Went to a local audio shop to look at some speakers for my car. The owner recommend Focal speaker that he carry. He said it the best out there. $289 for a pair of 5 1/2". Kindna pricey so I was wondering if they really that good. I know about JL, Boston. Infininity, but I am not familiar with Focal. Anyone would recommend this name brand ? Thanks.

 

First of all, yes, Focals are very good speakers, and are definetely in the top 10. However, the s2000 speakers are 6.5", not 5.25"

 

My bad... I didn't know they were 6 1/2. Only own the car for a week. I

 

Not a problem....Just check back with us on what model he is selling you, and for how much.....

Remember, with focals, you will NEED an amplifier, and I highly suggest a nice headunit as well.

 

For 289.00 its most likely going to be the Access line. I'm currently running the 165A from the Access series and it sounds great. The tweeters are a little shrill since they are metal. I wish they still used their old kevlar dome tweeters.

If you need a review there is one on the focal america site.

 

How much power do you think is necessary with the Focals? If you get a nice high-power head unit (say 50 Wpc rated) do you still need an external amp?

In my Miata setup, with a 50W head unit I ran 8" woofers with 87dB sensitivity and it played plenty loud for freeway speed with the top down. Louder than I wanted to go...

 

A HU's 50 WPC is most likely sitting around 15-20 or so at RMS. Watts isn't necessarily about how "loud" speakers will get. More importantly, fFeeding speakers with enough power will really open their sound. Accuracy, bass response...just about every sonic characteristic of a speaker will improve given an improvement in the power source.

That said, I'd probably go 50 rms at minimum.

For $290, I'd look at a different set of comps. You can do a lot better.

 

Focal certainly are a well regarded and well made speaker. But everyone's ears are different, only way to tell if you like them is to listen to them or try them. The lower end focal components (Access and Polyglass) are all >90db sensitivity, so you can try them with good HU power like an Alpine unit which puts out ~20 real wpc and see if that is enough for you. Just don't waste your time with the stock HU power.

For the sake of clarity, I am not saying that a good amp won't be an improvement, merely that a quality on board HU amp like the one in my Alpine 9833 puts out a lot more power than something like an OEM Honda HU, and and this has to be factored in with the efficiency of the speakers. Obiously some higher end less sensitive speakers need more power.

The low end Focal Polyglass that I tried were a bit too harsh for my sensitive ears when installed in my car, but YMMV. If you read a ton of opinions and reviews about Focal you will see they are more often praised for their detail than they are for being exceptionally laid back. So it really depends on what your tastes are.

Peter

Edit: Checking the Alpine specs their highest powered HUs are as johnnybravo suggested rated at 18x4 using the new CEA2006 standardized methods. That is still a lot more than a factory HU.

 

Watts is precisely about how loud speakers will get. If you want to know about accuracy & bass response, power is not your spec. RMS, peak, continuous, none of the above. There are crappy sounding amps with high power ratings and great sounding amps with low power ratings.

I was just curious if NFRs2000NYC thought that an external amp was still a necessity with a higher-powered/higher-quality head unit, or if it was more of an either/or. I thought my setup with the Alpine 9833 and 87dB woofers sounded very good and didn't need an external amp. But I only use my stereo for listening to when I'm driving, not for SPL competitions or advertising my presence/coolness to drivers a block down the road.

 

I think you are both correct. Wattage does have to do with volume, but it also has to do with quality (to a degree). If you underpower speakers (I think) it can actually create distortion. That is why almost all speakers come with a "recommended" RMS operating level....to avoid damaging the speaker and to provide optimal performance.

And the wattage difference from an AP2 HU --> aftermarket HU is not as great of a difference as an AP! --> aftermarket HU. I think the AP2 puts out like 12-15wrms, compared to the 7-9wrms of the AP1. (I think those are the figures....they just popped out in my head).

John