I walked into BSG's room at the Newport Beach Show in June 2012 unsure of what I was going to hear. I was well aware of this new company's qøl Signal Completion Stage ($3995), but didn't know if it was a genuine step forward in audio reproduction, or just another example of the hokum found on the fringes of our hobby. I took my listening seat, and BSG's CEO Larry Kay, cofounder and erstwhile publisher of Fi magazine, performed A/B comparisons with the qøl's processing in and out of circuit.
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com
The bad news is that there's been a bit of a manufacturing glitch with Focal's introduction of their first headphone: The Spirit One. The good news is they've stepped up to the plate and fixed it, and the cans perform quite nicely.