Focal Aria 906
Contents
First up is the French Focal Aria 906. The Aria 906 costs around 1200 Euros per pair, although they can be found around 1100 per pair (without stands). The finish of this set of speakers is great. We see a nice glass plate on top, a kind of soft-touch leather-like material on the front and a neat wood finish on the MDF cabinet. All in all, a neat speaker.
The Aria 906 is a two-way speaker with a 25mm inverted, aluminum/magnesium tweeter and a 16.5cm flax mid/bass unit. Crossover is at 2800 Hz. The range of both units together is 55 Hz – 23 kHz. Which is fairly in line with other two-way bookshelfs in this class.
The sound
We start with Jacques Loussier on the Pass Labs. If you are looking for resolution, the Aria 906 is the right choice. We hear loads of detail in this set-up, but frankly it’s a bit intrusive. The Pass Labs works like a nitro on this Focal. It’s just too much we notice. A 2cv with a Ferrari engine does not go well either. Everything has to be in balance and it isn’t now.
The same applies in a way to the combination with the Yamaha A-S2200 on which we play Suzanne Vega – Luka. This is by itself a pretty hard track to play well. The S sounds can be piercing. And in this combination it goes a little over the edge. It’s just not really pleasant to listen to. The Yamaha is super-neutral and rich in resolution. The Focal requires a slightly warmer amplifier with a forgiving character. And the Yamaha is not really that.
What does go well is Toto, Africa on the NuPrime IDA-8. This amplifier does love this French speaker and covers everything with the cloak of love. What a wonderful combination that is! The sound is round enough, we no longer have any sharpness, but enough resolution to play and enjoy this Classic. The ‘cow-bells’ fly through the room and David Paich can sing freely about his love for the continent of Africa. This is how it should be.
Measurements
The Focal measures pretty straight, as you can see in our measurements. The response curve is similar to that of the Sopra in some ways. However, the distortion is higher; well… that makes sense…. the Sopra costs nine times as much.
Striking is the distortion peak at 1500 Hz. We estimate that this is where the pithy (somewhat sharp) midrange comes from, since it goes towards 1% (-41dB / 0.9%) and it is a 3rd harmonic, plus the fact that we are very sensitive there. The Sopra, remarkably enough, also has a lump there, but it is – in an older measurement – at -49dB, which comes down to 0.3%