Focal Shape 50

If I have to choose one word to describe the sound of the Shape 50s its will be the word warm. I can listen this monitors hours with no fatigue. They work very well, even with low volume. I already made 5 mixes and all they translate well. The noise level is very low, almost identical to Yamaha HS50. Some people complain about auto standby, but it doesn't bother me. if you are in small room i strongly recommend using the monitors with the Low Shelf filter to -4db.

Pros
-They look very cool with the flax woofer and front wood finish
-The sound is natural and warm
-The mixes translate well

Cons
-A bit pricey
-The auto standby switch its located inside of the monitors.

I was looking at studio monitors for my home studio which is situated in a small (about 10 m2) room. To keep the story short I bought these because of the passive radiators due to having to place them near the wall. I already know the room is a bit boomy and there really is no spare room for proper acoustic treatment, but the large bookcase behind me helps a bit. I already own a set of Focal Aria 926s for my HiFi which I was very happy with so I thought hey let's get them.

My experience in mixing is indeed limited and I am no sound expert. But my impression is the following. First of all, they sound great next to the wall with the low EQ set at -2dB. The sound overall is relatively flat but not so much that they sound completely boring. They sound natural, perhaps more natural than other competing speakers in this bracket. The highs are crisp yet sweet and controlled. The low end I would say is not their highlight but there is significant headroom for distortion-free listening. For me they excel at the midrange with significant clarity. This was surprising for me given the 2-way design and although I haven't mixed on them yet, by listening to reference material they feel like they're going to translate well particularly in the midrange.

I would say their soundstage is large for their size, just right for my taste. Their sweet spot is relatively wide with nice immersion when focused behind the head, but also good soundstage when focused a bit in front for more relaxed listening. You have to move VERY close them (like 30 cm) before the soundstage completely collapses and you hear the separation.

A minor drawback is they have a standby mode after 20 mins which cannot be overrided. This is an issue because the speakers power on on standby mode by default as well. So you have to raise your monitor controller volume until they come out of standby and then set it again to where you want. This can be a problem if you want to have your controller set for a particular listening level. For me this is a minor issue but this was a bad design choice to not be able to turn it off from the back. Another minor thing is that the EQ (low, mid, high) controls on the back are not notched anywhere not even in 0. Not a biggie but it would be nice if they were notched.

Overall I'm super happy with them I don't see how you can go wrong with these for the price.