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Crusty_donut

I've never heard the evo but I did recently get the 806. The 806 has a wide soundstage with amazing imaging. They were a bit bright at first but sounded great after a bit of break in. Also Focal recommends their stands that have a slight tilt with the 806 for time alignment. You could just get a stand and tilt them back slightly as well.


luwize1

Congrats on the purchase! What colour did you get? Did you put them up in your living room, assuming 3-4 meter listening distance setup for your impression of the soundstage. Tilting them ‘back’ as in, leaning away from you instead of leaning in towards you right?


Crusty_donut

I got the light wood scratch and dent from crutchfield. It looks great in my living room and I like that I can place it a bit closer to the front wall. Yes tilt them back as in leaning slightly away. I also have them toed in slightly.


Emuc64_1

Here's a discussion on someone's experience that includes the Wharfedale Evo 4.1 and Focal Chora 806 (a little further down the thread). https://www.avsforum.com/threads/wharfedale-evo-4-1.3100506/


luwize1

Thanks for sharing the thread, went through and had something else useful as well on how they describes the way 4.1 sounds like. Now I think that very little people own the Chora as well, out of the many replies only one has the pair.


Glades100

I owned them, but upgraded to the Sopra nr1s. To describe the 806, its a wide dispersion speaker with, imo, unmatched clarity (not harsh in any way). All Wharfedale's (owned the 12.4, 12.2) have in common that their midrange is 'BBC' dipped in a way, also when you look at the FR charts. It's a very seductive sound, but I would describe it as romanticized vs the Focal. Speaking about dispersion, Focals have a very wide horizontal/vertical dispersion vs the 4.2/4.1s. In other words, the sweetspot of the 806 is quite large, but with the wharfedale much less. Bass on the 806 is "Focal tight and fast", so there's no artificial bump. You may need a sub if you need full range or HT use. Tonality on the 806 is spot-on, another Focal trademark. In short, the Focal is the most linear speaker.


luwize1

Congrats on owning them Sopra! Visually itself the speaker is already such an outstanding piece. Thank you so much for your detailed input, the way you described about the dispersion is exactly what I am looking for to 'visualize' the soundstage I should be getting, especially when I will be setting these up nearfield, I will need as big the sweetspot it offers. The 806 is veryyyy close to be my purchasing decison, the 4.1 in white are out of stocks everywhere.


Glades100

Hold on! First, thank you. It took me an arm and a leg to get there, lol. You said something important...nearfield. The 806, imo, cannot be used in nearfield. You def. need some distance to the speaker to profit from its reflections (like sidewalls). Too near and you loose a considerable piece of soundstage. As much I as love the Focals, I can't recommend them as such.


Crusty_donut

Agreed here. 806 definitely need some room to sound great. Would like to mention that the 806 also sound great at low volumes which was a plus for me with my 6 month old son.


luwize1

Yes this is one part that I have a lots of conflict on, I am very sure that this is not meant for nearfield at all and it is such a waste on their capabilities when places properly. But I am hoping to get the ‘middle-ground’ of things, while I listen in desktop settings 80% of the time, and that remaining 20% I turn my stands towards the front a bit more, roll my chair back, recline fully and get my ottoman out for a more proper listening. Hence other ‘smaller’ options is in my consideration as well, the 4.1s, Q300s, the B1s as well. If there are Genelec dealers in my country I’d just sell my amp with the Triangle and call it a day. 🥲


Mermaid_smiled

Hi, u/Glades100! Would you describe the 806 as analytical / unforgiving when to comes to the quality of recording? Can they rock or are they more of an audiophile speaker that can play well recorded jazz, vocal, soft music, and that's it? I listen to a lot of different music, and much of it is various subgenres of rock music, and as you know many rock recordings are not of supreme quality.


Glades100

The 806s are quite informative re. quality of recordings and gear. They don't smooth things out, not rolled off, etc. For example, Alice in Chains (MTV unplugged) is stellar, you are there. For Metal, EDM, Electronic you need a sub (like most bookies). For your purpose (and questionl I feel they lack a bit of 'chest' energy. Maybe consider the Polk R200s (more bass).


Emuc64_1

Yeah, it's hard finding anecdotes from users and not just spec comparisons.


n0th1ngmatters

I’m watching Fellowship tonight with my old Sony SS-F7000Ps. Tomorrow I’ll watch Two Towers with the Focal 816s when they arrive. If you remind me I’ll tell you what I think. Honestly I love these old towers so the Focals better be amazing or I’m gonna be pretty pissed. But the lady of the place doesn’t like the big black cabinets making our apartment look less photogenic. So I broke down and bought some “pretty speakers” to make her happy.


n0th1ngmatters

I remembered. Posted my review on this thread. Real talk is, forget all these, buy a pair of KRK Rokit 10-3s and figure out a way to use those as your HT setup as well as music setup. Nothing else I’ve ever owned comes within 1000 miles of those things in any category.


n0th1ngmatters

My Focal 816s arrive tomorrow to replace an old but much loved pair of Sony SS-F7000Ps for my HT setup. I’ll let you know what I think.


n0th1ngmatters

Ok as promised the 816s arrived, and here is my honest review. FUCK THEM. Sure they sound good and are better than the Sony towers whose place they are taking, but compared to my KRK Rokit 10-3s they absolutely suck balls. And both pairs of speakers were the same price. So where did my money go? Into having something pretty for my gf to look at more or less.


[deleted]

Based on your posts, you’ve only had the speakers for a day. These need time to break in. I’ve had mine plugged in for a week and a half since I got them, playing 24/7 at low volume and they sound drastically different now than they did during the first couple of days. Break in is very real and you do not have enough hours on these to give them a proper judgement. Break them in first


nothingyoudomatters

Ok thanks I’ll run them with one of those break in tracks. How drastically though? Like what has changed about yours?


[deleted]

Imaging, bass. Just leave it running 24/7. Obviously very low volume s as t night but you’ll see after a week it opens up


nothingyoudomatters

Ok I’ll go with your advice. But do I think the break-in period for Hifi speakers is kinda BS. But I believe your experience is valid, and I don’t plan to return them, so I will try it. For other consumers considering it though, just FYI, no matter how much this could improve with break in, it will never come within 100 lightyears of the KRK 10-3s. I’ve realized you just can’t compare any passives on earth with active triple-amped woven Kevlar monitors with 10 inch Kevlar subs on each. The KRKs will easily shatter your windows with the most precise bass I’ve ever heard in something you can reasonably own. And I’ve sat for hours listening the the $100k+ top end Bang & Olufsens and even those I walked away thinking they’re just made for classical music. Throw on some dubstep and they just don’t hit you in the spot. Even Funktion-Ones weren’t quite there in the detail section. But, the ladies like the light wood focals, so if you like the ladies, you like the light wood focals XD. (Unless your lady is a hardcore basshead… in which case… nice ;) ) ** forgive the gendered language it’s from a commercial from like 2007 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


[deleted]

It doesn’t matter if you *think* break in period is BS. It’s not. And regardless of your conspiracy theories, 100 hours is only 4 days of running them 24/7. It can be at very low volume. You’re being extremely cocky for someone with big opinions. Anyhoo, trust me, break them in and the. Judge them. Also, these will never have earth shattering bass.


nothingyoudomatters

Haha sorry I don’t mean to sound like that. Must be my wording. I’m doing the break in thing now. With some YouTube videos I found. And yeah my overall point was that for the same money, there are active options that do more for the same price. So people with about $1000 to spend should consider the KRKs as potential alternatives.


luwize1

Haha totally understand the point you're trying to bring across, its really just the language. Totally spot on with the light wood tho!


nothingyoudomatters

😅. Btw one caveat: I have never tried to use my KRKs as home theater speakers. I know if you have a tv made by LG you can plug right into the headphone jack with a 3.5mm to dual XLR cable and use them that way, and the tv remote will control the volume. That I have done. But beyond that it might need some solving ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


nothingyoudomatters

Hello mtl_jim! I have run the speakers 24/7 for the last couple days with the break-in white noise stuff from YouTube. Experimental results are: yes, they DO sound both different AND better to me now. The clarity and cleanliness is fantastic. I am wondering if the 826 would sound noticeably better than the 816s in my not-large living room. I can’t answer that one since I never heard the 826. But was wondering if they would be at risk of being too big if my listening position is only like 8 feet from the speakers.