Misc music/audio gear

I recently acquired a pair of these and refurbished them. Both tweeters were dead and the woofers required new surrounds and dust caps. The LE26 tweeters are now discontinued, and rebuild kits are also obsolete. There is an aftermarket vendor who supplies a faithful reproduction. The woofers found in these are either 116A with alnico magnets (early models) or 116H with ceramics. Dust caps and surrounds are easy enough to find. I opted not to do a crossover recap just yet, but cleaned the L-pads with deoxit. I paired these with a NAD 7020, and these little boxes blew me away. They are nearly identical to the 4301 studio monitors with the differences being the high frequency attenuation knob location and the low end capacitor on the crossover. These can still be found relatively on the cheap, as they are not as famous as some of their cousins, but are getting harder to find. If you come across a pair at a reasonable price, pick them up!

Still own my Focals 20 years later. Took a year for them to settle in imho, an after that they are so perfect for me. the bass driver likes 1450 w minimum and seemed to respond a bit better to 400W until i changed preamps. all is well.
Made them to spec with highest quality parts; had a body shop paint them. total cost about $2100 in the later early 2000.
Had small focals before this that were great; these are much better for filling the room.

My father owned a TV / HiFi store in Colchester England. Apart from Hi-Fi Brands like Bang & Olufsen, Sony, JVC, Technics, Teac, AKAI, Rotel, Sansui and Pioneer we sold Tannoy, Quad, Thorens, Revox, Leak and Wharfedale. One day we were approached to sell a Brand organised by Jacques Setton, a famous French, millionaire, racing driver and in France he was the importer for Pioneer. I say organised as he didn't make Setton Hi-Fi he commissioned it.

We decided to take a receiver, and an amplifier to try to sell them, at the same time we had a range of our own speakers, GSR, which I had designed.

As a young hi-fi enthusiast I was blown away by the quality of the sound especially when driving Tannoy Cheviots. The Setton's didn't sell so they were dropped down in price to clear. No-one new the brand. I couldnt ever afford my perfect setup.

Move on many years, the shop is closed, long gone and forgotten. Its taken years and I have in the main house a Bang & Olufsen 7700 system driving Tannoy Cheviots, I also have a Denon for surround sound on the TV with a Rotel CD player switched to the same Cheviots. My children have Quad44/405 / Tannoy605 and Leak3400 Tannoy605 systems in the bedrooms.

In my outside office I have had B&O 3000-2, B&O 4000, Rotel RX803, Leak3400, Technics SA5460 driving Tannoys Eaton but still kept looking at e-Bay for Setton, then one appeared nearby at a price I could justify to the family. I was the only bidder and I won it. The seller was sad to see it go as he thought it was the best amp he had owned.

I put it in at home and I was blown away, it was good as I remembered even though my own frequency response has attenuated. Clear trebles punchy bass and precise transients. It has plenty of inputs, easy to use and looks fantastic.

I have now stopped looking for more HiFi. I drive it with a Technics RS-TR474Mk2 and Sansui TU-D33XL. I'm using a computer for MP3 but Ill be looking for a CD.