Focal Aria 906 Review – Faithful to the DNA of the Aria Range

At the beginning of getting started with HiFi, the choice of products is a very tangled thing. In fact, from the perspective of audiophiles, entry-level HiFi speakers need to be carefully selected. A good entry HiFi speaker can ignite your HiFi dream.

Focal speakers, whether in the professional or ordinary user groups, are a very outstanding brand. Focal is a French speaker company established in 1979 and one of the few speaker companies in the world that can develop high-quality speaker units and Hi-End speakers. The JmLab speaker, under its name, has a high reputation in the fields of home and car speakers.

FOCAL become a world-class speaker manufacturer, and it has a great relationship with its “diaphragm manufacturing technology”. In 1985, FOCAL developed poly-glass diaphragm. Focal has been studying diaphragm manufacturing technology for nearly 30 years. In addition to the million-level flagship products, FOCAL is the most popular and entry-level products in the market.

And the emergence of Aria 900 series is another breakthrough of FOCAL in diaphragm technology. This time, the introduction is not high-end products, but the mid-range products that most people can afford-Aria 900 series. This series is considered to be a relatively high-value product in terms of material quality and price. The Aria 900 series has three floor-standing speakers (948, 936, 926), a centre speaker (CC 900), a surround speaker (906), and a dedicated stand (S 900). FOCAL’s Aria series is just between the high-end Electra and the entry-level Chorus series.

Although ARIA 906 is not Focal’s top product, ARIA 906 has plenty of music details. The low-frequency and high-frequency energy feels more vigorous than the 706 and also creates a perfect combination. In terms of configuration and appearance, ARIA 906 has reached a very high level. Flax cone and TNF aluminum-magnesium alloy tweeter make this speaker have both sound guarantee and a timeless French style. Of course, if you want to talk about the most significant feature and improvement of the 906, there is no doubt that it has a full sound range and creates a realistic sound effect.

INVERTED DOME TWEETER

The inverted dome tweeter, Focal’s signature product, has been through continuous development ever since Focal released this technology. Its main advantage, very low directivity, lies in its use of a coil of small diameter directly fixed to the rigid dome.because of the small diameter, leads to a better accelerating.

PORON SUSPENSION FOR SOFT TREBLE

For the TNF tweeter, Focal has brought two major evolutions to the aluminium/magnesium tweeter. Focal uses Poron for the suspension between the dome and its bracket use. Poron is a material with shape memory.
This suspension method makes it possible to reduce distortion by a factor of three in the 2-3kHz range, where the human ear has very high sensitivity.

FLAX SANDWICH CONE

Flax cones are made of high-quality flax fibres core enclosed by two thin layers of glass fibre. This technology satisfies the critical criteria of a high-performance diaphragm

high internal damping
high flexural rigidity
high velocity of sound

Rigidity

There is no mono-material cone can meet all these criteria. Focal’s hallmark, the sandwich technology greatly influences the neutrality of the sound produced by the cone. The expertise gained from the sandwich technology of the former product lines enabled Focal to develop a revolutionary Flax cone to meet the three criteria.

Lightness

Because the fibre is hollow, Flax is twice as light as fibreglass,. It also has deficient elasticity which makes it ideal for increasing the flexural rigidity.

Internal Damping

While other materials have properties suitable for the situation where both rigidity and low mass are required, their disadvantage is that they lack damping, which leads to inferior control of vibrations. Recent developments in this field combining composites and natural fibres have brought unexpected opportunities. Flax fibre has an excellent internal damping feature as the glass or Kevlar® fibres or aluminium.

Focal Aria 906 Specifications

Type: Two-way bass-reflex floorstanding loudspeaker
Speaker drivers: 61/2″ (16.5cm) Flax bass – midrange,1″ (25mm) Al/Mg TNF inverted dome tweeter
Frequency response (+/-3dB): 55Hz – 28kHz
Low frequency point -6dB: 47Hz
Sensitivity (2.83V/1m): 89.5dB
Nominal impedance: 8 Ohms
Minimum impedance: 4.6 Ohms
Recommended amplifier power: 25 – 120W
Crossover frequency: 2800Hz
Dimensions (H x W x D): 153/8x 87/8x 111/32″ (390x225x280mm)
Weight: 19lbs (8.5kg)