Loudspeakers for 70-90 thousand. zł - part II
The March issue of "Audio" presents a comprehensive comparative test of five speakers in the price range of 70-90 thousand rubles. zloty. Typically, such expensive products are presented in separate tests, if only because of the space occupied by the description of complex and luxurious designs. However, "Young Technician" takes the opportunity to present this very interesting topic in a concise manner that suits its format.
Each of the presented loudspeakers is completely different, demonstrating the far-reaching individualism of designers and companies and thus the large scope of possible solutions that we have at our disposal in the field of acoustic technology. We presented the pros and cons of the Avanter III design of the German company Audio Physic. This time it's time for the SOPRA 3 from Focal. The other three models will appear in alphabetical order in the following sections. If you are interested in a more detailed description of all five, both in terms of technique, appearance and dimensions, as well as listening reports, please visit Audio 3/2018.
Focal ABOVE 3
For more than two decades, the famous Focal Utopia has been an important part of the high-end series in subsequent generations. Over the past few years, Focal has been introducing Sopra models to its offer, in many ways reaching the level of Utopia.
Introducing the solutions featured in the Sopra series, Focal boasted innovations not found in the Utopia series. The Sopra 2 was introduced first (winning an EISA award), followed shortly after by the smaller (stand-mounted) Sopra 1, and a year ago the largest in the Sopra 3 series.
The model marked with a triangle is very similar in shape and configuration to the Sopra 2. It differs mainly in the size of the woofers and, accordingly, in the size of the cabinet. The speakers are located in a typical manner for many Focals - the midrange (16 cm) is “raised” above the tweeter, because they are at the optimal height (the ears of a seated listener), and at the bottom there is a large module woofer section (with a pair of 20 cm speakers). Electroacoustically, the circuit is usually three-band.
Curving the entire cabinet so that the speaker axes of all sections intersect in front of the speaker, more or less at the listening position, also has a long tradition in Focal designs dating back to the first generation of Utopia and has continued today in the Utopia, Sopra and Kant series. In each of them, this layout was done a little differently, partly dictated by size and budget, but also by new opportunities and changing fashion. In Utopias, we have a clear segmentation, and in Sopry, smooth transitions between individual modules; even if Utopia's performance is more material-intensive, labor-intensive and luxurious, Sopra's shapes are ultra-modern. The use of brushed aluminum parts (not chromed or oxidized), characteristic of the Sopra, adds to its expressiveness, and together with specific colors, it slightly refers to the style of sports cars. The dome of the tweeter is constantly shielded by a metal mesh - here it is better not to rely on the user's caution, since it will be very expensive to damage the beryllium dome. In terms of membranes, Sopra does not spare the best Focal techniques - beryl (in the tweeter) and the W sandwich (a sandwich composition of outer layers of fiberglass and rigid foam between them). In Sopry, the most changes were made to the midrange driver, which includes, among other things, a mass-dampened suspension, and a more precisely designed magnet system, which also made it possible to change the diaphragm profile from the previous conical to exponential, in some parameters. more suitable for a midrange speaker. A long profiled damped chamber has been prepared for the tweeter - a tunnel ending in a narrow slot, decorated with a wide grille at the back. This is a kind of exaggeration of form over content. Efficient and resonance-free wave damping from the back of the dome would not require such an extension, but it was a good opportunity, since the tweeter module also serves to "bent" the structure.
The cabinet is vertically curved (due to the alignment of the main speaker axes mentioned above) and has curved sides (which reduces standing waves inside). It also has a curved front and large radius, rounded transitions between the sidewalls and the front (so waves flow out of the body without bouncing off sharp edges). The plinth is made of two-centimeter glass. The body itself is raised and tilted by a pair of supports, at the same time forming a continuation of the phase inverter tunnel.
The Sopra 3 looks fairly light due to its shape, but at 70kg it is the heaviest of the five designs compared.
How does it work, i.e. equipment in the laboratory
The characteristics of the Sopra 3 show a fairly clear bass boost, which suggests that this speaker should be used in large rooms. At the same time, a wide range of medium frequencies is well balanced in it. In the range of 500 Hz - 15 kHz, not only along the main axis, the characteristic is kept in a narrow range of +/- 1,5 dB. High frequency dispersion is very good. On the lows, there is a -6 dB reduction from the average level at a frequency of 28 Hz - an excellent result. As expected, we are dealing with a 4-ohm design with a minimum resistance of about 3 ohms (at 100 Hz), so we are ready to work with "healthy" amplifiers. The manufacturer recommends power in the range of 40-400 watts, which seems reasonable (rated power can be estimated at 200-300 watts).
