Focal Speaker System Designs:
Our new speaker system
designs use a philosophy of total system integration. The cabinet designs
address mechanical resonance and acoustic resonance. The cabinets have optimized
bracing and damping. A properly braced and damped cabinet has superior performance
to a non-braced cabinet with double thick walls.
The crossover networks are
optimized to correct any driver frequency errors, cabinet edge diffraction
and baffle step compensation. Impulse response is optimized and inter driver
phase difference is minimized for the most coherent sound stage possible.
The impedance curves are very smooth for easy driving by all amplifier types,
tube, transistor and PWM. This makes the sound quality less sensitive to
differences in amplifier output impedance and wire impedance.
We have designed
several system “families” to fill your desire of uncompromised
music quality and need for dynamite home theater. There are five different
cabinets in each family to suit the size requirement, room placement and
your budget. Each family includes single woofer, dual woofer, vented box
and sealed box.
Professional movie recording studios use five identical model
speakers. For best imaging in a home theater system all speakers should have
IDENTICAL tweeters, woofers and crossovers. Do not mix different size woofers
or different type tweeters. Within a family you can mix any size box that
best suits your size requirement and budget.
There are three Focal woofers,
5W3211B, 6W4311B and 7W4411. All three have the same midrange quality and
bass “speed”. The primary difference is bass extension, maximum
loudness and box size. For the best sound quality use the largest size that
suits your available room space. The 5W3211B and 6W3211B are video shielded.
The 7W4411 must be 3 feet away from CRT televisions, Plasma televisions and
VCR tapes.
There are three tweeter choices, Focal TC120TD5, Raven R 1.1 and
Raven R 2.1. The Focal tweeter is video shielded. The Ravens must be 4 feet
away from CRT televisions, Plasma televisions and VCR tapes. The Raven Ribbons
have the highest sound quality.
Focal sub woofers
have low inductance for flat frequency response to 1000 Hz. They have superior
mid bass punch compared to high inductance long stroke competitors. The lower
moving mass yields higher efficiency and an easier impedance for the power
amplifier.
There are three Focal sub woofers; 11V7512D, 13V7512D and Audiom
15WX. All three have the same “speed”. The primary difference
is bass extension, maximum loudness and box size.
For the best sound quality
use the largest size that suits your available room space. A larger woofer
does not have to work as hard, so it will have lower distortion. Two 11 inch
have more output than one 13 inch. Two 13 inch have more output than one
15 inch. Two sub woofers in stereo locations sound better than a single sub
woofer primarily due to better room acoustics.
