Summary – Focal Aria 926 Review
If you have ever tried the Focal Aria 926 3-Way speakers, you would probably agree that they are the ideal speakers for home theater. They are designed as 3-way bass reflex floor standing speakers with dark walnut exteriors, and provides extremely powerful acoustic sound performance with musical capabilities. It is designed especially for audiophiles for appreciate fine music and want to hear all the subtleties in the music recording. These speakers are equipped with flax cones which are characterized by their natural sound and low coloration in the midranges, while delivering much tight bass performance. They can produce consistent sound quality with improved dynamic response, and works very well in a home theater arrangement as frontal speakers. In our view, the Focal Aria 926s are the near-perfect speakers for critical listening and work best for instrumental and vocal performances.
Sound Performance
I started off testing the Focal Aria 926s with several acoustic musical selections including orchestra, instrumental and vocal performances. This music selection included piano, cello and guitar pieces with vocalists standing in the front of the stage. The Aria 926 speakers provided plenty of detail to the layered overtones in the music recording with a very wide soundstage. It feels as though the speakers are transparent and you are sitting in a real life concert hall appreciating the music.
The highs and midranges were articulate and detailed without any hint of harshness at high volume levels. The soundstage felt particularly wide with a very good representation of where each actual note is originating from. There’s plenty of acoustic space in the Aria 926 speakers which allows you to literally close your eyes and take in the music as if you are in a live concert hall. Guitar and string performances were particularly outstanding, with rich textured tones and subtle notes portrayed accurately through the speakers. You can also hear details from the drums and piano that seem to originate from the ceiling of the room, which shows just how much height and width these speakers have in sound distribution.
The Aria 926 are acoustically transparent
Throughout the audio listening experience, I felt that the Aria 926 speakers felt acoustically transparent and never drew unwanted attention to themselves. They blend in nicely with other speakers in a home theater arrangement including the rear speakers while delivering solid three-dimensional sound. Movie dialogues were crystal clear and sounded crisp, while 3D sound effects from movies could be heard with good sonic placement in every direction. You get really wide soundstage with these speakers that completely transform the way you perceive music from these speakers. They work great for home theater or just standalone speakers for music.
The only downside of the Aria 926 speakers is that they probably will require about a month or so to properly break in and reach full potential with the bass response. We highly recommend giving a high-end amp to go with these speakers for them to really shine.
The Verdict?
The Focal Aria 926 are designed for critical music listening with a tremendous amount of soundstage. They deliver some of the very best soundstages we have heard in a long while, with the ability to make music seem as though they are coming from different angles and directions. The highs and midranges on this speaker are thoroughly controlled, and the bass hits hard and feels punchy without muddying into the midrange frequencies. With these speakers, you’ll get high-fidelity sound performance that sounds real-life. Vocals and dialogues are particularly good on these speakers with a sense of realism that you rarely find in most hi-fi speakers. They work great in a home theater arrangement setup. I haven’t heard such beautiful music from a pair of hi-fi speakers for a long time, so be sure to listen to the Aria 926s if you have the chance.