Focal Aria 906 Speakers Walnut

Description

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Focal Aria 906 Bookshelf Speakers 

French audio manufacturer Focal builds a wide range of world-class speakers, and bookshelf models are one of their specialties. The Aria series borrows advanced driver technologies originally developed for Focal's acclaimed Utopia speakers, giving you high-end sound without the sticker shock. The Aria 906s sound bigger than you might expect from such compact speakers, with potent bass, smooth, detailed highs, and a big three-dimensional soundstage.

Unique cone material combines old and new

Speaker makers continuously search for new and better materials for drivers. An ideal driver material has three qualities:

1. lightweight, so it can accelerate quickly
2. rigid, so that it moves like a piston, without bending
3. well-damped, so that unwanted vibrations don't colour the sound

In their pursuit of sonic excellence Focal made a surprising discovery, that Woven flax can form the core of a very rigid yet lightweight speaker cone and as luck would have it some of the world's finest flax grows in fields near Focal's headquarters.

Focal creates this unique speaker cone by sandwiching a layer of hollow flax fibers between two thin layers of fiberglass. In the Aria 906, the 6-1/2" midrange is made of this composite material.

Inverted dome tweeter looks different, sounds terrific

The Aria series also features Focal's 1" aluminium/magnesium inverted dome tweeter. Inverting the dome brings more of its surface area closer to the voice coil. That means the voice coil can be smaller and lower in mass. Focal has found that this reduced mass allows the dome to move faster than a conventional dome, for better high-frequency response.

And the tweeter's lightweight Poron "memory foam" suspension improves damping, which reduces distortion in the critical 2-3kHz range by a factor of three, compared to a typical suspension.

The inverted dome's spatial characteristics and wide dispersion are further enhanced by the waveguide plate it's mounted on. In the horizontal plane, the tweeter's frequency response varies by only ±0.5dB. The result is an incredibly stable soundstage, even for listeners not seated in the central sweet spot.

Stylish, vibration-resistant cabinet

All Aria speakers feature ultra-rigid MDF cabinets with sturdy internal bracing and non-parallel sides. Focal takes these steps to eliminate the unwanted vibrations that lead to "boxy" colorations in the sound. The handsome cabinets have a traditional look, but with a few unexpected touches — a leatherette finish on the front, and a glass top surface.

Built in-house for better quality and value

The speaker drivers in every Aria speaker are built in-house at Focal's facilities in Saint-Etienne, France. Why is that important? Because it gives Focal complete control over every aspect of design, manufacture, and quality control, resulting in a consistently superior, high-value speaker.