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Woah!!!... Focal Utopia Be's @ $45,000


Gilbert

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MSRP IS $100,000 for the pair..... Egaaads!

I have the automotive variety of the Focal Utopia line (Pre-Berrillium), and I can honestly say that I have never heard better sound quality coming from a car. Anyway, my speakers were a drop in the bucket (less than a grand) compared to these baby's. Anybody ever listen to a set? Anyone ever seen a demo set? $45k, Incredible!!

UTOPIA

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Because you've never listened to a pair, and more importantly, you probably don't have an extra $100,000 underneath the sofa.

I haven't heard them. The price is just hard for me to wrap my mind around.

When you can get a pair of Palladium for $15K, who would jump for those?
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The Grand Utopias are $100,000. The "Plain old Utopia Be" are somethign like $40K. You can find them used for about $20,000, still quite a big chunk of change. There is a pair of pre-Be Utopias on Audiogon for $13.5K right now, but they are in Singapore. A mint pair recently went for $11,000 in less than one day. Expensive toys, that is for sure.

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The best speakers I ever heard. If I win the lottery, I'll be buying me a set of these! You have to experience these. My jaw was hanging open the entire time and I had to force myself to leave the room. It was like heaven. I never imagined speakers could sound like that and I've heard a lot of speakers. Just perfect beautiful balanced music in every way. The lowest lows, mids, to the highest highs. All so very crystal clear. All instruments sound like real instruments are in the room and the singer is in room too. Drums sound just like drums, bass like perfect bass and so on and so on. You have to sit back some to avoid the singer's spit from hitting you in your face coming from out of these speakers. I'm not one to even think of going out to buy these high $ speakers, but these I would.
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The grand utopia's put an appearance in at every high end show in Athens. Personally they are not my cup of tea. I am not sure why - it is a bit like the Lamm amps for me - they dont quite do it either.

You do need a huge room for these things but at this price I would seriously look at a pair of Avantegard Trios and some basshorns - imho they stomp all over the Grands....

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In 2002 their list price was $80K.

But hey, its audiophila - the land where belief is more important tnan physics - and hence the obscene increase in price is totally justified for anyone with more money than brains who wants to buy them.

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 $145k or so.

Mark,

That model is so expensive because they also serve as in-home ATM machines, coming pre-filled with 20's.

BTW, one of the 1st gen BBs would look good in that room, eh?

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If I did have that kind of money, I'd spend it on traveling to hear the music live at LaScala in Italy.

I'm with you Dee. I would probably never feel the need to spend that kind of money on speakers, no matter what I had in the bank. I do like that room the speakers are sitting in though!Surprise

Yeh. I was thinking the same thing about the room. Excellent feng shui.

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The only way I would pick these unit's up is if I were a billionaire. I have auditioned these at my local Hi Fi shop. All I can say is WOW. They sound truly amazing. The depth you hear in vocals and the clear stage they present is unbelievable. You can hear a pin drop in the background of the recording studio.. I will say this however - for the money, the lower end Focal's are a much better buy. If you can hook up a set of the Focal 836's to a solid power amp, the sound will blow you away as well. Granted there is a HUGE difference between the Be's and the 836's, I would honestly say the 836's are the most impressive speakers I have heard under 10k and they only have a street price of 3500. Check em out if you get a chance!

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The grand utopia's put an appearance in at every high end show in Athens. Personally they are not my cup of tea. I am not sure why - it is a bit like the Lamm amps for me - they dont quite do it either.

You do need a huge room for these things but at this price I would seriously look at a pair of Avantegard Trios and some basshorns - imho they stomp all over the Grands....

Interesting info Max, I am inexplicably enamoured with the Trio's but can find no place to listen to them.

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Interesting...I've never heard the Focals, but my guess would have been they are wildly different than the Trios. I HAVE heard the trios as well a several other of the Aventagrds. Hate 'em. My these ears, my Oris horns sounded better and the bass was better integrated. Bear in mind, I got rid of the Oris due to bass integration issues so... In any event, I truly do not see where the money goes with the Avantegards.

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