This would be quite a subjective opinion as I'm not an audio engineer.
Design: clever, clean, subdued, fits anywhere since brown is quite dark, optional grills on tweeter and woofer makes it even more "blended". Passive radiators from the sides do work as intended and give extra airy bass, best felt at mid to low volume.
Read moreHaving said that, placement still might need to be taken into account as reflections might affect the sound; it was never a problem for me, however. Proper weight, has adjustable "legs", which I'd not recommend extending, just make sure screws are tight. Any proper speaker stand or iso-acoustic platform will do. Back panel: all that is needed; if HPF is off, bass may be not audible but rather "felt". Speakers can be mounted.
Sound: with Audient interface and standard Furman electric conditioner - no standing noise, no hum, no hiss. This is a huge plus as despite the age, I can still hear ~ 18k and thus could not stand KRK, and some other monitors that hiss on standby. People say "burning in" is nonsense, however, the sound seemed to change after approximately 20 hrs of use. I'm not qualified to comment on frequency response or distortion graphs published elsewhere, but you will clearly hear anything you've produced in your DAW. I shall probably emphasize that the sound is CLEAN - same tendency I hear in Focal Clear MG open cans I use for monitoring or even Focal Bathys that is inferior to "clear" in accuracy, but still somehow exceptionally pleasing without being technical. Twitter: slightly "unforgiving" but transparent; you don't need to directly position it towards you to appreciate the details, another plus for me. Passive radiators and woofer, as mentioned above, produce warm, honest and well controlled bass - nothing more to wish for. Timing: had no issues with Logic; did not test with ProTools and other DAWs.
Drawbacks: virtually none for the price. As these monitors use class AB amp, back panel will get warm after hours of use. They came with automatic standby mode that apparently required by EU and with low signal go to sleep in 30 min. This was quite irritating, so the guys from Focal provided DIY instructions to deactivate this.
Resume: Focal should have placed that standby on/off switch on the back panel for easy access and polish the edges of the optional grills (which were probably given a low priority for quality control) and these monitors would be simply outstanding. Their customer service is superb. Monitors are honest and warm, can also be used for casual listening with some frequency adjustments. Highly recommended.
