Alpha 50 Evo 5 inch Powered Studio Monitor

TL;DR: Very impressed with these at the price point, or even a bit above the price point. These sound great as is, without a sub for both casual or technical listening, but I do EQ them a bit for everyday listening and go flat when mixing. As expected for a Focal product they are bright and forward, but not harsh. Mid-range is absolutely beautiful, and bass is punchy and accurate. As these are 5's, I would probably recommend a sub, but it is absolutely NOT required for casual mixing or everyday nearfield listening. These actually just make fantastic PC speakers as my rambling description and story below will clarify. The Long Story: I have a somewhat unique use case as I'm not a full-on music producer by any stretch of the imagination. My office is where I work and play. I live in here and listening to music is important to me first and foremost. I had not been happy using a Sonos Beam and Sub mini on my PC. Just wasn't a good solution that required too many workarounds and wasn't easy to switch audio from my work laptop to my gaming PC. I tried to fit a square peg in a round hole just to keep things consistent with the rest of the house. This is not a negative review about the Beam or Sub Mini or any Sonos product, but Monitors just make more sense for a multi-use PC speaker. So, I needed a new solution and since I already had a high-end DAC for my headphones that also had XLR line outs, studio monitors seemed like a good fit. Powered, my existing USB DAC will switch fine over KVM, Balanced XLR outputs. Match made in heaven. I was planning on only spending about $1000 but I wanted a sub as well, so I was looking at some of the value brands. THEN I started working on the production team at my church and really got sucked into music production, so it was on as I now had justification to spend more money. Time to up the budget a bit but not go crazy (hence the entry level Focal line). I have a lot of focal products. I've used them for car audio for ages and also have the Focal Bathys BT headphones. Due to size constraints, I got the Alpha 50 Evo instead of the Alpha Twin that I wanted........ which makes me sad, but space is space. I also got the Sub One which I will review separately. Overall, these are just fantastic sounding speakers for $600, no matter how many use cases you may have or what you plan to use them for. Just buy em. If you have more room go for the 65, 80, or Alpha Twin, but don't be scared of the "baby Alpha Evo's". Zero Regrets here. This review was written from the point of view that you are using them stand alone. The Sub One takes them to the next level.

This is the best speakers that I have heard! I can’t stop listening to them for just music instead of just for mixing music! Wow! They are getting broken in and are sounding better and better. Great sound stage, very accurate and lovely rounded and clear bass. The highs are crisp and clear, no hiss and tinny sound.

Muy buena calidad de sonido, creía que no los necesitaba hasta que los escuché y ya no pude parar. 10/10

Perfetta sinergia ampli-carico: la musica esce magicamente dalle casse (come non succede neanche in Focal più costose, figuriamoci nelle concorrenti), fluida e viva, piena e lucente, precisa e coinvolgente, commovente. Un rapporto prezzo/prestazioni prossimo allo zero. Mai sentito un diffusore così fortunato: un risultato (di certo casualmente) straordinario, un connubio di delicata sensibilità e al contempo di brutale violenza. E finora le ho sentite solo in single ended! Togli le griglie, aggiungi due brackets e del bitume (ma meritano di certo un cabinet coi fiocchi, quello cinese di serie è deboluccio e ci sono addirittura i diffrattori di plastica!) e finalmente dimentica tutta 'sta tecnologia: lasciati trasportare in un mondo migliore, pieno di meraviglia e sentimento.

Mejor de lo que esperaba