STUDIO MONITORS I 2017 These few words embody the philosophy of Focal Professional, the professional universe of Focal, the French manufacturer of acoustic loudspea- kers and transducers. From their very beginning on the drawing board in Research & Development at Focal, our professional monitors are designed to deliver one thing, at any cost: the absolute acoustic truth. Founded in 1979, Focal is today comprised of two geographically separated facilities. The cabinet factory, in Bourbon-Lancy, ensures a custom-tailored production that favours manual labour for the most complex and precise work. The second facility is Focal’s headquarters which are based in Saint-Etienne. It combines the R&D LISTEN TO laboratory, production and administrative departments on a 17 500m2 site, where more than 200 people work on a common goal: the absolute finest sound. Focal established itself as an innovation leader in the pursuit of a unique principle: total YOUR MUSIC, control of development and production. This enables the company to constantly progress, while being sure there’s perfect control during the manufacturing process. Focal has registered many patents, such as the 'W' composite sandwich cone or the pure Beryllium inverted dome tweeter. These exclusive technologies have brought major NOT TO YOUR progress to the professional audio world in terms of neutrality, definition and precision in reproduced sound. It’s fundamental for a sound engineer to entirely trust what he or she hears, either in music production, postproduction or broadcast. Our products are designed from the start to be SPEAKERS! professional tools that exactly reproduce the sound signal, without improving or damaging it. Focal Professional monitors guarantee the reproduction of all the micro-details, the precise staging of instruments and voices, with no coloration or distortion. These basic elements allow the engineer to directly access the source equipment and electronics and ensure optimum transfer quality onto public audio equipment. EXCLUSIVE TECHNOLOGY Focal Professional monitors reveal the a flexible surface. The inverted dome directly parameters: lightness, rigidity and damping. To slightest details and ensure a better transfer radiates into the air, with maximum efficiency, this day, only one material permits a joining of quality than other monitors. How do they which is translated by an extremely precise these parameters: Beryllium. For domes with achieve this? soundstage. The dome’s response curve is identical masses, Beryllium is seven times more > 'W' composite sandwich cone mounting. clearly more linear than that of any positive rigid than Titanium or Aluminum, the latter two Inverted dome tweeter dome. It provides better space dispersion well known for their rigidity. This results in a The inverted dome tweeter - a Focal hallmark - is and very low directivity, contrary to ribbon sound wave propagation three times faster 'W' composite sandwich cone that obtained with Aramid fibres. perhaps the perfect transducer. This design per- tweeters. than Titanium and two and a half times The 'W' composite sandwich cone permits The cone structure is more homogeneous and mits very high-efficiency, precision and energy. faster than Aluminum. In the end, the linearity total optimization of the frequency response its behavior in flex is much more superior. The inverted dome tweeter offers unequalled of the frequency response curve, the acoustic curve, thanks to the total control of three key The particular advantage of the inverted dome dynamics, enabling sound engineers to very transparency and the impulse response of the parameters: lightness, rigidity and damping. These unique characteristics of lightness and tweeter is the optimization of the mechanical precisely control compression. The image pre- Beryllium tweeter are maximized and offer At Focal, the letter 'W' means Glass/Glass, rigidity provide control of the signal transmis- coupling between the voice coil and the dome. cision (height, width and depth) is outstanding near-perfect sound. as it usually has two sheets of woven glass sion speed inside the material. Adjusting the The voice coil is fixed at mid-height on the and makes the positioning of each element tissue that are 'sandwiched' onto the structural thickness of the structural foam allows a very dome and uniformly moves the cone entire very easy, as well as allows one to exactly foam core. precise control of the 'W' cone’s damping. The surface. The positive dome is only joined at its assess the reverb tails. variation of the number of glass fibre sheets edge, causing it to be inactive beyond 16kHz for The glass tissue benefits from the incredibly and the thickness of the central foam can easily Beryllium fine weaving of very long fibres. This choice optimize the cone’s behaviour according to the Due to its incredible rigidity, Beryllium repre- offers a mass and a size clearly inferior to those desired frequency range. When listening, the sents the ultimate material for a tweeter in Aramid fibers or other Kevlar fabrics, which sound of the 'W' cone is entirely transparent, > 'W' composite sandwich cone. dome. Focal, after two years of research and generate coloration in the midrange. It’s also has an excellent phase response and has a very development, produced a world first: a pure important to note that the molecular bond low distortion rate (rigidity 20 times higher Beryllium inverted dome, able to cover more between the resin and the glass is greater than than Kevlar or Aramid fibre). than five octaves (1000Hz-40kHz). > Titanium > Aluminum > Interferometry analysis. You may ask yourself why do we strive for an > Beryllium extended response at 40kHz, if the human ear can only hear up to 20kHz? If you can extend frequency response, you will improve the per- ception of transients and other micro details. As well, the linearity of the speaker’s response > Comparison of Beryllium with Titanium and Aluminum. Beryllium is the curve is mainly a function of three opposite lightest, the most resistant and has the highest sound speed. SM9 MONITORS 01 Nec plus ultra! Focal Professional monitors feature the best Discover the new Focal monitors : Shape. of Focal’s technology to meet the needs of The three monitors, all made in France, professionals. For the best music creation. integrate five innovations to maximise On the top of the range, the SM9 Monitoring acoustic transparency. Designed to meet System is born from a simple idea: create the needs of nearfield monitoring, Shape the most dynamic, sonically transparent monitors combine an ingenuous design and and accurate monitoring system ever built. numerous settings optimised for the acous- SM9 feature the nec plus ultra of Focal tics of small listening rooms. drivers. The now famous pure Beryllium Featuring renowned Focal technologies, SM6 inverted dome tweeter has been improved Alpha line has been developed to ensure Keep focus and mix on! with help from the latest Focal technologies. excellent sonic coherence regardless of the Its linearity and ability to reveal micro-infor- listening environment. Alpha redefines the mation is unprecedented. brand’s entry-level products, making Focal 02 SM6 line was designed to meet the standards Professional sound widely accessible. of the most demanding engineers. These monitors are referenced in their price range owing to their extreme neutrality, their precise stereophonic imaging, and their ability to resolve the most minute sonic details, while their hybrid amplifiers deliver SPL levels to suit all musical styles. SHAPE 03 Beyond the curve! ALPHA 04 Reveal your music! SM9 Nec plus ultra! The SM9 was born out of a simple idea: • TV sets The 8' (20cm) 'W' cone bass driver and the create the most sonically transparent • Computers 11" (27cm) 'W' cone passive radiator permit monitoring system ever built. The SM9 • Cars to extend the frequency response to 30Hz, features a frequency response from 30Hz • iPod® docks or any multimedia system without any decay effect nor distortion. Bass to 40kHz with a SPL max of 116dB. This This monitor also permits to check the is then reproduced with unparalleled clean monitoring speaker establishes itself as midrange register, very hard to equalize and punch, with no cone distortions, giving the a reference thanks to the precision of the balance in terms of sound level compared to engineer the confidence to make the best stereo image, its capacity to reproduce each the other information contained in the audio decisions over the entire bass register. of the micro-details of the audio signal, as signal. well as unconditional respect of the original Custom-made amplification dynamics. The 'nec plus ultra' of Focal drivers The all-new, all-analog amplifiers developed The SM9 line is a sheer product of Focal specifically for the SM9 demonstrate the Two monitors in one! technology and innovation. unwillingness to compromise. 600W of One of the major SM9 innovations lies in The new pure Beryllium inverted dome class AB amplification drives the SM9 on the fact of offering 2 monitoring speakers tweeter, specially developed for the SM9 line, three separate channels, respectively 400W in only one and unique cabinet. The activa- offers unprecedented linearity and ability to (woofer), 100W (midrange) and 100W tion of this monitor is made by setting off the reveal micro-information. This is due to an (tweeter). These new amplifiers are halfway FOCUS mode on the side panel. The 2-way entirely new magnet structure that achieves between class A and class AB in regards monitor (Beryllium tweeter + 61/2" (16.5cm) a mind-boggling 2.1 Tesla of magnetic flux. to the bias current. This choice perfectly 'W' woofer) offers a frequency response This has a profound effect on the tweeter’s respects the dynamics contained in the from 90Hz to 20kHz, permitting to check the ability to reproduce micro-dynamics, which original audio signal, guarantee of extremely mix transfer quality on systems with limited helps the engineer to dial-in compression precise adjustment of the compression ratio, frequency response in the bass frequencies and reverb.