We tested the Focal Chora 826 floorstanding speakers!

We tested the Focal Chora 826 floorstanding speakers!

The French company, formerly known as JMlaB, was founded by Jacques Mahul in 1979, an engineer and hifi-audio journalist. Since then, the company has been striving to produce the most perfect and clearest sound possible, combined with a contemporary, youthful and aesthetic exterior design.

Chora 826 design

The predecessor of the Focal Chora type was the Focal Chorus, which was further developed to become the Chora series. Out of the three representatives of the Chora series the 826 standing speakers are the largest. For a 3-way speaker, the recommended amplifier power is between 140 and 250 Watt, with a frequency transmission of 48Hz-28kHz. The speaker weighs 24 kg and is around 1 meter high. Despite its bulky size, when drawing the blueprints the designers had in mind a robust, beautifully shaped, slim appearance. Available in 3 finishes, the light wood housing has a beige front, the walnut received a blue front panel, and the black has a black lacquer front design.

It is equipped with an integrated 13 cm Atmos speaker, a 165 mm centre speaker, and two 165 mm subwoofers. The inverted TNF dome is a tweeter made of 25 mm aluminium and magnesium alloy and is protected by fixed grating. The middle part is covered with a densely woven fabric, the frame of which is fixed with magnets. There is a round reflex opening in the lower half of the front panel. The speaker housing is tilted approx. 5 degrees backwards. Thanks to the bottom dock, it is designed to stand stably on the floor and even reduce resonances. On the back of the speaker are various connections that can primarily accept banana plugs. The banana cork caps are pretty hard to remove, they fit so tightly. The rigid MDF housing also reduces resonances, with a speaker sensitivity of 91 decibels, which means it works well even with lower power amplifiers. The tilted design of the speaker allows for more precise control of the tweeters, as it is very important that they radiate towards the listening position. Because the bass reflex holes are located on the front panel, the speakers can be placed close to the wall.

Speakers

The brand new membrane type, an innovation over previous Focal models, is the so-called Slatefiber membrane, made of slate-effect, nonwoven carbon fibers and thermoplastic polymer, which in turn provides greater rigidity, resulting in a more natural sound. The speaker impedance is 8 Ohms.The concave design of the tweeter makes treble less controllable, with the advantage of a special dome suspension for minimal distortion.

The middle and two bass drives are covered by a grid, the tweeter is protected with a shiny steel mesh, but otherwise visible, which is not a problem at all as it looks really aesthetic. The mid-range drive is equipped with a conical dust cover against interference and distortion, the subwoofer received a more flat protection, which provides rigidity and well controlled basses.

Testing the Chora

We tried the beautiful speakers for both watching movies and listening to music. Testing took place in a 25-square-foot living room. The room was newly renovated and furnished in a stripped-down style, which in turn is not really conducive to improve acoustics. Due to the lack of furniture and a lot of bare glass and wall surfaces, there was a lot of reflections damaging sound quality, so we advised the owner to perform an acoustic treatment of the room as soon as possible. Diffusers and sound-absorbing panels have been recommended for the walls and ceiling, and thick, densely woven curtains in front of the rather large windows and patio door.

A pair of light wood finish speakers with the beige front panel were connected to the Arcam SA30 integrated home theatre amplifier unit for our tests. Assembling and setting up was fairly simple, we were able to attach the docks to the speaker very quickly and easily. Thanks to the fact that bass reflex openings are located on the front panel, we could place the speakers relatively close to the wall. We found that the distance between the two speakers should be matter of precise calculations as the sound can be distorted if we put them too close to each other, as well as if they are too close to the listening position.

These speakers require space, so we recommend to place them in relatively larger rooms. The Focal Chora 826 befits rooms of at least 20-25 square meters, but if you are looking for speakers for a smaller room, we would recommend the smaller siblings of Chora. After trying out a few positions, we finally managed to position the speakers ideally about 320 cm apart.

Although the amplifier has EQ adjustment options, it should be noted that room correction systems alone will not yet solve the sound problems of a room with poor acoustics. However, these EQ programs are really great and useful for fine tuning and sound enhancement.

We started the tests with the exciting sci-fi film After Earth, which was screened in 2013 starring Will Smith. The Chora 826 speakers reproduced very beautiful, realistic, detailed and accurate sounds, we could hear full, intense basses, the sound filled the space. We witnessed the same while screening the exciting action movie Miami Vice from 2006. Rich mid-range, distortion-free, percussive, deep tones characterised the speaker’s sound production.

We also wanted to try this beautiful, elegant, yet modern style speaker while listening to music, so we put on the Kygo and Donna Summer’s hit Hot stuff. No matter how hard we tried to find the slightest flow, the speakers performance was impeccable. After some very hard work we ended up finding the vocals too harsh in some moments. Heavy metal rhythms followed thanks to Metallica’s song Until it sleeps. We were astonished to hear ranges of tones we haven’t heard before. The sounds of guitars and musical instruments were distinct and limpid, reproduced by the speakers in full.

By the way, while listening to music, the stereo stage picture was also perfect, and we had the impression that we were using separate subwoofers helping out the speakers with the basses. The exact, dynamic sound was there again, and the mid-range was very subtle, soft, yet very rich.

Verdict

The most prolific member of the Focal Chora series, with its exterior design, amazing sound and performance, clearly represents premium quality. We got a realistic stage picture, we could hear clear, accurate, dynamic sound, and we were lucky with an extremely intense, muscular bass range. Whether you want to choose an ideal pair of speakers for your home theatre system or listening to music, you won’t be disappointed with the Focal Chora 826.

However, due to its rather high price and large size and weight, it is not within reach to everyone. On the other hand, care should also be taken not to place the speakers too close to each other. It is also important to find the right distance between the speakers and the listener. Removing the banana cork caps was quite problematic, but really that’s what we did struggle with, no major flows while testing the Chora 826.

G.H.

Written by Róbert Polgár