Utopia in Woodinville

Yesterday I had the pleasure of helping a good client place a new pair of Focal’s Diablo Utopia speakers in his recently finished entertainment room. Over the last year or so, he and his wife remodeled a room in their beautiful home where they could relax and enjoy movies and music.

Brad is not at all new to high end audio. Actually as a young man he worked for a local high end audio dealer. I’ve always considered him as a very astute audiophile. For most of his adult life he has collected some of the best audio/video components available: Aesthetix, Focal, Nordost, Krell, just to name a few. His vinyl collection is also nothing short of impressive.

This entertainment room is on the smaller side and required a main speaker that could create the illusion of a large open sound stage without overloading or confusing the presentations of music concerts. In my experience, this is not an easy task and there are less than a handful of speakers in the audio world that can pull this off.

Focal Diablo Utopia to the rescue!

Brad and I spent over two hours meticulously adjusting and finally pin pointing the exact location within 1/32nd of an inch where they were to live. It was well worth the effort. Brad smiled and said. “It is like the speakers have totally disappeared.”

Thank you again Brad for choosing Nuts About Hi-Fi and thanks also to the incredible engineering team at Focal for making musical Utopia possible in any room.

Edit to Add: I just received a text this morning from Brad. He told me that when his wife came home last night, he was playing music for her to show her the changes we had made. The sound stage was so enveloping she thought he was using the surround system instead of just the Diablos in stereo.

A Holiday Miracle: Focal Scala Utopia Speakers Delivered

We recently delivered a beautiful pair of Focal’s Scala Utopia speakers to a new customer in the Seattle area.

He just set them up and is in the process of letting them break in. He tells me they are already performing well beyond his high expectations. Thank you Brian for sending me this photo and allowing me to share it. Can’t wait to hear this in person.

Happy Holidays!

Next Level Home Entertainment

Yesterday I had the pleasure of helping dial in a truly beautiful-sounding A/V system for two of our favorite clients. We recently upgraded their speaker system to include Focal Sopra No.3s along with Focal’s matching Sopra center speaker and a beautiful pair of Focal Dome surround speakers.

Both Dean and Pat have great taste and really love both movies and music. This system needed to seamlessly transition between several formats of cinematic surround sound and believable, live-concert-level stereo performance when listening to music.

In addition, we helped them create two other zones of music for their patio and backyard using Focal outdoor speakers and subwoofers. We incorporated the updated Marantz Cinema 40, which was designed perfectly for complicated tasks such as these.

They have a very large open space with high ceilings, which normally can be acoustically challenging, especially for bass, so we brought in a true champion: JL Audio’s Fathom 113.

And now the truly challenging part…
Making all of these systems and formats easy to use.

Eli and Michael came to the rescue, programming the Universal remote system. After perfectly placing and spiking the main speakers, dialing in the exact parameters for the listening positions, and placing Nordost Sort Kones underneath the Marantz Cinema 40, the system really came to life.

I looked over at Dean during final testing. With a big smile he said, “This is better than going to the movies or a live concert.”

Mission accomplished!

Thank you, Dean and Pat. We appreciate you letting us take care of you. Can’t wait for the next upgrade adventure. I am sure you won’t be surprised, but I actually have a few more ideas.

Focal Maestro Utopia speakers + Sort Kones = bliss

Yesterday Eli and I had the pleasure of helping one of our good clients install a beautiful pair of our Focal Maestro Utopia speakers along with his McIntosh Integrated amp.

The presentation of sound was beautiful.

We then decided to experiment with Nordost Sort Kones underneath his McIntosh. As usual the Sort Kones immediately transformed the music, rendering more details impossible to hear without them. So much fun.

Here, in a couple of weeks we are installing a beautiful home theater for this gentleman using all Focal Utopia speakers along with reference Marantz Components.

It is so good having customers with excellent taste.

Bringing the Symphony Home With the Focal Sopra NO. 3

Today I had the pleasure of finishing an upgrade for a long term friend and customer. We replaced a beautiful pair of Apogee on-wall speakers he purchased and had us install almost 20 years ago.

Paul has always been an aficionado of many forms of art which definitely includes music. He frequents the Seattle symphony and knows how it feels to enjoy the “live experience.”

Paul and I sat down two Saturdays ago at our showroom and listened to one of his favorite operas through one of my favorite speakers, the Focal Sopra NO. 3. He was immediately struck by the experience. Amazed by the believable presence of a full size orchestra seemingly in front of us, he decided he must have this experience at home and, as of about an hour ago, he does.

Thank you Paul for your support of our business, and your fine taste in true artistic excellence.