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86dB/1W/1m needs some umph, if you ask me.
The Focal Sopra and very successful, for good reason. My dealer prefers Harbeth SHL5+ to Sopra 1 and prefers Sopra 2 to Harbeth M40. As always, it’s a matter of taste. Focal are more analytical, but still very neutral. My dealer uses Focal Grande Utopia EM at home, as does the CEO of Devialet, none of which persuaded me, I had a home trial of Diablo Colour EVO and they were just to surgical for me.
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I used a wide range of amplifiers with SHL5+:
- 22w 300B-XLS SET
- 40w KT88 Triodes
- 140w Quad 909 and QSP
- 280w Quad QMP
- 300w Quad 909 Mono
- 200w Plinius P10
- 180w Devialet 250 Pro
The two valve amps could not do the bass properly, but all the Quad amps were fine. The extra power from the mono amps made no difference.
The Plinius is a faster A/B amp and was slightly more detailed than the Quad. For some reason it made them sound a bit bright.
The Devialet 250 is a very fast and dynamic amp and I used it for 4 years very happily until the wife demanded a change in speakers, as she does not like wooden boxes. It really squeezed the pips out of the Harbeth.
I thought the Focal were pretty, especially the Colour EVO, but my wife absolutely hated them.
I found Harbeth easy to position, but they needed more room to the side than behind them. They are in no way boxy, but do not have laser-sharp imaging. It’s more like a wave of sound, I find it very realistic.
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Wait, what? Harbeths neutral? Hmm, well it is definitely a subjective hobby and everyone hears differently, but if Harbeths are “neutral” (which I use to mean neither warm nor bright, but right smack-dab in the middle at a 50 out of 100 on a warm-to-bright spectrum of tonality), then what speakers do you consider to be warm sounding?
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Harbeth may be considered warm in the context of not being bright, but warmer - Tannoy, Audio Note - probably because they are usually driven with valve amplifiers.
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Warm sounding speakers…need to go back to
AR 3aX and the Wharfedale W60s era line of speakers.
1967 to 1972 ish…very libereraly give or take
Just my .002
Thanks guys for chiming in on Focals
Best wishes
Harbeths are warm of neutral with a recessed mid-treble.
There is nothing wrong with this. They are very pleasant to listen to, and forgiving of poorly recorded material. I can easily understand thoroughly enjoying them.
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Hmm? should we open a new thread on Harbeths vs other speakers 
?
It is taking over the M1200 thead that I was hoping to read more about.
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Start at the beginning and read the first 400 of 435 posts. All you need do is not read the last 24 hours of posts. The thread had been dormant for a month at his point and Harbeth free.
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sure, I was half kidding. I read all those with interest of course.
Make that mostly kidding…
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I generally feel that they are neutral or colorless. I wanted speakers that in my opinion was reflective of the downstream components. If I want warmer, I’ll change tubes.
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Is the going theory that REL subs should be connected with a floating ground wire? I’ve always had mine connected to the ground on the M1200s…probably like a bad boy.