FOCAL - PROFILE 918 DIAMOND BLACK (PR)

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Price: $2,495.00    

Product Feature

• Customized Aluminum/Magnesium Tweeter Provides Airy Extension
• In-House-Made Drivers and a Different Woofer for Every Model
• Gorgeous Contours Eliminate Standing Waves
• 90dB sensitivity, impedance of 8 Ohms
• Optimum Phase Crossover

Product Description

Advanced Design Take another look at Profile's shape, this time looking down at the top of the speaker. Note the similarity in shape to an egg, Focal dubs this an Omega structure. Aesthetically pleasing as it is, the contours of the Omega cabinet offer tremendous rigidity; eliminating midrange coloration and parasitic resonance at lower frequencies. Another benefit is the lack of parallel walls, which minimizes a form of distortion called aliasing. In a flat box, the back-wave from the woofer rebounds off the rear panel and strikes the driver within 1ms, distorting the pistonic motion of the driver. In the Omega cabinet, energy expands into the cabinet, then bounces around on the various rear walls and internal braces, taking a much longer path and is effectively dispersed within the loudspeaker. This is what gives Profile such clear, rich and defined midrange presence, highly accurate imaging and unparalleled dynamic range. Aluminum Magnesium Tweeter (Al/Mg) Focal is rightly proud of their Al/Mg alloy tweeter which combines the tensile strength of Aluminum with the feather weight of Magnesium. Magnesium damps the inherent high frequency resonance of Aluminum without adding significant mass, thus creating a design which is smooth and extended well past the range of human hearing. The tweeter is held rock-still by a massive and inert piece of formed Zamak (a Zinc, Aluminum, Magnesium and Copper alloy) inserted into the top of the cabinet. The Al/Mg tweeter doesn't sound like any metal tweeter you've ever heard, offering superb extension and resolution without harshness or brightness. Optimum Phase Crossover A crossover is a circuit within the speaker that splits frequencies amongst the drivers, ensuring bass doesn't go to the tweeter and treble doesn't get into a bass driver. Even though Focal builds every driver that goes in their speakers and can customize them however they want, there's no getting around the need f

FOCAL - PROFILE 918 DIAMOND BLACK (PR) Review

I have owned a clear-oak finished version of these speakers for four years or so. The advanced aluminum/magnesium tweeter used here is fabulous and integrates perfectly with the mid-woofer. Set up correctly you'll get complete transparency, an unimposing tonal balance and great horizontal imaging that goes wider than the speakers are. The images are however not very tall. I find them very engaging for music and great home theater speakers. Bass may seem shy for rock and roll heavy material. Despite being ported they are not flabby or overly boomy on the bottom and sound very natural with jazz, classical and chamber music. Set up correctly you will not be able to hear the location of them. The last thing they sound like is a speaker.

For me, the big difference between these and the 908s (bookshelf version) is the mid-range which is better and more even in the 918's, but the bookshelf's may not have been fully broken in when I listened.

Advice:
The speaker is tall and the footprint is very narrow oval shaped which allows them to topple so easily that running a vacuum around them could be dangerous to them, small children and pets. This is from personal experience. The spikes which are included will only make this worse by reducing the footprint even further, not to mention that they are also a huge PITA to adjust for level. If you want to keep that glossy black finish, do NOT use the included spikes. I highly recommend third party adjustable outrigger spikes as a must have before you attempt to adjust the placement and toe-in. These will be worth the cost just for the time saved in your OCD, laser-level, sonic distance meter placement exercises.

Remove the magnetic tweeter covers, but leave the cloth cover. That's what Focal recommends, that's what the reviewers found out, and I can personally attest to the fact that the concave grill shape is an integral part of the design and mid-range dispersion. I know it's weird and the purists will dissent but trust me, you'll have a much harder time balancing the placement of these speakers if you take the cloth grill off, for that way lies madness.

These speakers need rear wall reinforcement in the bass so try to keep them 30 inches or less from the rear wall to back of speaker for the best bass. If you feel it's weak, push them back an inch or two at a time. Try to keep the speakers at least 2 feet from side walls and more if you can manage it.

I made the mistake of starting my adjustments with them toed in, and it took me a very long time to get right so I suggest you start with the speakers facing straight ahead, with no toe-in (which for me has been perfect) then toe in gradually until you get a consistent sound stage and the center image sounds as strong as the sides without gaps. Also listen for ambient and instrumental detail to find a balance between imaging and consistent level and detail across the octaves that works for you. For sure, pointing directly at your head is too much toe-in. The mid range will sound low and tweeter too loud, but if you listen consistently at very low levels this may work for you.

The one mechanical issue I have with them are the beautiful looking cable connectors. Try as I might I cannot tighten them reliably using spades, but they were made of very hard material. I suggest an angled banana like Dayton Audio BPAA-AU Audiophile Angled Banana Plug Pair or WBT 0645R Stackable Angled Banana Connector Red or similar. Alternatives that should also work are the WBT spades that have spring-like construction or spade to banana adapters. Straight bananas can put a severe bend in the speaker cable at the connector because of the 40 degree angle Focal's speaker connectors are made with.

My very last point, is to audition (not buy until and if you like them) better speaker cables and pay particular attention to the imaging. I've done single-blind A/B tests with a professional, high-grade Japanese 12 guage stranded speaker cable and WireWorld - Equinox 6 (EQS) Standard Pair Speaker Cable and my non-audiophile friends could reliably pick the more expensive cables based on the imaging quality. It's in fact such a big difference I'm doing some research into measuring them. My testers and I agreed completely about the greatly improved imaging of the Equinox but not about which has better tonal balance. I preferred the WireWorld cable sound, they liked the Japanese cable, but the wife IS Japanese, and I wasn't the blind tester and had just shelled out several hundred for them.... so maybe that's why? :-) Honestly I only bought the expensive cables because I got a huge discount on closeouts as the brand goes from Series 6 to Series 7, so please keep your own values in mind when auditioning, but DO keep an open ear, and take this as my own personal experience. There are probably a bunch of other brands you should hear.

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