Beyond the Curve!
Focal’s commitment to provide innovative monitoring solutions has led it to completely rethink its approach to nearfield studio monitors, as demonstrated by the new Shape line with its double passive radiators and the new cones for the woofers and tweeters. The three monitors, Shape 40, Shape 50, Shape 65, are all made in France and integrate five innovations to maximise acoustic transparency. Designed to meet the needs of nearfield monitoring, Shape monitors combine an ingenuous design and numerous settings optimised for the acoustics of small listening rooms.
These work tools distinguish themselves through their wide and extremely precise stereo image. The bass register is articulated and controlled. The lower mid-range and mid-range benefit from extreme neutrality, and without any masking effects, making equalisation of these essential registers much easier. Finally, the new tweeter is what’s at the source of the very high definition. It efficiently reveals any hissing, and it’s also very precise in the very high-end.
Shape 50 is the versatile monitoring loud speaker par excellence. This monitor can be used from 30" away (80cm), and it has very extended low end frequency response (50Hz) considering its compact design. Thanks to this design and to the numerous settings, this monitor is ideal for rooms measuring less than 130ft2 (12m2).
Shape Technologies
'M'-shaped aluminum/magnesium inverted dome tweeter
Aluminum has the advantage of having very high rigidity, whereas the combination of addition of magnesium increases the damping of the dome. At the same time, the 'M' shape of the inverted dome has two major advantages. Its directivity is even less that of the inverted dome tweeter, allowing for more flexibility in terms of listening position. Mechanically speaking, the 'M' shape gives the dome much more rigidity, while reducing distortion even more. The Poron® suspension provides a more linear frequency response curve below 6kHz, improving crossover with the woofer. The magnetic component has also been optimised thanks to a voice coil with a Kapton® frame which significantly reduces the Foucault current, and consequently, distortion. Finally, the horn housing the tweeter has been designed to provide equal horizontal and vertical directivity.
Flax sandwich cone
Developing speaker driver cone technologies is part of Focal’s core expertise. The Flax sandwich cones used for the woofers on Shape loudspeakers are composed of two materials: glass fibres and flax fibres. A layer of flax fibres is sandwiched between two layers of glass fibres. Glass fibre cones were also used on the 'W' composite sandwich cone of the SM6 and SM9 series, and are revered for their high rigidity considering their light weight. The soul of the sandwich cone needs to provide good damping while being as light as possible. Flax fibres are twice as light as glass fibres as they’re hollow. What’s more, they also have very low elasticity. This consequently increases the speaker driver’s Young’s modulus when in excursion, an essential property to ensure a piston-like action even in the very low end. Finally, it is 80% composed of cellulose which gives it excellent damping. So, it was only natural for us to choose this material. This new technology has proven to be a considerable improvement over the Polyglass cone in terms of weight, rigidity and damping
Rating: 4.8
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