Fot those who are interested:
I auditioned the Focal chorus 714, The Monitor Audio Rx6, The Focal Aria 906 and some HECO bookshelves i didnt quite get the name (was following the lead of the shop guy at this point).
The songs i used were:
-Enya - Onoricco flow (Soundstage test)
-Vanessa Mae - Devils thrill (highs test)
-Sucide mission soundtrack from mass effect 2 as a personal enjoyment
-Florence - Rabbit heart for femele vocals
-30 seconds to mars - Up in the air for Male vocals and Decay
I was using a Cowon i9 as source with all WAV files, to make sure i used the same source as compared to my Logitech Z-5500 and the Hifiman HE-400+schiit asgard at home.
I was using the jeteffect "crystal clear" wich i belive to be a slightly V shaped EQ.
The amps used were the following:
-Marantz 6005
-Denon 720
-Fatman Tube (not sure waht version, i think 302, but dont quote me on this)
Bare in mind all comparisions are to hifiman HE-400, wich is Planar magnetic.
1)I started with the MA rx6. With the Marantz The MA rx6 sounded good. plainly good. While the bass as controled win the first two songs, once florence kicked in i was having an unpleasent grin.
The bass was boomy, not controled and the worst part, it cloded the mids. The highs were ok, but didnt feel natural. I quickly moved on to the Denon Amp
The diference was very small. The only thing that i enjoyed more with the dednon was the mids were not as clouded, but still not felt good.
*At this point i clearly favoured the denon amp.
2)I then moved to the Focal 714.
The first two songs did not feel much diferent from the Ma rx6, just slightly more natural highs at vanessa mae violin.
The sucide mission felt great, yet the bass was still slightly boomy and uncontroled, but the difference with the MA rx6 was considerable. I was able to hear the mids very clearly, theere was a bit of clouding by the bass but I was certain it was due to the EQ settings.
Florence and 30 seconds to mars felt as good as the sucide mission, and at this point i was inclined to go with the focal 714.
2)I moved to the focal aria 906. The difference was almost non existant untill the last 3 songs, where the driver clearly did not manange to keep up with the decay between the lows and mids.
3) The shop keeper suggested the HECO bookshelves.
At the first 2 songs, i was able to hear more in the music. The separation was clearly better than with any previous speakers. However when the bass hit, The bass felt really lacking. Not that there was too little of it, just felt as if the amp was underpowered, or as I think, the speakers could not match the focal in terms of capacity.
Finally, when i was quite decided on the Focal 714, I recalled seeing a tube amp at their shop. I asked if they had any and the shop keeper said they had one (the fatman), that was rated at 25W per channel.
I was quite sure it would not manage the speakers well but the shop keeper suggested trying it anyway.
Now, here is where i found that there was a huge differencce, but i could not for the love of me say what was it. It wasent better highs, or cleaner mids, or even more controlled bass, but over all the sound felt more real.
I asked about the prices and OFC it was out of my pocket at this moment.
Its quite clear that the Focal 714 are a lot different from the HE-400, but Even with only 50 minutes of time (for all of the equpiment tested, so just the 5 songs, and more than once skipping one when something didnt sound good enought) I was able to enjoy the focal greatly.
The only problem was the bass
It still felt boomy (ofc after planar bass, hard to complain).
I did not order them on the spot becosue i wanted to go back to listen to my Z-5500 from the same source to make sure it was not placebo.
the first 2 songs felt similar, A bit better on the focal but clearly not worth buying a new set of speakers.
Then the breaking point came: Wheni was listening to the sucide mission, the Z-5500 felt like a small kid crying "I cant do that" since it was so weak in keeping up to give me the same spectrum at highs/mids as the focals did.
Overall, I can say the focal 714 is in general about 20-30% better than the Z-5500, but when it comes to beeing able to reproduce diferent frequencies togheter at the same time, its about 80% better.
When it comes to mids/highst, the decay and crossover is almost as good as the HE-400.
This means i am going with the Focal 714, but Im still on the hunt for the perfect amp
.
I hope this mgiht help somone who is looking for a rather cheap speaker setup. (and if any of you can give me more info on maps, im very interested).