Focal Aria Evo X Series Overview

Company History

Focal began its journey in 1979 in France, making speaker drivers using time-tested manufacturing methods and the newest materials. Making drivers out of Polyglass or Polykevlar was new at the time and caught the eye of many speaker companies for use in their designs. In 1982, the DB13 bookshelf loudspeakers revolutionized the world of bookshelf speakers and showed Focal’s dedication to using high-tech materials and knowledge to build great speakers.

Having become a leader in the French speaker market and gaining international recognition, Focal decided to unveil their flagship speaker, the Grande Utopia in 1995. The Grande Utopia combined extravagant aesthetics with high-tech design, asserting themselves as leaders in the high-end speaker world. Today, Focal designs some of the world's best speakers, headphones, pro audio monitors, and car audio speaker drivers.

Features & Technology

Since the Aria’s introduction in 2013, it has been a model that has done well for Focal. It offers a combination of relative affordability with high-tech features to make these an excellent option for people wanting top-grade performance without the upfront costs associated with Focals Sopra or Kanta models. Still, the new Aria Evo X series will give users a large percentage of these upper-end models in a more affordable and compact package.

M-Shaped TAM Tweeter

The new M-shaped TAM tweeter features a dome made with both magnesium and aluminum. Combining aluminum’s outstanding rigidity with magnesium’s dampening qualities, it gives users a very detailed treble with a smoothness that allows for all-day listening. This combination will provide cymbals their natural tone while keeping transient response high, allowing more detail to shine through.

Flax Cone Technology

Focal decided to stay with their Flax cone technology for the midrange and woofer cones. Using this technology in the cones of both Kanta and Aria Evo X speaker lines gives the benefit of a naturally occurring fiber cone for a more natural tone with instruments and vocals, with the added advantage of layers of thin glass fiber to add rigidity to the cone. The main benefit of these driver cones is that they are a natural material, and the formulation and manufacture of these drivers are semi-automated. 

Comparing this to the much more expensive hand-built W-cone drivers in the more expensive lines that add cost and complexity to the design. Using these Flax drivers allows Focal to keep the performance high while costing less to manufacture, making the Aria Evo X series a much more affordable entry into Focal’s upper-level speaker systems.

Waveguide & Powerflow Multi-Port System

To improve performance, Focal added a urethane tweeter plate with a built-in waveguide that combines to improve horizontal directivity and better sound staging abilities. Building this waveguide out of urethane has a dampening effect around the tweeter for less diffraction, which allows you to hear just the driver and not the baffle around it.

Focal’s powerflow multi-port system consists of a front-firing bass port and a bottom-firing port, giving users the best of both worlds in bass-reflex enclosures. The front port acts as an impact-driven port, giving bass the impact and dynamics that make music fun and exciting. The bottom-firing port adds to the speaker's bottom octave bass ability to give music the bass depth that will anchor the music in the room. With this port, you can hear and feel the room in which the music was recorded, adding to a sense of reality.

Design & Quality Build

Focal took their knowledge from their flagship models and built an ultra-rigid and braced MDF cabinet featuring non-parallel side panels to combat standing waves that can wreck a speaker's otherwise outstanding performance. We agree that dealing with what is happening inside the cabinet will yield great benefits to the sound coming out of the cabinet.

Finishing off the Aria Evo X line construction is the aluminum/alloy stand, which anchors the speaker and effectively decouples it from the floor. Doing this will prevent the transmission of vibrations from your speakers to the floor, which can smear an otherwise great midrange and bass performance. Focal also includes spikes that mount to the base with a key, allowing full adjustability should you raise them or tilt them back in a larger room for perfect time alignment.

Focal always surprises us with visuals; the new Aria Evo X is a prime example. Finish options are high-gloss black, prime walnut, and, most interestingly, a high-gloss Moss green, which might not be for everyone, but to us, it is a cool color that will surely be the centerpiece in a modern-looking, visually satisfying system layout. A leather effect front panel with a magnetic grill rounds out the package with a high-quality look and feel.

Focal Aria Evo X Lineup

Four main speaker models in the new Aria Evo X lineup will work for different room sizes and situations.

Aria Evo X N°1 Bookshelf Speakers

Aria Evo X N°1 is a stand-mount speaker with a 6.5” Flax cone midbass with the TAM tweeter. With a frequency response of 55Hz - 30kHz, it is suitable for small rooms or with a subwoofer in larger ones. Focal stands are available to round out this package. This is the only stereo speaker in the Aria Evo X line not to receive the multi-port technology.  These will work very well on stands as they have pretty incredible imaging.  We also see people using these for bed layer surround speakers.

Aria Evo X N°2 Floorstanding Speaker

Aria Evo X N°2 is Focal's smallest floor-standing speaker in the line, featuring two 6.5” Flax bass drivers, a 6.5” Flax midrange, and the TAM tweeter in a slim tower with a response from 45Hz - 30kHz which allows this speaker to be more suited to midsized rooms or larger room with a subwoofer. For a medium-sized room, this is probably our favorite speaker. The midrange and bass drivers are almost exactly the width of the cabinet, which lends to them painting a beautiful 3-dimensional sound stage.  These could also serve as your side surrounds if you were using the larger models as your mains

Aria Evo X N°3 Floorstanding Speaker

Aria Evo X N°3 ups the size and ability with three 6.5” Flax cone woofers, a 6.5” Flax cone midrange, and the TAM tweeter for even larger rooms with a response of 39Hz - 30kHz. With its triple bass drivers, the N°3 might not need a subwoofer for most people in adequate-sized rooms. Its double front and bottom port technology will make its impact felt and heard. The extra bass driver and dual ports give this speaker much more slam than the Aria Evo X N°2.  Check out if you enjoy bass slam in a relatively slender package.

Aria Evo X N°4 Floorstanding Speaker

Aria Evo X N°4 is the line's flagship and is intended for larger rooms where extra cone area will be needed for bass production. Featuring two 8” Flax cone bass drivers with multi-port technology, 6.5 Flax cone midrange, and TAM tweeter, the speaker’s response is 37Hz - 30kHz, which covers most instruments played today and should only need a subwoofer in the largest of rooms or with a listener that enjoys bass-heavy EDM or hip hop music.  The specs don't really do these justice as they seem to reach very deep.  You will need to play around with positioning to get the best performance out of them, as they could overload a small room.  And that is where buying from Audio Advice makes a huge difference.  We have a passionate team of music lovers who can work with you to help you decide the best way to position these in your room.

Aria Evo X Center Channel Speaker

Aria Evo X Center and Aria SR900 round out the lineup for those interested in making an all-Aria Evo X theater system. The Aria Evo X Center features the same 6.5” Midwoofers as the Aria Evo X stereo speakers, making tonal matching simple, and with a response from 57Hz - 30kHz, all of the dialog and action in your movies and games will be presented in full clarity. We like the fact they use a 6.5” driver pair for great dynamics.  The Aria SR900 surround speakers will add to this performance with their 5” Flax mid-woofers and aluminum/magnesium TNF inverted dome tweeters, giving the full system tonal accuracy and timbre matching to the rest of the speakers in the Aria Evo X lineup. However, if you are thinking about an immersive object-based surround layout be it Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, we would suggest the Aria Evo X N°1 bookshelf.  Object-based surround works better with directional speakers.  However, for a basic 5.1 system, these will be a very good choice.

If you have any questions on which models will work in your room, call or chat on our website here at Audio Advice and let our experts help you pick the best models for your room.

Performance

Joni Mitchell’s 1974 album Court And Spark is a great album, and it is easy to get emotionally lost in the songs. Imaging was on point, and the soundstage was as it should be. The new Aria Evo X has the details the original Aria was known for, but Focal did some work to make them even smoother for longer listening sessions. Joni’s vocals had body and detail without sibilance. The instruments' great tone and texture allowed us to forget we were not listening to Focal’s flagship line. Acoustic guitars can sound unnatural on speakers that don’t blend their drivers correctly in the crossover. The guitar should sound like one full-bodied instrument with no tonal change between the lower and higher octaves on the instrument. We are happy to report that Focal did a good job blending the drivers in this new line of speakers as they presented a natural and realistic presentation very close to Focal's larger, more sophisticated models.

Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen’s 2023 album Midst of Life is an album everyone needs to hear. It is only 3 songs deep, but those three songs take you on an emotionally satisfying ride! From Chelo’s to the violins, every instrument has its own space in the mix and can breathe with these new Aria Evo X speakers. Soundstage and imaging must be on point for this album to sound its best, and we were impressed with the presentation. This is another album that will show weaknesses in bass speed, clarity, and depth and will pick apart a speaker if the crossover or drivers have any issues. Again, in their price class, we were impressed with what the Aria Evo X’s brought to the performance and only noticed any shortcomings when directly compared to Focal’s much more expensive siblings. We listened to every track from start to end, breathing in the musical greatness and allowing the actual recorded space to envelop the room. We can tell that Focal concentrated on making the Aria Evo X speakers smoother than their predecessors. You still had the detail Focal is known for but with an even smoother demeanor. As for this album, once you hear an actual recorded space taking over your listening room, you will never go back to untreated rooms or misplaced speakers ever again!

Overall Recommendation

Like the flagship Focal speakers, we enjoyed our time with the Focal Aria Evo X speakers. They were a perfect blend of technical proficiency and musicality that stood out in their price class. With Focal’s attention to detail with design and aesthetics, the Aria Evo X can fit into about any room and with several color options, looks good doing it. For you home theater lovers, Focal made sure to design a proper matching center channel and surround speaker options should you want to build a full high-end home theater system.

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