[Guest (MBNZ)]

Has anyone used Focal Car audio speakers with good success? <br>
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Thanks

 

[Guest (MBNZ)]

Focal drivers are some of the very best made in the world. They compete at the top with Morel, MB Quart's best, JL's XR series, etc. Focal car systems are often difficult to use in a Mercedes because of the depth of their drivers. Nevertheless, they are top quality speakers. P.

 

[gkouri]

I am a high end audio buff and spent a tremendous amount of time evaluating and listening to the best audio available for the car. The better end Focal are truly excellent speakers. They are far superior to MB Quart or any of the well know Japanese brand names. They are much more expensive but the difference is night and day. I ended up selecting with Dynaudio for myself for a different reason but had a tough time choosing between these and the Focal. FYI - garbage in=garbage out. If your car head unit is lousy, the differences will be small. I run the McIntosh with the separate D/A converter. It is quite good - again much better than the common brand names. The Hi-end Nakamichi are also very nice.

 

[USA Soccer]

McIntosh make the BEST stereo equipment. Also if you look on www.ebay.com you will see that it holds its value better than any car audio brand hands down. A facts a fact!

 

[alans1]

After suffering with the horrible bose system in my '02 E55 for 6 months, I installed the following: I wanted to keep my command 2.0 head unit with nav, phone and voice command so I added a JL 300/4 (75W RMS X4) amplifier to power Focal 2 way 6.5" Utopia speakers in the front doors and Focal 5.25" coaxial speakers (required special adapters from England). The stock bose amp still powers the factory 6.5" subs on the rear deck. Since the JL amp is a true differential input system (both sides of the input are isolated from ground) that works with high or low level signals, it interfaces directly with the head unit without any adapters, isolators or level matching devices. The system is all stock in appearance and no mods were required to the doors so I can return the car to stock in a couple of hours when and if I sell it. The best part of all is the sound. Finally I have crystal clear highs from the mirror mounted tweeters (the stock system did not use this area and there were just grills with no speakers) and the muddy bass is gone! I can listen to concert hall level music with minimal audible distortion in my car. The head unit is not "perfect" and low level noise can be heard during very low level music if you listen very carefully. But this a very easy tradeoff for me. Everyone that hears my sound system tells me that it is special. So when you bring your MB with "blowes" to your local car audio installer and they tell you that you need to replace everything including the head unit to upgrade, tell them to "stuff it" and find an installer that works on high end cars.

 

[neilbo75]

After suffering with the horrible bose system in my '02 E55 for 6 months, I installed the following: I wanted to keep my command 2.0 head unit with nav, phone and voice command so I added a JL 300/4 (75W RMS X4) amplifier to power Focal 2 way 6.5" Utopia speakers in the front doors and Focal 5.25" coaxial speakers (required special adapters from England). The stock bose amp still powers the factory 6.5" subs on the rear deck. Since the JL amp is a true differential input system (both sides of the input are isolated from ground) that works with high or low level signals, it interfaces directly with the head unit without any adapters, isolators or level matching devices. The system is all stock in appearance and no mods were required to the doors so I can return the car to stock in a couple of hours when and if I sell it. The best part of all is the sound. Finally I have crystal clear highs from the mirror mounted tweeters (the stock system did not use this area and there were just grills with no speakers) and the muddy bass is gone! I can listen to concert hall level music with minimal audible distortion in my car. The head unit is not "perfect" and low level noise can be heard during very low level music if you listen very carefully. But this a very easy tradeoff for me. Everyone that hears my sound system tells me that it is special. So when you bring your MB with "blowes" to your local car audio installer and they tell you that you need to replace everything including the head unit to upgrade, tell them to "stuff it" and find an installer that works on high end cars.

Like you i want to keep the COMAND interface but improve the sound based on Focal speakers. Are you still happy with the system?

I was thinking also of putting a pair of Focal speakers on the parcel shelf, replacing the Bose units there and also a pair of small Focal subwoofers and amps in the trunk, ported through to the armrest area of the back seat of my CLK. Has anyone done something like this? I want things to look as stock as possible.