I'm a fool for Focal speakers. Actually I'm a fool for pretty much any speaker from France, but Focals are the ones I can afford. I have nine of them dotted around the house, all purchased at retail and I love every one of them to bits. After years of listening to speakers great and small from every quarter of the globe I'm in the happy position of having found a sound that my ears like more than any other, and I have gone with it.
Not everyone agrees. My brother would sooner have root canal work than buy Focals and my sister couldn't be talked out of her Sonos system by George Clooney bearing a case of Cristal. Audio preferences are an extremely personal choice and the only way you can find the right speakers for you and your ears is by listening around as much as you can.
![Part of Focal's new range of in-wall speakers.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180306151805im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/h/0/w/z/b/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.p4z2tj.png/1520273196062.jpg)
The problem most speaker buyers face is a lack of confidence. People don't believe they can hear the differences that the hi fi propeller heads hear, and salespeople often tell me that most buyers just want to be told what to buy. This makes it easy to steer them into the speakers with the best margin. Buyers assume salespeople know a lot more about this than they do, which is usually correct, and will steer them into the best sounding speakers for their money, which can sometimes be far from correct. When salespeople turn the volume up it's usually because that's the speaker they want you to buy – louder music always sounds better.
But only you have your ears and your choices in music, so only you can hear which speaker sounds best to you while playing music you like. A funny thing happens when you audition speakers; the first ones you listen to sound terrific. But if you listen to a few more and come back to that original, nine times out of ten it doesn't sound as good anymore. Speakers, even speakers in the same price range, vary wildly in the way they sound.
If you're not confident in your ability to judge one speaker against another do this; take music you like and know well along with you; and don't make it MP3 files, you want full CD or vinyl quality. Now listen to the same couple of tracks, or portions of tracks, on each speaker. I close my eyes to get full concentration. Narrow it down and take notes because your memory for sound quality is very short. It might take you an hour or longer, but at the end you'll be a great deal more discerning than you were and you'll have speakers that will sound good to you for as long as they last. Which, if you take proper care of them, can be 20 or 30 years. Importantly also, by this time the salesperson will know you're serious.
If you like Focals but don't like big boxes in the living room the brand has just launched two new series of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, an entry level 100 range and a more expensive 300 range sitting under the current, premium Electra line. The 100 range starts from $225 and includes both single and dual tweeter models and two ways with a couple of mids and a woofer. The 300 range starts at $660 for a two-way (tweeter and mid/bass) going up to $1050 for a three way in-ceiling or in-wall. All of them retain Focal's signature sound, which suits me just fine. My brother and sister would beg to differ.