Focal-JMLab Profile 918 Floor standing speakers

Focal Profile 918 speaker systems have a very interesting shape. On the front panel there are two woofers with the diameter of 6,5 inches and an inch tweeter made of aluminum-magnesium alloy. it is mounted on a massive spear-shaped aluminum base and, as usual for Focal, is closed by a fine-meshed metal mesh on the magnet. If you remember shelf Profile 908, they, in fact, are the upper part of Profile 918 with an absolutely identical tweeter and the top woofer. Due to this reason technical characteristics of both models differ only a little bit, except the lower border of the reproduced bass, which in Profile 918 is lower by 10 Hz. Woofers are of the same diameter - this, surely, the proprietary composite W-cone sandwiches made of glass fabric with the diffusers of 12 cm in the diameter and narrow half-wave rubber suspensions. Externally they look very similar to each other, the difference is only in the cap - at the top it is solid, plastic and stable, rigidly connected with the end of magnetic core, at the bottom - simple, connected with the diffuser, and of convex profile. The upper woofer is installed in the separate chamber, the lower one is loaded on a big port of the bass-reflex, made of hard qualitative plastic, placed on the front panel. The body's walls are made of multi-layered MDF and covered with high-quality lacquer. The body from inside is reinforced with numerous spacers.

We managed to achieve the optimum of sound from the loudspeakers with a slight, 15-20 degrees, turn out of the listener. The speaker systems differ by steady, calm feed, being subjectively perceived as a bit detained (in style somewhat similar to Penaudio Sara, but with clear and distant upper frequencies). Restraint goes away only in pop music, rock and metallic recordings, although excess rigidity may arise there. Focal Profile 918 do not make an emphasis on noise side-tones, highlighting primarily the tones of instruments, a bit matte and without sharp active attack. Bass is of traditionally high quality for W-sandwiches, perfectly focused and not fading even in complex double-bass and organ.