WiiM Ultra + Vibelink Amp with Focal Vestia 3

[Shell99]

Hello everybody,

Currently I have the WiiM Ultra and the Vibelink Amp and I want to upgrade my speakers.

My main choice for now are the Focal Vestia 3 speakers. Do my setup "fit" with this pair of speaker in terms of power and sound ?

Specs of the Focal Vestia 3 :

• Product type : Bass-reflex 3-way column
• Membrane : Slatefiber
• Woofer : 3x 6.5" (16.5cm) Slatefiber bass
• Medium : 6.5" (16.5cm) Slatefiber midrange
• Tweeter : 1" (25mm) ‘M’-shaped inverted dome TAM tweeter
• Minimum impedance : 2.9 Ω
• Nominal Impedance : 8 Ω
• Recommended amplifier power : 40 - 300 W
• Sensitivity : 92 dB

I'm a bit scared for the power supply but the high sensitivity should help ? I can also switch my target for the Focal Vestia 2 if my setup is too "short".

I'm not an expert in HiFi so I wanted to ask before spend some bucks on this .

Thanks for your reading !

 

[hoohoohoo]

Hello everybody,

Currently I have the WiiM Ultra and the Vibelink Amp and I want to upgrade my speakers.

My main choice for now are the Focal Vestia 3 speakers. Do my setup "fit" with this pair of speaker in terms of power and sound ?

Specs of the Focal Vestia 3 :

• Product type : Bass-reflex 3-way column
• Membrane : Slatefiber
• Woofer : 3x 6.5" (16.5cm) Slatefiber bass
• Medium : 6.5" (16.5cm) Slatefiber midrange
• Tweeter : 1" (25mm) ‘M’-shaped inverted dome TAM tweeter
• Minimum impedance : 2.9 Ω
• Nominal Impedance : 8 Ω
• Recommended amplifier power : 40 - 300 W
• Sensitivity : 92 dB

I'm a bit scared for the power supply but the high sensitivity should help ? I can also switch my target for the Focal Vestia 2 if my setup is too "short".

I'm not an expert in HiFi so I wanted to ask before spend some bucks on this .

Thanks for your reading !

If you're buying these at a high-end shop, why not look at two options:
1) bring your WiiM Ultra and Vibelink Amp to the shop for some dedicated listening, or
2) pay the deposit and take the Focal's for a trial period.

 

[Shell99]

If you're buying these at a high-end shop, why not look at two options:
1) bring your WiiM Ultra and Vibelink Amp to the shop for some dedicated listening, or
2) pay the deposit and take the Focal's for a trial period.

I will buy them on the internet this week for the black friday so I can't test my setup in a shop but it the best for know I agree with you.

If it's not good with my setup I can send back them and be refunded but it's clearly not the goal.

 

[CptKaos]

unless you listen at 90db plus all the time the Ultra + Vibelink will be fine

 

[harkpabst]

Audioholics measured the sensitivity of the Vestia N°3 as 91.1 dB/2.83 V/1 m, which is pretty close to the quoted 92 dB.
SoundStageNetwork don't agree and rate the sensitivity at 88.5 dB/2.83 V/1 m. That's a bit of a difference.
=> These speakers might not be as super efficient as claimed. Even 88.5 dB isn't too shabby, but there's a catch (see below).

Audioholics and SoundStage agree that the nominal impedance rating of 8 ohms is plain wrong. That's not uncommon, unfortunately. The main reason is that for an 8 ohm speaker the sensitivity is specified at 2.83 V (nominally equalling 1 W) while it's 2.0 V for a 4 ohm speaker. If the Vestia N°3 was correctly labelled as a 4 ohm speaker, the SoundStageNetwork sensitivity rating would have been 85.5 dB, which sounds a lot less impressive. More importantly, a 2.9 ohm dip right at 100 Hz (where the kick bass lives) combined with an electrical phase angle of -45° is not exactly easy to handle. Surprisingly, Audioholics is pretty generous again, stating that "most receivers will be able to drive them without problems". I can only assume that they are referring to receivers at a similar price point as the speakers.
=> The WiiM Vibelink Amp is specified to work with speakers down to 2.67 ohm, so the Vestia N°3 just barely falls within this range.

This setup will work, certainly better if party levels are not expected, but it's not not ideal speaker for the Vibelink Amp.

Focal Vestia No.3 Floorstanding Speaker Review

Focal’s Vestia No.3 is a 3-way tower speaker that packs a lot of punch without costing a fortune despite being manufactured in France. Read our review to see if they live up to Focal’s high fidelity standards.

www.audioholics.com

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NRC Measurements: Focal Vestia N°3 Loudspeaker

www.soundstagenetwork.com

 

[Shell99]

Audioholics measured the sensitivity of the Vestia N°3 as 91.1 dB/2.83 V/1 m, which is pretty close to the quoted 92 dB.
SoundStageNetwork don't agree and rate the sensitivity at 88.5 dB/2.83 V/1 m. That's a bit of a difference.
=> These speakers might not be as super efficient as claimed. Even 88.5 dB isn't too shabby, but there's a catch (see below).

Audioholics and SoundStage agree that the nominal impedance rating of 8 ohms is plain wrong. That's not uncommon, unfortunately. The main reason is that for an 8 ohm speaker the sensitivity is specified at 2.83 V (nominally equalling 1 W) while it's 2.0 V for a 4 ohm speaker. If the Vestia N°3 was correctly labelled as a 4 ohm speaker, the SoundStageNetwork sensitivity rating would have been 85.5 dB, which sounds a lot less impressive. More importantly, a 2.9 ohm dip right at 100 Hz (where the kick bass lives) combined with an electrical phase angle of -45° is not exactly easy to handle. Surprisingly, Audioholics is pretty generous again, stating that "most receivers will be able to drive them without problems". I can only assume that they are referring to receivers at a similar price point as the speakers.
=> The WiiM Vibelink Amp is specified to work with speakers down to 2.67 ohm, so the Vestia N°3 just barely falls within this range.

This setup will work, certainly better if party levels are not expected, but it's not not ideal speaker for the Vibelink Amp.

Focal Vestia No.3 Floorstanding Speaker Review

Focal’s Vestia No.3 is a 3-way tower speaker that packs a lot of punch without costing a fortune despite being manufactured in France. Read our review to see if they live up to Focal’s high fidelity standards.

www.audioholics.com

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NRC Measurements: Focal Vestia N°3 Loudspeaker

www.soundstagenetwork.com

Hi,

thanks for the answer, so I maybe need to switch for the Vestia 2, they need less power and their minimum impedance is 3 ohm vs 2.9 ohm for the Vestia 3.

 

[harkpabst]

... so I maybe need to switch for the Vestia 2, they need less power and their minimum impedance is 3 ohm vs 2.9 ohm for the Vestia 3.

I didn't find any measurements for the 2, but most probably the Vestia N°3 is the better choice.

3.0 vs. 2.9 ohms is not a meaningful difference and the sensitivity of the 3 is slightly higher. Sensitivity is the number that tells you how many watts they need. "Recommended amplifier power" is not important. If anything, it only tells you how much power you can pump into the speakers without breaking them.

 

[Shell99]

I didn't find any measurements for the 2, but most probably the Vestia N°3 is the better choice.

3.0 vs. 2.9 ohms is not a meaningful difference and the sensitivity of the 3 is slightly higher. Sensitivity is the number that tells you how many watts they need. "Recommended amplifier power" is not important. If anything, it only tells you how much power you can pump into the speakers without breaking them.

Okay, thanks a lot for your reply !