Switch from Focal

[Claudiu]

Hi all! 

I would like to upgrade my system. 

I got Focal Aria 906 on Cambridge Cxa80 amp. 

Is it worth the upgrade to Kef LS50 Wireless II? 

[PeterG]

Not necessarily, the KEF has rave reviews, but the Focal and Cambridge are good brands, and with the KEF you're also paying for the wireless functionality.  Most people with a system that costs $2K or so, would probably wait until they could drop $5-10K.

 

More important than my distant view--do you have a good local dealer?  if yes, the best thing to do before a potential purchase is to borrow the item for a few days, or at least listen extensively in the store.

 

Good luck!

[bluesman]

2 hours ago, Claudiu said:

Is it worth the upgrade to Kef LS50 Wireless II? 

Only you can answer that question.  I love the KEF concept and am a big fan of their drivers, designs, and products.  I still use and love the LS3/5as I bought 45 years ago.  But I also love the Focal sound (we have 726 towers in the living room).  
 

You don’t specify the vintage of your 906s.  The latest version with the hemp woofer is stellar, and I prefer it to the KEFs by a wide margin with a good amp. Your Cambridge is in that category and I’m sure your SQ is quite fine.  If your 906s are the original version, you should listen to the KEFs before making a decision - it’d be close enough for me that the cost of changing wouldn’t be worth it. YMMV.
 

If the upgrade bug has bitten you deeply, you might consider prioritizing your wants and start at the top of the list.  You don’t say what you prefer to listen to, and that’s also a factor.  If it’s bigger, tighter, or lower bass, a sub or a speaker upgrade (eg a Focal tower, if you love the general SQ you get from Focal, which is pretty consistent across their line) might be in order (assuming your current speaker placement is optimal for them).  There’s room for improvement in your DAC and amp as well.  You might consider a current DAC and/or amplifier (again, depending on what you want to improve about your sound).

 

Identify your goal(s) or you’re trusting luck alone - and you won’t know if you succeeded unless you define success.

[Claudiu]

19 minutes ago, bluesman said:

You don’t specify the vintage of your 906s. ........ 

906s are exactly 2 years old, with flax cones. 

I have a subwoofer but I rarely use it, I'm not into bass too much. 

I am listening to all sorts of music.

I am searching for voice detail in tracks, and I like Seal or Mark Anthony for example. 

My current setup sounds great, but I feel like there is a bit of room for improvement. 

I feel like the all in ones like LS50 WirelessII are well calibrated, and eliminate issues like the amp-speakers pairing and special hifi cables. 

 

[botrytis]

What about changing to a better source/amp? That may give a different sound to the equation.

 

I can't answer your question about the powered speaker question. 

[bluesman]

3 hours ago, Claudiu said:

I feel like the all in ones like LS50 WirelessII are well calibrated, and eliminate issues like the amp-speakers pairing and special hifi cables.

Then again, you’re tied to the manufacturer’s concept of SQ and have no flexibility to change it.  Many of us find little or no value in “special hifi cables” once you get beyond a reasonable cost threshold.  And at least as many find wireless limiting in SQ. So it’s 6 of one vs half a dozen of another.

 

For me, your Focals are excellent and I’d much rather listen through them than the KEFs. You can improve your SQ by a clearly audible bit with better DAC and amplification given the age and design of the Cambridge. You also don’t tell us about your sources - so there may be easy improvement there too, depending on the formats you’re playing and how you’re playing them.

[ecwl]

4 hours ago, Claudiu said:

906s are exactly 2 years old, with flax cones. 

I have a subwoofer but I rarely use it, I'm not into bass too much. 

I am listening to all sorts of music.

I am searching for voice detail in tracks, and I like Seal or Mark Anthony for example. 

My current setup sounds great, but I feel like there is a bit of room for improvement. 

I feel like the all in ones like LS50 WirelessII are well calibrated, and eliminate issues like the amp-speakers pairing and special hifi cables. 

I agree with everyone else’s general suggestion which is that moving from your current system to LS50 Wireless feels more like a parallel change in sound (with differences in ergonomics and size) rather than a true upgrade in sound.

 

If I were you, and I already have a subwoofer, the first thing I would do is buy a MiniDSP UMIK-1 microphone and learn how to use it with the free Room EQ Wizard (REW) software to measure the frequency response of the speakers alone at my primary listening position and then re-integrate my subwoofer with the speakers for the sole purpose of just filling in the bass frequencies that the speakers can’t do (assuming you can set the phase, crossover and volume of the subwoofer).

 

If you just set your subwoofer by ear, you can actually guess wrong in terms of the volume of the subwoofer. And if you set the crossover of the subwoofer based on the theoretical drop off of the speakers, you may overwhelm the bass because of the inate room bass peaks. This is why having a microphone to properly measure the system is key if you want to properly integrate the subwoofer into the system. The fact that you say you have a subwoofer but rarely use it tells me that the subwoofer is not properly integrated into the system.

 

Moreover, if you only play music digitally, it is possible that your playback software would allow you to DSP the bass peaks out using simple parametric EQ and that’s another way to get even better performance out of your system. But the only way to know the exact parametric EQ settings is to have a microphone to measure the sound.

 

I think this is what you’ll get the most bang for your buck. And moving forward, even if you’re going to upgrade to much more expensive systems, you’ll still benefit from the microphone purchase and learning how to use REW.