Not your typical Audiophile

To some the term Audiophile congers many meanings.
For some when a product is described as Audiophile quality they assume a high sometimes unrealistic prices is associated.

Audiophile to me is a term for enthusiasm of high fidelity reproduction which is achievable at any price point, because it is your enthusiasm and appreciation of the audio reproduction that matters.

I have focused on building a business that promoted products that represent value for money and this morning I put together a system consisting of 3 components.

• Musical Fidelity M3Si integrated amplifier. $2495
• Focal Aria 926 3way Floor standing loudspeakers $3599 (for the Walnut finish)
• Sonos connect pre-amplifier $549

Let me start by saying this was not an intended setup for the purpose of writing a review, in actual fact this is not really what I would call a review, more so a spontaneous opinion.

We took delivery a few weeks ago of the new White edition Focal Aria 926 floor standing speakers, they have been sitting in their boxes. Finally a little spare time on Sunday had me motivated to set them up to check the finish. I had been doing an amp shoot out earlier with a customer so just hooked the speakers to the M3Si.

A normal audition would involve clearing the room, finding optimum position, setup with streaming media via quality DAC, CD player and Turntable and allowing New speakers time to settle with at least 25 to 50 hours playing.

But: this was not an audition..
The last song I was listening to on my phone was Flight Facility “Heart Attach” so that was what started and the impact was enough to interest me.

I stood for a while, then jumped back to the beginning and stood a little longer. I started the track again, increased the volume and sat myself down.

I listened to the track. Stopped the music and thought about it. Not the best setup, not the best positioning but the music was clear, dynamic and powerful. The image was bliss. The track has interesting digital processing effects with motion and I found myself moving my head with the focus point shifting from right to left, the image extended past the speaker location the vocals were steady and the depth was intriguing. I was enjoying the experience, changed a few tracks, listened to some female vocals, and then back to Flight Facility. Not really what I would normally use for an audition but I was entertained.

Lets not get too carried away, perfection is rarely achieved, quality audio equipment should move you, entertain you and allow you to appreciate the artist talents. This system did just that.