Focal Maestro Utopia Evo loudspeaker Page 2

Maestro, musique!
Through the Maestro Evos, the bass on Metropolis's "Planners and Thinkers" (16/44.1 FLAC, Soundtrack Classics/Tidal) slammed so deep and turned so seismic, it was almost scary. My room is built on a concrete slab with rubber subflooring, but damned if my chair didn't shake. I'd accidentally clicked the "loop track" button in Roon and was powerless against the repeats. The sound was so satisfying that I let the recording play four, five times in a row.

I also got bruising bass on "Prism" by British trip-hop outfit Submotion Orchestra (16/44.1 FLAC, SMO/Qobuz). The listening experience was almost tactile. The Maestros' super-beefy low end and their unapologetic boisterousness might be a little too much for some listeners. In food terms, this speaker is the 16oz ribeye (saturated fat and all), not the lean 10oz sirloin. Me, I'm a ribeye man. Sometimes I even put the "SUB BASS LEVEL" jumper on the back of the speakers in the rightmost position for a little extra bass.

Next up was "Slang" (16/44.1 FLAC, A440/Tidal), a Jaco Pastorius composition played by Brian Bromberg on both fretted and fretless basses. Though all multitracked parts play in more or less the same register, nothing sounded jumbled or crowded. It was easy to follow each bass line, even as they wrapped around each other.

The album I've played more than any other this year is Charles Mingus's The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (24/96 FLAC, Impulse!/Qobuz). By turns lyrical and frenetic, the album turned 60 years old this summer. It deserves some commemoration—plus a few awed relistens—for the offbeat arrangements alone. The tortured bassist and his band paint with rich brass textures and trippy, furious colors. Muted horns sound like they're singing, wailing, protesting, mourning. There's an obvious debt in the orchestration to Duke Ellington's Anatomy of a Murder, but Mingus is much brasher than the older man, taking improvisation to the brink of anarchy before pulling his musicians back into the fold of the written score. Add some flamenco-guitar passages, a lush classical-piano part, and a flurry of surprising chord changes and rhythm shifts, and there it is: an affecting musical triumph, undiminished by age.

If you need convincing that the Maestros can do more than punch hard and low, the Mingus masterpiece is exhibit A. Those textures I mentioned came through with astonishing control and liveliness.

Some fault metal-dome tweeters, including beryllium-dome tweeters, for sounding sharp and penetrating. Not in my book. When John Atkinson wrote his review of the Maestro Evos' predecessors (also equipped with beryllium-dome HF drivers), he found that the speakers were "a touch mellow in the top octave." That's true with the Evos as well. The Maestros give you what's there, excelling in detail, but the tweeter range isn't goosed in pursuit of faux high-frequency resolution.

And the difference with my Scalas? The numbers are close: The Scala goes down to 27Hz flat (–6dB at 24Hz), the Maestro to 25Hz (–6dB at 21Hz). Sensitivity, form factor, and materials are practically the same. Yet the Maestro exhibits considerably more low-frequency slam, more bigness. That second 11" woofer matters. Focal's Bedel says that the Maestro isn't just an incremental improvement on the Scala. First, he notes that while the specified bandwidth may be similar, Focal added a second bass driver and then applied the company's magnetic damping system to the woofers, which will alter the character of the bass. Also, although the Scala and Maestro woofers look the same, they're different in specs and build. Specifically, the Maestro's LF drivers have "ultrapowerful double ferrite magnets and 50mm voice coils," Bedel points out.

Because I'd read the frequency specs before I heard the Maestro Evos in my room, I was ready to write a vaguely annoyed riff about how all floorstanders that cost more than a nicely appointed E-class Mercedes ought to be truly full-range and how the Maestros just can't get all the way down to 20Hz. Consider that plan canceled. These speakers are immensely satisfying, basswise and otherwise. Subjectively, they somehow perform better in the lowest octave than several full-range speakers I've had in my home, including Tekton Moab and Paradigm Founders Series 120H, both of which I loved.

Tipping the scale
In his 2021 review of Magico's M2, Jim Austin wrote something that stuck with me: "Some big speakers turn pianos into battleships. I admit that this can be a pleasant experience, but it's not realistic; plus, it's unnerving to encounter a 15' soprano." He added, "some big speakers ... make all music sound big."

Well, that's the Maestros, to an extent. They do small and intimate just fine, delectably even—but sometimes, they scale things up. No, they never conjured 15' Brünnhildes, but Paquito D'Rivera's solo clarinet at the beginning of "Afro," from the terrific Habanera (16/44.1 FLAC, Enja/Tidal), did sound larger than life in my room. Michael Hedges's acoustic guitar on the Zappa composition "Sofa No.1," off Oracle (16/44.1 FLAC, Windham Hill/Qobuz), was a touch inflated, too.

I am torn. Is there some exaggeration in how the Maestros present small instruments and solo vocals? Often, yes. Is it engaging and thrilling all the same? Also yes. Moving the speakers closer together addressed my gripe to some extent, rendering instruments smaller, but the soundstage got smaller, too, and I sensed a bit less of the majesty that I find so appealing in the Maestros.

Clearly this issue is highly recording-dependent; it depends on how the microphones were placed and how the music was mixed. On one of the most arresting songs from David Bowie's vast catalog, "Bring Me the Disco King," from Reality (16/44.1 MQA, ISO/Qobuz), a grand piano and a minimalist, cymbal-less drum kit are drawn with proper proportions—and the Thin White Duke has the voice of a vulnerable man, not a giant. These lines have taken on new meaning since his death seven years ago:

Don't let me know when you're opening the door.
Close me in the dark, let me disappear.
Soon there'll be nothing left of me,
Nothing left to release.

Though Bowie recorded the song at age 56, 13 years before he died, his vocals sound tired, but beautiful in the way of old leather or a fallen autumn leaf. The almost eight-minute-long lamentation is shot through with ache and regret. It's no swan song, but it would have fit seamlessly on his final two albums, The Next Day and Blackstar, on which his life force had begun to wane—though not his capacity for beauty.

The frailty of "Disco King" and its maker is underlined by a couple of small errors. Bowie hits a wrong note in the second line of verse two. Pianist Mike Garson, in his most memorable performance since 1973's hyper-lyrical "Lady Grinning Soul" (off Aladdin Sane), gets creative with the timing and dynamics of his phrases and finally comes in simply too late with a chord around 3:10.

It doesn't matter, or maybe it helps. The imperfections reveal the humanity of the players, perhaps even the infirmity of the human condition—a sweet fit with the song's theme. I suppose the recording wouldn't have been half as effective if drummer Matt Chamberlain had played scrupulously to a clicktrack, or if producer Tony Visconti had quantized Garson's piano part.

To me, other than vocals, it's often pianos and brass instruments that provide the test of truth when judging the performance of an audio rig. Happily, the Maestros gave no reason for complaint. On "Concerto for Two Pianos," a Bryce Dessner composition performed by Katia and Marielle Labècque (24/96 FLAC, Decca/Qobuz), the percussive and tonal qualities of the grand-piano strings were corporeal, full of energy, verve, and solidity. And I was floored by how beautifully the speakers rendered both Stefan Schulz's bass trombone and Tomoko Sawano's Steinway on Berlin Recital (16/44.1 FLAC, BIS/Tidal): meaty, with great transient bite and second-to-none layering. Via the Maestros, the lovely, medium-length decay of the notes easily revealed that the recording was made in the smaller of the Berlin Philharmonic's two concert spaces.

Beauty and brawn
One moment, the Maestros take on the character of a 200lb street brawler, the next, that of a ballerina. They did the only thing that matters in the wild world of hi-fi: connect me to the music. I produced pages of notes full of terms like authority, grace, ebullience, grandeur, brawn. But maybe this says it better than reams of descriptors: During the evaluation of almost every new piece in my system, I make a fresh Roon playlist of songs that show off the product particularly well. On average, I end up with a list of 30, 40 songs. After two months with the Maestros, I was up to 157 tracks. From chamber quartets to EDM, orchestral showpieces to Appalachian folk, delta blues to big band, these exceptional French speakers brought the joy. Astute and revealing, they're among the hautest of haut-parleurs.

COMPANY INFO
Focal Naim America
313 Rue Marion
Repentigny
Quebec, QC J5Z 4W8, Canada
(800) 663-9352
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
cognoscente's picture

yet another review of a Bugatti W16 Mistral.

As the name says: "Utopia". And as that word means "the impossible reality". Or in this case French decadence and arrogance. So ... ?

GDubAZ's picture

and yet, you read it, so . . .

Glotz's picture

in the photo above is puuuuuuuuuure beauty!

Speakers to die for!

Haven't read the review yet, can't wait- Because Roger!

Decadence and arrogance.. lol. What a poor soul.

I really would like to see an R2D2-decaled version of this available or at least a BB8 livery. Admit it, it would be great for a few days.. lol

cognoscente's picture

we all know that a 9k stereo set sounds substantially better than a 3k one, 1 third of the price, and that a 90k stereo set sounds only slightly better but not substantially than a 30k one, a third of that price.

Prices and products like this are just decadent and arrogant, especially in relation to the bigger picture. This is out of proportion, this lacks all reasonableness.

And beautiful, speaking of beautiful, the Goldmund Samadhi is beautiful, but here again, that is just Swiss decadence and arrogance.

Anyway, I'm not a dreamer, poor soul indeed, and rather a realist and interpreter with an eye for proportion of things.

MatthewT's picture

Lots of 99 dollar components on review there.

Ortofan's picture

... luxury-class audio goods would be willing to provide an explanation of how their audio components end up in a similar price range to that of a motor vehicle from Mercedes/BMW/Lexus (or even a loaded Ford F-150)?

In the meantime, there's a $3K speaker that excels in both the subjective and objective evalutions.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-silver-500-7g-loudspeaker

cognoscente's picture

yes, I know: F1 > hyper cars > super cars > sports cars > regular cars

but still ... prefer to read about 3k - 5K loudspeakers

and yes my headphone is from Focal and my first and second loudspeakers were of JM Lab, but these reviews here over and over again of equipment whose price are out of any proportion, and then pretending it's just a sandwich bumps into me

Ortofan's picture

... Focal speakers priced at $6K/pr.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/focal-aria-k2-936-loudspeaker

Fine results on both subjective and objective evaluations - except, perhaps, for the low impedance dip from about 80-600 Hz. Nothing that a Rotel or Parasound amp, for example, couldn't handle, however.

Do you have a ballroom to fill with sound? Then maybe you need the $76K Focal model. Will you enjoy your music ten times better when heard through the more expensive speakers? Who knows - and, if so, is the difference worth it to you?

TechLvr2's picture

I've got the K2s and love them. Perfect for my room. I DO love the looks of the Utopias though.

prerich45's picture

Yes the MA Silver 500 is a wonderful speaker...but the Focal Utopia just has that look! Now, am I willing to pay almost $80k for that look...no. However someone is, and I say more power to ya!!! I actually like looking at things I may never be able to afford.

Glotz's picture

and assumptions about 'what we all know' are poor generalizations. To suggest otherwise is arrogant indeed, because it tries to invalidate this review and any other- A pursuit of knowledge.

When you start involving nationalities with those generalizations, it creates xenophobic disinformation. It also points to the soul, rather than the pocketbook.

Arrogance and decadence was never the intent of any of these state of the art products from their designers, whether French or Swiss or German or English.

These designers, like Focal especially, sell very reasonable speakers to any budget. They are for everyone that realizes this is investment and not an appliance purchase.

Making out-of-touch statements can be rectified by visiting audio shows and auditioning with an open mind, and refining generalizations into direct experience- something every reviewer here has and owns through their ongoing, life-long effort!

Jazzlistener's picture

that once you get to this price range, although the sound quality sees diminishing returns, the “package” itself reaches a point of becoming an art form. These are stunning looking speakers, as are the higher end B&W, Wilson, and others. Some people are willing to pay a premium for that. And why not if that’s what floats your boat. People spend as much if not more money on furniture, art, granite counter tops, etc. For my part, I love the higher end Devore speakers. I recognize they are wildly overpriced (due in large part to the fact this is a small boutique company). Doesn’t stop me from admiring the hell out of them though.

JohnnyThunder2.0's picture

gets you so riled up? I mean, I really hope you are a living well below the poverty level and if well-to-do donate most of your salary to lower income families. If you're getting by on a pension, fine but please spare us your righteous indignation. Get real for your targets of anger. It's a friggin' big French speaker. Choose something else to be angry about or maybe show some gratitude for something you like instead of shitting on some reading material some of us actually enjoy.

Nirodha352's picture

Totally non-related because I don’t care what they cost. No one is forcing me to but these speakers. But let’s get to the “bigger picture”…. I once heard the biggest Kharma loudspeakers producing a violin of humongous proportions (about 5 meters wide) and for this was for me a big NO NO. So, this speaker above is also flawed in producing a realistic soundstage. This is a stereo magazine.. can someone explain this phenomenon?

Glotz's picture

I really appreciate RB getting to the heart of the scale / image size of the Focal. Whether or not one see it as accurate, he announces what he hears and lets the reader decide whether or not it's a deal breaker. To some after an audition, it may be exactly what they're looking for- A little more majesty and scale vs. 'real-life'. Thanks for the observations on the bass performance as well. (I should read below to see if anybody skewered the speaker for being 4 dB over flat in the bass range.)

I noticed that no reader gave RB kudos for hearing the correct listening height range for the speaker and where the IsoAcoustics Gaia 1's would place the listener to low for best axis (10" vs. 7").

Funny, the naysayers are never yay-sayers when the reviewer gets it right?

cognoscente's picture

I'm asking everyone here to excuse me that I'm ruining the party here, while the rest of the world ...

JohnnyThunder2.0's picture

To some people in this world , listening to beautiful music on a great stereo is their escape from the world and its horrors - "There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed that's what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant - (sighs deeply). Oh, fuck it." From The Grand Budapest Hotel. Whether your stereo costs 100 or 100,000 who the f cares ? just enjoy the music.

Indydan's picture

We are all aware of what is going on in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, etc.
What does that have to do with anything?
Should we all stop living because there are wars in the world?

bhkat's picture

Thank goodness there are people who are in the market for multi-kilobuck equipment so that the technology filters down to more affordable equipment.

Dorsia777's picture

Is 100 percent on the money!

georgehifi's picture

Don't know about that? to me they all look like an expensive loaf of sliced blue bread that's been dropped and has busted open. Other than that they did sound good when I heard this range.

Hmmm!
Cheers George

Jazzlistener's picture

a big blue loaf of bread to you, I need some of what you’re on, lol.

Glotz's picture

Good one.

Dorsia777's picture

I agree with many of the sentiments stated in the comments. Absurd, over priced, snobby, unnecessary are all words that come to mind when seeing speakers in this price range. Then again that’s because I can’t afford it! And if you can afford these should you?

I’ve actually heard these exact speakers at World Wide Stereo in Montgomeryville, PA. They were outstanding. Jaw dropping gorgeous, insanely articulate, massive scale of a soundstage, and incredibly natural sounding. They were playing at around 100-104db and there was ZERO fatigue. Did I mention the bass response? This is coming from a guy that was just having fun with them and asked the sales associate to play a Rammstein CD.

Walking out of that showroom I looked at my brother and said what would you rather own? That pair of speakers OR a pair of Legacy Focus and a Dodge Challenger 392 Scat Pack with a hemi shaker hood…

mtrot's picture

Lol, might want to get that Scat Pack while you still can!

Anton's picture

That they even build it to seem as though it's looking down at you.

(Physical joke about the speaker, not really a 'value' comment. No trouble!)

Ortofan's picture

... merely the middle model in Focal's Utopia range of speakers.

Above it stand the Stella Utopia EM EVO ($150K/pr.) and the Grande Utopia EM EVO ($280K/pr.).

Despite the "Editor's Choice" award, the Hi-Fi News review of the top model seems less than enthusiastic.
https://www.hifinews.com/content/focal-grande-utopia-em-evo-loudspeaker

MZKM's picture

For anyone wondering, at an expo I asked the rep how many of these expensive units they sell, he said only a handful a year in the US, but that overseas is their real market.

mtrot's picture

"Later, I connected a Krell FPB 200c power amp while still feeding the signal through the Anthem's ARC circuitry."

Okay, that settles it. I'm going to have to pick up a set of Maestro Utopia Evo to go with my FPB 400cx and Anthem STR Preamp!

Alpha121's picture

So, unlike a lot of people opining here, I have these speakers, and like the author, stepped up from the Focal Utopia Scala Evo. I offer the following:

1) All these Focal Utopias have always been, and remain, challenging in the bass for amplifiers, drawing heavy current. Low impedance and phase shifts. A lot of great speakers eat current in the bass, including Rockport, Magico, Focal, Wilson, etc. You can read all about it here in Stereophile. In my view the Constellation Taurus Stereo is considerably underpowered for the Grande Utopia EM EVO, and thus the dissatisfaction. It was a naive choice, you need strong monos, so I discount this review. The Utopia part of the Focal line is best run bi-amped, with a solid state class A/B amp with major cojones on the woofers.

2) Relatedly, I run Pass XA160.8 on the top, Pass X600.8 on the woofers, the signal split from a XP-22. The sound is astounding, Class A for the mids, thanks for the advice Kent and Desmond. The XA160.8 was inadequate on its own regarding the bass on the Scala and Maestro, and I didn't like X600.8 on it's own as well as the biamped set up. I have run this experiment many times.

3) To the point of cost, price and French arrogance (Jeez, dude!) I did an extended direct comparison with the Magico M6 ($180K/pair) and yes, those are "better" but the Maestro held its own at less than half the cost, 5 times the availability used or new. The Maestro is a phenomenal relative value. And yes, the delta is less in sound improvement per dollar the farther up you go. I picked this spot. YMMV, but let's not criticize others whose priorities, values, or pocketbook lead to other choices. The Maestro's have the scale and such of the M6, for example, but not as much resolution. Pay what it's all worth to you.

4) With respect to the Maestro design, and the suckout 10 degrees below the tweeter height, the owners manual is specific to stay above this so no surprise. The issue is the 47" height of the tweeter, however, and how to compensate, since you are probably sitting at 36". I have the Gaia footers which worked great both on the Scala and Maestro, tightening the focus, etc as advertised and reported. The problem on the Maestro is that the tweeter is then 49" high, and I had to sit on a bar stool behind my couch for great listening. Not optimal.

5) My solution was to take off the casters, put the front of the speaker on a 2.5" wide strip of 1/8th thick 50 durometer rubber (thank you McMaster Carr) and the back a 2.5" wide strip of 1 5/8th thick, my own highly effective Constrained Layer Damping solution. The rear of the speaker, some 30" back, was thus raised by 1.5", and sitting directly on a hardwood floor, the whole thing firmly coupled and anchored. As my listening position is about 16' back, this results in about a 10" drop in effective tweeter height, perfect for sitting on my couch with my ears at 36". Speakers about 12' apart. This proved magical with incredible imaging, scale, etc.

6) With respect to bass, it's astounding, but these are designed for a relatively big room. Mine is 20' wide, 11' ceiling, 40 feet deep. Speakers are about 5 feet from front wall, and the bass is tight, articulated, not heavy or bloated. I run the bass jumpers plus 1, the other mids and tweets flat.

7) With respect to the scale of the speaker, they play small and intimate, or incredibly large (both with incredible presence) which is really rare, if you have them set up properly. There are few speakers that will do this.

8) BTW, the difference between the Scala is a much lower noise floor, greater dynamics, far greater scale and impressive presence. Cleaner and much less distortion. I think all the drivers, and obviously the crossover, is re-engineered for the Maestro. It is a very significant cut above the Scala.

In my experience, these speakers are nuts good for the money and a unprecedented bargain, although to be fair there is some additional investment in amplifiers and work to be done to set them up.

Hope all this helps somebody.

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