Focal Aria 906 in a large room? Or better 926?

[LondonSi]

Anyone have any thoughts on whether the Focal Aria 906 would be suitable for a living room approx 100 sq/mtr in size? The 926 are an option also, but of course are more £££. The room has a 'living' section of approx 40 sq/mtr. I would be running them from a Cyrus Lyric '09 and listening mostly to very heavy rock music.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

 

[Al ears]

Anyone have any thoughts on whether the Focal Aria 906 would be suitable for a living room approx 100 sq/mtr in size? The 926 are an option also, but of course are more £££. The room has a 'living' section of approx 40 sq/mtr. I would be running them from a Cyrus Lyric '09 and listening mostly to very heavy rock music.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

I am sure you will get many telling you they are too small but unfortunately it is not just down to room size but all sorts of other parameters as well.

In truth the only way you're going to find out if they are sufficient for your purposes is to try to audition them yourself at home by parting with cash.

 

[lindsayt]

Now that's what I call a room!

It'd be ideal for some classic large to huge American speakers - many examples of which offer outstanding sound quality for the amount they cost. Especially for rock in a room like yours where you want speakers with in-room authority.

 

[davedotco]

Anyone have any thoughts on whether the Focal Aria 906 would be suitable for a living room approx 100 sq/mtr in size? The 926 are an option also, but of course are more £££. The room has a 'living' section of approx 40 sq/mtr. I would be running them from a Cyrus Lyric '09 and listening mostly to very heavy rock music.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

You have a big space to fill so if I could manage it I would definitely look to get the bigger speakers.

On paper the power of the Lyric 09 should be a decent match for the 926 but the room will undoubtably be the deciding factor. For any setup to work well the room will need to be pretty well furnished, a big open but bare space would be difficult, in general, the more furnishings the better.

With the 09/926 combo available around the £3k mark you do get an awful lot for your money and in a very tidy package, matching that performance with separates could be a bit hit or miss and would be far less integrated as a system.

My own preference at this kind of budget would be rather different, a Cambridge CXN would be the central hub, with the CXC transport if spinning discs is important. This should cost around £1k, the rest of the budget I would spend on the biggest, most potent active speaker system I could afford, I would be looking at Event Opals, Dynaudio BM15 and Unity Audio The Rock for starters, all just a shade over £2k if you look around.

I appreciate that this is, in all respects, a very different solution to what you had in mind but you did ask for ideas!

 

[plastic penguin]

The 926s should be ideal for your room size, but I would advise a home dem to make sure they sound right with the Lyric and is comfortable with the size.

 

[Al ears]

Anyone have any thoughts on whether the Focal Aria 906 would be suitable for a living room approx 100 sq/mtr in size? The 926 are an option also, but of course are more £££. The room has a 'living' section of approx 40 sq/mtr. I would be running them from a Cyrus Lyric '09 and listening mostly to very heavy rock music.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

You have a big space to fill so if I could manage it I would definitely look to get the bigger speakers.

On paper the power of the Lyric 09 should be a decent match for the 926 but the room will undoubtably be the deciding factor. For any setup to work well the room will need to be pretty well furnished, a big open but bare space would be difficult, in general, the more furnishings the better.

With the 09/926 combo available around the £3k mark you do get an awful lot for your money and in a very tidy package, matching that performance with separates could be a bit hit or miss and would be far less integrated as a system.

My own preference at this kind of budget would be rather different, a Cambridge CXN would be the central hub, with the CXC transport if spinning discs is important. This should cost around £1k, the rest of the budget I would spend on the biggest, most potent active speaker system I could afford, I would be looking at Event Opals, Dynaudio BM15 and Unity Audio The Rock for starters, all just a shade over £2k if you look around.

I appreciate that this is, in all respects, a very different solution to what you had in mind but you did ask for ideas!

+1

A very sensible and affordable option suggested by davedotco I feel.

If you insist on the Lyric 09 then the Focal 926 would probably be a good pairing as they are particularly efficient and probably sufficiently large but I cannot comment on this as have never heard the pairing. However, that's quite a space you have to fill.

 

[iceman16]

You’re lucky to have such a large room for your hifi. I’ve heard both the 906 and 926 but not with Cyrus lyric. I still own 2 pairs of Focal speakers at home atm (906/1028be). I would say the 926 would be my choice for the size of your room Imo but home demo is still the best way before buying.

 

[davedotco]

Anyone have any thoughts on whether the Focal Aria 906 would be suitable for a living room approx 100 sq/mtr in size? The 926 are an option also, but of course are more £££. The room has a 'living' section of approx 40 sq/mtr. I would be running them from a Cyrus Lyric '09 and listening mostly to very heavy rock music.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

You have a big space to fill so if I could manage it I would definitely look to get the bigger speakers.

On paper the power of the Lyric 09 should be a decent match for the 926 but the room will undoubtably be the deciding factor. For any setup to work well the room will need to be pretty well furnished, a big open but bare space would be difficult, in general, the more furnishings the better.

With the 09/926 combo available around the £3k mark you do get an awful lot for your money and in a very tidy package, matching that performance with separates could be a bit hit or miss and would be far less integrated as a system.

My own preference at this kind of budget would be rather different, a Cambridge CXN would be the central hub, with the CXC transport if spinning discs is important. This should cost around £1k, the rest of the budget I would spend on the biggest, most potent active speaker system I could afford, I would be looking at Event Opals, Dynaudio BM15 and Unity Audio The Rock for starters, all just a shade over £2k if you look around.

I appreciate that this is, in all respects, a very different solution to what you had in mind but you did ask for ideas!

+1

A very sensible and affordable option suggested by davedotco I feel.

If you insist on the Lyric 09 then the Focal 926 would probably be a good pairing as they are particularly efficient and probably sufficiently large but I cannot comment on this as have never heard the pairing. However, that's quite a space you have to fill.

It certainly is, I have installed systems in big spaces on occassion, from Thames side 'lofts' even bigger than the OPs space to the 'hall' of a scottish manse, complete with minstrel gallery!

Dealing with such spaces is very different, big 15 inch Tannoys (driven by a Quad 405) sounded magnificent in the manse as indeed did a large pair of Martin Logan Hybrids in a converted school, but the open and very bare 'loft' was very hard to deal with. Though the Rock Monitors are very much one of my favourite speakers, on this occasion I would seriously look to the Opals, ahould you need it they have very flexible eq that might be of great help in this situation.

If, on the other hand, you already have the Lyric, this is probably not much use to you. If you do not mind used, there are some big fairly modern speakers available at sensible prices, 'classic' models such as big Tannoys or JBLs would be great given the space available but the market price might well be too high for something in good condition.

 

[CnoEvil]

It's very personal, but I don't care for a Cyrus/Focal pairing...as it's heading into the forward/analytical end of the sonic spectrum for my taste.

My suggestion would burst the bank, but in an area that size and with a quality Source/Amp....I'd be looking at the Kef R900. I think the Kef R Series is a good match with Cyrus. If the R900s are more than you want to spend, there is the R300/R500/R700....all of which have great scale and depth for their size.

 

[iceman16]

It’s also worth to mention the Focal 926 works very well with Arcam A39 which are now discounted in price.

 

[gasolin]

Have you thought about active speaker

Budget Yamaha hS8

Medium Adam Audio A8x,dynaudio LYD 8

High budget focal solo 6 Be or mabye Dynaudio Lyd 48 or BM15

 

[Strictly Stereo]

Anyone have any thoughts on whether the Focal Aria 906 would be suitable for a living room approx 100 sq/mtr in size? The 926 are an option also, but of course are more £££. The room has a 'living' section of approx 40 sq/mtr. I would be running them from a Cyrus Lyric '09 and listening mostly to very heavy rock music.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

What are the dimensions of your room and how far will the speakers be from the listening position? You have a large space, but if you are only sitting 3m away from the speakers (for example), either of these two options will work just fine. The 926 has deeper bass, which might suit your taste in music better. You might want to give Cyrus a call and check that the Lyric can support the relatively low 2.9 Ohm minimum impedance on the 926. Probably it will be fine.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Or try the Dali opticon 8s or the rubicon 8s