As their name suggests, the Focal Sib Evo are an evolution of the Sib compact home cinema speakers, the French manufacturer’s best-sellers for many years. Their main new feature is compatibility with 3D sound formats, thanks to the height channels with which the two front satellites are equipped, and retain the elaborate design and competitive price that made their predecessors successful. A winning cocktail?
With this Sib Evo kit, Focal offers a successful evolution of its most popular home cinema kit, and a very nice entry point at a reasonable price into the world of “real” 3D sound. Even if sound projection soundbars are making ever more impressive progress in offering convincing spatialization and a pleasant rendering, they are still far from the naturalness and authenticity of sound that such a set can achieve. It’s a shame that the somewhat disappointing subwoofer slightly tarnishes the picture.
Strong points
- Precise and dynamic satellite sound.
- Satellite ramp-up capability.
- Very convincing height effects.
- Construction, design.
Weak points
- Slight lack of neutrality.
- Too much directivity, lack of precision of surround ghost images.
- Subwoofer not at satellite level.
NB: The reported price drop is calculated by comparing the lowest price of the day with the average of the lowest prices charged by all merchants for the product last month, with security rules to exclude the prices of stores whose the VAT policy is not clear (so-called “gray” stores, typically in the case of imports from China).