Focal Shape 50 5 inch Powered Studio Monitor Reviews

Awesome monitors for the money. The manual says to break them in at moderate volume for 20 hours, and I found this to make a big difference. Looking back, I wonder if it's just placebo, or my ears adjusting or something, but I 100% noticed a huge subjective improvement in the low end after the break in period. Out of the box, the low end was too hyped and... "unrefined" maybe? Seems to have really balanced out after breaking in. Wish I would have taken measurements to see if this is all made up in my head... Regardless- you won't be disappointed!

Took advantage of the rare Focal Shape 50 sales event and replaced my older 5" Tannoy's. Incredible sound stage improvement, clarity, and bass tightness. I have a simple home studio but these Focal's are worth every penny for the huge performance improvement. Joe at Sweetwater has never let me down with any of his recommendations. I would recommend this investment to anyone.

Despite glaring warnings that these speakers need 10 hours of run-in time, the initial impression is still fantastic. There is (perhaps) the slightest presence of treble glare (noticeable on high flute notes), which I suspect will abate as they break-in. They are surprisingly heavy given their relatively small size; noticeably heavier than the EVE SC-205's which they are replacing (due to power supply failure). The wood face is very dark and is likely to appear black unless in bright or direct light.

The startup sound is smooth and detailed, throwing substantial depth of sound-field. I have them placed on 2 foot stands about the work surface, using the built-in feet to angle downwards, driven from a Focusrite Solo connected to my DAW.

Thanks to Aaron Smith at Sweetwater. I've been calling him for 7 years, great guy. These speakers help you find your bounce.

After years of struggling with my mixes on a pair of Yamaha HS50M monitors (which served me well), I finally decided to upgrade my monitors. My mixes always sounded flabby in the low end and often lacked clarity around 2K. I really worked hard at mixing on those Yamahas but I thought mixing was supposed to be hard work.

How wrong I was.

Finally, I have a listening environment that is so clear and defined that my mixes are tight and consistent across rendering environments. I took the same approach to mixing on these as I did on the Yamaha and could quickly hear where I was missing opportunities to improve my mix. Finally, I could hear why my mixes had been falling short previously.

The difference is night and day. Does the auto shut off bother me? Not one iota. Completely satisfied. I have a new enthusiasm for producing. It's still work, but I can finally trust what I am hearing to be accurate.

Firstly, I'm not gonna pretend to know what speakers worth 3 times this sound like.

But i have heard a multitude of speakers ranging from Mackies, to Yamahas, to DynAudio, to Rokits, and JBLs. I have a pair of JBL LSR308s.

I was super nervous going from 8 inch drivers down to 5 inch drivers but here's what I have noticed.

Good:
The bass blows the 308s away. I don't use a sub anymore because if ind that it actually makes the bass in my mixes less accurate.

The sound stage in jarringly big. They sound huge compared to the 308s. They sound a lot wider, and a lot deeper.

They are incredibly clear. Listening to "Cry Me A River" from Justin Timberlake made me uncomfortable because of the level of detail in the vocal beat boxing tracks.

They translate fantasticly. I am having to break bad habits built around sub par speakers. I have a set of HD650 headphones that I never trusted because they sounded so different when i would mix with my JBLs. Now the 650s sound really close to these guys. I can trust my equipment more. I can make my mixes bigger and fuller without fearing that I'm murdering the low mids.

Overall these things are incredible.

The bad:

They NEEEED run in time. When I first turned them on, I was super dis-pleased with the sound. It was very mid rangey, and flat. After a couple of hours of playing time, the speakers loosened up, the highs came out of the speaker, and the lows came out of it. If you listen to these for 5 minutes, you'll probably send them back. Give them time to breath.

The auto sleep feature is nice for saving power and not taxing your speakers, but it is jarring when you turn a song on and the speakers don't play. When you're used to stuff not working all the time, it instantly sends you into panic mode that something might be wrong. I'm getting used to that. But it is jarring.

They are really small speakers. I realized 5 inch speakers were gonna be smaller, but this was smaller than i expected. That shouldn't be a negative, but I'm a little worried about having someone sit in to mix and thinking less of the set up because of the size of the speakers. But i have no doubt once they hear these things they'll be blown away. It's a dumb little thing, but a lot of mixing is perception.


The bottom line is that these have sped up my mixing, and proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you get what you pay for. These things are incredible. You'll never get a professional mix fighting sub par speakers. Do yourself a favor and upgrade.

I just purchased these and was blown away at the presence and clarity these push out. The low end is robust and powerful enough to match those 8" monitors with ease. These are hands down the best in class nearfield monitors. Nothing at this pricepoint comes close to the quality these push out. I have used Adams, Dynaudio, Genelec, Yamaha, Event, & KRK. All of them are good in their own unique ways, but Focal are the best all-around bar-none. I was originally going to purchase the Alpha"s when my rep suggested the Shapes as the superior and best in class. When he said they compete with the Adams and Genelecs at the higher price point and he would pick these over them I was a big skeptical and belived it was rhetoric for commision. But I decided to give it a try and boy was I blown away. He was right. Focal has a winner and nothing I have used to date in the sub $5000 range near fields were as good as the Shape series by Focal.

I was having trouble with my mix clarity.. I was trying to use M-audio Bx5 monitors to achieve this and was finding some serious holes in my mixdowns.. After an invaluable consultation with sound engineer and Sweetwater employee Chris S, I decided to splurge a tad past my comfort zone and purchase a set of these.

These were literally mind-blowing.. Not to be dramatic but when I first sat down to perform my first mix I felt almost overwhelmed emotionally as I was finally able to transfer the song ideas and orchestrations I had in my head to the speakers (accurately).

I use a 10 inch KRK powered sub integrated into my setup and my goodness, such power, such clarity...LOUD AND CLEAR!

Let's put it this way, my buddy (fellow sound engineer and artist) came by my studio, heard these things and decided to sell his brand new Yamaha monitors of which he had only a couple of months and get a pair of these.

I can't attest to the durability and lifespan of these Focals, but if they continue to perform at this quality, i can't see myself ever needing another speaker. Time will tell.

I haven't mixed with them yet but I'm loving them so far. The stereo image is excellent even at very low volumes. This is my first pair of Focals, although I've worked with the CMS monitors before. I work in a 120 sq ft treated room and the Shape 50's seem to be perfect for my setup. I chose these over the KH 120s because I could listen to these guys all day long. Very natural sounding with a focused low end. I was nervous about buying them with so few reviews online. If you need quality monitors for a small room these are the way to go.

I do not use these for mixing or mastering...solely for music listening and I have to say I do enjoy them quite a bit. It's very transparent, detailed, and engaging. Doesn't sound boring at all to my ears so I would recommend these to audiophiles as well!

I've been living with a pair of Shape 50s for about six months. Overall, I'm quite pleased - they're very honest and easy to work on for long periods. The work I do on them translates pretty consistently to other playback sources. So, at the core, they do exactly what they're supposed to. At this price point, that's about the best you can ask for.

Now for the frustrating bits.
You have to break them in. It took a couple of weeks to do but once complete, it was well worth it. Night and day from the sound out of the box.
It's nice to have the EQ adjustments on the back, but the pots are continuously variable without a center detent or any useful reference scale. This makes it tedious to get them perfectly matched.
The real nuisance, though, is the auto-shutoff feature that others have mentioned. If you don't play anything for a few minutes, or listen softly, they turn off. You have to play something moderately loud to get them to turn on. I read about this issue before I bought mine and it didn't register just how annoying it can be until I started dealing with it every day. Although I like the sound, I'm probably going to sell them and buy something else that doesn't turn itself off.

Long story short: Very good value for the money. Good sound that translates well. Annoying auto shutoff feature.

I really like the sound and the design. These are top-quality monitors, very well built. The removable metal grilles are really nice if you worry about your tweeters. And as others have said, the sound is amazing.

But the automatic standby is driving me crazy...

The manual says: "After approximately 30 minutes without receiving an audio signal, the monitors go into 'Standby' mode." But in my experience, they will go in standby if the audio signal is just low. If I play something at less than ~60dB, they will turn off after a while, even though they are still definitely receiving an audio signal... I have to jack the volume up to wake them up.

As far as I can tell, there is no way to turn this feature off. I have to play everything much louder than I would like to avoid this. I now see other customers complained about this for the other monitor sizes... I should have read all the reviews I guess.

I hesitated between these and the Dynaudio LYD, and I'm starting to regret my choice. At least the LYDs have a switch to turn the power saving function off.

Fantastic speakers, the specs are well defined above. Focal support has made registering these monitors impossible for "Focal Care".
If you are in the market for good audiophile grade speakers these are fine, however disappointed in Focal customer care.
Do proceed with caution but if within your budget these are nice.
However Sweetwater was excellent in the pre-sale and post sale support!