Wes Phillips

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Wes Phillips
Anechoic Chamber
Wes Phillips  |  May 30, 2008  |  0 comments
Fewer loudspeaker companies have anechoic chambers than you realize. They take up an awful lot of space, for one thing. Focal has one, and it has a twist—rather than have a suspended floor, the company puts its speakers on a hydraulic jack and suspends it 30' above the floor. This makes getting massive speakers into and out of the chamber a lot easier and safer.
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Wes Phillips
Utopia!
Wes Phillips  |  May 30, 2008  |  0 comments
Of Focal's 200 employees, only 15 are "allowed" to build the Utopia line of loudspeakers. "Utopia, to Jacques Mahul's way of thinking, represents the finest expression of Focal—so only the most experienced employees can build Utopia products. They are also the most critical employees and we do not push them to produce mass numbers—we push them to produce perfect products," said Gérard Chrétien, Focal's managing director (and former editor of L'Audiophile.
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Wes Phillips
Top Secret
Wes Phillips  |  May 30, 2008  |  1 comments
Focal allowed me to visit the Be facility in which it manufactures its beryllium tweeters in a HazMat room. They would not, however, allow me to take photographs within it—saying that some of the machines were secret. So they gave me this factory authorized image of their technician examining a completed tweeter.
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Wes Phillips
Magnetic Personality
Wes Phillips  |  May 30, 2008  |  0 comments
One of Focal's core technologies is its use of "multi-ferrites," Mahul having realized that it was more precise to use multiple magnets in big drivers than it was to rely upon finding enough truly huge, uniform magnets.
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Wes Phillips
Then the Miracle Fabric
Wes Phillips  |  May 30, 2008  |  0 comments
Another hand process is stretching and fitting various layers of adhesive-impregnated glass-fiber material to the front and back of the foam center. Again, depending on the driver's purpose, different amounts of glass fiber layers are employed. Since Focal controls the flare, drive system, and crossover, the company has massive amounts of control over elements like mass and Q.
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Wes Phillips
First the Foam
Wes Phillips  |  May 30, 2008  |  0 comments
Stiff, extremely light "aircraft" foam is stretched over a mold by hand and gently heated to maintain "dimensional stability," according to Dominic Baker, Focal's export sales director. The molds have different flares, depending on the driver's purpose—and they are produced in-house by Opus 42.
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Wes Phillips
On the Factory Floor
Wes Phillips  |  May 30, 2008  |  0 comments
Focal combines high-tech work stations with a phenomenal amount of hand labor. Metal drivers and inexpensive dome tweeters are heavily automated, but many drivers are assembled by hand, especially Focal's "W" composite cones.
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Wes Phillips
Road Trip!
Wes Phillips  |  May 30, 2008  |  2 comments
Back in April, Daniel Jacques of Audio Plus, Focal's North American distributor, invited me to visit Focal's factory in St. Etienne. Since I'd never reviewed any Focal loudspeakers, I didn't know a lot about the company, but I have spent many happy hours in Jonathan Scull's ribbon chair, listening to his Grand Utopias, so I was eager to go—and to learn more.
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Wes Phillips
Sorry I Haven't Written Lately
Wes Phillips  |  May 20, 2008  |  4 comments
You know how life is: It's just one damn thing after another. I spent some time attempting to re-imagine this blog and I dealt with a health issue. clickfor sound effect Well, I'm better now and I have some fun things (I think) in store.
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Wes Phillips
Thurston Moore: Stroking Piece #1
Wes Phillips  |  May 02, 2008  |  4 comments
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Wes Phillips
Roger Waters' Flying Pig Found
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 30, 2008  |  1 comments
Personally, I think Pink Floyd should do a reunion tour simply because this would make a fabulous concept album.
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Wes Phillips
Strauss & Mahler
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 23, 2008  |  0 comments
Matthew Guerrieri (aka Soho the Dog) has a new installation of his ongoing series Strauss and Mahler Re-Enact Your Favorite Movie Moments. Today's episode is The Ten Commandments. Read 'em all—they're hilarious.
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Wes Phillips
Best YouTube Clip Ever!
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 14, 2008  |  4 comments
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Wes Phillips
Sounds Cardboardy?
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 03, 2008  |  2 comments
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Wes Phillips
Showing Up at a Car Show with a Listening Room
Wes Phillips  |  Mar 25, 2008  |  3 comments
Visitors to the 2008 International Auto Show, currently taking place at NYC's Jacob Javits Convention Center, might discover something different at the Bentley display: a high-end audio listening room. Bentley Motors and Naim have teamed up for the "Naim For Bentley" program, which will be offered as a sound package upgrade for all Bentley models by year's end.
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