Focal Scala Utopia Evo lll Speaker brightness (Parametric Equaliser)

Louis_Schmukler · July 25, 2026, 3:10pm

Greetings - Can anyone provide some advice as to EQ settings to tame these speakers’ brightness?

Speaker set up complete with right toe in and I have substantial room treatment.

I currently have a EQ curve setup with a -1 dB reduction at 3500 and -1.5 dB at 7500 both with a Q of 1.

This setting works fairly well on bright tracks, but wanted to see if anyone has a better approach.

Thanks.

mjw · July 25, 2026, 3:15pm

Because speakers are affected by the room, your best approach may well be to apply room correction. Otherwise, it’s simply trial and error with Muse.

Suedkiez · July 25, 2026, 4:11pm

Yeah that’s how they naturally are. I do wonder why you bought 40k speakers if you don’t like what they do, but now your best path is measuring the room with a microphone and some room correction software, applying a target curve that’s to your liking, exporting a convolution filter, and importing it into Roon MUSE.

A UMIK-1 isn’t expensive and even cheaper on eBay:

https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1

For software there are several choices, and you will find threads about each on the forum:

HouseCurve is easy and cheap if you have an iPhone or iPad. Room correction using your iPhone and HouseCurve
Focus Fidelity is slick and powerful, for the Mac. A few words about Focus Fidelity
HAF (Home Audio Fidelity) is a guy in France, I believe, who creates filters as a service, based on your measurements. HAF - Home Audio Fidelity (Room Correction / convolution filter creation)
REW is open source and can do many things but the learning curve is steeper. A guide how to do room correction and use it in Roon

There are others but these seem to have most contributions on the forum.

As a bonus, it will probably improve the room response generally, too.

Louis_Schmukler · July 25, 2026, 4:47pm

Thanks for the reply

Andrew_Stoneman · July 25, 2026, 7:39pm

Hi Louis,

of course, Focal Utopias are utterly wonderful, that’s why we buy them

I have the smaller Diablo, my friend has Scala, like you

We’ve settled on a curve centered on 3000hz

With a -2.45 gain snd a Q of 0.8

This knocks off sone of the harshness but leaves the air and detail

We do this in Lyngdorf amps, not sure how to do it in Roon, never needed to

While you’re down there (actress/bishop aside) I use a bass lift curve too..

20hz Q 0.5 Gain +3.5

thus gives a more realistic heft to kick drums etc, without getting at all bloaty

Andrew_Stoneman · July 25, 2026, 7:46pm

Phone doesn’t allow this screen in Lyngdorf software, so here’s a rather grubby photo of the iPad screen to give you a starting point

I’m now off to get the isopropyl to clean it

Louis_Schmukler · July 25, 2026, 8:46pm

Thanks Andrew. I had considered the Lyngdorf Room Perfect room correction but still unsure I need it. The roon PEQ DSP is a great tool and allows you to do a lot. The “trick” is to carefully tailor the higher freq’s without losing what makes the speakers top end special. For me there are only certain tracks/recordings that need any adjustment. I also was able to tweak my room treatment to further tailor the sound. My low end sounds very good so no adjustment needed there. And your Diablo’s are some of the best stand mounts around. Thanks again.