focal

Vancouver Audio Festival 2017: Focal Stella Utopia with Naim Statement

June 27, 2017

They were really big, really red, and I couldn’t tip them over no matter how hard I tried. They were the Focal Stella Utopia loudspeakers, and they weigh 365lbs a piece, so that explains why they wouldn’t budge. Also, if you had been [...]

Vancouver Audio Festival 2017: High Fives on Day Two

June 25, 2017

Smiles greeted me from a number of manufacturer representatives as I headed into HiFi Centre for the second, and final day of the inaugural Vancouver Audio Festival. Seems those tasked with room demos had been making “genuine, and positive [...]

Vancouver Audio Festival 2017: Opening Day

June 24, 2017

Waking up early to already warm temperatures, and sunlight slanting into my bedroom I couldn’t help but wonder if this rare sunny day in Vancouver would mean trouble. It’s slated to be the hottest day of the year here – not a cloud in [...]

HiFi Centre steps in to fill void as Vancouver Audio Show pulled from Chester Group website

May 26, 2017

With the Vancouver Audio Show that was scheduled to run June 23rd to June 25th no longer appearing on show organizer The Chester Group’s website, Igor Kivritsky of Hifi Centre in downtown Vancouver is stepping in to put on a specialized high [...]

High End 2017: Munich mayhem on opening day

May 19, 2017

As much as I’d heard about the High End Show in Munich none of it really prepared me for the level of polish, and professionalism that the event exudes. This is an order of magnitude different from anything I’ve encountered in North [...]

Dr’s Orders: Push it to the limit

May 2, 2017

A good Dr. should never insist on having his patients pushing themselves to the limit but this is audio and the limit of what is possible is a good thing with only one major hiccup, it’s rather expensive. Audiohub.gr of which yours truly is the [...]

RMAF 2016 Wrap: Mission Accomplished/Best of Show

December 11, 2016

Escaping on the last jet out of Denver after the close of Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2016, I felt a little like the nervous spy-support staff member Faisil in the 1994 movie “True Lies.” Reporting on his recent deployment activities to a [...]

RMAF 2106: Focal, Naim Take Listeners on Aural Space Odyssey

November 5, 2016

I was in the middle of the mezzanine at the Denver Marriot Tech Center, about to break for lunch Saturday at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, when I heard a familiar tune wafting from a room shared by Focal and Naim Audio. The track, Lambchop’s [...]

Focal Launches Flagship Headphone at The Source A/V

June 22, 2016

By Brian Hunter This weekend was a steamy one for residents of southern California. Temperatures rose above 100 degrees in certain parts of the sunny city of angels, but many audiophiles were keeping cool within the confines of The Source A/V [...]

AXPONA 2016: Quintessence Audio, the essence of luxury

May 19, 2016

One of the things I always look forward to at AXPONA is seeing how Morton Grove, Ill.-based retailer Quintessence Audio Ltd. chooses to outfit its penthouse-suite space at the Westin O’Hare. For a number of years now, the dealer has been taking [...]