Price Paid:  $1550.00

Summary:
Personally i think it is more like for home theatre.(REAR SPEAKER FOR HT)

Strengths:
NIL(NICE FINISH)

Weaknesses:
LOTS

Price Paid:  $1600.00 from friend

Summary:
Ain't worth for 1600 sound like cheap speakers from japan

Strengths:
none

Weaknesses:
plenty

View Comments (1)

Would you like to Comment?
Join audioReview for a free account, or Login if you are already a member.

Price Paid:  $2000.00 from A&L Kuala Lumpur

Summary:
no regrets if you intent to keep it forever. you will definitely enjoy listening for hours.

Strengths:
good transparency, seperation of instruments excellant, very musical,warm & neutral, tight bass, quality finish and look

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
Dynaaudio

Price Paid:  $1500.00

Summary:
You will need to know what equipment I am using to gv you all a better judgement of the matching. Here it is:-

CD - Rotel 991 AE (Audiophile Edition)
Int Amp - Audio Refinement Complete fr YBA 50w
Speakers - Focus Audio FS68
Speaker Cables - Tara Labs Prime 1000 Bi-Wire
Interconnect - Tara Labs RSC Axiom
Stands - Foundation Classic 1 series

My opinion is of course neutral, not biased as listening will always defer fr each other's ear & ability to appreciate music. I like jazz & vocals & R&B, so the speakers I used must be able to translate these abilities.

I bought the FS68 second-hand fr an audiophile but its in a very good condition.

FS68 is very musical,very neutral as in the guitar will sound natural like he's playing right in front of you, vocals will sound like she is singing in front of you. The transparency of instruments are good, has good depth so you can tell the musicians are standing at a different location while playing (of course you also hv to use a good recorded CD like Jazz at the Pawnshop Super HDCD 24 bit Gold Discs fr FIM & Particia Barber's Modern Cool & Nightclub). For me the midrange tonal quality of FS68 is rich and really brings out the richness & naturalness of the vocals. Soundstaging is wide but positioning of speakers are important to ensure centre imaging is perfect.

However, the drawbacks are the low fq bass, if you like tight bass, the FS68 will reward you but if its real low bass you want like fr hard rock recordings, this is not the speaker for it. But don't get me wrong, it can still gv good low frequency & tight bass to 45 Htz for a small 5.5 inc woofer fr Eton of Germany. The high frq is perfect, Scanspeak fr Denmark produces really good tweeters (and expensive too).

I use a relatively small int amp but the speakers are easy to drive, so its not really a prob. If I hv more $$ later, prob I wl switch to a better pre/power combo but the Audio Refinement Complete Int Amp are very well rated by Stereophile US and The Inner Ear Report - Hi End Amp at low end prices, its a solid state amp but sounds like tube.(Its made in Taiwan to bring the price lower, under YBA's quality control, finishing & amp parts uses the same as YBA Intregre sold at 3 times more expensive)

Also, pls use a good amp, at least a good int amp if you want the FS68 to really sing. Of course the source, the CD player fr Rotel 991 AE is equally important too to bring out the data fr the CD's.

Build quality of FS68 is excellent wz the black piano finish, the Cardas binding post is 100% pure copper and looks really expensive & hi-end.

I give it 4 stars for value because its not a cheap speaker but 5 stars for the quality of the sound it produces.

Buy it and keep it!!

Strengths:
FS68 has good transparency, seperation of instruments are good, very musical & neutral, tight bass, fantastic quality finish in black piano lacquer

Weaknesses:
Bass can be lower but the perfect mid tonal range is sacrificed, so its either better mid or more bass, for me I choose a better mid

Similar Products Used:
KEF Cresta 2, Mission 780's, B&W CDM 2 SE

Price Paid:  $2000.00

Summary:
Within this price range this bookshelf is really difficult to beat. Prior to my purchase, the Pro Ac sc1 and the tabelette 2000 were also on my list. After listening to all three I think that both the Pro Acs sounded brighter and more neutral but the FAs were warmer and more "musical". In this aspect, it was purely a personal choice. The big difference is when listening to strings and vocals. Both sounded more alive and real than the Pro Acs. All three are very precise and clear but the FA edges out as being the more "human" of the three.

Another strength of the FAs is that the positioning of instruments is very precise and 3-dimentional. Its best when listening to a live recording of bands or orchestras.

One relative weakness of the FA is that although the frequency of the bass is satisfactory (low enough), it lacks the "punch" that the tablette 2000 does better on. This is really personal and it also depends on what music you usually listen to. These speakers are perfect when listening to Jazz and Vocals (both male and female) but when it comes to to POP or bands (e.g. Eagles) it can do better on the "ommph" (I might need a bigger amp to drive these babies though...). For those of you that have the money or space, get the floor standing FS78 or FS88. These are THE PERFECT speakers!!!!

If you are using bi-wiring in your current set up, you must try them out together with jumpers. Your mid range will be more complete and certain instruments will "stand out" from the background.

One very important point is that these speakers MUST go with Foundation Designer II speaker stands (almost $900 USD!!). Otherwise, you will only get half the fun out of these babies!

Strengths:
Superb Highs and Mids. Very clear and precise positioning of instruments. Lively strings

Weaknesses:
Relatively weak bass